This thesis proposes a model for a test bed that enables the characterization of certain dielectric properties found in composite materials based on recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET). More specifically, this model tests the electric resistance of the plastic which houses the electrical distributor widely used in the automotive industry. The respective plastic is subject to high level of constraints; both thermal and electrical. It is precisely the electrical aspect that has interested us to focus our study.
A test bed which generates electrical pulses of high voltage (about 10 kV) has been designed to perform dielectric breakdown tests on different plastics. To accelerate the wear and exhaustion process to which the plastic is usually subjected, we have generated the pulses of high voltage with a frequency of 488 Hz. Considering that a car engine runs mostly with a 2000 rpm speed, the spark plugs’ lighting frequency should usually be 33 Hz. In order for us to control our test bed and the settings when tests were running, a user interface with the LabVIEW graphical development platform was designed.
After seven consecutive days of testing, the final results did not allow us to know when the dielectric breakdown will occur to fully characterize the resistance of the tested plastics. However, by using laser and optical microscopes, we observed to what extent the plastics deteriorated after having tested them. In conclusion, in spite of the slow performance speed of our process to get results with the plastics, we noticed that the PET surface was destroyed when we subjected tested plastics to high electrical voltage constraints.
| Date | 28 May 2014 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Christian Belleau (Supervisor) & Éric David (Co-supervisor) |
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Muller, F. (Author),
Belleau (Supervisor) &
David (Co-supervisor),
28 May 2014Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Electrical Engineering