Article citation info: YAng Y-H, WAng K-S. Study of the characteristics about insulation damage based on the accelerated life tests. Eksploatacja i niezawodnosc – Maintenance and Reliability 2013; 15 (4): 325–331.

Study of the characteriSticS about inSulation damage baSed on the accelerated life teStS badanie charakteryStyk uSzkodzeń izolacji w oparciu o teSty przySpieSzonego Starzenia In this study the Maximum Likelihood Estimator is taken to identify the characteristics of insulation failure about the class-H mo-tors by considering the accelerated life testing data under censored situation from Nelson. Based on the Weibull survival modeling the failure is expressed as the series connection of three modes, namely the turn, phase, and ground, respectively, the so-called competing failure. The main concern in present investigation is about the variation of shape parameters, β with the temperature. The Gompertz-type relation of βi(T) is suggested with the reference temperature, Tri for the i-th failure mode. It is found that the Tri ’s not only distinguish the characteristics of cumulative damage process about the insulation, but also involve the estimation of mean-time-to-failure (MTTF). Physically Tri denotes the turning point of varied βi as the i-th failure mode becomes moderate in a sense of less capability about the accumulation of insulation damage at higher temperature where corresponds the thermal degradation process. The numerical results indicate that the insulation technique used is acceptable as the operation temperature kept in the use condition 363K. According to the predicted lifetime as the temperature rises up to 440K, which still within the al-lowed range in application, the turn structure needs to be rearranged primarily, then the phase next. The ground mode has only influence on the failure at much higher temperature