Metallized Film Power Capacitors End-of-Life Study Through Monitored Destruction Tests

A wide range of experiments was performed on metallized film capacitors. The monitoring of destruction tests was used to analyze the electrical properties of artificial critical defects. It is shown herein that these defects in the windings of the capacitors have a wide range of electrical properties and the behavior of the capacitor in the test is strongly related to these properties. A model is proposed to describe the degeneration of dielectric failure, the use of this model can help to predict the behavior of capacitors when they reach the end of life and to a more accurate design of the protection systems.