An Experimental and Theorectical Investigation of the Breakdown Mechanisms in PAO High Pressure Fluids and Additives

We investigated the effects of various base PAO fluids and soluble additives which were identified as potential candidates to support advanced pulsed power applications. The tests utilized the incorporation of nanoparticles into these fluid formulations to probe the breakdown mechanisms. The team conducted high-pressure breakdown tests of the candidate fluids to evaluate the highpressure breakdown voltages of the candidate fluids under pulse charged conditions and high pressure. The experimental results demonstrated that high-pressure breakdown tests are the only way to generate meaningful data to support the performance evaluation of the candidate fluids at pressures from 300-600 psi, as atmospheric-pressure data showed no correlation to high-pressure breakdown of the fluids. For the experimental evaluation of the PAO fluids, the dielectric properties of the candidate fluids were modified and then evaluated with other key performance properties of the fluids to make sure that they were compatible with pulsed power applications. Hydrogenated decene dimer and commercial fluids based on the synthetic hydrocarbon polyalphaolefin (PAO-2) meeting the requirements of MIL-PRF-87252 fluid currently were used as reference controls.