Space charge measurement and analysis in low density polyethylene films

The growing requirement of reliability for an insulation system gives researchers greater responsibility to investigate new techniques for monitoring and diagnosing dielectrics subjected to an electric field. It is well known that the presence of space charge is one of the important factors causing premature failure of polymeric high voltage cables. Space charge surveillance is becoming the most general applied skill to evaluate polymeric materials, particularly high voltage cables. The well-known pulsed electroacoustic method (PEA), a reliable non-destructive method, gives a reasonable resolution to the concentration of the space charge in the insulation material. My work contributes to the measuring of space charge in low density polyethylene using PEA.<br/>From the experiments to study space charge formation and distribution at the interface on multi-layer sample under DC and AC applied voltage, electrode materials and frequency are determined as two important factors in measuring the charge injection and distribution; the interface between films acts as a trap for charge carriers, especially for electrons; and positive charge has a high mobility compared to negative charge.<br/>Surface potential decay was studied to explain the crossover phenomenon and to find physical mechanism on charge decay of the corona charged film sample. Charge mapping technique (PEA) was successfully introduced to the potential study and it provides an alternative way to investigate charge decay process and allows monitoring charge migration through the bulk of corona charged film. One essential phenomenon, bipolar charge injection, has been first derived from the results of space charge distribution.<br/>The advanced PEA measurement system with high rate test and excellent phase resolving capability was designed in the last part of the study. Compared with the old system the new system can provide the enhanced experiment result for fast change situation, which can achieve high-quality diagnosis for the virtual industry situation such as polarity reversal and transient voltage failure.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Southampton

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Xu, Zhiqiang

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Chen, George