Influence of aging on electrolytic capacitors function in static converters: Fault prediction method

The failure of electrolytic capacitors is the cause of most breakdowns of static converters. The function of these capacitors is to filter and to store electrical energy. Accelerated aging tests showed that the increase of the internal resistance ESR of the capacitors is a good indicator of their faulty state. The filter function is affected by the capacitors wearout on the one hand. At high frequency, the voltage ripple at the terminals of the capacitors increases according to ESR rise. On the other hand, the storage function is not much influenced by the capacitors aging. As static converters work most of the time at variable load, high transient values of the voltage ripple occur when output current changes that can induce false alarms. These transients are verified theoretically and experimentally. In order to avoid these transients effects, we suggest to monitor the fundamental component of the voltage ripple. This latter waveform is the best signature of the capacitors state. The ESR of the capacitors and the time before their failure are deduced from the processing of this waveform with other converter parameters such as input voltage, output current and ambient temperature