Performance evaluation of pristine, silane grafted and cross-linked LDPE as outdoor high voltage insulator

Feasibility of using low density polyethylene (LDPE) and its hybrid with vinyl-tri-ethoxy silane has been evaluated after its thermal and electrical aging according to IEC 1109 5000hour multi-stress aging protocol. The degradation of pure, silane grafted and cross linked samples is studied after three aging cycles and their leakage current and hydrophobicity classification is presented. Material is characterized by using FTIR spectroscopy. The results of leakage current, hydrophobicity classification and FTIR spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy are exactly in accordance with each other. In addition, the oxidation values are found to be in linear relation with leakage current.