Surface charge behavior of silicone rubber/SiC composites with field-dependent conductivity

Abstract

High temperature vulcanized (HTV) silicone rubber (SiR) is widely used as HVDC cable accessory insulation considering its outstanding electrical properties along with elasticity and thermal resistance. However surface charge caused by corona would accumulate on SiR surface and distort the local field which in consequence led to accessory premature discharge and insulation failure. This paper focused on the behavior of surface charge of SiR composites and managed to modify it by incorporating silicon carbide (SiC) particles into SiR matrix. The content of SiC varied from 0 to 100 % and its effects on the field-dependent conductivity and surface charge behaviors were discussed. The outcomes of experiments showed that the SiR/SiC composites performed a nonlinear conductivity as a function of electric field when the content of SiC exceeded 30 %. It was also noticed that this field-dependent conductivity became more obvious when the content of SiC increased. Meanwhile, the decay rate of surface charge was observed to rise with the increase of SiC content and voltage. It was confirmed that the SiR/SiC composites could accelerate the decay of surface charge and increase the dc conductivity under high voltage, resulting from the modification of the trap level distribution.