A New Model for Partial Discharge Inception Voltage Estimation in Insulation Systems at Low and High Pressure: Application to Electrical Asset Components

Gian Carlo Montanari (), Sukesh Babu Myneni (), Muhammad Shafiq and Zhaowen Chen
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Gian Carlo Montanari: Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
Sukesh Babu Myneni: Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
Muhammad Shafiq: Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
Zhaowen Chen: Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS), Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-16

Abstract: Rapid evolution in electrified transportation and, in general, sustainability of electrical and electronic assets is turning the traditional power supply and utilization into something more complex and less known. This transition involves increasing operating voltage and specific power, as well as various types of power supply sources, from AC sinusoidal to DC and power electronics. This revolution, beneficial for asset efficiency and resilience, does come at the cost of increased risk of failure for electrical insulation systems. Intrinsic and extrinsic aging mechanisms are not completely known under DC and power electronics, and the risk of inception of partial discharges, PD, which is the most harmful extrinsic aging factor for electrical insulation, is as high, or even higher, compared with AC. To complicate the picture, electrical and electronic components can be used at different pressure levels, such as in aerospace, and it is known that partial discharge inception voltage, PDIV, drops down, and PD magnitude increases, lowering pressure. Models to predict PDIV for surface and internal discharges, as function of pressure, have been proposed recently, but they cannot be applied straightforwardly on practical asset components where type and locations of defects generating PD is unknown. This paper wants to close this application gap. Derivation and validation of an approximate, heuristic model able to predict PDIV at various pressure levels below and above the standard atmospheric pressure, SAP, are dealt with in this paper, referring to typical asset components such as cables, motors, printed circuit-boards, PCB, and under sinusoidal AC voltage. The good capability of the model to predict PDIV and any investigated pressure, from 3 to 0.05 bar, is validated by PD measurements performed using an innovative, automatic PD analytics software able to identify the typology of defect generating PD, i.e., whether surface or internal.

Keywords: partial discharge inception model; low and high pressure; surface and internal discharges; motors; cables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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