Electric field measurement in liquid dielectrics using Kerr effect

Abstract

Space charge has been known to affect the performance of the electrical insulation. Therefore, it is important to understand the information of the electric field and space charge distributions in the insulating materials in order to improve the electrical insulation of the electric power apparatus. The aim of this research is to investigate the electric field distribution in dielectric liquid using the Kerr effect method. In the current study, the parallel-plane was applied as the electrodes system in the Kerr experiment under DC electric field. The images of the light intensity of the transmitted light from the laser beam were recorded by a detector. From the experimental results obtained, the images between the incident light intensity and the transmitted light intensity were compared by using the image enhancement-arithmetic technique. With the absence of electric field, the light intensity was uniformly dark. By increasing, the electric field applied to the dielectric liquid, the intensity ratio of the incident light to the transmitted light increases too.