Acoustic emission from DC pre-treeing discharge processes in silicone elastomer

Partial discharge in polymeric insulation of high voltage equipment causes cumulative damage that progressively deteriorates the insulation, leading to eventual failure. The electrical detection of related discharge current pulses may be challenged by electromagnetic interference from the environment. In such situations the detection of acoustic emission from partial discharge can greatly enhance its detectability, especially when electromagnetically immune fiber-optic acoustic sensors are used. During experiments involving such fiber-optic sensors that were specifically designed for the detection of partial discharge in elastomeric insulation, an unexpected type of acoustic emission was observed in silicone elastomer specimens with tip-plate electrode configurations and under DC electrical stress. We present and discuss experimental results that indicate space charge injection and subsequent spontaneous dynamical processes as the source of the detected acoustic emission. We use sensitive conventional partial discharge measurement instrumentation to show that the apparent acoustic efficiency of the processes leading to the observed acoustic emission is very high. Acoustic emission triggered by discharge events with individual apparent charge values of only a few femtocoulombs could be detected.