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Transformer oil and insulation paper are subject to the combined effects of the electric field and temperature operations, which significantly impact insulation deterioration. This article designs a comparative test of the electro-thermal combined aging to obtain several characteristic parameters for the aging degree of oil-pressboard insulation. Molecular dynamics are used to establish a mixed molecular model of oil-pressboard insulation to simulate the pyrolysis reactions at high temperatures using the ReaxFF force field. The microscopic effects of the electric field on the aging of oil-pressboard insulation are studied. The rationale of the simulation model is verified from experimental results, and the trend of the reactants and products in the reaction process was considered to determine the influence mechanism of electric–thermal coupling on oil-pressboard insulation. The experimental results show that thermal stress remains the most important factor toward cracking in insulation paper. The acid value and furfural formation rate in oil increase, and the polymerization degree of the insulation paper decreases rapidly after the combined electric and thermal aging. In addition, the molecular dynamics simulations show that pyrolysis increases the bond energy, promotes repulsion between atoms, and leads to fractured bonds. The addition of the electric field increases the susceptibility of the chemical bonds in cellulose molecules to breakage. The morphology of the cellulose chain then changes, and the diffusion of small molecules intensifies. This study reveals the mechanism of insulation aging under electro-thermal coupling through combined macroscopic testing and molecular dynamics simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the development of converter transformer applications, research on the discharge characteristics in transformer oil is required. This article presents an analysis of the streamer discharge characteristics caused by a needle-plate electrode in oil-pressboard insulation under ac voltage and discharge images on the time scale of microseconds. Based on the discharge image, a Gaussian filter, image segmentation of the Otsu algorithm, and Canny edge detection are used to detect the edge of the discharge image. By extracting the discharge profile image, the discharge characteristics are effectively identified. The size and quantity of particles in transformer oil during the discharge are analyzed. Research on the characteristics of streamer discharge propagation is not only helpful for understanding the process of discharge but also has important significance for converter transformer design from the perspective of inhibiting streamer discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important piece of equipment of ultrahigh-voltage direct current, the valve side of a converter transformer contains a large dc component prone to partial discharge (PD) under the action of a slightly uneven electric field, which can be simulated using a wedge electrode. To study the PD characteristics of oil–paper insulation under a wedge-shaped electrode, a 2-D axisymmetric simulation model was established based on the bipolar-charge transport theory and the fluid dynamics drift-diffusion theory. The microscopic discharge images at nanosecond scale under different dc voltage polarities were calculated, and the change process of the space charge and electric field intensity distribution was obtained. The effects of the voltage amplitude, polarity, and dielectric constant on PD characteristics are discussed. The simulation results show that the discharge pattern and velocity exhibit a notable polarity effect. This polarity effect is related to the adsorption of the cellulose hydroxyl group to negative charge, which leads to the amplitude of the homopolar charge accumulated in negative polarity being greater than that accumulated in positive polarity under the same applied voltage intensity so that the homopolar charge has a greater barrier to the discharge. This type of adsorption is positively correlated with the difference of dielectric constant between the paperboard and insulating oil. The results of this study are of great theoretical significance for elucidating the dc discharge mechanism under wedge electrodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the effect of semiconductive (SC) material on space charge accumulation in cable accessories, an accelerated aging of cable samples with cable accessories was carried out in the laboratory. The experimental results show accumulation of space charge in the cable insulation covered by a stress cone, whereas the space charge was negligible in the region wrapped by the accessory-reinforced insulation as well as regions not in contact with the accessory. With increased aging time, the space charge density gradually increased, and the axial distribution gradually extended. A comparative experiment on cable insulation slices was carried out using silicone rubber and EVA SC material as the upper electrodes to determine the cause of the space charge accumulation. The results showed that a large quantity of heteropolar charges accumulated near the silicone rubber SC upper electrode, whereas the charges near the EVA SC electrode were negligible. It was concluded that due to the weak charge conducting ability of the silicone rubber SC material used as the electrode, space charges cannot escape from the stress cone and thus accumulate on the outside of the cable insulation at the stress cone position. This paper shows that the SC material