The effect of field-enhanced injection and dissociation on the conduction of highly-insulating liquids

A generalization of the Thomson model to include field-enhanced dissociation in the bulk (the Onsager effect) and unipolar charge injection, without recombination between electrolytic and injected ions, is formulated for nonpolar dielectric liquids. In the case of an autonomous injection of charge, approximate analytical solutions are given for the dissociation and the injection current densities. A comparison with the "exact" numerical solution is done to determine the regions of validity of the approximate solutions. The general case of field-enhanced dissociation and nonautonomous injection also is investigated numerically.