Moving Toward a Reliability-Oriented Design Approach of Low-Voltage Electrical Machines by Including Insulation Thermal Aging Considerations

Giangrande, Paolo; Madonna, Vincenzo; Nuzzo, Stefano; Galea, Michael

Abstract

© 2020 IEEE. Electrical machines (EMs) are required to consistently perform their intended mission over a specified timeframe. The move toward transportation electrification made the EMs' reliability an even stringent and predominant requirement, since a failure might cause severe economic losses, as well as endanger human lives. Traditionally, the design procedure of motors conceived for safety-critical applications mainly relies on over-engineering approaches. However, a paradigm shift is recently taking place and physics of failure approaches/methodologies are employed to meet the reliability figures, while delivering an optimal design. This article proposes and outlines a reliability-oriented design for low-voltage EMs. Thermal accelerated aging tests are preliminarily carried out on custom-built specimens. Once the aging trend of the turn-to-turn insulation system is assessed, the thermal endurance graph at several percentile values is determined and lifetime models are developed, for both constant and variable temperature operations. Finally, these models are used to predict the turn-to-turn insulation lifetime of motors meant for aerospace and automotive applications.

Citation

Giangrande, P., Madonna, V., Nuzzo, S., & Galea, M. (2020). Moving Toward a Reliability-Oriented Design Approach of Low-Voltage Electrical Machines by Including Insulation Thermal Aging Considerations. IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 6(1), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2020.2971191

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 16, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Feb 3, 2020
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 24, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 24, 2020
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification
• Electronic ISSN: 2332-7782
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 16-27
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TTE.2020.2971191
• Keywords: Design of Experiments, Accelerated Thermal Aging Tests, Dielectric Breakdown, Electrical Machines Insulation, Physics of Failure
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4027452
• Publisher URL: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8978960
• Additional Information: © 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.