Electrical Insulation Paper and Its Physical
Properties at Cryogenic Temperatures
Enis Tuncer, Senior Member, IEEE, Georgios Polizos, Isidor Sauers, Senior Member, IEEE, and
D. Randy James, Member, IEEE
Abstract—Paper is widely used in various engineering
applications due to its physical properties and ease of
manufacture. As a result paper has been selected or designed
as an electrical insulation material for parts and components
in high voltage technology. In the current study we select a
paper employed in conventional transformers as the electrical
insulation material. The potential of this paper is investigated at
cryogenic temperatures to determine its physical properties for
high temperature superconducting power applications. Dielectric
measurements were performed using impedance spectroscopy at
a constant frequency. Dielectric breakdown tests were performed
on samples at 77 K using a liquid nitrogen bath.
Index Terms—Kraft paper, dielectric breakdown, dielectric
properties, imgregnation with polypropylene
Paper was one of the first insulation materials used in
high voltage technology [1]. In the early days only a few
insulation materials were known for low temperature super-
conducting power applications [2]. Since winding techniques
were common in the cable industry, Kraft paper was used in
transformers and high ampacity cables, and it was adopted
in initial studies and investigated with special emphasis for
low temperature applications [2]. The thermal contraction of
paper is low enough such that it is near that of metals, and
elastic elongation at low temperatures is reasonable without
leading to mechanical problems. Moreover, paper was very
cheap compared to plastic tapes. For example, Kraft paper
was considered [2] to be a good candidate for the Allgemeine
Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) dc cable project [3]. Recently,
other materials have been used in prototypes specifically for
large scale high temperature superconductivity (HTS) applica-
tions such as transformers [4], [5]. However, paper can still
be used in HTS transformers [6]. Other paper derivatives were
also fabricated and used in HTS applications [7], [8]. In the
current study we present the dielectric properties of Kraft
paper and present how one can improve the properties by
modifying the paper.
Conventional Kraft paper was used without further modifi-
Manuscript received August 24, 2006; revised November 6, 2006.
Research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy–Office of Electricity
Delivery and Energy Reliability, Advanced Cables and Conductors Program
under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
managed and operated by UT-Battelle, LLC.
E. Tuncer, G. Polizos, I. Sauers and D. R. James are with High Voltage
and Dielectrics, Applied Superconductivity Group, Fusion Energy Division,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge TN 37831-6122. Corresponding
author email: tuncere@ornl.gov
FORCE
Platens PP Impregnated
PP Pellets Paper
Paper
Fig. 1. The schema illustrating the sample preparation procedure with heated
platens and a hydraulic press. The thick arrow shows the pressure direction.
cation of its chemistry. Low molecular weight polypropylene
(PP) was used to impregnate the paper to fill the void space.
The PP was isotactic and had typical molecular weight around
12000 with Brookfield Thermoset viscosity of 6000 poise
at 190 ◦ C. A sheet of paper was cut in 152 mm × 152 mm
squares, and a few PP pellets were placed under and over the
sheet. Hot platens were heated to 175 ◦ C and applied until the
PP pellets melted. Later a hydraulic press was used to promote
better impregnation of the PP; the pressure was set to 2 kPa,
cf. Fig. 1. After the impregnation, the samples were tested with
the dielectric spectroscopy method at fixed frequency between
15 K and 295 K; dielectric breakdown measurements were
conducted in a liquid nitrogen open-bath, at 77 K, using an
alternating current voltage source. The remaining voids present
in samples, if any, were impregnated with liquid nitrogen. In
the tests silver electrodes were evaporated on the samples; the
procedure is presented elsewhere [9]. The sample thicknesses
before and after the impregnation were 65 µm and 69 µm
for pristine and PP impregnated paper, respectively . The PP
impregnated paper had the appearance of a wax paper.
Dielectric permittivity measurement would determine the
impregnation level and also the electrical insulation properties.
The relative permittivities εr of pristine and PP impregnated
papers are shown in Fig. 2 as a function of temperature for
a fixed frequency at 1 kHz. The relative permittivity of the
paper was increased with PP impregnation since the void space
in the paper were substituted with the PP. The measurements
were performed in a low pressure chamber using a cryocooler.
Simply using a geometrical addition rule (layered dielectric
mixture) for the porous cellulose and PP-filled cellulose using
their concentrations q and (1 − q), respectively,
qεvoid + (1 − q)εpaper = 4.716 (pristine) (1)
qεP P + (1 − q)εpaper = 5.629 (PP impregnated)
First solving for q above, one can estimate the relative per-
 40
mittivity of paper. The relative permittivities of void space
and PP were taken to be 1 and 2.2 in the calculations. The
35
measurement data on the right-hand side of Eq. (1) were the
permittivity values at the lowest temperatures, where most of 30
the polarizations were frozen—permittivities can be assumed

