ICPADM'97

The ICPADM '97 Seoul Conference is sponsored by the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society and organized by the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers (KIEEME). It is an interdisciplinary meeting of scientists, engineers and researches from industry, research institutes, government organizations and universities to exchange their technical information and interests in the field of properties and applications of dielectric materials.

This international conference was organized in 1984 by Prof. Liu Ziyu of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China, Prof. K. C. Kao of University of Manitoba, Canada and Dr. E. O. Forster, USA in the frame of IEEE DEIS in order to activate the R&D of dielectrics and electrical insulating materials in the Pacific rim including China, Asian, Oceanian and North American countries. It is held every three years from 1985 by the sponsorship of IEEE DEIS, hosting university and Institute of Electrical Engineers of the hosting country. The first ICPDM was held at Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China in 1985, the second at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 1988, the third at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan in 1991 and the fourth at University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia in 1994. All four conference in the past were well accepted by the international community of dielectric and electrical insulation.

The 5^th ICPADM was held at the Sheraton Walker Hill Convention Center, Seoul, Korea, May 25-30, 1997. The first venue of ICPADM in Korea attracted much interest from the world and among the total 245 participants from 21 countries. 124 were from abroad. The main participants came from Korea 121, Japan 66, China 13, USA 11, Australia 7, Germany 4, Sweden 4, Canada 3, Indonesia 3, and so on. The organizing committee headed by a general chairman, Dr. Yong-Hyun Paek president of KIEEME planned the conference flawlessly and every event was carried out smoothly and effectively.

Following the registration on the first day and the opening of the conference proclaimed from 4:30 p.m, the first Prof. Ziyu Liu Memorial Lecture commemorating one of the founder of ICPADM who passed away in 1990 was given by Dr. A. H. Cookson, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA. He gave an impressive lecture with the title "Role of Electrical Insulation in the Design and Operation of High Voltage Equipment".

The proceedings of this conference consisted of two volumes containing 292 papers. The presentations include 4 plenary lectures, 18 oral presentations and 270 poster presentations. The topics of technical session and the number of applied papers of each session are listed in Table 1. The total number of presented paper was 238 from 20 countries. While some papers were withdrawn, all papers from Japan were presented. Since this conference was organized by KIEEME, many papers from Korea are related to the session topics 7, 12 and 14.

In the morning, three or four illustrative papers of the topics of the day were orally presented about 30 minutes each. Papers scheduled in the poster session in the afternoon are followed by 3 minutes briefing by OHP. The papers were displayed in the afternoon poster session for further discussion. 30 minutes discussion was held every day after the poster session. This style of the conference was overwhelmingly favored from the answer to questionnaire by participants.

The plenary lectures: the second day was, "New Approach to Investigate the Dynamic Relaxation Process of Complex Peak in Mechanical and Dielectric Characteristics of An-elastic Solids", by Dr. B. H. Kim (KOREA), the third day was, "Luminescence in Crosslinked Polyethylene of High Voltage Cables", by Dr. S. S. Bamji (CANADA), the fourth day was, "Space Charge and Solid Insulating Materials - In Pursuit of Space-Charge Control by Molecular Design", by Dr. M. Ieda (JAPAN).

The 18 oral presentations covered by the representative papers of the technical session topics in Table 1 in a balanced manner except the third day where the host country presented "Introduction of R&D in Korea". The vigorous R&D activities on electrical insulation technology of industries, universities and research institutes were reviewed.

The oral papers of the fifth day were involved in the panel discussion on the topic of thin film technology and devices. Two oral papers, "Maxwell Displacement Current across Monolayers and its Application to Monolayer-film Devices" by Dr. M. Iwamoto (Japan) and "Research Overview and Application trend in Ferroelectric Thin Films" by Dr. H. G. Kim (Korea) were followed by the constructive discussions.

After the poster session of the fifth day the review and the closing remarks were presented by Dr. H. G. Kim, the chairman of Technical Program Committee and Dr. Y. H. Paek, general chairman of ICPADM'97, respectively. Mr. H. E. Orton, the chairman of International Advisory Committee announced that the venue of the 6th ICPADM in 2,000 is Xi'an, China and Xi'an Jiaotong University will organize the conference. The conference was in general very successful in terms of technical sessions, welcoming reception, city tour, banquet and technical tours. All those who attended the 5th ICPADM did have an unforgettable memory of the Korea and of the Sheraton Walker Hill Convention Center, one of the best grade hotels and convention facilities of Seoul, Korea.

第８期（平成８年度）国際交流成果報告

岐阜工業高等専門学校　　所　哲郎

主な参加者は、前回の日本：７４人，オーストラリア：７１人、韓国：１６人に対して、今回は、韓国：１２１人，日本：６６人，アメリカ：９人，オーストラリア：７人であった。この分野での日本の積極的な活動（特に国際会議への参加）と、ホスト国の積極的な参加が確認できる。会議は２３編のみが招待講演などの口頭発表で、所の発表を含め他の論文は全て、３分間の紹介を含むポスターセッション形式であった。インドからの１３編全ての論文をはじめ、主に韓国、東ヨーロッパの５５の論文（２０％）が発表されなかった。

表１に、本国際会議のトピックス別の発表論文数をまとめておく。

２．研究発表の概要

所の研究発表は高分子絶縁材料の撥水性に関するもので、１９９５年から９６年にかけてカナダ・ウインザー大学でハッカム教授の元で行った在外研究の成果の一部である。ＥＰＤＭやシリコンなどのゴムは絶縁ガイシなどとして用いられている。これらの材料は撥水性が良いため、屋外で用いられることも多い。海岸部や氷結の可能性のある道路の近くでは、これらの材料が塩水を吸収し、その撥水性が低下することが考えられる。そこで筆者らは、実際にナイロン・ＥＰＤＭおよびシリコンゴムを試料として、その塩水吸収による撥水性の低下を評価した。本論文では、ＥＰＤＭゴムを主な対象として、その室温空気中での回復過程について述べている。また、試料中への塩水の拡散係数や表面エネルギーの変化などと、撥水性を評価する指標の一つである接触角の関係を、詳細に検討した。

３．会議の成果と今後の展望

本会議の発表の中で、試料の表面エネルギーの変化と撥水性の関係について、その取り扱いが誤っていると考えられる論文を見いだした。所は現在、電気学会の「複合絶縁の界面現象調査専門委員会」委員として、表面エネルギーと撥水性の関係についてまとめており、この分野の知識の確立と普及が大切であることを改めて実感した。

　最後に、今回の海外渡航に対してご援助いただいた中部電力基礎技術研究所に深く感謝の意を表します。