IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 14, No.

2; April 2007 427

Characterization of Tree Growth in Filled Epoxy Resin:

The Effect of Filler and Moisture Contents
Rudi Kurnianto, Yoshinobu Murakami, Naohiro Hozumi and Masayuki Nagao
Department of Electronic and Information Engineering
Toyohashi University of Technology
Hibarigaoka 1-1. Tempaku-cho, Toyohashi, 441-8580, Japan

ABSTRACT
The effect of silica filler and moisture absorption on the structural characteristics of
tree growth in epoxy resin has been investigated. The physical properties of the resin
were varied by changing its filler concentration and immersed in distilled water at 50
0
C. The fractal dimension of the electrical tree and its relationship with filler and
moisture contents were determined. The damaged area of tree in various
concentrations of filler was also estimated. Furthermore, the lacunarity of tree with
identical fractal dimension was calculated as a complement of fractal dimension
characterization. In addition, moisture absorption and diffusion properties of the
specimens used were also examined. It is considered that the filler would create such an
obstruction to the tree growth both in moisture and non-moisture conditions. Under
non-moisturized condition, the more filler concentration, the more obstruction would
be generated, leading to the significant suppression of tree growth. Likewise, the
introduction of filler brought a rise in fractal dimension due to the increase of
branches. It is concluded that the existence of filler makes the tree structure more
complicated by introducing obstacles to tree propagation, leading to the high fractal
dimension of the tree. In addition, it was found that the fractal dimension of the tree
was related to the fractal dimension of the composite material including filler particles.
On the other hand, the lacunarity of “without-filler” specimen would be lower than
that of in filled specimens. It is considered that the tree growth in filled specimen would
have “localized-branching” at the interface between filler and resin leading to the
heterogeneous inherent structures of the trees. As a complement of the complexity
characterization by fractal dimension, the lacunarity can be a useful tool to quantify
the heterogeneous structures of trees growth in composite materials. The moisture
could hardly be absorbed into the filler compared to the resin. It is shown by the higher
value of diffusion coefficient of without-filler specimens than with-filler. 20 h of
immersing is appropriate to achieve 40% in moisture content at the needle tip.
Index Terms — Epoxy resin, filler, moisture, diffusion coefficient, electrical tree,
fractal dimension, damaged area, lacunarity.

1 INTRODUCTION different lacunarity. Fractal dimension measures how much space

SINCE electrical treeing is one of the main factors for ageing
of electrical insulation, it has been studied for many years.
Electrical treeing has complex structural characteristics that are
difficult to describe using Euclidean geometry. As Mandelbrot
[1] established fractal geometry to describe the complexity
objects found in nature, trees can be appropriately described
using fractal geometry and subsequently characterized by the
fractal dimension. The fractal dimension can be determined,
using the box counting method [2], to be a non-integer value.
Mandelbrot also recognized that objects with identical fractal
dimension can have greatly different appearances, as they have
Manuscript received on 31 March 2006, in final form 9 January 2007.
is filled. Lacunarity complements fractal dimension by measuring
how the data fills the space. The lacunarity can be quantified by
using sliding box method [3, 4], to describe objects exhibiting
structure over a range of scales. Within this context the structure
of tree growth in filled epoxy resin have been studied extensively.
In the previous paper [5], we clarified that moisture enhances
the tree growth, and that the introduction of filler suppresses the
growth. In these analyses, the tree growth was characterized only
by the tree length. Here the tree length was defined as the
distance between the tip of the needle electrode and the most
distant tip of branch. In this case the two- (or three-) dimensional
spread was ignored. Alternatively, in order to characterize the
overall structure of tree patterns during their growth, many
authors have been using fractal dimensions in addition to the

