Influence of ZnO And Al2O3 nanofillers on electrical treeing in XLPE insulation

Currently, XLPE is widely used in underground high voltage cable. Recently, a few nanofillers have been selected by numerous researchers to enhance the electrical tree resistance in polymer matrix. In this paper, the influence of ZnO and Al
₂
O
₃
nanofillers on the electrical treeing in XLPE have been investigated. The concentration of nanofillers loading are varies from 0.5 wt%, 1 wt% and 1.5 wt%. The needle-plane electrodes are used in this investigation and the gap between the electrodes is 2 mm. The structure and growth of electrical tree in XLPE containing the nanofillers are observed by using a digital camera and microscope system. The results show that the XLPE containing 1wt% Al
₂
O3 has higher tree inception voltage (TIV) compared with XLPE containing ZnO nanofiller. The propagation length of tree growth of Al2O3 also show an improvement compared to the ZnO nanocomposite.