Surface resistance effect on dielectric breakdown characteristic of LDPE film

Low density polyethylene is widely used in electrical apparatus such as power cables and capacitors because of the excellent electrical and mechanical properties. The long life of these materials is greatly affected by temperature and humidity. In this paper we investigated the surface resistance due to humidity change and the correlation with dielectric breakdown characteristics. The experiments were made on low density polyethylene films with 50 /spl mu/m thickness without evaporated electrode under AC voltage application. The result showed that the surface resistance becomes lower when the humidity increases and has significant correlation between the surface resistance and dielectric breakdown of the low density polyethylene film.