Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and silicone rubber (SiR) samples were subjected to a high-voltage AC stress plane-plane configuration and inclined plane test, respectively. The voltage was applied such that discharge was observed across the surface of the XLPE test sample for several hours and for visible damage to occur on SiR samples also after several hours. Selected stressed samples together with virgin samples from the same manufactured batch were tested using nuclear magnetic resonance

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... NMR) spectroscopy. Specifically, 1 H NMR spin-lattice (T 1 ) and spin-spin (T 2 ) relaxation time measurements were employed to examine potential changes in the chemical bonding of undamaged and damaged XLPE and SiR samples. Preliminary results show that there may be a moderate increase in the T 1 and T 2 values of the damaged samples in comparison with the undamaged ones. This raises the possibility that NMR can be a useful additional experimental tool in characterising material degradation.