Physical Science, Measurement and Instrumentation, Management and Education, IEE Proceedings A

Author

Hinrichsen, P.F. ; Houdayer, A. ; Kajrys, G. ; Belhadfa, A. ; Kennedy, G. ; St.-Pierre, J. ; Crine, J.-P.

Author_Institution

Lab. de Phys. Nucl., Montreal Univ., Que., Canada

Volume

137

Issue

5

fYear

1990

fDate

9/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

255

Lastpage

260

Abstract

A comparison of the sensitivity of neutron activation analysis (NAA) and micro-PIXE (proton-induced X-ray emission) for the detection of trace elements in small localised defects, such as water trees in polymeric insulation, is presented. For NAA, such very small samples severely limit the sensitivity, while PIXE with a focused proton beam (micro-PIXE) is sensitive to a wide range of elements and can make detailed mappings of the impurity distributions. The results obtained with both NAA and micro-PIXE for a large bow-tie water tree, grown in a field-aged XLPE cable, are compared and the relative merits of the two techniques are discussed.

Keywords

X-ray chemical analysis; cable insulation; insulation testing; ion microprobe analysis; neutron activation analysis; organic insulating materials; XLPE cables; cross-linked polyethylene; detection of trace elements; impurity detection; insulation testing; micro-PIXE; neutron activation analysis; organic insulation; polymeric insulation; proton-induced X-ray emission; water trees;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Physical Science, Measurement and Instrumentation, Management and Education, IEE Proceedings A

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0143-702X

Type

jour

Filename

56107