Liquid-insulated transformers, containing 5-80 tons of liquid, are vital for electrification and energy security. New insulating liquids can be more sustainable, safer, and better at cooling. However, the lack of standards for evaluating their dielectric withstand performance creates design challenges and uncertainty, slowing the development and usage of new technologies.
Project goals:
- Establish methods for documenting, predicting, and testing the withstand performance of insulating liquids, qualifying them use in specific transformer designs.
- Test the hypothesis that electric breakdown in dielectric liquids is governed by electron avalanches in a space-charge-limited electric field.