Effects of temperature on DC tracking resistance of organic insulating materials

The tracking that is dielectric breakdown phenomenon of material surface may be generated on organic insulating materials. When this tracking is generated, not only are there problems of the electric appliances and devices, but also it has a strong influence on safety and reliability. Temperature effects on tracking resistance should be investigated due to the increasing usage of organic materials in high temperature environments. This paper presents a study on the DC tracking resistance of organic insulating materials by use of the IEC Publication 112 method. Accordingly, the authors made the high temperature condition laboratory-like, the tracking resistance and scintillation discharge currents on DC tracking test were studied. They found that organic insulating materials could be classified into two types by increasing the temperature. One shows that the tracking resistance becomes too low, the other one shows that the tracking resistance becomes to high. They also found that the effects of temperature on the tracking resistance are different by the discharge energy.