A Novel ADT Approach for Partial Discharge in Electrical Machines

For the reliability assessment of some systems, a combination of degradation testing and accelerated testing is necessary. In that case, a lifetime model and a degradation model have to be determined simultaneously. A not well-understood damage mechanism is an additional obstacle. On the one hand, it requires the consideration of more than one influencing factor and therefore a multidimensional lifetime model. On the other hand, a statistically profound evaluation of these parameters is necessary to assure that only significant influences are included in the combined model. To allow for the systematic analysis of such a system, an appropriate approach is outlined in this paper. Design of Experiment (DoE) methods are fused with accelerated degradation testing (ADT) in a multidimensional model to identify, quantify and statistically assess the relevant influences. The defined procedure is applied to the phenomenon of partial discharge in electrical machines, a damage mechanism of increasing interest for many industrial applications. The system analysis as well as first results of the parameter screening from a conducted pre-study are presented and discussed.