used in cable accessories plays an important role in space charge accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DC voltage related partial discharge (PD) classification in solid dielectrics under a uniform electric field has been studied, but it is more complicated in liquid-solid composite insulation under a highly non-uniform electric field. Therefore, PD pulse waveforms and PD channel shapes in oil-pressboard insulation were investigated by simulating a needle-plate model with a positive DC voltage via pulse current method. The elements of PD can be classified in order of ionizing intensity strength as corona, tree-like PD, single-streamer PD, or multi-streamer PD according to the discharge channel shape. The corona pulses are sharply oscillating, whereas the other types of PD can generate unimodal pulses with no over-zero oscillation. A finite element analysis reveals the PD types are related to the charge quantity at the oil-pressboard interface, which influences the streamer evolution by distorting the space electric field. This study uncovers the physical process during PD in oil-pressboard insulation and provides basis for explaining the PD mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The space charge features of cable insulation peelings are investigated under ac stress as a function of electrical aging imposed previously on cable sections. The investigated samples are 230-?m-thick peelings of crosslinked polyethylene cable insulation. The space charge profiles are resolved into 32 symmetric phase angles under 50 Hz ac stress. The space charge density in the phase angle of maximum applied field is the largest, as expected, but does not change visibly as a function of aging time. A method that involves averaging space charge in all phases is proposed. The all-phase averaged space charge, which appears in essence as stationary charge, exhibits an obvious increasing trend with stressing time. The aging characteristics of space charge formed under ac stress are investigated considering the all-phase averaged profiles, and the mechanical properties and degree of crosslinking are characterized as complementary methods. The change in the accumulation of space charge under ac stress follows opposite trends unlike the degree of crosslinking, which means that space charge under ac stress has a close relationship with defect concentration in cable insulation. This research contributes to the understanding of space charge features under ac conditions and the understanding of the ac aging principle of cable insulation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Converter transformers in HVDC system use oil-pressboard as the main insulation. The insulation structures of valve side need to withstand combined AC-DC voltage. Oil-pressboard insulation shows distinctive PD characteristics under combined AC-DC voltage which are the bases of insulation assessment and fault diagnosis. In this paper, PD characteristics are investigated with the established experimental platform of ballplate electrode under 1:1 combined AC-DC voltage. The behavior of experimental results is explained trough discharge mechanism. To reflect the characteristics of the whole PD development process without the influence of test conditions on PD magnitude, Φ-ΔT-N pattern is used to establish the 3D spectrum Hn (ΔT,Φ) based on time interval, phase and repetition rate of PD pulses. Barycenter C (xc, yc) is calculated as a comprehensive feature parameter. In order to exclude the effect of oscillation components on real-time assessment, variational mode decomposition (VMD) is used to extract the primary development trend of the feature parameter. The difference value R (X, Y) between the value of each point in the trend and the reference target decreases in the whole PD development process. And R can assess the PD development degree continuously based on the historical trend without the normalization problem of PD magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partition and Recognition of the partial discharge (PD) development stages in oil-pressboard insulation under AC-DC combined voltage stress are the bases for analysis of the insulation faults in converter transformers. In this paper, behavior of different characteristic parameters of the PD activity recorded in the oil-pressboard insulation with needle-plate electrodes is investigated. Beside the known characteristic parameters like amplitude of apparent charge in pC, frequency of occurrence of PD pulse, PD pattern (PRPD-pattern), additional parameters were defined to describe the PD development processes under AC-DC combined voltage stress. Additional parameters are: pulse equivalent time, pulse equivalent frequency and equivalent time-frequency pattern (ETF-pattern). According to the time-variation trends of these characteristic parameters the PD development process can be divided into five stages: initial stage (IS), transition stage (TS), developing stage (DS), steady stage (SS), and pre-breakdown stage (PS). In these five stages the PRPD pattern and ETF pattern have different shapes and characteristics. For the analysis of PRPD pattern and ETF pattern the wavelet moment invariants are extracted. Based on these new features the PD development stages can be recognized using the least square support vector machine (LS-SVM) with the particle swarm optimization (PSO). The recognition rate is about 94%. Finally the possible physical effects of the identified PD development stages in the oil pressboards insulation under AC-DC combined voltage stress are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]