Self-healing in segmented metallized film capacitors: Experimental and theoretical investigations for engineering design

A significant increase in the efficiency of modern metallized film capacitors has been achieved by the application of special segmented nanometer-thick electrodes. The proper design of the electrode segmentation guarantees the best efficiency of the capacitor's self-healing (SH) ability. Meanwhile, the reported theoretical and experimental results have not led to the commonly accepted model of the SH process, since the experimental SH dissipated energy value is several times higher than the calculated one. In this paper, we show that the difference is caused by the heat outflow into polymer film. Based on this, a mathematical model of the metallized electrode destruction is developed. These insights in turn are leading to a better understanding of the SH development. The adequacy of the model is confirmed by both the experiments and the numerical calculations. A procedure of optimal segmented electrode design is offered.