Frequency dependence electrical breakdown

The electrical properties of materials are important for many of the higher technology applications. Measurements can be made using AC and/or DC. The electrical properties are dependent on voltage and frequency. Important electrical properties include dielectric loss, loss factor, dielectric constant, conductivity, relaxation time, induced dipole moment, electrical resistance, power loss, dissipation factor, and electrical breakdown. Electrical properties are related to polymer structure. Most organic polymers are nonconductors, but some are conductors. 

The concept of effective electric field strength was originally developed (6, 42) to take into account the observed frequency dependence of the electric field strength required for gas breakdown. However, this concept is of great general utility for reasonably homogeneous discharges since it allows one to compare the effect on the electrons of an applied... 

In static operations, the lifetime is mainly limited by the humidity, which penetrates through the external insulation layer and leads to a leakage current increase. A larger leakage current can lead to an electrical breakdown. Due to the dielectric and mechanical losses, the piezoelectric actuator warms up under continuous excitation. Losses are mainly non-linear and depend on the excitation frequency, the voltage amplitude and the humidity. To avoid a depoling effect of the ceramic, the temperature in the actuator should be monitored to ensure that it stays well below the ceramics Curie temperature. So a typical range of temperatures is —40°C to 80 °C. 

Bias-induced reverse piezoelectric response Broadband dielectric spectroscopy (BDS) Dielectric permittivity spectrum Dielectric resonance spectroscopy Elastic modulus Ferroelectrets Electrical breakdown Acoustic method Characterization Dynamic coefficient Interferometric method Pressure and frequency dependence of piezoelectric coefficient Profilometer Quasistatic piezoelectric coefficient Stress-strain curves Thermal stability of piezoelectricity Ferroelectric hysteresis Impedance spectroscopy Laser-induced pressure pulse Layer-structure model of ferroelectret Low-field dielectric spectroscopy Nonlinear dielectric spectroscopy Piezoelectrically generated pressure step technique (PPS) Pyroelectric current spectrum Pyroelectric microscopy Pyroelectricity Quasistatic method Scale transform method Scanning pyroelectric microscopy (SPEM) Thermal step teehnique Thermal wave technique Thermal-pulse method Weibull distribution... 

Continuum solvation models consider the solvent as a homogeneous, isotropic, linear dielectric medium [104], The solute is considered to occupy a cavity in this medium. The ability of a bulk dielectric medium to be polarized and hence to exert an electric field back on the solute (this field is called the reaction field) is determined by the dielectric constant. The dielectric constant depends on the frequency of the applied field, and for equilibrium solvation we use the static dielectric constant that corresponds to a slowly changing field. In order to obtain accurate results, the solute charge distribution should be optimized in the presence of the field (the reaction field) exerted back on the solute by the dielectric medium. This is usually done by a quantum mechanical molecular orbital calculation called a self-consistent reaction field (SCRF) calculation, which is iterative since the reaction field depends on the distortion of the solute wave function and vice versa. While the assumption of linear homogeneous response is adequate for the solvent molecules at distant positions, it is a poor representation for the solute-solvent interaction in the first solvation shell. In this case, the solute sees the atomic-scale charge distribution of the solvent molecules and polarizes nonlinearly and system specifically on an atomic scale (see Figure 3.9). More generally, one could say that the breakdown of the linear response approximation is connected with the fact that the liquid medium is structured [105],... 

Koh et al. [6] have rigorously modeled the electromechanics of this interaction for the simplified case of uniform biaxial stretching of an incompressible polymer film including many important effects such as the nonlinear stiffness behavior of the polymer film and the variation in breakdown field with the state of strain. With regard to the latter effect, Pelrine et al. [5] showed the dramatic effect of prestrain on the performance of dielectric elastomers (specifically silicones and acrylics) as actuators. We would expect the same breakdown enhancement effects to be involved with regard to power generation. There are many additional effects that may be important, such as electrical and mechanical loss mechanisms, interaction with the environment or circuits, frequency, and temperature-dependent effects on material parameters. The analysis by Koh provides the state equations... 

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