Investigations of the electrical breakdown properties of insulator materials used in high voltage vacuum diodes

The Injector for the proposed Dual-Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Testing (DARHT) Facility at Los Alamos utilizes a monolithic insulator deployed in a radial configuration. The 1.83-m-diam x 25.4-cm-thick insulator with embedded grading rings separates the output oil transmission line from the vacuum vessel that contains the re-entrant anode and cathode assemblies. Although much work has been done by the pulse power community in studying surface flash-over of insulating materials used in both axial and radial configurations, dendrite growth at the roots of grading rings embedded in materials suitable for very large insulators is less well characterized. Degradation of several acrylic insulators has been observed in the form of dendrites growing at the roots of the grading rings for large numbers (100´s) of pulses on the prototype DARHT Injector and other machines using similar radial geometries. In a few cases, these dendrites have led to catastrophic bulk breakdown of the acrylic between two grading rings making the insulator a costly loss. Insulating materials under investigation are acrylic (Lucite), epoxy (Furane), and cross-linked polystyrene (Rexolite); each of these materials has its own particular mechanical and electrical merits. All of these materials have been cast and machined into the required large size for the Injector. Test methods and the results of investigations into the breakdown strength of various interface geometries and the susceptibility of these materials to dendrite growth are reported