9220638 Zahn The proposed research is the continued study of high voltage insulation, conduction and breakdown characteristics in liquid, gaseous and solid dielectrics. Insulating dielectrics used in power apparatus, such as transformers and cables, and in the pulse power technology, such as Marx generators and pulse forming lines, have their performance affected by injected space charge and by surface charge accumulation on insulating surfaces. This charge distorts the electric field distribution and introduces the charge migration time between electrodes as an additional time constant over the usual dielectric relaxation and fluid transport times. Charge injection from high voltage stressed electrodes are measured by Kerr electro-optic field and charge mapping measurements, voltage-current terminal measurements, and electrical breakdown tests. The magnitude and polarity of injected charge and the electrical breakdown strength deped strongly on electrode material combinations and voltage polarity. The research tries to understand conduction, aging, degradation, and breakdown mechanisms in high field stressed gaseous, liquid, and solid dielectris using new modern optical, electronic, and computer instrumentation to give us eyes to see charge transport effects inside materials that could not be seen before. These measurements are improved by also using newly developed sensors to continuously monitor liquid and solid conductivity, permittivity, moisture, and volume charge densities so that necessary parameter values are known to allow comparison between theory and experiment. Charge transport theory will also be used to analyze published experimental results of others of space charge distributions measured with electro-acousitc methods. *** v s t 9220638 Zahn The proposed research is the continued study of high voltage insulation, conduction and breakdown characteristics s } n s $ $ $ ( F / s s / 1 Courier Symbol & Arial 5 Courier New X X " h % % I R:WW20USERABSTRACT.DOT Cassandra Queen Cassandra Queen
