Derivation of Ambient Enhancement Factors of Impregnated Twisted Pairs for Partial Discharge Risk Evaluation

Partial discharge (PD) is the main issue challenging the electrical machine (EM) insulation system for more electric aircraft (MEA) applications. Indeed, the trend of adopting higher dc link voltage and fast switching device further boost the risk of PD. PD inception voltage (PDIV) is mostly dominated by ambient conditions (i.e., temperature, pressure, and humidity), and their influence is accounted for through experimentally determined ambient enhancement factors. For non-impregnated windings, ambient enhancement factors are suggested by both IEC 60034-18-41 and recent literature. However, in many applications, EMs’ windings are often impregnated with resin to improve thermal performance, mechanical resistance, and electrical insulation. In this case, no indications of the enhancement factors for PD risk assessment are given. The ambient enhancement factors are experimentally determined in this article to enable the PD risk evaluation for impregnated windings. These factors are obtained relying on an extensive PD investigation, where PDIV and PD extinction voltage (PDEV) are measured under variable temperature, pressure, and humidity conditions. Finally, the tests are performed on different wire types and motorette samples to validate the applicability of the derived factors.