As a core component of ac drive electric locomotive, performance of inverter-fed motor directly influences the stability and reliability of locomotive running. However, insulation early failures occur frequently. Presently, polyimide film, as a special type of engineering plastic film, widely applied in turn to turn insulation and turn to ground insulation of inverter-fed motors is a kind of basic insulating material. This paper investigates charge transport mechanism and space charge characteristics of polyimide films based on measuring and comparing space charge accumulation threshold field between corona-resistant and common polyimide films and analyzing the effect of temperature on space charge distribution. The results reveal that space charge accumulation threshold field of corona-resistant polyimide film is higher than that of common polyimide film; the adding of nano-particles effectively increases dielectric properties of corona-resistant film. Additionally, raising temperature promotes the electrode injecting charge and increases the charge energy and conductivity which gradually enhances space charge number and extends trapping position into the bulk, closely related to polyimide film insulation aging and breakdown which is an important characteristic.
Inverter-fed motors are damaged due to pulse voltage. The situation leads to early failure of insulation. Polyimide is an important insulating material in the inverter-fed motors. Its insulation aging process and failure mechanism are different from traditional ac and dc voltage. In this paper, structure change of polyimide film aging under pulse voltage above partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) is investigated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermally stimulated current (TSC) and lifetime test. It reveals that the degradation of structure in polyimide propagates from surface to interior with continuous aging, creating three layers in section. In the TSC spectrum, two main well-resolved peaks, namely α and β, exist in the 20-200 o C range. The configuration corresponding to α peak in polyimide is damaged more severely than the configuration corresponding to β peak and its degradation is accelerated with increase in frequency.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.