Degradation of Aviation Wires Due to Partial Discharge Under High dv/dt Square-Wave Voltages and Low Pressure

This paper investigates the time-evolution of the partial discharge (PD) current pulse in aircraft power wiring under voltage pulses with short rise/fall times. The voltage excitation is a repetitive unipolar square pulse. The dc bus voltage is kept at voltage levels higher than the partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) to examine the influence of the pressure, the peak-to-peak voltage, and the voltage rise time on the PD behavior and lifetime. The degradation test is performed in a chamber with dry air to minimize the influence of environmental changes. The analysis system is programmed to calculate peak PD magnitude, PD duration, PD charge, and PD energy. The results show that the pressure has the highest influence on the lifetime, followed by the applied peak-to-peak voltage, and then the voltage rise time. The influence of the peak-to-peak voltage and the voltage rise time becomes more severe at low pressure.