Electrical degradation due to treeing in nanocomposite dielectric materials with impurities

Treeing phenomena in nanocomposite dielectric materials due to the presence of impurities are investigated using a Cellular Automata (CA) model. A needle-plane electrode configuration under the application of a DC voltage is used in order to examine the degradation that is caused by electrical trees that initiate from impurities in titania/epoxy nanocomposites. Air-filled voids and conductive particles comprise impurities from which electrical trees initiate and propagate in the dielectric material. The simulation results indicate that the presence of impurities provokes degradation of the nanocomposite dielectric. The degree of degradation depends on the number of impurities presence within the dielectric. Additionally, it is observed that the trees that initiate from impurities are hindered by the nanoparticles presence.