An Overview of Electrical Tree Growth in Solid Insulating Material with Emphasis of Influencing Factors, Mathematical Models and Tree Suppression

Nowadays, the most widely used insulating materials in high voltage equipment such as cables are polymeric insulations due to the numerous merits they possess with regards to electrical performance compared to paper insulations. However, electrical treeing, one of the dielectric pre-breakdown phenomena, has been considered as a major contribution to the failure of insulating polymeric materials. Thus, this paper provides an overview on the factors affecting the initiation and propagation of electrical tree. Discussions on parameters that affect the growth of electrical treeing such as applied voltage, electric field enhancement, partial discharge, frequency of applied voltage and temperature are given. Some discussions on the various models are also highlighted. The tree related models being discussed herein include Weibull, Lognormal, Johnson SB, Dielectric Breakdown Model, Discharge-Avalanche Model, and Field-Driven Tree Growth. In addition, discussions on the use of nano-sized fillers in polymeric insulating material to inhibit electric treeing are highlighted.