The effect of porosity on the electric strength of heat-resistant concrete

In many applications where both high temperature and high electrical stress exist, little is known about the interaction of the electrical and thermal properties of the materials involved. This paper is a study of this interaction for a material which we call a concrete, and is a fine alumina powder mixed with a cement, i.e. calcium aluminate (CaOAl₂O₃) slurry, which cures in the same manner as a concrete. The porosity of the product depends upon the relative volume of the hydrated cement to the volume of the spaces between the alumina particles, and the shapes of the pores may be changed by choosing the mix of various particle sizes of alumina particles. In this study, specimens of this material were cast between uniform field electrodes in one case, and between nonuniform field electrodes in the other, cured and dried to remove residual moisture, and tested for electric strength. It is well known that the electric strength of porous materials is low and nearly the same as the electric strength of the gap between the same electrodes in air in the absence of the solid porous material. This paper shows that for this material and only at porosities <20%, as measured by a mercury porosimeter, does the electric strength become larger than that of air and become a significant function of the porosity and of the distribution of pore volume among pores of differing equivalent pore diameter. The uniformity of the field had no noticeable effect