Ultra-high Frequency Partial Discharge Research Articles

Analysis of the correlation between GIS partial discharge current waveform and charge quantity with UHF signals

The Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) method, as a crucial technology for online GIS monitoring, struggles with the issue of being unable to accurately reflect the number of partial discharges, which poses a significant challenge for this technique. To examine the relationship between partial discharge waveforms, charge quantity, and UHF signals, a physical field model of partial discharge is developed using finite element simulation software, allowing a comparison of the peak-to-peak values of UHF signals with the parameters of the partial discharge current. Research demonstrates a roughly linear relationship between the peak-to-peak values of UHF signals and the magnitude of the partial discharge current but no definitive connection with the discharge quantity. These significant findings guide the quantitative detection of partial discharges in electrical equipment using the UHF method.

Research on Denoising of GIS Ultra-High Frequency Partial Discharge Signal Based on VMD Combined with S-G Filter

Given the problem that it is easy to receive thermal noise interference from the electronic circuit and equipment circuit of the detection system in the current feature frequency detection of Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) equipment, this paper proposes an ultra-high frequency (UHF) signal noise reduction method based on variational mode decomposition (VMD) combined with Savitzky-Golay (S-G) filter and tests it through simulation. By using VMD combine with the S-G filter method, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of signals can be effectively improved and the interference of white noise to signals can be reduced.

Simulation study of partial discharge UHF signal propagation characteristics in GIS

Insulation defects inside a Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) can generate partial discharges, and the current pulses caused by them can excite ultra-high frequency (UHF) electromagnetic waves. To study the attenuation characteristics of UHF signal propagation in GIS, simulation models of the straight cylinder, insulator, L-type, and T-type structures are established by CST simulation software. Then the propagation characteristics of partial discharge UHF signal are studied and analyzed. The simulation results show that the electromagnetic wave propagates in each structure inside the GIS with different degrees of attenuation. When passing through insulators continuously, the first insulator has the most serious attenuation; when passing through T-shaped structures, the attenuation of T-shaped vertical branches is more serious than linear branches.

On-Line Partial Discharge Monitoring System for Switchgears Based on the Detection of UHF Signals

Aiming at the phenomenon of partial discharge caused by the insulation fault of switchgears, an ultra-high frequency (UHF) partial discharge online monitoring system based on the Internet of Thing (IoT) is designed. The hardware of the system mainly consists of UHF sensors, signal conditioning circuits, and data acquisition circuits to realize the monitoring of the discharge signal. The monitoring data is uploaded to the cloud platform through the 4G DTU module, and the host computer software based on B/S architecture is designed on the server side, which can monitor the operation status of the switchgear anytime and anywhere. The experimental results show that the detection system is stable and reliable and can meet practical needs.

Frequency Range of UHF PD Measurements in Power Transformers

Although partial discharge (PD) measurement is a well-accepted technology to assess the quality of the insulation system of power transformers, there are still uncertainties about which frequency range PDs radiate and which frequency range should be evaluated in a measurement. This paper discusses both a UHF PD frequency range obtained from studies investigating laboratory experiments and a frequency range from numerous practical use cases with online and on-site measurements. The literature review reveals a frequency spectrum of ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) PD measurements in the range of 200 MHz to 1 GHz for most publications. Newer publications extend this range from 3 to 6 GHz. The use cases present UHF PD measurements at transformers with power ratings up to 1000 MVA to determine frequency ranges which are considered effective for practical applications. The “common” frequency range, where measurements from all use cases provide signal power, is from approximately 400 MHz to 900 MHz, but it is noted that the individual frequency range, as well as the peak UHF signal power, strongly varies from case to case. We conclude from the discussed laboratory experiments and practical observations that UHF PD measurements in power transformers using either valve or window antennas, according to Cigré, are feasible methods to detect PD.

Requirements for ultra-high frequency partial discharge monitoring systems for gas-insulated switchgear

Requirements for ultra-high frequency partial discharge monitoring systems for gas-insulated switchgear

External Partial Discharge Detection of Gas-Insulated Switchgears Using a Low-Noise and Enhanced-Sensitivity UHF Sensor Module

Ultra-high frequency (UHF) partial discharge (PD) detection is essential for routine maintenance of gas-insulated switchgear (GIS). Realizing low-noise detection with cost-effectiveness and ease of installation is promising but challenging. This paper presents a novel broadband noise-shaping network (BNSN) integrated with a printed monopole antenna (PMA) sensor to realize sufficient noise rejection and good impedance matching. Moreover, by analyzing the equivalent noise circuit and codesigning a high-speed preamplifier circuit with the proposed sensor, the detection sensitivity and anti-interference of the proposed sensor module are improved. The effectiveness and superiority of the proposed sensor are first verified in accordance with IEC 62478, followed by validations using a PD simulator and a real 24-kV GIS. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed sensor module has the capability to identify different PD types even in noisy environments.

