Electrical treeing in polyethylene-alumina-filled nanocomposites for HVDC applications

Abstract

Electrical tree formations under DC pre-stress followed by an application of voltage pulses of opposite polarities were observed in low density polyethylene and its nanocomposite filled with 1.0 wt% and 3.0 wt% alumina nanoparticles. A special wire-plane electrode geometry were manufactured for the test. The obtained experimental results indicate that the addition of the nanoparticles has a positive impact on the resistance to electrical treeing. In addition to the reported above results, a thermal ageing and electro-thermal experiment is presently being conducted and the results comparing the treeing behavior after it will also be presented.