This study performs the thermal aging of chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE) for 807.36 and 1,614.48 hours at 110℃, which is equivalent to 40 and 80 years of aging at 50℃ in nuclear power plants, respectively. Flat-type CSPEs were soaked in seawater for five days and then dried for five days at room temperature. Furthermore, the soaked CSPEs were cleaned for 5 days with fresh water and dried for 1,100 days at room temperature. Through this process, the log IV of the CSPEs decreases, whereas the dissipation factor of the CSPEs increases as thermally accelerated aged years increase at the measured frequency. Although the phase degree of the response voltage versus excitation voltage of the CSPEs increases, that of the response current versus excitation voltage decreases with the thermally accelerated aging. The thermal conductivity of the CSPEs increases slightly, but the thermal diffusivity does not vary with the thermally accelerated aged year increase. The displacement of the compressive strength of the CSPEs decreases gradually as the thermally accelerated aged years increase.

A variety of diagnostic tests are widely applied in the field in industry to evaluate the condition of high voltage (HV) motor stator insulation. In this paper, the influence of temperature on the stator insulation diagnostic tests such as the insulation resistance, AC current, dissipation factor, and partial discharge measurements are studied and reported. The tests are performed with the HV motor stator winding temperature set between 40℃ to 80℃ in 10℃ intervals. It is shown that the AC current, dissipation factor, and partial discharge magnitude steadily increase with temperature, which suggests that temperature must be taken into account in the interpretation of the test results.

Insulation breakdown of water-cooled generator stator windings occurs frequently due to leakage of cooling water and absorption into the insulation material. Leakage and absorption problems of water-cooled stator windings are often found during regular preventive maintenance. To evaluate cooling water leakage and absorption, diagnostic tests were performed on two water-cooled turbine generators, which have been in service for 13 and 17 years, respectively. The test results of the measured electrical properties such as dissipation factor (tano), capacitance and AC leakage current for water-cooled generator stator windings with wet bars are reported in this paper.

Diagnostic tests were performed on two high voltage (HV) motor stator windings. These tests included the measurement of insulation resistance, polarization index, AC current, dissipation factor (tanδ) and partial discharge (PD) magnitude. Surface contamination of HV motor stator windings has an effect on the AC current and tanδ. When the stator windings were finished cleaning and insulation reinforcement, the increase rate of AC current (ΔI) and dissipation factor (Δtanδ) were very small compared to those before cleaning. However, the PD magnitude remained the same. These tests show that cleaning and insulation reinforcement of HV motor stator windings can reduce the insulation failure.

To assess the condition of stator insulation, nondestructive and overpotential tests were performed on four high voltage motors. The stator windings under these tests have nominal ratings of 6.6 kV. After completing nondestructive tests, the AC overvoltage applied to the stator windings was gradually increasing until insulation failure in order to obtain the breakdown voltage. No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 of 6.6 kV motors failed near rated voltage of 18.4 kV, 19.8 kV, 19.7 kV and 21.7 kV, respectively. The breakdown voltage of four motors was higher that expected for good quality coils(14.2 kV) in 6.6 kV motors. Almost all of failures were located in a line-end coil at the exit from the core slot. The breakdown voltages and the types of defects showed strong relation to the stator insulation tests such as in the case of AC current, dissipation factor(tanδ) and partial discharge magnitude.