2010 Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena
Tracking and Erosion Resistance of Silicone Rubber
Nanocomposites under Positive and Negative dc
Voltages
Joseph Vimal Vas, B. Venkatesulu and M. Joy Thomas,
Nanodielectrics Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012
Abstract: ASTM D2303 standard provides a method for
evaluating the tracking and erosion resistance of polymeric
insulators under ac voltages. In this paper, the above method has
been extended for evaluating the performance of the insulators
under dc stresses. Tests were conducted on polymeric silicone
rubber (SR) insulators under positive and negative dc stresses.
Micron sized Alumina trihydrate (uATH) and nano sized
Alumina (nALU) were used as fillers in SR matrix to improve
the resistance to tracking and erosion. Results suggest that SR
composites perform better under negative dc than under positive
dc voltages. Eroded mass and leakage current data support the
above result. Samples with low concentration of nano alumina
fillers performed on par with the samples with large loadings of
uATH.
I. INTRODUCTION
For transmitting large power over long distances, the use of
high voltage dc has become a viable and economic option. On
the other hand, the use of porcelain insulators for ac and dc
power transmission lines of EHV and UHV class are no
longer an attractive option owing to their large weight and
their susceptibility to vandalism. The problem is further
complicated in coastal regions and in areas of high pollution
levels. Porcelain insulators being hydrophilic, allow surface
conduction, as moisture along with the pollutants may form a
conductive layer on the surface of the insulator.
Polymeric insulators address most of the above problems
faced by the porcelain insulators. Their advantages include
light weight which allows easier erection and commissioning
of the insulators even in remote areas as well as considerable
resistance to vandalism. Polymeric insulators have the
inherent property of hydrophobicity which makes it ideal for
use in areas of high pollution. These properties make
polymeric insulators attractive for use but they have certain
disadvantages. Polymeric insulators are susceptible to
tracking and erosion under electrical stress, and also to
degradation under corona and weathering.
In order to improve the tracking and erosion resistance as
well as degradation due to corona, the base polymer is usually
filled with some micron sized additives such as ATH. With
the advent of nanotechnology and the availability of nano
sized fillers, such studies have been carried out recently by
various groups on tracking and erosion performance of
978-1-4244-9470-5/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE
polymers with nano fillers under ac voltages. However
studies on the performance of filled silicone rubber under
either positive or negative dc voltages are very scarce. The
few published articles in this area are summarized below.
Moreno et al. [1] have reported that the performance of
polymeric insulators under Inclined Plane (IP) test with ac
was better than that under dc. The conductive solution used
here was sodium chloride with no wetting agent. Venkatesulu
and Joy Thomas [2] have reported that SR with fillers
performed better under ac than with positive dc. Bruce et al.
[3] analyzed the performance of SR with some standard
concentrations of fillers and the performance under negative
dc was found to be better when compared to positive dc at
2.25kV and 3.15kV. The conductive solution used was
ammonium chloride as per ASTM 2303 standard. However,
contrary to the above findings, Uma Maheshwar Rao et al. [4]
have reported that the tracking performance under negative dc
is inferior to the performance under positive dc during IP test
for commercial grade SR samples. Kozako et al. [5] have
shown that adding nano fillers into the polymer matrix
produce less surface roughening under IP test than when it is
unfilled. This suggests that nano fillers can perform better
than unfilled polymeric insulators under electrical stress.
In this study, the tracking and erosion of silicone rubber
polymeric samples with and without fillers were studied
under both positive and negative dc conditions and the results
are compared. Studies were carried out using an inclined
plane (IP) tracking and erosion resistance test set-up, which is
in line with ASTM 2303 standard [6]. Nano and micron sized
fillers were loaded into SR to improve the tracking and
erosion resistance of polymeric insulators. Hence a
comparison of the performance of polymeric silicone rubber
insulator samples with micron sized ATH (uATH) and nano
sized Alumina (nALU) fillers has also been made.
