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E SC 433H Michael Deemer

10/03/2013
Weibull Analysis and Energy Density

Introduction:
Capacitors are electronic devices that store charge and pulse discharge.
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Some examples
of devices that use capacitors are defibrillators, laser ignition, and electromagnetic launch
systems.
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The capacitors we worked with in this lab were comprised of a polypropylene sheet
between two metal plates of aluminum. The polypropylene came on rolls of varying thickness
with evaporated aluminum on one side. In this laboratory experiment we focused on testing
samples of polypropylene for capacitance and breakdown voltage (the voltage at which the
dielectric will fail) to calculate the relative permittivity, breakdown electric field, and the energy
density of the dielectric. Then, we used Weibull analysis to find the characteristic breakdown
electric field of the dielectric as well as the shape factor (beta) from the Weibull plot. Finally, we
estimated the breakdown electric field of a larger capacitor made from the same polypropylene
dielectric.
Experimental Apparatus:
For this experiment, we used multiple machines to make our measurements. First, we
made our own parallel plate capacitor from the polypropylene film, measured the area, and used
an impedance analyzer to measure the capacitance. Then, to measure the breakdown voltage of
the dielectric we used a high voltage power supply that steadily increased until the polypropylene
failed.






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Data Analysis/Results:

From the equation below, you can find the relative permittivity of our dielectric
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:

In this equation,

is the relative permittivity, C is capacitance,

is the permittivity in a
vacuum, A is the area of the capacitor, and t is the thickness of the dielectric. From this equation
we get a relative permittivity of 1.718

)(

)
(

)(

)
()

After calculating the relative permittivity, I calculated the breakdown electric field from the
equation below
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:

Where V is the breakdown voltage and t is the thickness of the dielectric. I got a result of

Next, I calculated the Energy density from the equation below
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:

(

Where U is the energy density,

is the permittivity in a vacuum

is the relative permittivity of

the dielectric, and E is the breakdown electric field. My result for energy density is

) (

)() (

After these calculations, I focused on the Weibull analysis. I used the data from the whole class
and found the median range from the equation below
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:






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Where j is the rank when the data is organized in increasing order from 1 46, and N is the total
number of data points. After finding the median range I made a Weibull plot that expressed
( (

)) Vs. () for each data point in the set.

Figure 1: Weibull Plot of the whole classes data




By adding a linear trend line, you can determine the shape factor, , which represents the
tightness of the data. Also, the characteristic breakdown electric field of dielectric is the X-
intercept of the Weibull plot. These two values are very important in predicting scaled
characteristics of the same dielectric. We can use the linear equation of the trend line to find the
x-intercept, where x represents the characteristic breakdown electric field:

Our experiments yielded a characteristic breakdown electric field of 764 V/m for
polypropylene dielectric. The actual value used by engineers in the real world when using
polypropylene film capacitors is closer to 650V/m.
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y = 4.8479x - 99.218
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
19 19.2 19.4 19.6 19.8 20 20.2 20.4 20.6 20.8
l
n
(
l
n
(
1
/
(
1
-
M
R
)
)
)

ln(E)
Weibull Plot
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For example, we can use the equation below to calculate the characteristic breakdown field of a
10 F capacitor made of the same polypropylene dielectric:

Where

is the characteristic breakdown electric field, C is the capacitance, and is the shape
factor for the dielectric. The result was

) (

Conclusion:
From this experiment, we can conclude that Weibull analysis is a good way to predict
future events based on either previous events or small scaled experiments. It is very effective in
scaling up samples, which is very important in engineering in the real world. Some errors could
have come from smudges on the polypropylene film, rounding errors, or errors in the placement
of the film in the high voltage machine or the impedance analyzer. These last two examples of
error can play a big role, because they are involved in many calculations in which the error can
propagate.
The polypropylene capacitor is not a very energy dense material. Other forms of energy
such as gasoline and lithium batteries are much more energy dense. The energy density for this
capacitor is

. This does not even compare to gasoline or lithium

batteries because both of their energy densities are

and

respectively
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.The good thing about capacitors made with polypropylene is that they are easy to
make in a short period of time, relatively inexpensive, and not harmful to the environment.
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References:

1. Lanagan, Michael (2013, September) Energy Density Lab, E SC 433H, EES 119.
2. "Energy Density." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2013. Web. 03 Oct. 2013.

3. "Types of Capacitor." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Feb. 2013. Web. 03 Oct. 2013.