A Flexible Planarized Biconical Antenna for Partial Discharge Detection in Gas-Insulated Switchgear

This letter proposes a new ultrahigh frequency (UHF) flexible planar biconical antenna design method for partial discharge (PD) detection in gas-insulated switchgear. Continuous transverse branching increases the electrical length to expand the bandwidth and miniaturize the antenna. For comparison of the effects of the lateral branch structure model, the optimized dimensions of both designed antennas are 150×150 mm, and both use polydimethylsiloxane, flexible material with a thickness of 0.5 mm, as the substrate. The results show that the S11 of the antennas is less than −10 dB in the bands of 0.3–0.5, 0.64–1.25, and 1.4–3.0 GHz, and the planar biconical antennas still maintain good bandwidth and gain under different bending radii of 0, 150, 350, and 500 mm. The PD test platform was built to test the antenna. The experimental data show that the two flexible antennas designed in this letter can detect the PD-radiated electromagnetic wave signal with a discharge of 15 pc before and after the bending deformation and meet the UHF partial discharge detection requirements.

Small window cross-correlation accumulation time difference algorithm based on peak judgment method and generalized cross-correlation method

Based on peak judgment method and generalized correlation method, this paper proposes a new ultra high frequency partial discharge signal time difference algorithm. This algorithm avoids the defect that the traditional cross-correlation algorithm has a large correlation error for signals with lower amplitude. At the same time, by accumulating the correlation results of N groups of data, the influence of random interference of UHF PD signal on the correlation results is reduced. N times of correlation analysis were performed and correlation results were accumulated in a small area near the peak of the UHF PD signal, not only avoiding the deficiencies of the traditional peak judgment method that the peak value of the UHF PD signal is not easy to determine, but also minimizing the effect of PD white noise. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the time difference calculated by different algorithm are compared, and the results show that the proposed algorithm is superior to other existing algorithms.

Study of Ultra High Frequency Measurement Techniques for Online Monitoring of Partial Discharges in High Voltage Systems

Partial Discharge (PD) activity is a pre-cursor for insulation degradation which may eventually lead to catastrophic failure of the electrical equipment with severe social and economic consequences. It is therefore imperative that PD is detected at its early stages to permit repair or replacement, prior to total failure. The bulky non-planar construction of existing ultra-high frequency (UHF) sensors coupled with the lack of proper feeding techniques and the ultrawide signal bandwidth of PD signals which necessitates the use of digital storage oscilloscope have restricted field deployment of UHF technique for online PD detection. In this work, we present a compact ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.58 \boldsymbol {\lambda } $ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) wideband (0.5-3 GHz) dual arm Archimedean slot spiral with coplanar waveguide feed for PD detection, where <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\boldsymbol {\lambda } $ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the wavelength at center frequency. Numerical simulations of the antenna were compared with the measurements of the fabricated antenna. The fabricated wideband antenna was used to detect PD emissions from a mineral oil test cell connected to 10 kVA 50 Hz transformer. We also present different UHF signal measurement techniques ranging from PD pulse detection to reconstruction of the bandlimited PD signal in the digital domain for online structural health monitoring of high voltage systems. The proposed UHF PD measurement techniques are low cost compared to the conventional approach and indicate the feasibility of an embedded system for online PD monitoring using the fabricated UHF sensor.

Research on UHF PD detection method based on improved DBN

With the development of power grid technology and the widespread application of gas insulator switchgear (GIS) equipment, the power supply reliability of the power system has been greatly improved, but the problem of partial discharge (PD) faults in GIS has always been prominent, seriously affecting the safe and stable operation of the power grid. How to quickly determine the type and cause of GIS discharge is the key to online PD detection. In this paper, in order to deal with the very complicated data processing of ultra-high frequency (UHF) PD, the time-consuming and low efficiency of manually judging the type of PD, a classification model of UHF PD system based on deep confidence network (DBN) is established and an automatic classification method for UHF PD based on improved DBN is proposed; the activation function Sigmoid is improved to effectively prevent the occurrence of the gradient disappearance problem; the optimized DBN parameters are used to train and classify data of different PD types. The classification accuracy rate of the test results reached 96.7%, realizing the rapid classification evaluation of UHF PD types.

