On the Thermal Insulation Qualification of Low Voltage Electrical Machines

Vincenzo Madonna, Paolo Giangrande, Giovanni Migliazza, Giampaolo Buticchi, Michael Galea

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Electrical motors are required to perform reliably for a certain number of hours/cycles. Assuming the insulation breakdown as the predominant source of failure, then the lifetime of an electrical machine can generally be said to correspond to that of its weakest insulation sub-system. Among all the insulation stressing factors, thermal aging is a primary source of progressive deterioration, and, eventually, failure. In order to guarantee a satisfactory lifetime, motors are designed to have thermal operational points which are always lower than their insulation thermal class. However, this design choice does not allow to maximize the exploitation of the insulation lifetime capability. Technical standards report methods for the thermal qualification of electrical machines based on accelerated thermal aging tests. Such assessment, despite enabling the insulation lifetime estimation, might require several thousand hours of testing. This paper, therefore, proposes and validates a new methodology which considerably shortens the thermal qualification of electric motors.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings
Subtitle of host publicationIECON 2019 - 45th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
Pages7115-7120
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781728148786
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2019
Event45th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IECON 2019 - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 14 Oct 201917 Oct 2019

Publication series

NameIECON Proceedings (Industrial Electronics Conference)
Volume2019-October

Conference

Conference45th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, IECON 2019
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period14/10/1917/10/19

Keywords

  • Design of experiments
  • Dielectric breakdown
  • Dielectric losses
  • Electric machines
  • Electric motors
  • Insulation
  • Physics of failure
  • Thermal factors
  • Thermal stresses

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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