II. SAMPLE DETAILS
A. Materials
Room temperature vulcanized (RTV) SR insulators were
made from the material supplied by Wacker Chemie,
Germany. RTV SR is used to make weather sheds of
porcelain insulators hydrophobic for better performance
under polluted environmental conditions. Two components
namely 'A' and 'B' were used for making RTV Silicone rubber
samples. 'A' component is a cross linker and 'B' component is
a catalyst. Micron sized ATH fillers of average particle size
(APS) of 3.5 μm were supplied by Huber Inc., USA. Alumina
nano fillers used for the study were of particle size ranging
from 40-47 nm and was procured from Sigma Aldrich.
B. Sample Preparation
The RTV SR 'A' and 'B' components were kept under
vacuum (10-2 torr) for at least 24h to remove air and moisture
from the material. Fillers were kept at a high temperature of
150 oC to 170 oC for at least one day to remove the moisture
from the fillers. Ratio of the RTV components A: B, for the
composites studied was 3:1, which was found to be
appropriate for getting samples of very low tackiness,
appropriate hardness and good curing. Required quantity of
the filler was weighed using a precision digital balance
(Sartorious make) with a readability of 0.1 mg. For the
studies, two different types of processing techniques
(mechanical mixing and sonication) were used to disperse the
particles in the matrix. The processing methodology was
modified specifically for this material based on the processing
method developed previously for the epoxy nano composites
by Singha and Joy Thomas [7]. The required quantity of RTV
'A' and filler were mixed for 240 sec at a moderate speed
using a mechanical mixer. After that a measured amount of
'B' component was added and mixed with a stirrer. The
mixture was evacuated until all the trapped air was removed.
However, for the nanocomposites, apart from the mechanical
mixing, ultrasonication was also conducted for 2 hrs at a
frequency of 24 kHz with intermittent stirring. After the
sonication, the required amount of 'B' component was added
and mixed. The compound was poured into a preheated
(60oC) mould to accelerate the curing and prevent the
tendency of the fillers to settle at the bottom of the sample.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 1 Photograph of (a) unfilled, (b) uATH filled and (c) nALU filled
silicone rubber samples after 7 hours of IP test under negative dc voltages.
Curing was done in an oven for 24 hours in 2 stages. For
the first 4 hours, the mould was kept at 150 oC and for the
next 20 hours the temperature was set at 130 oC. The cured
sample was then kept in vacuum for 24 hours before the IP
test was conducted. Samples with different concentrations of
fillers were made to study the effect of fillers on the
performance of the samples. For nano fillers, loadings above
4 % could not be achieved, as the increased viscosity made
the processing of the samples difficult. IP test was conducted
on unfilled, 30 % uATH and 4% nALU filled samples. Fig. 1
shows unfilled, 30 % uATH filled and 4 % nanofilled silicone
rubber samples after 7 hours of IP test.
C. Experimental Details
The experiments were performed on the micro and nano
filled samples for resistance to tracking and erosion under dc
conditions. Fig. 2 shows the schematic of the experimental
set-up used. It is similar to the conditions as given in ASTM
D2303 standard, the difference being that a half wave rectifier
was used to rectify the ac waveform. Since the experiments
were conducted to understand the phenomenon occurring
during the IP test and not as a direct indicator of the field
performance, the voltage for the tests were selected to be
2.5kV as suggested by Gorur et al. [8]. At higher voltages (~
4.5kV), the erosion was found to be more aggressive and
random. The stress level at 2.5 kV corresponded to 50V/mm
which was comparable to the field stresses. Based on the
r.m.s value criterion, tests were conducted at 2.5kV positive
as well as negative dc voltages on different samples for 7
hours.
Fig. 2 Set-up used for the IP test under dc voltages
A conductive solution consisting of NH4Cl and a non ionic
wetting agent iso-octylphenoxy polyethoxy ethanol was
allowed to flow on the surface of the sample at 0.15ml/min as
shown in Fig. 2. The conductivity of the NH4Cl solution was
2.5mS/cm. R1 and R2 are the resistances of the voltage
divider for measuring the output of the HV dc power supply.
