Estimating polymer lifetime is critical for applications where long-term reliability matters, such as insulation materials in nuclear reactors and power systems. Traditional methods can take months, but Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) offers a faster alternative.

ABSTRACT

In many polymer applications the ability to predict product lifetime is valuable because the costs of premature failure in actual end use can be high. For example, federal regulations require the estimation of component lifetime in nuclear reactors, while power companies need to know how long insulation in transformers and transmission lines will last. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) provides a method for accelerating the lifetime testing of polymers so that short term experiments can be used to predict in-use lifetime.

Keywords: TGA, kinetics, Activation Energy, Lifetime, PTFE, PCTFE, Insulation materials