Project overview

Energy saving is a major societal issue that concerns a large field of technical applications, in particular electric power generation. The basic statement motivating the ANASTASIA project is that today the energy conversion efficiency of generators is restricted by (i) thermal as well as (ii) electrical strength limitations due, in particular, to the electrical insulation itself. The key feature of the generator field is that it deals with very long lifetime systems (40 years!). Consequently, it involves very traditional insulating materials and well established tape structures whose electrical properties and concepts are in fact far behind the current insulating material state of the art. As a result, high voltage insulating tapes are rather thick, poor thermal conductors and require energy consuming cooling systems.
Today, high voltage insulating tape technology presents a very significant scope for progress that must be absolutely exploited to increase the generator conversion efficiency.

ANASTASIA aims to replace the current insulator tapes for high power applications. The current tapes are thick, semi-rigid and show poor thermal conductivity and mechanical stability. The goal is to replace this system with a thinner flexible structure, incorporating nanofillers and/or mica flakes. The objective is to increase the field strength from 2.5-3 to 4 kV/mm, to increase the thermal conductivity from 0.3 to 0.5 W/m.°C, and to increase the thermal class from F 155°C to H 180°C.

To meet the objectives of the project, the ANASTASIA project will develop three complementary tape nano-structuration approaches:

• A polymer route based on polymer/inorganic nanoparticle blending including a novel mica paper structure involving dielectric nano-flakes. This is a nanocomposite top-down approach.
• A polymer route based on in situ growth of dielectric nanoparticles. This is a nanocomposite bottom-up approach.
• A sol-gel inorganic based matrix for a quasi inorganic concept.