Modeling and Numerical Simulation of Material Science, 2013, 3, 28-29
Published Online January 2013 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/mnsms)
mpulse Breakdown Strength of Nano-ZnO/XLPE
Nanocomposite Material on Temperature Rise
Min-Hae Park, Kee-Joe Lim
Department of Electrical Engineering, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
Received 2012
ABSTRACT
Development of new materials using composite materials has been much interest. XLPE is a kind of power cable in
high voltage insulation. Recently research for cable insulating material has shown that nano-size filler added to XLPE is
electrically and physically stable. In this paper, Impulse strength was measured in XLPE that composite by adding na-
no-ZnO with different mass proportions. There is positive and negative impulse voltage. However, there is no differ-
ence between them on the film specimen. Therefore we tested only positive volta ge. In order to understand temperature
properties of XLPE nanocomposite sample, experiment of impulse breakdown strength were measured at room temper-
ature and maximum allowable temperature (90℃). From this result, it can be considered that the breakdown strength of
addition of the nano-ZnO is increased in a corresponding degree at high temperature, but almost unchanged at low
temperature.
Keywords: XLPE ; Nano Composite; Na no-ZnO ; Impulse Breakdown Strength
1. Introduction
Studies that are involved in impulse breakdown for the
DC insulation materials have plenty. Nevertheless, it is
mostly the polymer insulation materials in low electric
fields.
In this study, a nanocomposite material of nano-Zinc
oxide (ZnO) added to a cross linking-polyethylene
(XLPE, used for high voltage cable insulation) was sub-
jected to impulse property investigation. The purpose of
this study is to investigate the electrical properties influ-
ence on temperature rise. In this paper, the experimental
preparation of ZnO/XLPE nanocomposite is described.
And the impulse breakdown strength of ZnO/XLPE is
measured under quasi-uniform fields.
2. Experi ment
2.1. Specimens
The details of nanocomposite sheet specimens containing
different filler concentrations are included in Table 1.
Silane treated nano-ZnO (Nano struc tur ed and Amorp h-
ous Materials, Inc ) with the diameter of 90-210nm was
incorporated in XLPE. The samples were diluted to the
prescribed concentration of 1, 3 and 5 phr. And XLPE
was also prepared as 0 phr sample for comparison. The
dispersion state of ZnO was estimated by using a trans-
mission electron mi croscope (TEM) as shown in Table 2.
Table 1. Details of nanocomposite dielectrics
Base Polymer XLPE
Filler Nano-ZnO
Filler concentrations(phr) 0, 1, 3and 5
Dielectric thicknesses 100~150 ㎛
Surface treatment on filler Silane treated
Test temperatures Room temperature, 90℃
Table 2. Dispersion state of Zinc Oxide
TEM Particle
size Purity Mor- phology
ZnO
90-210n
m 99.9% + Irregular
2.2. Experimental Procedures
In order to temperature dependence of XLPE nanocom-
posite sample, Impulse breakdown strength were meas-
ured at room temperature and maximum allowable tem-
perature (90℃). Samples were sandwiched between
stainless steel sphere electrodes with a diameter of 8mm.
The sample and electrodes were soaked in silicon oil
because of avoiding breakdown in air. The experiments
were done more than 10 times under each condition. The

M. P ARK, K. LI M
impulse breakdown test was performed at the wave front
of the one shot impulse.
Figure 1. Experimental setup for Impulse breakdown test
3. Results and Discussion
Figure 2. ZnO content dependence of impulse breakdown
strength of ZnO/XLPE nanocomposite material
Figure 2 shows the influence of nano-ZnO on temperature
rise using sphere-sphere electrode. The breakdown
strength was calculated by dividing the breakdown vol-
tage by the film thickness. The scatter and weibull scale
parameter plot are appeared as dots and line.
Figure 2( a) shows that the impulse breakdown strength is
similar to ZnO content of 3 phr or more. By comparison,
less than 3 phr is decreased.
The impulse breakdown strength at 90 degrees Celsius is
shown in Figure 2(b). The breakdown strength of Adding
ZnO is higher than XLPE by observation.
The addition of a few ZnO nano-filler brought the im-
provement of the impulse breakdown strength at high
temperature(90℃). However, adding nano-ZnO couldn`t
be huge exchange of XLPE.
4. Conclusions
We investigated impulse breakdown strength in XLPE
and its composite by adding nano-ZnO with different
mass proportions. The impulse breakdown strength of
nanocomposite was measured with sphere-sphere elec-
trode at room temperature and maximum allowable tem-
peratur e (90℃). In this study, specimens of addition of
the nano-ZnO were similar to XLPE in impulse break-
down strength at room temperature, however, appeared
excellent results at 90 degree Celsius. We considered that
temperature dependent was relatively low. This means
that the decrease in breakdown strength at high tempera-
ture is relatively small.
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(a) Room temperatur e (2 5℃)
(b) High temperature(90℃)
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