Corona discharge and ageing process of an insulation

Corona discharge study has been made considering discharge as a streamer like process. After to have compared the effect of uv radiations and low energy particles like electrons and positive ions, by means of an infrared analysis, experiments have been carried out with ions lower than 30 eV. Though the ions seem to be the more effective particles, their impact did not give a degradation so important as the one due to discharges. An ultraviolet spectroscopy analysis is used to show the presumed increasing conductivity. In conclusion future work on the subject is proposed in order to elucidate the surface transformations and the breakdown of insulating materials. Indeed few results are known on the effect of neutral and negative particles as on the simultaneous ageing of the discharge constituents considered two by two.