1070-9878/07/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE

428 R. Kurnianto et al.: Characterization of Tree Growth in Filled Epoxy Resin: The Effect of Filler and Moisture Contents
above parameters. For examples, Kudo et al [6] calculated the
fractal dimension of electrical trees and found that the dimension
increased as the tree grew. Champion et al [7] proposed a method
for characterization of the spatial and temporal development of
trees in the pin-plane electrode geometry. Naoe et al [8]
performed fractal analysis of treeing process and correlated with
the tree length and luminescence. Image analyses by pixel
counting to characterize tree growth have also been carried out
by Yoshimura et al [9], and Cooper and Swingler [10].
Such studies used homogeneous solid materials as specimens;
however, materials are often mixed with filler in order to upgrade
thermal and mechanical properties. The existence of filler may
affect the fractal parameters of the tree growing through the
composite material. Likewise, the influence of moisture to the
treeing phenomena is still not fully understood.
In this paper, the influence of filler concentration, as well as
moisture content, on the fractal dimension of trees is discussed.
The influence of filler concentrations, at identical fractal
dimension, on the fractal lacunarity of tree is also discussed. In
addition, the moisture absorption and diffusion properties of the
specimens used is discussed as well.
2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 EPOXY RESIN AND CURING PROCESS
About 200 μm thick leaf-like specimens were used to
visualize tree growth along the resin-filler interface, as shown in
Figure 1a. The epoxy resin employed was a blend of Araldite
CY221 and HY2967 as the main resin and hardener,
respectively. After blending the fillers with the epoxy resin and
evacuating for 30 minutes, the compound was pasted onto the
slide glass. The filler was silica with spherical in shape and with
a diameter of about 50 μm. It is uniformly distributed in epoxy
resin. The needle electrode, made of a tungsten wire with 30 μm
in diameter, was placed with a gap of 1 mm from the ground
electrode. The needle tip was formed by electrolytic polishing.
Its tip radius and tip angle were 2 μm and 30 degrees,
respectively. The cover glass placed on the resin was kept at a
proper distance from the surface of the slide glass using a
Polyimide film spacer with 200 μm in thickness. The specimen
was cured for 24 h at room temperature. We prepared the
specimens whose filler concentrations were fixed at 0, 5, 10, 15,
and 20 phr by weight ratio (phr: parts of silica per hundred parts
of resin, for example 1 phr means 1 g of silica filler was mixed
per 100 g of epoxy resin). As the limitation of our observation
system, it would be difficult to observe tree growth in the
specimens with filler concentrations above 20 phr. The plaque
specimens were also prepared for the moisture absorption and
diffusion experiments; see Figure 1b. Actually the plaque
specimen was the same with leaf-like specimen, except that the
specimen did not include the tungsten needle and plate electrode
in it. Let us define the leaf-like and plaque specimens which
were contented fillers as “with-filler” specimens and those were
not contented fillers as “without-filler” specimens. We used
silica filler because recently power apparatuses are being
weight-reduced and downsized in order to reduce power
transmission cost; the compact design of high quality composite
materials with micro or even nano-size (or even combination of
the micro and nano sizes) of silica fillers would be the most
attractive in the future.
2.2 ASSESSMENT OF MOISTURE ABSORPTION
To assess moisture absorption and diffusion we used the
plaque specimens without and with 20 phr of filler
concentration. The specimens were dried in vacuum drying
oven at 50 0C for about one day. Then, the specimen weight
soon after drying in vacuum was measured as the base. To
accelerate moisture diffusion the specimen was consequently
immersed in distilled water at 50 0C [5, 11, 12]. The electronic
balance was used to precisely measure the specimen’s weight.
For the most practical applications, changes in the percent
moisture content, M, can be measured gravimetrically, i.e., as
changes in the weight of the specimens [5, 11, 12]:
M = (m-m0)/m0 x 100% (1)
Here, m is the specimen weight after being immersed, and m0
is the base weight.
Epoxy resin Spacer Slide glass
Upper
view
(a)
Plate electrode
Cover glass Needle electrode
Side
view
Moisture absorption Slide glass
Epoxy resin Spacer
(b) Moisture Upper
absorption view
Cover glass Slide glass
Figure 1. Configuration of specimen.
2.3 OBSERVATION OF ELECTRICAL TREEING
Two steps of tree tests have been carried out. Firstly, we
used leaf-like specimens without and with 20 phr filler. They
were immersed in distilled water at 50 0C for about six days
prior to voltage application. The specimen was placed in a
vessel filled with silicon oil of 10 mm2/s (or 10 cSt) in
viscosity to prevent the surface flashover. As shown in Figure
2, an ac ramp voltage (60 Hz, increasing rate by 1 kVrms/30s
step) was once applied. As soon as a tree had been observed
through the monitor, the voltage was retained to observe the
tree propagation. Tree inception voltage was defined as the
voltage when the tree length had exceeded 10 μm [13].
Secondly, specimens with several kinds of filler
concentrations; 5, 10, 15, and 20 phr under ambient condition
were employed. Then ac ramp voltage was applied as the
procedure above but with the increasing rate of 0.2 kVrms/s.
2.4 FRACTAL DIMENSION CHARACTERIZATION
The images of tree and filler were recorded by equipment,
which was consisting of optical microscope, charge coupled
device (CCD) camera, VTR (video tape recorder), and
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 14, No. 2; April 2007 429

