Investigation of charge behavior in low viscosity silicone liquid by kerr electro-optic field measurement

From the viewpoints of less flammability and environment protection, a new type of electrical insulating liquid for power transformers is strongly required. Low viscosity silicone liquid (20 cSt) is suitable for the requirements owing to the following excellent features; high flash point, low environmental impact concerning pollution and high chemical stability. In this paper, we investigated the charge behavior under dc voltage application by direct measurement of the electric field using Kerr electro-optic method. At first, Kerr constant of 20 cSt silicone liquid was investigated. Then, the time dependence of electric field strength in silicone liquid / pressboard (PB) composite systems was measured. The time constant of the decay was much larger in silicone liquid than in mineral oil. We discussed the charge behavior based on the physical properties of silicone liquid and we suggested that the influence of negative charge injection from a negative electrode¿s surface in silicone liquid played a significant role because of the high volume resistivity.