An assessment of the connection between the working, operations of a thyristor system used in a power plant and accelerated ageing tests

The aim of this study is to define a methodology that allows to establish the correlation between accelerated ageing tests and the real working conditions of a thyristor. In particular, the goal is to know how many thermal cycles are necessary to lead to the same damage in the solders joints as a fixed number of years in real working conditions. This paper deals with the legitimacy of this methodology used to establish a correspondence between a slightly damaging real operation and ageing tests, which can induce more damages in the solder joints. This study is exploratory and still in progress.