Abstract
The oxidation process induced in ethylene-propylene-diene (EPDM) copolymer by gamma irradiation was simulated by solving equations on chemical reactions and gas diffusion rates. As a result, distributions of oxidative products and gases and changes in material properties were clarified. All the oxidative products such as ketones, alcohols, and carboxylic acids, crosslinks between molecular chains, and chain scissions in EPDM increase with irradiation and they show concave spatial distributions inside the sample sheets. The simulation results demonstrates that EPDM becomes hard when it was irradiated by gamma rays and the increase in hardness is more significant at the surface of the sample sheet than its inside. Moreover, it was found that a low diffusion coefficient of oxygen in EPDM leads to the appearance of a clearer diffusion-limited regime of degradation. These simulation results are in good agreement with experimental results.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 7422602 |
| Pages (from-to) | 537-546 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 Feb |
Keywords
- EPDM
- gamma irradiation
- gas diffusion
- oxidation process
- oxidative degradation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering