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Medium-voltage shielded busbar long-term ageing test method

Article · October 2017

DOI: 10.1049/oap-cired.2017.0260

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24th International Conference & Exhibition on Electricity Distribution (CIRED)
12-15 June 2017

Session 1: Network components

Medium-voltage shielded busbar long-

term ageing test method
ISSN 2515-0855
doi: 10.1049/oap-cired.2017.0260
Karim Helal ✉, Romain Maladen, François Gentils, Olga Kozlova www.ietdl.org

Schneider Electric, EPE Energy Products & Equipments, Grenoble, France

✉ E-mail: karim.helal@schneider-electric.com

Abstract: Classical air insulated switchgear busbar consist in a simple metal component using the ambient air as dielectric
insulating medium: its sensibility to the external conditions is very high and dielectric failure is likely to occur. An
innovative modular MV busbar, similar in principle to the MV cable shielded accessories, has been designed to reduce
the internal arc probability and increase the reliability of medium-voltage (MV) switchgear. The live part is overmolded
by a first insulating rubber layer which is also overmolded by a second conductive rubber, connected to the earth. The
study proposes a validation method to assess the lifetime of this technology, by providing a complete review of the
ageing behaviour. The use of several ageing models (parametric and non-parametric) is discussed. Physical and
chemical ageing is followed up at various temperatures during more than 12,000 h both on material samples and on
real parts. The choice of an end-of-life criteria based on a dielectric test is discussed and compared with a more
classical criteria. In the end, this study review all the steps to perform a complete ageing study of a real industrialized
component.

1 Introduction 2 Shielded solid insulation system (2SIS)

New technologies and innovative design concepts are regularly
developed in order to satisfy customers and expand Eco-label
ranges [1] while challenging to fulfill Rohs and Reach compliance,
providing a Product environmental profile and end-of-life
instructions.
But how to assess the impact of innovation on the product/
system reliability, considering that customers are more and
more demanding? And how demonstrate in a couple of years
(the duration of the product/system innovation phase) a life time
of several decades. Accelerated life testing (ALT) brings factual
elements to answer such difficult and strategic questions. Some
products must operate reliably for long periods, while others
must operate properly after a long stand-by or storage period. In
either case, it is difficult to estimate their long-term
performance under the tight schedule and budget constraints
that exist during product development. Accelerated testing can
provide a solution to this problem by forcing products to fail or
degrade more rapidly than they would under normal use
conditions.
The primary focus in this article is the use of ALT to quantify and
assess the reliability of a component under normal use conditions.
This information can be used to estimate the probability of failure
at a given time, the mean time to failure (MTTF), the projected
returns under warranty but also in risk assessments, design
comparisons etc. Other methods to assess the reliability of such
components can be employed. By using computers and simulation,
competences in system reliability analysis is now a very popular
analysis tool. The overall system reliability can be obtained by
simulating system operation and empirically calculating the
reliability values for a certain lifetime. Statistical simulation is
simple to apply and it can produce results that can be difficult to
solve analytically. Other drawbacks are that systems with static
components (i.e. components in which the reliability does not
change with time) cannot be simulated, and that most of the
reliability optimisation and allocation techniques cannot be
applied [2].
products and new busbar technology
2.1 Shielded solid insulation system
For secondary distribution, 2SIS products are designed using a
simplified architecture, combining all the modularity advantages of
air insulated switchgear and insensibility to the external
environmental conditions of a gas insulated switchgear, while
being also SF6 free.
These compact products, based on a customer oriented offer
structure, are easy to install and fitted with fixed circuit breaker
and separate disconnection. Breaking and disconnection are
performed in a single operation, leading to a three position scheme
(closed, open and disconnected, earthed) (Fig. 1).
The main innovation is the entire shielded insulation of the
switchgear and busbars. Internal arc probability is drastically
reduced because insulating performance is not affected by
humidity, atmospheric condition, possible gas leakage or electrical
field variation. The flat connection of the busbar is a simple
concept based on high-quality insulating materials and its design is
patented [3].
2.2 New busbar technology
Busbars completing the 2SIS products are innovations that lead to
wholly different designs and structure. The long-service operation
assured by those new busbars and flat connection is assured by
using the combination of different materials (Fig. 2).
Connection between each 2SIS cubicle is made by screwing the
flat interface on the next component, such as the compression
provided by the busbar ensure the insulation and shielding of the
product (Fig. 3).
As every new innovation, the 2SIS busbars have to pass through a
strong validation plan, including ageing tests, to ensure the long-term
quality for the customer.

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Fig. 1 Modular architecture: single compact three-position device with
shielded solid insulation switchgear (2SIS)
Fig. 2 Comparison of traditional busbar
(a) Made of one conductor material with simple design and 2SIS busbar,
(b) Multi-material component with innovating design
Fig. 3 2SIS flat interface design
(a) Shielding is assured thanks to the contact between the deformable conductive
material and the conductive coating of the plug, (b) Insulation is assured by
compression between the deformable insulating material and the epoxy plug,
(c) Electrical conductor can be composed of aluminum or copper
3 Ageing factors and profil mission
The failure of a product can be related to a deterioration of the
properties of its constituent materials beyond the minimum
performance required by its design and application. Therefore, the
first step in understanding the durability of a given design consists
in the analysis of its application, product use profil or mission profile.
This last consist of the following:
† operational and environmental stresses, their magnitude and
sequence;
† the duration and number of sequence segments.
The analysis of the mission profile should highlight the nature of
the stress factors, which can be external, like humidity, solar
radiation, temperature etc. or internal, like mechanical loading,
electrical current etc. It is obtained by choosing from one of the
following evaluation conditions: average use profile, aggressive
use profile, and a spectrum of use profile conditions.
Accelerated tests should reproduce the same stresses as in the
mission profile and not to add additional constraints to the
326 This is an open access article published by the IET under the Creative Commons
material, which will lead to an underrated lifetime. A good
approach is to dissociate each ageing mechanism.
This will allow us to sort the ageing mechanisms by their effects
on the ageing and provide long-term behaviour based on the
dominant ones.
There are many ageing mechanisms according to the material and
the mission profile that will be encountered. In the study presented in
this article, main degradation mechanisms were oxidation (chemical
ageing) and stress relaxation (physical ageing). These degradation
mechanisms, highly dependent of the temperature, lead step by
step to the deterioration of the insulating material by reducing its
mechanical and dielectric properties.
Main important information when performing accelerated ageing
test is to know the temperature for which the product or
component is designed. For example, accelerated ageing test will
not be the same if you are testing a component that will work at
25 or 80°C.
4 How to assess the reliability of a 2SIS MV
busbar
4.1 Dissociate the problem
In order to estimate the lifetime of the component, the best method is
to split the problematic in two sub-studies.
First study should only concern the understanding of the
degradation mechanism impacting the materials properties
composing the busbar. This material characterisation includes
accelerated ageing test, analysed with statistical tools and used to
extrapolate a lifetime by using ageing models.
Second study concerns the ageing of the complete component.
The ageing parameters are determined thanks to the results
obtained in the first sub-study and according to the mission profile.
4.2 Accelerated degradation tests
ALT provide information regarding whether or not each test unit has
survived to a particular stress. Only the failure times for units that fail
and the running times for units that have not failed are observed. In
contrast, accelerated degradation tests (ADT) provide information on
the evolution of a measured variable that can be related to the loss in
the performance of the product. ADT are in general more informative
than ALT. However, in many cases it is complex to model the
relationship between the measured variable and the performance of
the product. Also, in ADT the same unit must be measured several
times during the test, so special care is needed to ensure that the
measurement does not interfere with the degradation process [4].
4.3 Ageing models
It is common practice to assume that the time-to-failure follows a
lognormal or Weibull distribution in which the scale parameter is
a function of the stress level, x, and the shape factor does not
depend on x. If xN denotes the normal stress, the time-to-failure at
the accelerated conditions is scaled by a factor AF(x):


time-to-failure xN = time-to-failure( x) · AF( x)
The Arrhenius’ relationship is a widely used model to describe the
effect that temperature has on degradation mechanisms that depend
on a single chemical reaction, diffusion or migration process. The
Arrhenius’ relationship is given by
time-to-failure(T ) = Ce(Ea /kT )
where T is the temperature (in K), k is either Boltzmann’s constant or
the universal gas constant, Ea is the activation energy and C is a
model parameter to be determined (C > 0). In many cases, the
CIRED, Open Access Proc. J., 2017, Vol. 2017, Iss. 1, pp. 325–328
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degradation process consists of multiple steps, with each step having
its own activation energy.
Given T and TU the accelerated and normal use temperatures,
respectively, the Arrhenius acceleration factor can be written as

AFAr = e(Ea /k)((1/TU )−(1/T ))

Available methods for estimating the parameters of a model include

graphical methods, like the time–temperature superposition principle
(TTS) method. The TTS states that the effect of a change in
temperature is equivalent to applying a shift factor aT to the
timescale. It is then possible to obtain a master curve of the
evolution of the concerned properties at the use temperature. This
principle is often used to analyse the ageing of viscoelastic
properties (creep, relaxation etc.) of viscoelastic materials. The
Williams Landel and Ferry equation is used to fit values of the
shift factor aT versus temperature: Fig. 4 Example of TTS master curve at different temperatures

−C1 × (T − TR )
log aT =
C2 × (T − TR ) 5.2 Chemical ageing and Arrhenius model

Chemical ageing was monitored by using elongation at break data’s

where C1 and C2 are constants that are both material and reference
temperature TR dependant. In the absence of curve fitting software,
WLF equation can be written in straight line form and a linear
regression method used to find the coefficients:
 
1 1
u=r·v+w⇔ =r× +w
log aT T − TR
1 r
C1 = and C2 =
w w
5 Ageing tests on material
5.1 Physical ageing and TTS principle
Physical ageing was monitored by using the compression set values
of the insulating material, which is one of the most relevant
mechanical properties of elastomers for such application and
solicitation. In fact, additional characterisation tests (oxidation
induction time, compression set in neutral gas) have showed that
this mechanical property is mainly impacted by stress relaxation
(and not oxidation).
Compression set values have been followed for more than
12,000 h, both on insulating and semi-conductive material, at eight
different ageing temperatures, carefully selected according to the
mission profile, material behaviour and relevant normative
methods (IEC 60216).
Each isothermal curve has been shifted in line with the TTS
principle in order to build the master curve representing the
evolution of the compression set at the use temperature of the
component and at other temperatures by using the calculated shift
factor (Fig. 4).
End-of-life criteria have been at first set at 50% of compression
set, classical value for this property, allowing to predict a critical
lifetime for the physical ageing of the material. In fact, tests on
actual busbar demonstrated that insulation is still guaranteed even
for compression set values over 60%, but ageing models have to
be built based on severe criteria to ensure a safety factor. Theses
curves also permitted to set up the ageing parameters of the
complete busbar, mainly the ageing temperature and the ageing
duration.
Insulating material has demonstrated high performance of
compression set behaviour and ageing resistance for various
temperatures included in customers’ needs.
from aged samples. The thin thickness of tensile strength samples
promotes oxidation throughout the sample. As oxidation tends to
break the chemical bonds, elongation at break tests is highly used
to characterise this ageing mechanism.
The samples were aged at the 8 same ageing temperatures than
for compression set tests. However, oxidation resistance of the
studied materials was so good that it was very long to obtain
end-of-life data, established at 50% of elongation at break initial
value.
Ageing was performed according to the IEC 60216 standard. It is
important to highlight the fact that ageing tests should be done at
ageing temperatures close to the use temperature, even if
end-of-life values are long to obtain. To high-ageing temperatures
could results in completely different degradation mechanism, not
involved during normal use of the component.
Flynn and Wall method using thermogravimetric analysis [5] and
oxidation induction time (OIT) method using differential scanning
calorimeter were investigated to compare and insure about the
obtained value for EA. It has been demonstrated that activation
energies obtained for these two last methods were close but
slightly higher than that obtained with the Arrhenius extrapolation
(Fig. 5). This is normal and is caused by the high temperatures
involved during these tests. These two methods are very helpful to
assess the chemical ageing behaviour (oxidation resistance) of
materials, even if they cannot replace long duration accelerated
ageing tests.
Oxidation resistance of this material is great and does not
influence as much as stress relaxation on compression performance.
Electrical characterisation of aged samples reveals that resistivity,
permittivity and tan δ properties of the insulating and shielding
materials have not been significantly impacted and amply ensure
the SSIS performance.
Fig. 5 Example of Arrhenius extrapolation of elongation at break data

CIRED, Open Access Proc. J., 2017, Vol. 2017, Iss. 1, pp. 325–328
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Fig. 6 Example of busbar ageing conditions
6 Ageing tests on complete busbar
The last stage of an ageing study to validate the reliability of a busbar
is to carry out ageing tests on actual parts. Two kinds of tests have
been realised:
Thermomechanical ageing test of the busbar and monitoring of
the compression set: Ageing parameters have been selected by
referring to the TTS model and enabled to realise the tests on
small parts and at less ageing temperatures. Compression set
measurements on actual busbar was at least 1.8 times better than
compression measured on samples. These results highlight that
lifetime determined on sample is critical comparing to real busbar
behaviour. It also allows us to redefine the end-of-life criteria used
for the concerned ageing model.
Moreover, dielectric performance of the busbar was also checked
with regular partial discharges, power frequency and lightning
impulse tests at room temperature and at −25°C, critical
temperature for which the rubber shrinkage increases.
Ageing test of the busbar under voltage: During the study, it was
demonstrated that the dielectric failure mode of the real parts were
not due to the electrical field presence in the material (it is not the
root cause of the ageing process), but by a thermomechanical
ageing of the material, leading to the loss of compression in the
critical interfaces. However, these tests take into account all the
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parameters (shape of the parts, the temperature variations, the
electrical fields, the moulding process influence etc.) and have to
be realised to assess a lifetime of the component.
The ageing process of the material is obtained during the high
temperature phase but most of the dielectric failures are revealed
during the cold phase of the cycle, or the transition, because of a
loss of elasticity and compression of the elastomer (Fig. 6). The
ageing voltage is defined by 2.5U0, and was determined in order
to get a strong partial discharge activity in defective parts, and
therefore, be able to quickly detect them.
In this study, the well-known inverse power law (Vn × t = C st) was
not used, because it was demonstrated that the root cause of busbar
failures was thermomechanical effects near the interfaces yielding to
a strong partial discharge activity, and not pure electrical field effects
in the solid insulation material (busbar is designed with low and
non-critical field value in the solid material).
Ageing results under voltage on real parts allow us to provide a
comparison between the ageing behaviour determined on material
samples and on real industrial moulded parts. It is a strong double
validation for the lifetime prediction. This method allows us to
certify the lifetime of the busbar according to the terms of use
specified to customers.
7 Conclusion
The validation of new technologies is a long and difficult process. In
addition to qualification tests, long-term ageing tests, taking into
account all different ageing phenomena, must be done. This step is
mandatory to check the long-term behaviour of the product or
component, and then to verify that the expected life time suits
with customers’ needs.
8 References
1 Hugoo, B.: ‘Eric Bonneville’, Green Premium, 2016, Schneider Electric eco-label
that goes beyond compliance, p. 1
2 Reliability HotWire: ‘Determining reliability for complex systems, Part 2 –
simulation’, 2001, p. 1
3 Bonfils, J.-M.: ‘Connecting bar with flat interface’. US 7594822 B2, 2009, p. 1
4 Elsayed, E.A.: ‘Reliability engineering’ (Wiley, 1996), vol. 368–370, p. 2
5 Toop, D.J.: ‘Theory of life testing and use of thermogravimetric analysis to predict
the thermal life of wire enamels’, IEEE Trans. Electr. Insul., 1971, EI-6, (1), p. 3
CIRED, Open Access Proc. J., 2017, Vol. 2017, Iss. 1, pp. 325–328
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