The resistance Rcvr is for measuring the leakage current on the
surface of the sample. A minimum of 5 samples and an
average of 6 samples were tested. After the tests were
conducted, the weight of the eroded region was found out in
terms of the equivalent SR weight. The depth and the width
of erosion was measured using a vernier of least count 0.02
mm.
D. Measurement of Leakage Current
A PC based eight-channel Data Acquisition System (DAQ)
of National Instruments make, USA with 16- bit resolution
and 250 kS/sec sampling rate for each channel was employed
to acquire the leakage current. LabVIEW software and the
associated driver software was used for the DAQ system. The
leakage current was passed through a 330 Ω shunt resistor
and the voltage across it was fed to the DAQ system. The
amplitude resolution of the DAQ system was 0.5 μA.
Leakage current was acquired for 180 s at the end of every
one hour of the test.
III. RESULTS
A. SEM Analysis
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 SEM pictures of 4% nALU filled silicone rubber at (a) 800x and (b)
1500x magnification
The dispersion of fillers in the polymer matrix was
analyzed using Quanta ESEM make Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM). The filler dispersion for nALU is shown
in Fig. 3. The white particles indicate the fillers within the
polymer matrix. SEM studies confirmed that satisfactory
dispersion patterns were obtained using the methodology
employed for preparing SR samples with nano sized fillers.
B. Eroded Mass
0.80
+dc
- dc
0.60
Eroded mass (g)
0.40
0.20
0.00
unf 30% uATH 4% nALU
Fig. 4 Eroded mass after 7 hours of IP tests of unfilled, 30 % uATH filled
and 4% nALU filled silicone rubber for positive and negative dc voltages.
Fig. 4 shows the eroded mass after 7 hours of IP test for
positive and negative dc voltages for unfilled, uATH filled
and nALU filled silicone rubber samples. It is understood that
the eroded mass for negative dc is much less than that under
positive dc. The eroded mass under negative dc is comparable
to that under ac as reported earlier [2]. It was also seen that
uATH and nALU SR samples performed better than the
unfilled SR for negative dc.
It is clear from the graph that the filler loading does not
improve the performance under moderate loading for micron
fillers for positive dc. Higher filler loadings would have given
better performance under positive dc for uATH. But this
could not be done with the facility available in the lab. The
graph also suggests that 4% nano gives results comparable to
30 % uATH. Hence nano filled SR samples with similar
tracking and erosion resistance will also have better flexibility
when compared to the uATH filled SR.
C. Leakage Current Studies
The leakage current through the sample during the IP test
was acquired every hour using the DAQ system and is shown
in Fig. 5. The r.m.s value of the current was calculated from
the current waveform obtained. The dotted lines correspond
to currents for the positive dc test. It was also seen that the
positive dc values for unfilled, 30% uATH and 4% nALU are
all more than the corresponding values for the negative dc.
The increase of eroded mass under positive dc IP test as seen
in the eroded mass (Fig. 4) could be because of the increased
heating produced by the higher currents.
+DC unf +DC 30% uATH +DC 4% nALU
-DC unf -DC 30% uATH -DC 4% nALU
14
Leakage current (mA)
12
10
8
6
z
4
2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Test time (h)
Fig. 5 Surface leakage currents during the IP tests for unfilled, 4% nALU
filled and 30 % uATH filled silicone rubber for positive and negative dc
voltages.
IV. DISCUSSION
From the leakage current analysis, it is seen that the r.m.s
current observed at different time intervals were much higher
in the case of positive dc, in comparison with the negative dc
voltage. This could account for the larger energy and hence a
higher temperature in the case of positive dc tests. Meyer et
al. [9] have shown that a correlation exists between the
temperature rise and the eroded mass. Hence the increase in
the eroded mass can be attributed to the higher current during
the positive dc test.
