In order to study the accumulative effect of the lightning impulse voltage wave actually invading the power transformer and the standard lightning impulse voltage wave (SLIW) defined by the IEC on oil-paper insulation, based on the actual recorded invading lightning impulses in a substation, a damped alternating oscillation voltage was applied to the turn-to-turn insulation model which simulates the actual situation of insulation system in transformers. The U-N characteristics under impulse voltages were determined, and the electric parameters, such as relative dielectric constant, were measured before/after the accumulative tests. The experimental results showed an evident accumulative effect of the oil-paper insulation under multiple damped alternating oscillation impulse voltages. And the U-N characteristic curves of oil-paper insulating showed exponential variation under the impulse voltage of different waveform parameters. Meanwhile, the cumulative resistance of oil-paper insulation to damped alternating oscillation impulse voltage wave was superior to that of standard lightning impulse voltage wave under the same voltage amplitude, which indicated that the standard lightning impulse voltage wave had strict insulation requirements under the same voltage amplitude. Furthermore, both the relative dielectric constant and the dielectric loss factor of oil-paper insulation obviously increased with the increase of the accumulation times, which also showed that the effect of multiple impulse voltage on oil-paper insulation performance was obvious.

In the life cycle,oil-paper insulation in power transformers will suffer from repetitive lightning impulse,which is a serious threat to the safe operation of the transformer.Due to the influence of factors such as attenuation,reflection,and winding resonance of the lightning impulse voltage of the transformer,the intrusion waveform has the oscillation attenuation and bipolarity.The waveform differs greatly from the standard lightning waveform specified by IEC.In this paper,based on the actual recorded invading lightning impulses in a substation,damped altemating oscillation voltage was applied to the column-to-column insulation model.The characteristics of relationship between the amplitude of applied voltage and the accumulative number of times (U-N characteristics) under damped alternating oscillation voltages were determined.To study the accumulative damage effect,the surface morphology was observed,and the electric parameters,such as relative dielectric constant,were measured before/after the accumulative tests.As a result,the experimental results showed an evident accumulative effect of oil-impregnated paper insulation under multiple damped alternating oscillation voltages.Ivory colloidal attachments can be found on the samples within the electrode covering area and the surface roughness of samples increases.Also,both the relative dielectric constant and the dielectric loss factor obviously increase with the increasing of accumulation times.

For a long time, thermal effect, as a major factor for insulation aging, is a great challenge to the safe operation of power transformers. During the decades-long operation, cellulose fibers contained in the oil-paper insulation, break and deform, accompanied by the generation of new chemical products and variation of mechanical/electrical properties. Therefore, in this work, the influence of thermal aging on the electrical performance of the transformer oil paper insulation was investigated. 50% breakdown voltage and average AC breakdown voltage of oil impregnated paper were experimentally determined, and the water content measurement, surface morphology observation and frequency domain spectroscopy measurement were carried out on the oil impregnated paper samples with different aging degrees. The test results indicate that the electrical performances of aged oil impregnated paper improved during the aging process, which could be attributed to the forming of micro globules caused by the effect of thermal aging.

During the decades-long operation, oil paper insulation in power transformers may suffer the effect of thousands of lightning impulses. Such interesting but rarely studied phenomenon, also known as accumulative effect, may cause irreversible damage to the oil paper insulation, or even premature failure. Therefore, in this work, the influence of repeated lightning impulses on the oil paper insulation, especially the mechanism behind this phenomenon, was experimentally investigated. We determined the accumulative breakdown characteristics of the oil paper insulation and observed the influence of the repeated lightning impulses on the dissolved gas in oil and the degree of polymerization. Specifically, the space charge distribution in the oil paper samples and the relationship between the interval time and accumulative breakdown characteristics were experimentally determined in the end. The test results indicate that the accumulative effect only exists in the cellulose paper rather than the transformer oil. Such effect was considered to be the consequence of electrical degradation and accumulation of space charge.

As striking lightning impulse waveforms in power transformers are quite different from the standard lightning impulse waveform (SLIW) used in the withstand voltage tests, it is essential to identify the breakdown characteristics of oil-impregnated paper (OIP) under non-SLIW and to quantitatively compare them with those under SLIW. On that basis, the impulse insulation levels of power transformers can be rationally determined and then the insulation specifications can be evaluated to maintain high equipment reliability. In this paper, with damped alternating oscillation waveform as a representative basis, the breakdown characteristics of oil-impregnated paper were experimentally obtained by changing the frequency and damping rate of the applied voltage. All experiments were conducted using a column-column electrode model. In addition to the 50% breakdown voltages (U-50), Minimum breakdown voltage U-min and V-t characteristics under different circumstances, the influence of various parameters on breakdown characteristics and the possible reasons were discussed. After comparing waveforms and corresponding results, the specific relationship between waveform parameters and U-50 were expressed as a single equation. As a result, the breakdown voltage was 1.106 to 1.435 times higher than that under SLIW depending on frequency and damping rate. The steepness of the wave peak and the duration of high voltage around wave crests are considered to be two important factors affecting the breakdown voltage. An effective way was proposed to predict U-50 of oil-impregnated paper as a reference for insulation specifications irrespective of wave shape. These results support the rationalization of insulation for actual lightning impulse waveforms in the power transformers.

