Electrical ageing modeling of the insulation of low voltage rotating machines fed by inverters with the design of experiments (DoE) method

In the context of more electric aircrafts, the reliability of the low voltage insulation systems in rotating machines is an important issue. But, modeling and understanding their electrical ageing is a complex phenomenon especially when they are fed by PWM inverter. They involve a large amount of parameters related to both operating conditions and material design, which act together. Accelerated ageing tests are usually run in order to describe the electrical ageing process and to determine the lifetime of these materials. Nevertheless, full ageing tests with all the various parameters for different samples become rapidly time consuming. Moreover, there is not any complete model for insulation lifetime prediction under accelerated ageing tests. In this paper work, we propose a method based on the design of experiments (DoE) method, which is a useful statistical approach that would lead to a reliable and significant interpretation of the different ordering parameters of the insulation ageing process. Moreover, this method will help to reduce the number of required experimental or numerical trials and will, take into account the possible failure mechanisms and the various synergetic effects between them. Using the (DoE) method, a preliminary model of the insulation “lifetime” is presented with respect to the most important parameters at play and interactions between them.