ANASTASIA

Advanced NAno-Structured TApeS for electrotechnical high power Insulating Applications

 Partecipanti

Mappa

 Word cloud

Esplora la "nuvola delle parole (Word Cloud) per avere un'idea di massima del progetto.

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The objective is to develop radically innovative electrical insulating tapes and process to improve the energy conversion efficiency of electrotechnical systems. It mainly addresses the electric power generation issue. Today, the energy conversion efficiency of generators is restricted by (i) thermal as well as (ii) electrical strength limitations due to the electrical insulator tapes themselves. The concepts of these multifunctional tapes are far behind the electrical insulating state of the art. The project aims to develop a new process chain leading to a drastic improvement of insulating tape structure homogeneity. The today’s limitations of tape come from its heterogeneous multilayer structure bringing together very different materials like glass fibre fabric, mica flakes and polymers. Enabling this homogenisation requires higher performance materials, which will be obtained by adjunct of inorganic nanofillers according to two proposed development routes: nanodielectrics polymer or inorganic polymers (sol-gel). This will lead to a more robust process chain with a better productivity (50%) and an insulating tape with enhanced performances like a higher field strength (40%), a better thermal conduction (60%). At the end, a much thinner tape (-30%) enabling the design of more compact generators is expected. This project can strongly impact the energy production field. For instance at the European scale, a .2% gain in generator conversion efficiency could save the equivalent of one nuclear power plant of 1000 MW (1.5 billions €), or nearly 10 fossil fuel power plants and related reduction in CO2 emission. It will also affect other very large markets like the industrial motor field using similar insulation tapes. The consortium of ANASTASIA project is equally composed of industrials and research laboratories, namely two manufacturers (tape and power generator), two generator end-users, four academic laboratories and the CEA research institute as coordinator.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Electrical power generators have service lifetimes of approximately 40 years and poor electrical insulation can lead to significant total losses. Important improvements in high-voltage electrical insulation could soon enhance efficiency.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

High-voltage electrical insulation tape is currently far behind the state - of - the - art. It is conventionally very heterogeneous combining materials such as glass fibres, mica flakes and polymers. The multi-layer architecture provides numerous interfaces acting as thermal barriers and/or potential sources of high-voltage partial discharges.

EU-funded scientists sought to develop radically improved high-voltage insulation tape through work on the project 'Advanced nano-structured tapes for electro-technical high power insulating applications' (ANASTASIA). They targeted homogenisation via incorporation of inorganic nanofillers.

Demonstrator stator bars manufactured with various formulations of tapes and resins were used to assess potential performance on stator windings of generators. Scientists demonstrated important improvements with insulating materials integrating nanoparticles in either the tape or the resin.

The most promising (nanosilica and boron nitride) tape improved the electrical lifetime by a factor of approximately five times and thermal conductivity by over 40%. As nano-impregnated tapes would be easier to produce in existing manufacturing systems than the resins, this is a welcome discovery. Scientists should thus be able to rapidly produce the tapes after further optimisation of the final design and formulation.

ANASTASIA demonstrated enhanced performance of insulators for high-voltage applications when nanoparticles were incorporated either in the tape or the resin. Bringing power generators up to speed will have important impact on energy efficiency, emissions and energy costs.