Electrical breakdown of polymeric insulating materials

Polymeric insulating materials have been widely used as main insulating materials of not only many electric power apparatuses, cables but also electronic devises. The electrical breakdown phenomenon of these polymeric insulating materials directly relates to their life and attracts many practical concerns of researches and engineers, but there still remain many unknown parts. This paper describes author´s selected items on electrical breakdown of polymeric insulating materials; specimens for breakdown measurements, breakdown phenomena of polar polymers, space charge effect, local heat generation and breakdown, breakdown of nanocomposites and treeing breakdown.