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Polymer insulators are used in the power transmission and distribution industry as a good substitute to the porcelain and glass insulators. These polymer insulators have many advantages compared to porcelain insulators respectively. Significant improvement has been made in the performance of polymer insulators with continuous evaluation involving its performance and reliability under contaminated conditions for transmission and distribution purposes. This thesis investigates about the performance of polymer insulation under accelerated tracking and erosion test conditions conducted on distribution class polymer equipment’s like composite insulators and polymeric cutouts having a rated voltage of 15 kV. Further electrical tests, additional tests are done for investigating the dielectric strength of composite insulators and polymeric cutouts for studying its degradation process at macroscopic level.

High voltage testing of the stator winding insulation is one of the most recognized methods used to determine the state of degradation in the insulation. HV tests performed at 0.1 Hz do have potential advantages compared to more traditional 50 Hz tests. This thesis therefore aims to perform and compare tan delta, capacitance and partial discharge measurements on stator windings when using a 0.1 Hz voltage source and a more traditional 50 Hz voltage supply. Several associated test parameters with considerable influence on the test results were varied during the tests. An associated data analysis followed that was focused on the differences and similarities of the analyzed parameters and the results due to the differences in frequency. The results show that there are substantial levels of noise present in the partial discharge measurements when utilizing the VLF voltage source. There are also more numerous partial discharges for VLF measurements than for regular power frequency measurements if the same amount of voltage cycles is considered. The generated patterns show similarities with those generated at 50 Hz, but a larger sample base is probably needed for more thorough conclusions. The tan delta/capacitance part of the test do indicate potential advantages compared to power frequency measurements regarding the sensitivity in the measurements.

The increased need for electric power combined with an aging underground cable infrastructure in a deregulated market environment have forced utilities to refocus their attention on reliability while at the same time reducing maintenance costs as much as possible. This has created a significant need for diagnostic methods and technologies to assess the condition of the underground cable systems. However, while several cable diagnostic technologies are available, they have not all yet been fully accepted in the United States. This is because the different technologies lead to different conclusions for the same cable system, and thus utilities do not completely trust the conclusions. A better understanding of the diagnostic technologies and their correct application is therefore required. The most widely used diagnostic technologies in the United States include dissipation factor (Tan-delta and partial discharge measurements; these tests are therefore, the main focus of this thesis; in particular, when applied to underground extruded cable systems. The purpose of this research is to advance the field of characterization of power cable defects by addressing a number of theoretical and practical diagnostic measurements and their interpretation issues. The discussion is based on data from laboratory experiments and field tests. This thesis consists of two major parts. The first part is devoted to the characterization by Tan-delta measurements in which the major contribution is a new approach for condition assessment using this technology. The second part is devoted to the work on characterization by partial discharge measurements, and the major contribution is a novel approach that is able to analyze, evaluate, and reduce the number of partial discharge diagnostic features.

The most main wall insulations of rotating electrical high voltage machines consists of several layers of wound mica tape impregnated with epoxy resins. Methylhexahydrophthalic anhydride and Hexahydrophthalic anhydride are the state-of-the-art curing agents in epoxy insulations and are therefore essential components of the insulation system. Both anhydrides were proposed to the candidate list of Substances of Very High Concern and are therefore part of the European REACH authorization process. The prohibition or restricted use of both anhydrides in Europe in the future is possible and puts high pressure on the European manufacturers of electrical devices. Possible substitutes are available, but have to be qualified e.g. with respect to their dielectric properties. Hence, this paper compares several insulating resin systems with and without anhydride curing agents regarding their dielectric loss behavior. The results reveal that the curing agent has a measurable effect on the dielectric losses. Furthermore, the investigated anhydride-free insulation systems are a viable substitute at least with regard to their dielectric losses.

This thesis deals with the dielectric relaxation spectroscopy applied to samples of an epoxy slip filled by grounded mica with granularity of 40 m. The changes of dielectric properties were investigated depending on the fulfillment of grounded mica, temperature, the relative air humidity, and the frequency between 100 Hz and 1MHz.

The increasing number of power electronic devices in medium voltage networks lead to a harmonic distortion of the voltage waveforms in electrical systems. Medium frequency components up to several kHz are superimposed on the fundamental grid voltage. The distorted voltage waveforms stresses the insulation systems due to the additional current and hence additional dielectric losses. The heat generated from dielectric losses is suspected to be an accelerator to insulation ageing below partial discharge inception. Therefore, the systematic assessment of the losses and their correct quantification is crucial to designing reliable insulation systems with a high lifetime. The investigation of losses under nonsinusoidal and distorted voltage waveforms is not trivial and has been subject to little research to date, compared to investigations at 50 or 60 Hz. In this paper, several approaches of quantifying dielectric losses under multifrequent voltage waveforms are presented and compared. The losses of cast resin specimens are quantified with a test setup using a reference measurement method. The loss computation algorithms range from previously utilised Extrapolation and Superposition approaches to a direct power measurement technique. The results presented in this contribution show that the different measurement procedures provide considerably different outcomes for which possible explanations are given. The presented data indicates that realistic field strength conditions should be ensured in order to quantify the losses under distorted voltage waveformes correctly.

This thesis deals with problems of electrical insulation materials based on epoxy composites used in the electronics industry. This thesis is divided into theoretical part focused on composite materials, their technological processing and diagnostics. It also describes dielectric materials, their properties and events taking place in their structure. The experimental section describes the measurement of electrical properties of samples of electrical insulating materials with different types of fillers.

Presented master's thesis is focused on studying electroinsulating epoxy resin-based sealings. It describes the chemical composition, production, properties and measuring methods of basic electric quantities of these materials. The aim of the thesis is to compare several sets of samples of composite epoxy resins with different kinds of micro-ground siliceous sand as a filling. The temperature and frequency dependence of relative permittivity, dissipation factor and inner resistivity are measured for given samples.