Impact of various harsh environmental conditions on the long term behavior of electrical joints

The expanding generation and transmission of renewable energies causes an enhanced deployment of power connections under severe operating conditions. These technical and climate based operating conditions are classified as extreme conditions. Over the lifetime of electrical joints, ageing processes take place after a certain time which is often beyond a time period not indicated by short term investigations (t <; 1000 h). As a consequence, joint resistance increases which inevitably results in increased power losses as well as a rise of the joint temperature. To bring these points together, long term investigations with respect to ageing processes and lifetime will be performed. As part of extreme conditions, experimental results of electrical connectors under industrial atmosphere will be presented. Further proposed tests of tropical rain forest conditions are discussed whereas power connections will exposed to seasonal affective ambient temperatures up to 50°C with an atmosphere of ≥95 % of relative humidity.