Experience with development and evaluation of corona-suppression systems for HV rotating machines

This paper presents the results of a project aimed at the development of reliable corona-suppression systems for high voltage rotating machines. These systems are based on both conducting and semi-conducting dry and B-stage tapes as well as paints of different resistivity. Three groups of anti-corona systems were developed; namely, paint (on the slot portion) - paint (on the slot exit) system, paint (on the slot portion) - tape (on the slot exit) system, and tape (on the slot portion) - tape (on the slot exit) system. Sample results of standard evaluation and acceptance tests are presented. The accelerated life-aging test was run on test coil samples at the National Electric Coil HV testing facility. A numerical 2-dimensional finite difference model for the electric potential and field analysis along the end-turn zone was developed and the model results are used as guidelines through the design process of the grading system. Laboratory test results on randomly selected sample coils were confirmed by an independent testing facility. The proposed corona-suppression systems were applied on thousands of production coils.