University of Southampton

Overall presentation

The School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton is one of the UK's leading academic departments, integrating computer science, electronics, and electrical engineering. With over 500 researchers in the School, ECS has unrivalled depth and breadth of expertise in world-leading research, new developments and their applications. Today, ECS is the UK’s largest research grouping in the area, with around 250 academic and research staff and 250 research students. It has around 800 undergraduate students and over 300 MSc students. Its research is carried out in 11 world-leading research groups, it hosts national research centres and unique facilities, and has a well-deserved reputation for enterprise and the establishment of spin-off companies. Within ECS, the Electrical Power Engineering Group has an established international reputation for excellence in research into a wide variety of high voltage phenomena. A key element in the group’s research philosophy is multidisciplinarity and its composition provides a wide range of expertise in high voltage techniques, properties of materials, polymer science, test protocols, analytical and diagnostic techniques, data acquisition and applied signal processing. Much of the activity within the laboratory centres around polymeric insulation systems and, uniquely, it combines comprehensive electrical testing facilities with a wide range of sample preparation and characterization tools.

Activities at the University of Southampton are primarily focused on electrical characterisation of the various material systems, specifically, in connection with their dielectric and high voltage response. AC, DC and impulse behaviour will be examined and the resulting data will be analysed assuming the widely accepted two-parameter Weibull distribution. In addition, partial discharge measurements will be performed, as widely used as part of condition monitoring strategies, both to test as-produced materials and as a means of providing preliminary data towards the development of in-service assessment of asset health and plant remnant life strategies. Corona discharge exposure will be used to determine the influence of material formulation and sample preparation on resistance to surface arcing. These electrical results will be compared with those obtained using a novel laser ablation technique developed at the University of Southampton. Finally, the real and imaginary parts of the permittivity of specimens of tape and their constituent material will be determined by dielectric spectroscopy. In addition to these electrical measurements, the experience of researchers at the University of Southampton in areas such as sample preparation and material characterisation will also be fed into the project.

Further information

For further information about ANASTASIA, please contact:

Prof. Alun Vaughan: +44 (0)23 8059 3398
Dr. Paul Lewin: +44 (0)23 8059 3586