Effect of AC stressed aging on partial discharge, thermal and tensile performance of silicone rubber-based composites

Abstract In this paper, partial discharge characteristics of the multi-stressed aged and un-aged high temperature vulcanized silicone rubber (HTV-SR) samples with several concentrations of alumina trihydrate (ATH) and silica are studied. This is to elucidate whether the addition of nano/micro fillers of silica and ATH in silicone rubber enhances the resistance against partial discharges and aging behavior under different weathering conditions. Further, performance assessment is made by thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry and through measurement of tensile strength. Using IEC (b) electrode system, partial discharge measurements are performed according to IEC 60270. From these experimental measurements, it has been observed that by adding filler contents, the multi-stress aging performance improved and partial discharge resistance is enhanced up to 40% as compared to the HTV-SR without any filler. Moreover, through analysis of data obtained by thermogravimetric, indicate that nano doping increases the physical and chemical cross-linking points which confine the motion at the particle-matrix interface. As a result, the enhanced thermal stability of the composites. Considerable improvement in the stress-strain behavior of test samples is also observed with the addition of silica and ATH.