personal computer. In comparison with homogeneous material, 0.5 [4]. Low lacunarity geometric objects are homogeneous
the physical presence of filler such as in filled epoxy resin and translationally invariant because all gap sizes are the same
makes it difficult to observe the tree clearly when it developed [14]. In the contrary, objects with a wide range of gap sizes
through the filler-resin interfaces. are heterogeneous and not translationally invariant; they have
high lacunarity. Translationally invariance is highly scale
dependent; objects which are heterogeneous at small scale can
1 mm be quite homogeneous when examined at larger scale or vice
CCD
Monitor camera versa. Lacunarity is considered as a scale dependent measure
VTR of heterogeneity or texture.

30 μm
Optical
PC microscope Tip radius = 2 μm
Tip angle = 300

a)
∼ HV

Light source 50μm

Figure 2. Tree observation system.

As yet there is no physical method for observing it except that

such image enhancement can be expected. Therefore in this
study we enhanced the tree images. The image before the tree
initiation was once recorded and subtracted from the image b)
after tree propagation. As the former includes only the image
of filler and the latter includes the images of both filler and
tree, the image of the tree is discriminated after the subtraction 50μm
process. All of electrical tree propagation and filler images
were structurally characterized by determining their fractal
dimensions by box counting method. It should be noted that
the test object differs from background by color.
The procedure of fractal determination on the test object
images by means of proper color separation (RGB channel, c)
intensity, brightness, and contrast), the masking procedure 50μm
was made for color adjustment -black for the test object and -
white for background, as shown in Figure 3. Fractal
dimension was given by the slope of function, Figure 3. Images of trees blurred by microscope (left), and the same images
after masking (right) in without-filler specimen a), with- filler specimen b),
and image of filler c).
df = (log N(r))/(log(1/r)) (2)
4.3
where N(r) is the number of repetitions of the reduced fractal
Square dimension = 1.62
pattern and 1/r is the ratio of its reduction. Fractal dimension
3.8
can be determined by covering its image with boxes (squares)
and subsequently evaluating how many squares are needed to
log (N)

cover fractal completely. Repeating this measurement with 3.3

different sizes of squares will result into logarithmic function
of square size (x-axis) and number of squares needed to cover 2.8
fractal (y-axis), as shown in Figure 4. The slope of this
function is referred as square dimension. Square dimension is 2.3
taken as an appropriate approximation of fractal dimension. -1.2 -0.7 -0.2 0.3
Moreover, we determined also the damaged area (or mass)
log (1/r)
caused by the tree by counting all pixels in the tree image. The
Figure 4. Relation between (r) and N(r).
damaged area was the minimum number of squares required
for complete coverage.
There is a strong need to measure quantitatively the
difference in lacunarity between textures in self-similar
2.5 LACUNARITY CHARACTERIZATION physical structures like trees growth in composite material.
The deterministic fractals with identical dimensions can We used sliding box algorithm for lacunarity calculation.
have greatly different appearances can be illustrated by Figure The object being studied is assumed to be made up of black
5 which shows a stack of Cantor sets with fractal dimension of pixels (tree); all non object pixels (background) are white. At
430 R. Kurnianto et al.: Characterization of Tree Growth in Filled Epoxy Resin: The Effect of Filler and Moisture Contents

identical fractal dimension of tree object, we calculated the distribution through the needle-plate electrode is shown in
sliding box lacunarity by ∧ [3, 4]. Figure 7. In this particular case, 20 h of exposure is
appropriate to achieve 40% in moisture content at the needle
∧ = 1 + (σ2/μ2) (3) tip (corresponding to 1 mm).
μ and σ are the mean and standard deviation of the number of
black pixels in each box size. The sliding lacunarity data is
viewed as a plot of ln (lacunarity) against ln (k), where k was
the box size divided by the image size.

Figure 6. Time variation of moisture contents during immersing in water.

