Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stator Insulation Problems Associated With Low Voltage and Medium Voltage PWM Drives
Stator Insulation Problems Associated With Low Voltage and Medium Voltage PWM Drives
(FIEEE)
Iris Power LP.
1 Westside Drive, Unit 2,
Toronto, ON, M9C 1B2
Canada
I. M. Culbert
(MIEEE)
Iris Power LP.
1 Westside Drive, Unit 2,
Toronto, ON, M9C 1B2
Canada
B.A. Lloyd
(SMIEEE)
Iris Power LP.
1 Westside Drive, Unit 2,
Toronto, ON, M9C 1B2
Canada
Abstract - About 15 years ago, the short risetime pulses caused by voltage source, pulse width modulated
converters were first recognized as a cause of stator winding insulation failure in low voltage motors. The
root cause was found to be the large number of PWM voltage pulses from the drive, which caused partial
discharges between turns in the stator. These discharges eventually eroded the magnet wire insulation,
resulting in failure. Since the first reports of failures, motor manufacturers have developed many ways to
eliminate or slow down this process. Medium voltage motors rated up to 7200 V and driven by pulse width
modulated, voltage-source converters are now being introduced. Although relatively rare to date, such
systems are expected to play a larger role in cement plants in the future. Early experience with 4160 volt
motors driven by such converters again shows that the voltage pulses from the drives may also adversely
affect the stator insulation. However, it seems that different aging processes tend to occur in medium
voltage stators compared to those in low voltage motors. In particular, the aging can be accelerated as a
result of dielectric heating of the groundwall insulation caused by the high frequency components of the
drive voltage. In addition, the voltage stress control coatings often used in medium voltage motors have
much higher capacitive currents flowing in them when driven by converters leading to more rapid thermal
destruction of the coatings. The processes involve are described. The paper also reviews the development
of new IEC standards that for the first time will define the stator insulation requirements in a converter duty
motor.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, voltage source converters of the pulse width modulation (PWM) type have become pervasive
in motors rated 690 V, and are now being applied to medium voltage drives. The primary reasons for the rapid
acceptance of such variable speed technology has been the energy savings associated with running a motor at a
lower speed when feasible, as well as the general reliability of such drive systems. However a number of issues
have arisen as a result of their introduction. One of these issues concerns the effect of repetitive fast risetime voltage
surges created by voltage source PWM converters. Such voltage surges may lead to additional voltage and thermal
stresses on the stator winding insulation system and as a result, could lead to premature stator winding failure.
In this paper, the reasons for the additional stress on the stator insulation are described in some detail, as well as the
faster aging processes that result. Since the stresses and deterioration processes are quite different for random
wound (usually 690 V) and form wound (usually >2300 V) stators, these two types of stators will be discussed
separately. Finally, the efforts by standards organizations to develop tests that can assure end-users that stator
windings can resist premature failure due to converters are described.
switching devices create relatively high magnitude, short rise time voltage impulses at the motor terminals.
Depending on the cable length, cable grounding, whether converter output filters are used and the relative surge
impedance of the cable and the stator winding, the impulse voltages may be as much as 3 or 4 times the rated RMS
phase-to-ground voltage, with a rise time as short as 100 ns [1, 3]. Impulses with such short risetimes create Fourier
frequencies as high as 5 MHz. This high frequency results in a non-uniform distribution of the impulse voltage across
the winding components [1, 3, 12]. Specifically, the voltage between turns in the first coil may be 50% the applied
impulse voltage if the risetime is as short as 100 ns. The shorter the impulse rise time, the greater is the nonuniformity, and thus the higher the turn-to-turn voltage stress. The severity of the PWM impulses increases as either
the magnitude increases or the rise time decreases.
There are often small air gaps between turns, between turn and ground, and between phases in random wound
stators. The high voltage impulses, although brief, can cause the electrical stress in these small air gaps to exceed
the electric breakdown strength of air (about 3 kV/mm for uniform fields). The result is a partial discharge (PD) a
small electric spark. Repetitive PD will eventually erode organic insulation such as the insulation film on the magnet
wire, or even the ground and phase insulation barriers. If PD occurs as a result of impulses from a converter in a
stator winding not designed to withstand such discharges, the insulation will eventually fail [1-3].
