Optical Measurement of the Electric Field Strength in a Gel Insulator

Abstract

A gel, which has characteristics of both a solid and a liquid is called a "soft material", is widely used in various industrial fields. But there are a lot of uncertain points about the electrical properties of the gel. In order to understand the growth mechanism of pearl-chain-type electrical trees in a polymer gel, and investigate about the relationship between the liquids and gels for the high electric field phenomena, the electric field distribution must be measured in the gel. This paper reports on the measurement of the electric field strength in a certain gel using Kerr effect. It is interesting that Kerr constant of the gel depend on the weight percent of a solvent.