Figure 5. A stack of Cantor sets of identical fractal dimension of 0.5, whose

lacunarity changes from very low at the bottom to very high at the top of the
Table 1. Diffusion coefficient of each specimen.
stack.
Specimen Diffusion coefficient [m2/s]
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
without-filler 9.0 x 10-12
with-filler 6.7 x 10-12
3.1 MOISTURE ABSORTION AND DIFFUSION
Figure 6 showed that the moisture content increase rapidly
with increase of time and then seemed to saturate after 3 days.
The moisture content of with-filler specimen was lower than 100
Normalized moisture content (%)

that of without-filler. The moisture could hardly be absorbed 90

into the filler. The moisture content reached approximately
3.5% for epoxy resin without filler and approximately 2.5%
for epoxy resin with filler when the specimens were saturated
with moisture. The diffusion coefficient D [m2/s] can be
calculated using the Fick type diffusion concept as follows [5,
15]:
D = 0.049/(t/d2)0.5 (4)
where t is the time when moisture content of the specimen of
d in thickness reaches 50% of saturated level. This equation is
available if the moisture content is proportional to the square
root of the absorption time [12, 15-17]. The diffusion
coefficient of each specimen estimated by above equation is
shown in Table 1. In assessment of treeing property with
different types of material structure, it would be preferable to
maintain the moisture content in the vicinity of the needle tip
at an identical value. As typical number of moisture content in
the vicinity of needle tip, we employed 40%. In order to
realize this condition based on equation (4), the time t when
the moisture content at the needle tip reach 40% was
determined. In the needle-plate type specimen, moisture can
be diffused from the plate electrode side. Normalized moisture
content c(x,t)/c∞ can be calculated as follows [5],
c(x,t)/ c∞ = 1- erf(x/√ Dt)
where x is the distance from plate electrode, and t is the
moisture absorption time. A typical transition in moisture
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance x from plate electrode (mm)
Figure 7. Moisture distribution in 1 mm needle-plate distance when local
moisture content at the needle tip reaches 40%.
Table 2 summarizes the exposure time t corresponding to
40% in moisture content at the needle tip, for each type of
specimen. It seen that with-filler specimen needs longer
exposure time than without-filler specimen. Such a resistance
against moisture would be brought by introducing filler, as the
moisture could hardly be absorbed into the filler. These results
suggested that the incorporation of filler into epoxy resin
affect moisture saturation levels and diffusivities.
3.2 EFFECT OF FILLER AND MOISTURE ON TREES
(5), Figure 8 shows the tree propagation as a function of time in
different types of specimens under moisturized and non-
moisturized conditions. The tree propagation of the specimen
with-filler was suppressed compared with that without-filler.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 14, No. 2; April 2007 431

The mechanism of suppressing the tree propagation by filler can scale they may lead to significant suppression of tree
be explained as follows. The inorganic filler would be more propagation.
resistant against partial discharge compared with the resin.
Table 2. Absorption time of each specimen.
9
Specimen Absorption time [h]
8

Tree propagation rate (μm/s)

without-filler 20 7
with-filler 26 Moisturized
6
5
Therefore, it is considered that fillers would create such an
obstruction to the tree propagation, and prevent tree from 4
Moisturized
growing straight. Moreover, the difference between dielectric 3
constant of the filler and epoxy resin would help branching 2
accompanied by Maxwell stress etc., it may lead to the Non-moisturized Non-moisturized
1
imperfect adhesion at the interface. The branching would bring 0
field relaxation and energy dispersion in the vicinity of the tree Epoxy resin Epoxy-Filler
tip, leading to the consequent suppression of tree propagation.
In both cases introduction of moisture promoted the tree Figure 9. Comparison of tree propagation rates.
propagation. In with-filler specimen, the interface might be
easily split when moisture was introduced. Rapid rise in gas 300
pressure due to tree propagation and weak bonding resin and
filler would have promoted the split of the interface in specimen 250
with-filler. Therefore it might be natural to consider that the tree
Tree Length (μm)
propagation rate would be faster by the splitting at the interface. 200
However, tree propagation in with-filler specimen was slower
than that in without-filler specimen even when the specimens 150
were moisturized. 5 phr
100
Figure 9 is also significant in that it shows the rate of trees 10 phr
when it propagates along the interface and when it propagates 50 15 phr
through the resin. 20 phr
0
250 0 100 200 300
water-moisturized
Time (Seconds)
without-filler with-filler
200
Figure 10. The tree length vs. time with various filler concentrations.
Tree length ( μm)