The eroded mass for the positive dc tests are much more
than those under negative dc. The possible reason for such a
behavior could be the electrolysis occurring during the test
duration. Bruce et al. [3] have stated that electrolysis could
have caused the erosion of the HV electrode for positive dc
voltage at 2.25kV and 3.15kV. The authors also observed
intense electrolytic corrosion under positive dc tests. No such
phenomenon was observed under negative dc voltage. The
ion migration from the electrodes into the electrolyte could
have increased the electrical conductivity on the surface of
the SR material. This increased conductivity leads to
increased leakage current and hence an increased erosion in
the case of positive dc.
 Kumagai et al. [10] have shown that uATH fillers improve
resistance to tracking and erosion in high temperature
vulcanized SR samples. The temperature on the surface of the
SR gives an idea of the rate of degradation. uATH being a
flame retardant reduces the temperature on the surface of the
SR insulator by means of endothermic dehydration process. It
reduces part of the polymer, which decreases the thermal
degradation products. The alumina formed from the
degradation of uATH forms an insulating protective layer for
the insulator. All these properties help in improving the
tracking and erosion resistance of SR. This trend could be
clearly seen in negative dc. The eroded mass for uATH filled
samples for negative dc was less when compared to the
unfilled samples.
Different factors influence the improvement in the
performance of SR with nano filler loading. The decreased
size of the fillers means that there is lesser inter-particle
distance in the case of nano fillers as compared to micro
fillers. The inter-particle distance of nano fillers are at least
one order less than that of microcomposites [2]. This decrease
in inter-particle distance results in better shielding of SR
polymer by the particles and so there is lesser chance of the
SR being exposed to discharges on the surface. Inorganic
fillers are known to have better thermal stability and form a
physical barrier which helps in improving the tracking and
erosion properties of SR [5]. It has been reported that the
dynamics of the PDMS chains are altered due to the interface
between the filler and the polymer [11]. These factors acting
concurrently helps to improve the tracking and erosion
performance of nano filled SR matrix. Hence, samples loaded
with a smaller weight percentage of nano fillers can provide
tracking and erosion resistance comparable to a higher
loading of micron sized fillers.
The results of the IP test show that nano filled SR
performed better than micro filled SR both under positive and
negative dc voltages. Also, much lower quantities of nano
fillers were able to achieve performance similar to the higher
loadings of micro fillers. High uATH filler loadings are
required to achieve satisfactory performance in positive dc
tests. But at such large loadings, the mechanical properties of
the sample would suffer. Smaller quantities of nano fillers
could be used to achieve similar resistance to tracking and
erosion without the loss of flexibility. Hence use of nano
fillers is more advantageous than micron sized fillers.
V. CONCLUSIONS
It can be easily seen from the data that polymeric silicone
rubber insulators perform better under negative dc when
compared to positive dc. Loading the silicone rubber insulator
with fillers can improve the performance in the case of
negative dc. Moderate filler loading of micron fillers were not
able to achieve properties similar to unfilled samples in the
case of positive dc and hence higher filler loadings are
required to get performance comparable to the unfilled
samples. Low concentration of nano fillers performed better
than large loadings of uATH even under positive dc
conditions. Hence, adding nano fillers is more advantageous
as a small percentage loading can give appreciable results
when compared to high micro filler levels, without
compromising on the flexibility of the sample. The increase
in eroded mass in positive dc can be attributed to increase in
surface conductivity due to the electrolysis and subsequent
larger leakage current values leading to higher energy
dissipation on samples.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the Nanoscience centre,
Indian Institute of Science for providing facilities to conduct
the SEM studies. The authors would also like to thank Mr.
Riaz Ahmed for the support in setting up the experimental
facility. We would also like to thank Mr. Sudhaharan of
Wacker Chemie, Germany and Mr. L Sankar of Huber Inc.
for providing the ATH and the silicone rubber material for the
study.
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