Electrical treeing and reverse tree growth in an epoxy resin

An electrical treeing process is presented which consists of two types of electrical tree structures that coexist in the same epoxy resin: these have been termed as `filamentary trees' and `reverse trees'. In samples with needle-plane electrode geometries, a filamentary tree that consists...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation 2017-12, Vol.24 (6), p.3966-3973
Main Authors: Hualong Zheng, Rowland, Simon M., Iddrissu, Ibrahim, Zepeng Lv
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asset management
Dielectric breakdown
Electrical tree
Electrodes
Epoxy resins
filamentary tree
Insulation
Needles
Oils
partial discharge
Partial discharges
prognostics
reverse tree
Treeing
Trees
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Summary:An electrical treeing process is presented which consists of two types of electrical tree structures that coexist in the same epoxy resin: these have been termed as `filamentary trees' and `reverse trees'. In samples with needle-plane electrode geometries, a filamentary tree that consists of fine tree channels propagates from the needle electrode to the plane ground electrode under an applied AC voltage. It is observed that once the filamentary tree has crossed the insulation, trees then grow from the planar electrode towards the needle electrode as reverse trees, eventually leading to dielectric breakdown. The characteristics of the treeing processes have been obtained for a range of samples through optical observations. In addition, partial discharge (PD) activity associated with the growth of a reverse tree is thoroughly characterized. The prior existence of a filamentary tree is a prerequisite for the development of a reverse tree. PD does not appear to be a driving force for the growth of the filamentary trees, whereas high levels of PD are associated with the growth of a reverse tree. This distinction shows that aging can occur undetected by PD, but asset management of the more aggressive treeing stages can use PD analytics.
ISSN:1070-9878
1558-4135
DOI:10.1109/TDEI.2017.006729