Robust measurements of electric conductivity in polyethylene based materials: measurement setup, data processing and impact of sample preparation

Paper in proceeding, 2017

In this work, a measurement setup and an algorithm are introduced that allow for obtaining and processing the current data during standard measurements of electric conductivity in polymeric insulation materials. Robustness of this setup is demonstrated through dc conductivity measurements of low density polyethylene (LDPE) specimens that were prepared by two different techniques, i.e. compression molding and extrusion, at two independent laboratories (at Chalmers and KTH) from the same raw pellets. The results resented in this paper reveal that the implemented data processing algorithm allows for clear separation of the conduction current level and the external noise and thus for good differentiation between the conductivity levels in the investigated material specimens. In addition, a high reproducibility of the results is obtained for the independently manufactured specimens, suggesting the proposed measurement technique is well suitable for characterization of low conducting dielectrics.