Dielectric insulation and high-voltage issues

TL;DR

This paper reviews dielectric insulation principles, failure mechanisms, aging, testing, and specific considerations for high-voltage magnets, emphasizing safety and reliability in electrical systems with high stored energy.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of dielectric insulation in high-voltage magnets, including failure modes, aging effects, and testing principles, with additional insights into superconducting magnet insulation.

Findings

Understanding of dielectric breakdown mechanisms

Insights into insulation aging processes

Guidelines for testing high-voltage insulation

Abstract

Electrical faults are in most cases dramatic events for magnets, due to the large stored energy which is potentially available to be dissipated at the fault location. After a reminder of the principles of electrostatics in Section 1, the basic mechanisms of conduction and breakdown in dielectrics are summarized in Section 2. Section 3 introduces the types and function of the electrical insulation in magnets, and Section 4 its relevant failure mechanisms. Section 5 deals with ageing and, finally, Section 6 gives some principles for testing. Though the School specifically dealt with warm magnets, for completeness some principles of dielectric insulation for superconducting accelerator magnets are briefly summarized in a dedicated appendix.