Lifetime Analysis of Metallized Polypropylene Capacitors in Modular Multilevel Converter Based on Finite Element Method

Ran Yao*, Hui Li, Wei Lai, Amir Sajjad Bahman, Francesco Iannuzzo

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)
93 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Metallized polypropylene capacitors (MPPCs) are widely used in the modular multilevel converter (MMC) for high-voltage direct-current transmission systems because of their lower power losses and self-healing capability. The performance of MPPCs in MMC deteriorates with time due to the increase in the equivalent series resistance and a decrease in the capacitance. Therefore, the reliability analysis of MPPC is critical. This article proposes a finite element method (FEM) to analyze the reliability of MPPC by considering corrosion failure. First, the equivalent electric model and actual thermal model of the MPPC are established to calculate power losses and temperature distribution of the MPPC. Second, the corrosion failure of the MPPC is analyzed and simulated by the FEM model, and the lifetime model of MPPC is established by the aging model of polypropylene film and verified by the traditional lifetime model of corrosion failure and the floating aging tests. Finally, the voltage of each submodule (SM) is extracted in the MMC model, and the lifetime of MPPCs in each SM is analyzed by combining the FEM model and the lifetime model. The results show that in the MMC, the SMs in each arm near the dc line or the middle part have a lower lifetime of MPPCs.
Original languageEnglish
Article number9040577
JournalIEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics
Volume9
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)4248-4259
Number of pages12
ISSN2168-6777
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Manuscript received November 22, 2019; revised January 14, 2020 and February 25, 2020; accepted March 13, 2020. Date of publication March 18, 2020; date of current version July 30, 2021. This work was supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2018YFB0905803, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China–State Grid Corporation Joint Fund for Smart Grid under Grant U1966213, and in part by the Graduate Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing, China, under Grant CYB18008. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor Andreas Lindemann. (Corresponding authors: Ran Yao; Hui Li.) Ran Yao is with the State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment and System Security and New Technology, School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China, and also with the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark (e-mail: yaoran1234@163.com).

Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the National Key Research and Development Program of China under Grant 2018YFB0905803, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China State Grid Corporation Joint Fund for Smart Grid under Grant U1966213, and in part by the Graduate Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing, China, under Grant CYB18008.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.

Keywords

  • Corrosion failure
  • finite element method (FEM)
  • lifetime prediction
  • metallized polypropylene power capacitors

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