This PD problem is now well known, and motor manufacturers have largely mitigated the problem with the
introduction of insulation materials that are resistant to PD, by increasing insulation thickness and/or by improving
resin impregnation processes.
2
c
1
Figure 1: Crossection of a random wound stator, showing the insulation system components: ground and phase
insulation (a) and magnet wire film insulation that serves as the turn insulation (c) [1].
Strand insulation to improve the efficiency of the motor by reducing eddy and skin effect losses. This insulation
is typically a film coating on the magnet wire, and/or a Dacron and glass serving.
Turn insulation to isolate each copper turn from each other. In modern motors the turn insulation is usually a
Dacron and glass composite or mica paper (mica particles on a film or Dacron and glass backing tape).
Sometimes the strand and turn insulation is combined to fulfill both functions.
Groundwall insulation to separate the copper conductors from the grounded stator core. At the phase end of the
winding, the groundwall insulation experiences the full phase to ground applied voltage. Almost all modern
motor stators use mica paper tapes bonded together with epoxy as the groundwall insulation. These materials
are almost always combined using the global vacuum pressure impregnation (GVPI) process.
A partly conductive paint or tape over the surface of the groundwall insulation, in the stator slot area. This layer
is referred to by a large number of (sometimes contradictory) names, but will be referred to here as the slot
conductive coating. This coating prevents partial discharge (PD) that could occur in any air gap that will
inevitably occur between the surface of the groundwall insulation and the side of the slot in the stator [3]. This
coating is usually a carbon-loaded tape. Most motor manufacturers tend to apply this coating on converter duty
motors rated 3 kV and above.
A stress relief paint or tape that overlaps the slot conductive coating just outside of the slot, and extends for 1015 cm into the endwinding. The purpose of this coating is to linearize the electric stress along the surface of the
coil, at the end of the slot conductive coating, to reduce the risk of PD. Presently, this coating is most commonly
a silicon carbide powder within a tape, although other materials are under development. The stress relief coating
is most often applied to converter duty motors rated 6 kV and above.
There is usually no additional phase-to-phase insulation in a form wound stator since there are already two thickness
of ground insulation present between phases (see Figure 2).
1
d
b
e
3
c
Figure 2: Cutaway diagram showing the form-wound coil insulation components as the coils exits the stator core [1].
The strand (and often turn) insulation is c, the ground insulation is 2, d shows the locations of the slot conductive
coating and e is the stress relief coating.
voltage surges result in a more complicated impact on the insulation system, than occurs in random wound stators.
The resulting additional failure processes are discussed in terms of the insulation system components.
Turn Insulation PD
As discussed for random wound stators, the repetitive, short risetime voltage impulses may cause a high percentage
of the voltage step at the motor terminals to appear between the turns in the first coil. If there are any small voids
adjacent to the turn insulation, which is often inevitable even with the best global VPI processing, then partial
discharges may result. The electron and ion bombardment of the insulation by the PD will gradually erode the
insulation. Modern mica paper turn insulation is one of the most PD-resistant materials ever developed but even
this material will gradually puncture if the PD magnitude is high enough and enough PD pulses occur over time. If
less resistant materials such as Dacron and glass are used as the turn insulation, failure may follow relatively rapidly.
Once puncture of the turn insulation occurs, a large current will flow around the affected turn, which will rapidly melt
the copper and groundwall insulation in the vicinity of the original puncture. A ground fault will soon occur. Thus the
design of the turn insulation must be evaluated to determine how it resists this failure process. How significant this
failure process is depends on the risetime of the voltage steps (the shorter, the more likely the process), the
magnitude of the steps (which in turn depends on the DC bus voltage and the number of levels in the converter) and
the switching frequency of the converter (the higher the frequency, the greater the number of PD pulses will occur per
second, and thus the faster the aging rate).
