Statistics of prebreakdown current pulses in n-Hexane

In a stressed liquid dielectric there are electrical, optical, acoustical, mechanical, and chemical processes. As conditions approach those which favor complete electrical breakdown, instabilities are assumed to develop and grow to some ‘point of no return’, which may be the key to understanding breakdown for the purpose of inhibiting it. The events occurring before breakdown have often been considered as “noise”, but almost certainly contain useful information. In these studies, prebreakdown events are observed with state-of-the-art, low-noise electronics and high-speed digital equipment, and are analyzed with mathematical techniques for random processes to reveal the conditions for and mechanisms of the instability inception.