Effect of Electric Field Frequency on the AC Electrical Treeing Phenomena in an Epoxy/Reactive Diluent/Layered Silicate Nanocomposite

The effects of electric field frequency on the ac electrical treeing phenomena in an epoxy/reactive diluent/layered silicate (1.5 wt%) were carried out, in needle-plate electrode arrangement. A layered silicate was exfoliated in an epoxy base resin, by using our ac electric field apparatus. To measure the treeing propagation rate, constant alternating current (AC) of 10 kV with three different electric field frequencies (60, 500 and 1,000 Hz) was applied to the specimen, in needle-plate electrode arrangement, at $30^{\circ}C$ of insulating oil bath. As the electric field frequency increased, the treeing propagation rate increased. At 500 Hz, the treeing propagation rate of the epoxy/PG/nanosilicate system was $0.41{\times}10^{-3}$ mm/min, which was 3.4 times slower than that of the epoxy/PG system. The electrical treeing morphology was dense bush type at 60 Hz; however, as the frequency increased, the bush type was changed to branch type, having few branches, with very slow propagation rate.