Investigation on dielectric and thermal characteristics of nano filler mixed insulating material

Abstract

Over the past decade, the polymer nano composites have attracted considerable interests in both academic and industry owing to their excellent electrical, mechanical and thermal properties with only a small amount of nano additives. This is caused by the large surface area to volume ratio of nano additives when compared to the micro and macro additives. The driving force of the nano revolution is a continuous progress in the nano dielectrics towards increasing the level of stability and the reduction in the size and weight of the insulators. With nano particle fillers, the amount of filler is considerably smaller when compared to composites filled with micro fillers. Nano particle filled polymers provide advantages over micron-filled polymers, because they provide resistance to degradation and improvement in thermo-mechanical properties without causing a reduction in dielectric strength. Various studies have been made on the performance of micro and nano particle filled composites. Among the different nano fillers, the Alumina and Zirconia have better thermal and dielectic properties. The dielectric properties such as breakdown strength and partial discharge level have been measured as per IEC 60243 and IEC 60270 respectively. The parallel capacitance, admittance, loss tangent and quality factor of the nanocomposite samples have been measured for various temperature and frequencies using Dielectric Spectroscopy. The loss of weight of nano composite due to thermal degradation has been investigated using Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer. Finally, the results obtained through the experimental works have been used for modeling of Polyimide enamel coated copper conductor using the FEM analysis. The electric field stress on the nanocomposite coated copper conductor has been analyzed to ensure the practical feasibility of the suitable weight percentage of nanofiller additives. newline