The growth of prebreakdown cavities in silicone fluids and the frequency of the accompanying discharge pulses

Measurements have been made of prebreakdown cavities in silicone fluids, and of the current pulses that accompany cavity growth. These experiments were carried out in silicone fluids of 0.65, 10, 100 and 1000 cS viscosity. Cavity growth, driven by the electrostatic field, is limited at low viscosities by inertia, and at high viscosities by viscous drag. The electrostatic force on the cavity wall is related to the local field and to the space charge density in the liquid adjacent to the cavity. We are concerned with the relationship between the electrostatic force and the cavity growth, and with the discharges that accompany cavity growth. Discharges occur in well-defined pulse trains: the first pulse in a train generates the cavity, and subsequent pulses are due to discharges within the cavity. Knowing the scaling laws for cavity growth we can use the time between the first and second pulses to estimate the cavity size when the first cavity discharge occurs; this gives a cavity diameter of /spl sim/5 to 7 /spl mu/m. The next pulse cannot occur until the charge from the previous discharge has dispersed. We find that the time between pulses /spl Delta/t is strongly viscosity dependent; at high viscosities the average time between pulses at is proportional to fluid-viscosity, but in the low viscosity limit the dependence approaches /spl eta//sup 1/3/. To explain this viscosity dependence we consider three mechanisms: (1) a decrease in charge density due to increase in cavity size; (2) ion detrapping from the cavity wall and drift in the applied field; and (3) diffusion of an impurity species to the cavity surface, charge exchange to create a mobile ion, and its subsequent drift in the field. Our experimental results are consistent with the cavity expansion model, but there is evidence of diffusion effects in low viscosity liquids, and with ion-drift at high viscosities.