   

constant. The concentration of pore space was estimated to be 25
0.761, which is comparable to data available on paper porosi-
ties. The relative permittivity of the paper was unanticipatedly 20
high, εpaper = 15.537. To our knowledge no one has reported
the permittivity of 100% paper. The values estimated above 15
would be different if one considers the shape of voids and their
spatial distribution [10]–[12]; however, expressions similar to 10
Eq. (1) are complex to compute with simple algorithms.
5
The dielectric loss tangent data for the samples are presented PRISTINE PAPER
in Fig. 3 at 1 kHz as a function of temperature. The dielectric PP IMPREGNATED PAPER
0
losses had a crossover region around 160 K, where the losses 0 50 100 150 200 250 300
in PP impregnated paper became lower than the pristine paper  
when the temperature was decreased. Above 130 K losses were
similar in two materials. Fig. 3. The loss tangent (tan δ) at 1000 Hz as a function of temperature for
Dielectric breakdown information on the puncture strength Kraft paper and polypropylene impregnated paper.
is one of the design parameters taken into consideration de-
termining the thickness of electrical insulation for the desired
voltage level. The dielectric breakdown data of pristine and the PP impregnated paper, we obtained improved values for
PP impregnated paper were analyzed using two different the breakdown characteristics. The most important parameters
distribution functions, Weibull [13] and log-normal [14], to would be the 0.1% breakdown strength estimations, which are
better estimate a design value. The data were analyzed using 17.82 kVmm−1 and 27.98 kVmm−1 for the Weibull and log-
the Dataplot platform of the National Institute of Standards and normal analysis, respectively. These values indicate that PP
Technology [14]. The pristine paper had localization and scale impregnation improves the dielectric breakdown design values
parameters α and β equal to 27.96 kVmm−1 and 7.73 for the by 55%-62%. The significance of the impregnation is the
Weibull distribution. The probability of breakdown at 0.1% potential to increase the voltage level for the same insulation
was 11.44 kVmm−1 . Similarly the log-normal distribution thickness, or decrease the insulation thickness and reduce the
yields localization and standard deviation parameters µ and size of equipment.
σ equal to 26.19 kVmm−1 and 0.135, respectively. The prob- In summary, a novel, easy to implement method was em-
ability of having a breakdown at 0.1% using the log-normal ployed to improve the dielectric properties of Kraft paper.
distribution is 17.25 kVmm−1 . Repeating the same analysis on Additional tests on mechanical properties would be significant

