The self-healing property of silicone rubber after degraded by treeing

Early damage of insulation systems is indicated by the existing of partial discharge within it. It is a release of electrical charges that occur locally at some parts of insulation, which leading to completely insulation failure. A measurement is conducted to knoe its mechanism in insulation. This research deals with the correlations of self-healing properties (i.e. the decrease of tree length and the partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) of silicone rubber material. This researcu is carried out in high voltage engineering laboratory, Tanjungpura University, using silicone rubber material without filler. The results data show that electrical treeing grew after the voltage was applied exactly at its inception level (6 kV for 45 minutes). Silicone rubber specimens could self-heal after the occurrence of electrical treeing in the range of 0 to 72 hours. The PDIV was getting higher as the process of self-healing in electrical treeing. This means that the physical self-healing of the specimen (by the decrease of tree length) would be followed by its electrical self-healing (by the increase of PDIV).