150
without-filler
100
50
with-filler
non-moisturized
0 electrical trees are composed of gas-filled tubules, of
0 20 40 60
T ime (s)
Figure 8. Time dependence of tree length.
The tree propagation rate of moisturized specimen was faster
than that of non-moisturized, both in epoxy resin and along
epoxy-filler interface. Especially the tree propagation rate in
moisturized epoxy resin without-filler was much faster than
those in other cases. The discharge energy dispersion in tree
branches would suppress the tree propagation, leading to the
lower tree propagation rate in filled epoxy resin.
Disregarding the moisture condition, the increase of tree
length is followed by increase of filler concentration, as shown
in Figure 10. The higher filler concentration will generate the
more obstruction to produce the more branching. On a global
Figure 11 shows the relation between damaged area and tree
length over various concentrations of filler. The resolution of
our image processing gives the connection between image
sizes and studied specimen size being approximately 1 pixel
equivalent to an area of 156.86 μm2. The relationship
indicates a significant change as the tree develops. Actually,
1mm
80 100 minimum size ~10 μm long, ~1 μm radius, during propagation,
the gas breakdown in the electrical field, giving electrical
discharges. The discharges produce damage around the tree
periphery which eventually accumulates to form new tubules
which are added to the structure [7, 13, 18]. Thus, a large
amount of damaged area reflects the large density of tree
branch. Increasing filler concentration from 5 phr to 20 phr
results in increasingly extensive damaged area. The highest
proportion of the damaged area to tree length is seen with
filler concentration of 20 phr.
This suggests that the increase of filler concentration would
suppress the tree propagation by producing branching which
can be indicated from the number of pixels of damaged area.
This consideration is strengthened by the relation between
tree length and number of branches, as shown in Figure 12. It is
432 R. Kurnianto et al.: Characterization of Tree Growth in Filled Epoxy Resin: The Effect of Filler and Moisture Contents

quantitatively seen that the introduction of filler brought the epoxy resin as shown in Figure 12. Thus, fractal dimension
increase in the number of branches, which coincide with the has very close relationship with the number of branch.
result shown in Figure 9. The tree propagated along the resin- The introduction of filler brought the rise in the fractal
filler interface, generating a significant number of branches to dimension due to the increase of branches. In another case, the
cover the filler. number of tree branches in moisturized condition was smaller
than that in the non-moisturized condition (Figure 12), which
coincides with the result shown in Figure 13.
80
20 phr
1.7
Damage area of tree(Pixels)

70 15 phr
Non-moisturized
60 10 phr 1.65
Without-filler
5 phr 1.6
50 With-filler

Fractal dimension
1.55 With-filler
40 1.5
30 1.45
20 1.4
1.35
10 Without-filler
1.3
0
1.25 Moisturized
0 100 200 300
1.2
Tree length (μm)
0 50 100 150 200
Figure 11. Damaged area over various concentrations of filler.
Tree length (μm)
Figure 13. Fractal dimension vs. tree length under moisturized and non-
moisturized cases.
700
With-filler
600 In non-moisturized conditions, the large number of tiny tree
branches existing in the epoxy resin would bring the high
Number of branch

