Discrimination of surface tracking patterns of gamma irradiated polymers using fractals

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the radiation resistance of gamma irradiated ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) and to identify the pattern discriminating abilities of the surface tracking patterns. Simple objects can be described by the ideal shape primitives such as cubes, cones and cylinders. But most of the natural objects are so complex that cannot be described in terms of simple primitives. Fractals have been very successfully used to address the problem of modeling and to provide a description of naturally occurring phenomena and shapes, wherein conventional and existing mathematical models were found to be inadequate. The geometrical patterns of dielectric breakdown like electrical trees, surface discharges, and lightning are known to be of fractal in nature. These fractal patterns can be analysed numerically using fractal dimensions and lacunarity. Surface tracking occurring in HV insulation systems is a very complex phenomenon and more so are the shapes of tracking patterns. It has been fairly well established that the shapes and the underlying parameters causing tracking have a 1 : 1 correspondence and therefore, methods to describe and quantify these patterns must be explored. This paper reports preliminary results of such a study wherein2-d tracking patterns of gamma irradiated ethylene propylene diene monomer were analysed and found to possess fairly reasonable pattern discriminating abilities. This approach appears promising and further research is essential before any long-term predictions can be made