The charge transport and accumulation in oil-paper can cause the insulation degradation. So far, the most widely used model to simulate space charge transport and accumulation is the bipolar charge transport (BCT) model, which can well simulate the space charge dynamics. However, there are two shortcomings in the algorithms for solving the BCT model. One is that there is almost no use of vectorisation technology, which may increase the complexity of the algorithm, the other is the usage of fixed step size which might bring extra computation cost. In view of this, an adaptive time-stepping transient upstream finite element method (FEM) is developed to solve the BCT model considering trapping/detrapping, as well as the recombination phenomenon under DC condition in this article. Then, a vectorisation technology is used in the method to optimise the algorithm. Moreover, the adaptive time-stepping method is introduced in simulation to reduce computation time and calculation amount. Simulation results are obtained by programing and later presented, which are basically consistent with the corresponding experimental results. Therefore, the proposed method is expected to promote the optimization design of the oil-paper insulation system.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

The heterocharge accumulated in the oil-paper insulation system of the converter transformer will enhance the local electric field and cause insulation deterioration. Numerical simulation is an effective method to analyze heterocharge. Currently, the numerical simulation of heterocharge is mainly based on the bipolar charge transport (BCT) model and the impurity ion transport (IIT) model. However, the effects of temperature, conductivity, and thickness of oil-impregnated paper on charge transport have not been considered in these models. In view of this, a modified charge transport (MCT) model by introducing the Maxwell-Wagner model and heat conduction equation is proposed in this paper based on the BCT model and IIT model. Then, the influence of multi-factors (temperature gradient, moisture content, and oil-impregnated paper thickness) on heterocharge accumulation is investigated by using the MCT model. The simulation results obtained by the MCT model are more consistent with the experimental results than the BCT model, which proves the accuracy and superiority of the MCT model. Moreover, the increase in temperature gradient, moisture content, and oil-impregnated paper thickness will enlarge the ion dissociation rate, conductivity, and trap density, and thus promote the generation of heterocharge. In that respect, the MCT model is expected to optimize the insulation design and provide a reference for space charge dynamic simulation.

As the main insulation material of the power electronic transformer (PET), polyimide (PI) is easy to accumulate space charge under the continuous high-frequency pulse voltage, which will threaten the operation of PET and cause electric field distortion. At present, the microscopic mechanism of charge transport under high-frequency voltage is unclear. Numerical simulation is an effective method to explore the transport characteristics of space charge. The simulation of charge transport under DC voltage is mainly based on the bipolar charge transport (BCT) model. However, the charge transport behaviors under high-frequency pulse voltage cannot be simulated by the traditional models accurately. Given this, based on the BCT model, the High-Frequency Voltage Charge Transport (HFCT) model is proposed, considering nonlinear charge mobility of the polymer and the effect of the frequency. Finally, the space charge and electric field distribution under square pulse wave voltages with different rising times are simulated based on the HVCT model, concluding that the reduction of rising time will promote the accumulation of space charge. In view of this, the HVCT model is expected to optimize the insulation design of PET and provide a reference for the dynamic simulation of space charge.