500
400
Non-moisturized
300
200 Moisturized
100
0
0 50 100
Tree length (μm)
Figure 12. Relation between tree length and number of branches.
This phenomenon suggests that the resin-filler interface acts
as a weak point for tree propagation. The number of tree
branches of moisturized condition was smaller than that of the
non-moisturized one. In the moisturized cases, the energy
dispersion by the tree branches would be prevented, leading to
the less suppression of tree propagation compared to the non-
moisturized [19].
The increasing tendency of fractal dimension as a function
of tree length under moisture and non moisture conditions is
shown in Figure 13. When silica fillers had been introduced,
the trend line was shifted up to the higher fractal dimension,
both in moisturized and non-moisturized conditions. In
another case, when moisturized condition had been
introduced, it was shifted down to the lower fractal dimension,
both in specimens with and without filler. It is suggested that
the propagation characteristic of tree was consistent with its
fractal dimension value. The tree propagation in epoxy-filler
interface was accompanied by more branches than that in
Without-filler
fractal dimension in without-filler specimen. Also the large
number of tree branches at the epoxy-filler interface would
bring the higher fractal dimension in with-filler specimen. In
moisturized conditions, the tree branches would be prevented,
leading to the less fractal dimension compared to that in non-
With-filler
moisturized condition. The presence of moisture leads to the
complex physical and chemical interactions at the interface.
Without-filler
According to Seifert and Karner [20] and Malik et al [21] the
150 200 250
results of interactions at the large internal filler surfaces are an
increase in the conductivity (or decrease of dc resistivity) and
an intensification of the Maxwell-Wagner effect. These effects
combined with the electrical stress can lead to the detachment
of the filler-resin bond which results in a slightly increase of
the permittivity and a decrease of dielectric strength of the
composite. Therefore we considered the tree tends to
propagate with fewer branches, leading to the less fractal
dimensions. Even this would rather speculative; however it
might be one of possibility reasons.
The fractal dimension of trees is demonstrated by the
consistency of the dimension on the filler concentration shown
in Figure 14.
Disregarding the moisture condition, the values of fractal
dimensions were always proportional to the filler
concentration. The higher filler concentrations would bring
the larger number of tree branches at the epoxy-filler
interface, leading to a tree structure of higher fractal
dimension.
Figure 15 shows the relation between filler concentration
and apparent fractal dimension of the composite. As the
diameter of filler is identical through various filler
concentrations, it is natural that the diameter with 0 phr of
concentration is zero, and increases with concentration.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 14, No. 2; April 2007 433
2
specimen (0 phr) would be lower than that of with-filler
1.9
specimens.
1.8
Fractal Dimension
1.7 df =1.56 1.7
1.6
20 phr

Fractal dimension of tree

1.5
15 phr
1.4 10 phr
20 phr 1.5 20 phr
1.3 5 phr
15 phr 15 phr
1.2 10 phr
10 phr
1.1 0 phr 5 phr
5 phr 1.3
1
0 100 200 300
after 75s
Tree length (μm) 0 phr
after 30s
1.1
Figure 14. Fractal dimension vs. tree length in epoxy resin with various 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
concentrations of filler under non-moisturized case.
Apparent fractal dimension of composite
Apprt. fractal dimension of composite

1.8 Figure 16. Relation between fractal dimensions of tree and apparent fractal
dimension of composites (30 s and 75 s after inceptions).
1.6
1.4
2.8
1.2 df = 1.56
2.6
1
2.4
0.8 20 phr
0.6 2.2
0.4 2
ln ∧

0.2 1.8
0 0 phr
1.6
15 phr
0 20 40 60 1.4
Filler concentration (phr) 1.2 5 phr 10 phr