9.0

8.5

8.0

7.5

7.0


6.5

6.0

5.5

5.0

4.5 PRISTINE PAPER

PP IMPREGNATED PAPER
4.0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
 
Fig. 4. The breakdown statistics of pristine paper. The data are analyzed
Fig. 2. The relative permittivity of Kraft paper and polypropylene impreg- with Weibull (red) and log-normal (blue) distributions. Confidence levels at
nated paper as a function of temperature at 1 kHz. 10% are also shown with dashed lines.
 [9] E. Tuncer, I. Sauers, D. James, A. R. Ellis, and M. Pace, “Breakdown
statistics of polyimide at low temperatures,” in CEIDP’06 2006 Annual
Report, ser. Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenom-
ena. IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society, 2006, pp. 561–
564.
[10] E. Tuncer, Y. V. Serdyuk, and S. M. Gubanski, “Dielectric mixtures:
electrical properties and modeling,” IEEE Trans. Dielect. Elect. Insul.,
vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 809–828, 2002.
[11] E. Tuncer, “Structure/property relationship in dielectric mixtures: appli-
cation of the spectral density theory,” J. Phys. D:Appl. Phys., vol. 38,
pp. 223–234, 2005.
[12] A. Sihvola, Electromagnetic Mixing Formulas and Applications, ser. IEE
Electromagnetic Waves Series. London: The Institute of Electrical
Engineers, 1999, vol. 47.
[13] W. Weibull, A statistical theory of the strength of materials, ser. In-
geniörsvetenskapsakademiens Handlingar. Stockholm: Generalstabens
Litografiska anstalts förlag, 1939, no. 151.
[14] A. Heckert and J. Filliben, Dataplot Reference Manual; NIST Handbook
148, United States Department of Commence Technology Administra-
tion, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
USA, January 1995.

Fig. 5. The breakdown statistics of PP impregnated paper. The data are

analyzed with Weibull (red) and log-normal (blue) distributions. Confidence
levels at 10% are also shown with dashed lines.

to determine the full potential of the presented modified paper.

Using low temperature dielectric measurements, in which
most of the polarization effects were frozen at the lowest
temperature, the porosity and the relative permittivity of paper
were estimated. The dielectric breakdown characteristics of the
PP impregnated paper were better than those of pristine paper.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank Mr. Ed Pleva from Waukesha
Electric Systems, Inc. for providing the raw material.

R EFERENCES
[1] T. A. Prevost and T. V. Oommen, “Cellulose insulation in oil-filled
power transformers: Part I—history and development,” IEEE Insul.
Mag., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 28–35, 2006.
[2] J. Gerhold and T. Tanaka, “Cryogenic electrical insulation of supercon-
ducting power transmission lines: transfer of experience learned from
metal superconductors to high critical temperature superconductors,”
Cryogenics, vol. 38, pp. 1173–1188, 1998.
[3] E. Bochenek, H. Franke, and R. Wimmershoff, “Manufacture and initial
tests of a high-power d.c. cable with superconductors,” IEEE Trans.
Magn., vol. MAG-11, p. 366, 1975.
[4] H. G. Cheon, S. M. Baek, D. S. Kwag, and S. H. Kim, “Comparison
of insulation test of mini-models with different winding for a HTS
transformer,” IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 1497–
1500, 2006.
[5] J.-M. Joung, S.-M. Baek, and S.-H. Kim, “Manufacturing and test of
model double-pancake coils of HTS transformer for cryogenic insulation
design,” IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond., vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 928–931,
2004.
[6] E. F. Pleva, V. Mehrotra, and S. W. Schwenterly, “Conductor require-
ments for high-temperature superconducting utility power transformers,”
Supercond. Sci. Technol., vol. 23, pp. 014 025 (5 pp), 2010.
[7] H. Kubo, N. Noda, I. Nishino, R. Hata, and T. Miyazaki, “Development
of 275 kv oil-filled cable insulated with polypropylene laminated paper
(pplp),” IEEE Trans. Power App. Sys., vol. PAS-101, no. 12, pp. 4472–
4483, 1982.
[8] E. Tuncer, I. Sauers, D. R. James, and A. R. Ellis, “Electrical properties
of commercial sheet insulation materials for cryogenic applications,” in
CEIDP’08 2008 Annual Report, ser. Conference on Electrical Insulation
and Dielectric Phenomena. IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
Society, 2008, pp. 301–304.