ENHANCEMENT OF FLASHOVER VOLTAGE FOR POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES IN HIGH VOLTAGE APPLICATIONS

Nanotechnology is an emerging technology in the scientific world. It's one of the fastest growing fields in research and technology. In this paper, an experimental investigation was made to explore the use of nanotechnology to enhance the performance of polymer nanocomposites as insulation material. Cylindrically polyester composite samples have been prepared incorporation with different weight percentages (1%, 3%, and 5%) of nanofillers silicon dioxide (SiO2) and Titanium dioxide (TiO2) to improve the electrical and thermal performance of high voltage insulations. The results showed that addition of this type of nano particles contributed in improve the electrical properties and flashover voltage for all samples. The rate of improving flashover voltage of composites contained nano SiO2 is higher than containing nano TiO2. Flashover voltage reached 41 KV for polyester sample without fillers and the maximum increase in rate of flashover was recorded for polyester sample loaded with 5% nano SiO2 as 61 KV while the flashover voltage was 58 KV for the sample loaded with 5% nano TiO2 in dry conditions. A comparison between nanofillers in various industrial environmental conditions (cement, phosphate and silica fume) indicated higher flashover voltage values for polyester nanocomposite containing nano SiO2 fillers than sample containing nano TiO2 filler at all filler concentrations. In addition, in this study, the thermal stability and decomposition rate