A pathway to multifactor aging

Summary form only given, as follows. The author reviews the history of thermal and electrical aging relations and analyzes their limitations. The focus is on the variety of electrical aging equations that have been used, and their empirical nature is confirmed. The author argues that the solution to the multifactor aging dilemma lies in the acquirement of an understanding of the basic mechanisms that govern the aging for each environment or stress. Some recent experiments at the Naval Research Laboratory revealed the generation of chemical species in insulation exposed to electrical stresses below corona inception voltages. The quantities of species generated proved to be a function of magnitude of electrical stress and duration of exposure