Effects of ambient humidity and thermal aging on properties of Nomex insulation in mining dry‐type transformer

Temperature and humidity are the main factors that cause the decomposition of Nomex paper widely used as turn‐to‐turn insulation material of mining dry‐type transformers. In this study, for understanding the effect of ambient humidity and thermal aging on the properties of Nomex paper, specimens with the initial moisture content of 7% were aged in the oven for 168, 504, 672 h at 180°C, respectively. After thermal aging, corona discharge experiments of unaged and aged specimens with different aging degrees were carried out at different relative humidity (RH) levels from 10 to 70%. The characteristic parameters of corona discharge, such as the average discharge amplitude and the number of discharges, were measured. Then, the surface conductivity and the surface potential decay rate were measured. The morphology and attenuated total internal reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were also analysed for explaining the difference of properties be-tween unaged and aged specimens. The experiment results indicate that the average discharge amplitude decreases with the increase of RH or the deepening of the aging degree of specimens, but the number of discharges shows the reversal tendency. The changes in the physical structure and chemical composition, which is induced by the hydrolysis reaction of Nomex paper, accelerate the surface potential decay and increase the surface conductivity.

Effect of long-term fluorination on surface electrical performance of ethylene propylene rubber

To investigate the effect of fluorination on surface electrical performance of ethylene propylene rubber(EPR),four pieces of EPR specimens are prepared and fluorinated for different duration ranging from 120 min to 480 min.The surface morphology and element compositions of experimental specimens are tested.The surface potential decay and complex permittivity are measured.The tracking discharge property and the erosion properties after tracking test are investigated.The surface charge transport and electrical property tailoring mechanism are discussed.The results show that when the fluorination duration is from 120 min to 360 min,the surface morphology gradually becomes flat and compact with time,and the surface resistance to electrical tracking is improved.While an excessive fluorination with the duration of 480 min leads to a significant increase in surface conductivity and a weakening in the resistance to electrical tracking,which is mainly due to a change in surface morphology.The recommended fluorination duration for an optimised surface property is between 240 and 360 min for EPR specimen.