Groundwall Insulation PD
All conventional stator windings rated 3.3 kV and above may have PD within the groundwall, if voids of sufficient size
are present. The voids may be from poor manufacturing, or occur over time as a result of delamination due to thermal
aging. Similarly, PD may occur as a result of the voltage surges from converter drives. But the PD may be larger
and more frequent with a converter, because the peak voltages are usually higher than the peak voltage from a
sinusoidal supply. The peak-to-peak voltage can be higher than from a 50/60 Hz supply due to the transmission line
effects that may cause the step voltage changes that occur with converters to possibly double. The peak to peak
voltage in a drive system will be worse if fewer stages are used in the converter (thus a greater jump voltage occurs),
the voltage risetime is shorter, and/or the power cable between the converter and the motor is longer. The rate of
aging is primarily determined by the fundamental frequency of the converter.
of it. Several studies have shown that under PWM voltage, these coatings will operate at higher temperatures and
thus increase the rate of thermal aging, if they are not properly designed [5,8,9]. Since PWM voltage waveforms
contain voltages at high frequencies (from the risetime of the voltage steps and the PWM switching rate), higher
capacitive currents flow through the groundwall and then through the PD suppression coatings. These higher
2
currents create higher I R losses in the coatings than would occur under 60 Hz operation - increasing the operating
temperature of the coatings. The effect is exacerbated because the higher frequencies also cause the silicon carbide
materials to be less effective in linearizing the voltage along the surface of the coils which tends to concentrate the
heating to a shorter area [8]. The net result is that an inadequately designed stress relief system may create a
temperature rise as much as 50 C above that which would occur with a 60 Hz sinusoidal voltage [5,8,9]. This local
heating of the coatings will accelerate the thermal aging of both the coatings, and the adjacent groundwall insulation.
When the coatings degrade, surface PD may be extensive, creating lots of ozone gas [3]. In the medium voltage
converter fed motors in operation to date this is the problem that has created the greatest concern about the service
life of the stator insulation.
CONCLUSION
Voltage source converters can create thousands of short risetime voltage surges per second. These surges may
lead to more rapid aging of the insulation in stator windings than would occur under sinusoidal voltage. In random
wound stators, the impact is that partial discharges can occur that may gradually erode the insulation, leading to a
ground fault. In medium voltage machines, the converter surges will also increase the stator winding temperature
both due to dielectric heating of the groundwall insulation, as well as due to heating of the stress control coatings. In
addition, the surges may cause an increase in PD activity, both between turns, and within the groundwall. The IEC is
developing technical specifications to enable motor manufacturers to evaluate the ability of various system insulation
system designs to withstand these additional deterioration processes.
References
1.
IEC 60034-18-41, Evaluation and Qualification of Electrical Insulation Systems Used in Rotating Electrical
Machines When Fed from Voltage Converters.
2.
E. Persson, Transient Effects in Applications of PWM Inverters to Induction Motors, IEEE Trans IAS, Sept
1992, pp 1095-1101
3.
G.C. Stone, et al, Electrical Insulation for Rotating Machines Design, Evaluation, Aging, Testing and Repair,
Wiley IEEE Press, 2004
4.
A. Bonnett et al, Cause And Analysis Of Stator And Rotor Failures In Three-Phase Squirrel-Cage Induction
Motors, IEEE Trans IAS, July 1992, pp 921-937
5.
J.C.G Wheeler, Effects of Converter Pulses on the Electrical Insulation in Low and Medium Voltage Motors,
IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, March 2005, pp22-29
6.
IEEE Standard 286-2000, Recommended Practice for Measurement of Power Factor Tip-Up of Electric
Machinery Stator Coil Insulation
7.
R. Bartnikas, Engineering Dielectrics Volume IIB Electrical Properties of Solid Insulation Materials, ASTM
STP 926, 1987.
8.
F.P. Espino-Cortes et al, Study of Stress Grading Systems Working Under Fast Risetime Pulses, IEEE
International Symposium of Electrical Insulation, Toronto, June 2006, pp 380-383
9.
M. Li et al, Effects of Repetitive Pulse Voltages on Surface temperature Increase at End Corona Protection
Region of HV Motors, Insucon, Birmingham, May 2006, pp105-108
10. M.K.W. Stranges, IEC 60034-18-41 And -42: New Technical Specifications For Inverter Duty Motor Insulation,
Industry Applications Magazine, Jan 2007.
11. IEC 60034-18-42, Qualification and Acceptance test for Type II Electrical Insulation Systems Used in Rotating
Electrical machines Fed form Voltage Converters, November 2006 WG Draft
12. IEC 60034-25, Guide for the Design and Performance of A.C. Motors Specifically Designed for Converter
Supply, December 2006 DTS