At present, the insulation performances of electrical apparatus under lightning impulse voltages are always evaluated by the withstand test of standard lightning impulse voltage (1.2/50 µs), which is recommended by IEC Standard. However, the actual time parameters of transformer invading lightning impulse voltage present an obvious dispersibility characteristics. The standard wave shape is only representative of one particular class of lightning waves, which is far from satisfactory to act as the guidance waveform in the design of power equipment insulation. On the basis of the above research background, the relationship between breakdown characteristics of oil paper insulation and time parameters of applied lightning impulse voltage was investigated in this study. The 50% breakdown voltage characteristics of oil paper insulation under lightning impulse voltage with different time parameters were determined. The test results indicate that a short wave front time could lead to relatively low 50% breakdown voltage, while when the wave tail time varied, the 50% breakdown voltage of oil paper insulation barely changed. At last the simulation model of oil paper insulation was developed, and the current flowing through the oil paper insulating system under lightning impulse voltage was calculated. On the basis of the simulating results, the relationship between current and time parameters was analysed.

油纸绝缘是电力变压器最常用的一种绝缘介质,其在运行过程中不可避免的会受到多次雷电冲击电压的作用,在冲击电压的累积作用下变压器内绝缘有可能会产生不可逆的损伤.鉴于此,通过自动连续冲击电压发生器对油纸绝缘模型的累积施压,来模拟侵入变压器的雷电过电压对油浸绝缘纸板的累积效应.研究了雷电冲击电压幅值U与油浸绝缘纸板击穿时雷电冲击电压累积次数N之间的关系,即U-N特性.并采用Weibull模型分析了油浸绝缘纸板试品U-N特性的变化规律.还通过原子力显微镜(AFM)对比研究了不同次数雷电冲击电压作用后油浸绝缘纸板表面形貌的变化.研究结果表明:随着雷电冲击电压幅值的升高,油浸绝缘纸板累积直至击穿所需要的次数大幅度下降,雷电冲击电压对油浸绝缘纸板具有明显的累积效应;多次雷电冲击电压的累积作用会导致油浸绝缘纸板表面颜色与形貌的变化,200、400、600、800次标准雷电冲击电压作用后,油浸绝缘纸板表面粗糙度比累积试验前分别增加了0.61、2.80、5.97和11.76倍.

According to the IEC Standard, the insulation performances of power apparatus under lightning impulse voltages are evaluated by the withstand test of standard lightning impulse voltage, with the wave front/tail time of 1.2/50 μs. However, the standard lightning impulse voltage originally obtained from the transmission lines or triggering lightning towers, is quite different from the invading lightning impulse voltage in the power transformers. Hence, in this work, an attempt has been made to obtain the waveform characteristics of invading lightning impulses in power transformers using an overvoltage online monitoring system. Energy Method was then proposed to convert the recorded oscillatory waveform into double-exponential waveform defined by IEC Standard. And the statistical waveform parameters of recorded invading lightning impulses, namely, the non-standard lightning impulses, were determined based on the Energy Method. Current insulation assessment methods, for example, the V-t characteristics, are far from satisfactory to meet the demand of insulation design for the power apparatus, whereas the impulse breakdown voltage-number of voltage applications characteristics (V-N characteristics) could well evaluate the long term performance of insulation system. Therefore, we experimentally identified the V-N characteristics of oil paper insulation under impulse voltage with different waveforms, including non-standard lightning impulse voltage, and then mathematically analyzed the obtained data. At last, the influence of wave front/tail time on the V-N characteristics of oil paper insulation was experimentally studied. The test results indicate that the insulation performances of oil paper insulation under repeated nonstandard lightning impulse voltages and under standard switching impulse voltages were better than that under repeated standard lightning impulse voltages. And the capacity to withstand repeated voltage became increasingly stronger with the increase in wave front time or the decrease in wave tail time. The breakdown voltage, however, was only related to the wave front time of applied impulse voltage.

Repeated impulses have long been considered to affect the insulation properties of electrical equipment. This interesting but rarely studied phenomenon may pose great risks to the reliable operation of power equipment. Therefore, in this work, we focus on the accumulative effect of repeated lightning impulses on the oil-impregnated paper (OIP) used in power transformers. Specifically, we study the effect of space charge on the accumulative characteristics of OIP. A repetitive impulse accumulating test platform was set up, and the tests were conducted to obtain the accumulative characteristics of OIP under repeated lightning impulses. The accumulative characteristics of OIP with various interval time were experimentally identified to study the influence of interval time on the accumulative effect. Then, space charge in OIP samples were investigated using the pulsed electro-acoustic technique. Charge behavior in OIP was analyzed under different conditions, i.e., changing the applied times, amplitude and interval time of the applied lightning impulses. Charge injection and transport occurred during lightning impulse accumulation. The increased application of lightning impulses, high applied voltage, and short interval time contributed to the accumulation and transport of space charges. At last, the possible mechanisms of the accumulative effect are discussed in this article based on the experimental results.