Figure 15. Relation between filler concentration and apparent fractal 1

dimension of the composite. -6.2 -4.2 -2.2 -0.2
ln k

Figure 17. Comparison of sliding box lacunarity estimation for tree growth in
The "fractal dimension of tree" can also be correlated to the epoxy resin with various concentrations of filler.
"apparent fractal dimension of composite material" as shown
in Figure 16. It is clear that the apparent fractal dimension of
the composite material increases as a function of filler From these evidences; it is considered that as the tree
concentration. As the fractal dimension of the tree also growth in filled specimen would have localized branching at
increases as a function of filler concentration, the good the interface between filler and resin, it lead to the
relationship between these two fractal dimensions is quite heterogeneous tree structure of filled specimen compared with
reasonable. It is evident that the linear relationship stays the non-filled specimen. Moreover, the increase in filler
unchanged with the tree propagated for 30 s and 75 s, showing content from 5 phr up to 20 phr brought the increase in
a very strong relationship between these two numbers. The lacunarity. It is considered that the higher filler concentration,
higher filler content, with a large apparent fractal dimension the more localized branching at the interface. The higher
of composite, would lead to more complex structure of the lacunarity would bring a wide range of gap sizes which are
tree, bringing a large fractal dimension. heterogeneous [1, 3, 4, and 14].
Referring to Figure 14, if the straight line is plotted In order to more visually explain these results, the process
horizontally at an identical fractal dimension of 1.56 for by which trees growth in epoxy resin with various filler
instance, in this case, even though we believed that the trees concentrations yet still posses identical fractal dimension (df =
do not have the same structures due to their growth in 1.3) are illustrated in Figure 18. To the left of Figure 18a, the
difference filler concentrations, the classification by fractal tree appears to have grown in epoxy resin with not so many
dimension could no longer be performed. Thus further branches, where as to the right of Figures 18b and 18c, it
classification by lacunarity is needed. Figure 17 demonstrated would have grown along interfaces of filler-resin with so
that; as in various concentration of fillers (at identical fractal many locally branching on it. These results demonstrate that
dimension of 1.56), the tree structures have a marked the growth of the tree branches is local process and depending
influence on the lacunarity. The lacunarity of without-filler on the filler concentrations.
434 R. Kurnianto et al.: Characterization of Tree Growth in Filled Epoxy Resin: The Effect of Filler and Moisture Contents
Epoxy resin Epoxy resin
Epoxy Filler
resin
Localized
Tree Tree branch Localize
d
Needle tip Needle tip branches Needle tip
a) 0 phr b) 10 phr c) 20 phr
Figure 18. Illustration of tree growth in epoxy resin over various
contents of filler yet still posses identical fractal dimension of 1.3.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The main goal of this paper was to describe electrical tree
growth in epoxy resin and to explore the effect of moisture
and spherical-shaped silica filler concentration on the resultant
tree growth characteristics. It explored the way in which the
number of branch points on the tree structure (and hence the
growth rate) was influenced by the presence of the filler
particles and the quality of the adhesion between the filler
particles and the resin matrix.
As results, filler particle would create an obstruction to the
tree propagation even if the specimens were moisturized by
immersing it in distilled water at 50 0C. The introduction of
filler raised the fractal dimension due to the increase in
number of tree branches. Fractal dimension of the tree and
apparent fractal dimension of composite material showed a
linear relationship, suggesting that the complexity of specimen
structure is followed by the complexity of tree structure. As a
complement of the complexity characterization by fractal
dimension, the lacunarity can be a useful tool to quantify the
heterogeneous structures of trees growth in composite
materials. The moisture could hardly be absorbed into the
filler compared to the resin. It is shown by the higher value of
diffusion coefficient of without-filler specimen than with-filler.
20 h of immersing is appropriate to achieve 40% in moisture
content at the needle tip.
As the tendency of power apparatuses are being weight-
reduced and downsized in order to reduce power transmission
cost; the compact design of high quality composite materials
with micro or even nano-size (or even combination of the
micro and nano sizes) of silica fillers would be the most
attractive in the near future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the full scholarship
from the Ministry of Education and Cultures of Japan
(Monbukagakusho).
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IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 14, No. 2; April 2007
Rudi Kurnianto (S’06) was born in Pontianak,
Indonesia on 27 May 1967. He received the B.Eng.
degree from Tanjungpura University Indonesia in 1994
and the M. Eng. degree from Bandung Institute of
Technology, Indonesia in 1998 and from Toyohashi
University of Technology, Japan in 2005. He is now
working towards his D. Eng. degree in the Department
of Electronic and Information Engineering at Toyohashi
University of Technology. He has been working as a
lecturer at Tanjungpura University since 1995. His research interests are in the
areas of high voltage engineering. He is a member of IEE Japan.
Yoshinobu Murakami was born in Japan on 19
April 1974. He worked as a research assistant at the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Nagano College
of Technology from 2001 to 2003. He received the
D.Eng. degree from Toyohashi University of
Technology in 2002. He is a research assistant at the
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Toyohashi University of Technology Japan. He is a
member of IEE of Japan.
435
Naohiro Hozumi (M’94) was born in Kyoto, Japan
on 2 April 1957. He received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in 1981, 1983 and 1990, respectively from
Waseda University. He was engaged in Central
Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI)
from 1983 to 1999. He has been an associate professor
at Toyohashi University of Technology since 1999. He
has been engaged in the research in insulating materials
and diagnosis for high voltage equipment. He received
awards in 1990 and 1999 from IEEJ for his outstanding research papers. He is
a member of IEE Japan,
Masayuki Nagao (M’90) was born in Japan on 16
April 1950. He received the D.Eng. degree from Nagoya
University in 1978. He became a Lecturer in 1980, an
Associate Professor in 1985 and a Professor in 1998 in
the Department of Electrical and Electronics
Engineering of Toyohashi University of Technology. He
is engaged primarily in research on high-field electrical
properties of polymers and insulation degradation
phenomena. He received a Paper Award from IEE Japan
in 1991. He is a member of the IEE Japan, Japan Society of Applied Physics,
CIGRE, and Cryogenic Association of Japan.