@book{

Sonerud2010,
author={Sonerud, Bjrn},
title={Characterization of Electrical Insulation Exposed to Arbitrary Voltage Wa
veforms},
isbn={978-91-7385-373-6},
abstract={The extensive use of power electronics in power systems today gives ri
se to other voltage waveforms than the conventional 50/60 Hz sinusoidal and cons
equently other types of electric stress act on high voltage insulating materials
. Previous studies has shown that Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) voltages and simil
ar waveforms increase stress in Adjustable Speed Drives (ASD) as compared with s
inusoidal waveforms and it has also been shown that partial discharge (PD) activ
ity is intensified during PWM voltages and that rise time of square like pulses
affect PD inception voltage. In the light of these findings a need for new chara
cterization and diagnostic methods which can be used to study the influence of d
ifferent types of voltage waveforms on insulating materials and systems has aris
en. In this project a method called Arbitrary Waveform Impedance Spectroscopy (A
WIS) has been developed which is based on conventional dielectric response measu
rement techniques but capable of using any voltage waveform to perform measureme
nts. By utilizing the harmonic content of the waveform the dielectric properties
of an insulating system can be determined at several frequencies simultaneously
. This provides an advantage compared to other dielectric response techniques wh
ere the applied voltage needs to be carefully controlled. With AWIS a test objec
t can be stressed with any waveform and the influence on the dielectric properti
es studied. The accuracy level has been found to be in the same range as for com
mercially available instruments, but additional complications related to aliasin
g and spurious/harmonic distortion have to be taken into account. AWIS has been
used to study PD behaviour in systems where different analysis methods have to b
e applied depending on the relationship between the magnitude of the discharge a
nd dielectric current. A small discharge current compared to the dielectric curr
ent requires an approach which relies on the increase of noise levels during PD
activity and the amount of information possible to extract is limited. For large
r discharge currents PD behaviour over time can be monitored both in frequency a
nd time domain and in certain objects it is also possible to detect a conductive
current most likely related to charge relaxation. The measurement system has al
so been used to monitor the behaviour of dielectric properties during electrical
tree growth in low density polyethylene samples having capacitance less than on
e picofarad. The tree length was found to be correlated with capacitance increas
e which can be modeled and used in order to estimate tree growth rate. This poss
ibility appears especially useful if the samples are opaque as conventional CCD
cameras used for such measurements are no longer applicable. In addition to the
development of the measurement system and the application on PD and electrical t
reeing measurements, the influence of the voltage waveform on dielectric heating
was studied. A method for estimating the increased amount of power generated in
different insulating systems due to the harmonic content of the voltage wavefor
m was developed and evaluated. AWIS was used to measure the dielectric propertie
s of different insulating systems and based on these two different dielectric he
ating parameters was calculated using the proposed method. },
publisher={Department of Materials and Manufacturing Technology, High Voltage En
gineering, Chalmers University of Technology,},
place={Gteborg},
year={2010},
series={Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers tekniska hgskola. Ny serie, no: 3054},
keywords={arbitrary voltage waveforms, dielectric response measurement, diagnost
ics, signal processing, partial discharge, electrical treeing, dielectric heatin
g.},
note={125},
}