Pattern Recognition of Growth Characteristics Based on UHF PD Signals of Electrical Tree

In insulation system of power equipment, electrical tree grown under the effect of partial discharges (PD) is one of the main degradation processes leading to failure of high voltage polymeric insulation. PD signals are measured and analyzed for condition monitoring of electrical insulation. In this paper, the combine detection system of Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) PD and electrical tree was used to test PE samples. Based on the energy amplitude variation, the average energy and the average energy distribution of PD signals to identify the growth process of electrical tree, twenty-eight PD characteristic parameters were used as input parameters, such as the energy percentage of 16-layer wavelet decomposition, the wavelet coefficient parameter and the time-frequency domain parameter, which entered the three-layer Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) of forty-five hidden neurons, and then the accuracy of pattern recognition during the growth process of electrical tree can reach 99.93% after 5000 steps of training cycle. The consistency of calculation results and experimental results presents that the calculation method can reveal the relationship between PD signals and the growth of electrical tree, which lays the foundation for the process analysis of electrical tree and insulation state monitoring.

Design and Implementation of Ultra-Wide Band Antenna for Partial Discharge Detection in High Voltage Power Equipment

Partial discharges (PD) are the most common and harmful threat to the health of electrical insulation of high voltage (HV) and high field (HF) equipment. The occurrence of PD activity in HV and MV equipment is at the same time a cause and a sign of insulation degradation that may eventually result in the breakdown of the HV power equipment. For the safe and reliable operation of HV power equipment, continuous PD monitoring needs to be conducted conveniently to prevent any unplanned power outages and damage to electrical power equipment. The ultra-high frequency (UHF) PD measurement method has been widely used as an effective technique to detect PD activity on HV power equipment due to its non-invasive principle. To enable PD detection accuracy, there is still a need for more sensitive PD sensors that can assist the UHF PD monitoring system by suppressing ambient background noise and low-frequency electromagnetic interferences from telecommunication such as GSM signals. To tackle the sensitivity issues, this article presents a new design of ultra-wideband (UWB) microstrip patch antenna that is capable of effective suppression of low-frequency interference signals. The proposed antenna, designed, simulated, and optimized using the CST Microwave Studio software, has a bandwidth of 3.3GHz, below -10dB, in the operating frequency range of 1.2GHz-4.5GHz. The prototype of this antenna, printed on an FR4 substrate of a thickness of 1.6mm and a dielectric constant of 4.4, featuring a compact size of 100mm <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times100$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times1.6$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm, was implemented to detect PD through laboratory experiments. This paper shows that the designed UWB antenna has high sensitivity, good noise rejection and it is, therefore, a promising candidate sensor for PD detection on HV equipment.

Comparative Analysis of Partial Discharge Detection Features Using a UHF Antenna and Conventional HFCT Sensor

This article presents a design of ultra-high frequency (UHF), ultra-wide band (UWB) antenna used for partial discharge (PD) detection on high voltage and medium voltage power system equipment. The proposed UHF antenna has a working frequency band of 1.2GHz-4.5GHz, covering a total bandwidth of 3.3GHz with a return loss less than -10dB in the entire antenna’s operating frequency. The computer simulation technology (CST) Microwave Studio software was used to design, simulate and optimize the proposed antenna. Upon simulation and optimization process, the antenna prototype was fabricated on the FR-4 substrate of 1.6 mm thickness and dielectric permittivity of 4.4. This antenna has a compact size of 100mm x100mm.The radiating patch and the ground plane of this antenna are made of annealed copper whose thickness is 0.035mm. The simulations and measurement results for the proposed antenna are in a good agreement, and the return loss of this antenna is less than -10dB with voltage standing wave ratio, VSWR, < 2 within the frequency range of interest. The proposed antenna performance in PD sensing is compared with a commercial high-frequency current transformer, HFCT. To validate the sensitivity performance of the designed antenna, experimental PD measurements were carried out by using an epoxy slab inserted between two parallel plates electrode model, in order to generate surface discharge on the insulator, and using a needle-plate electrode configuration to generate corona discharge in transformer oil. Based on PD measurement results, it was shown that the designed antenna has a high sensitivity, which make it a suitable candidate for UHF partial discharge monitoring on high voltage and medium voltage power assets.

Planar Ultrawideband Circularly Polarized Cosine Slot Archimedean Spiral Antenna for Partial Discharge Detection

Design and experimental verification of an ultrawideband planar circularly polarized ultrahigh frequency (UHF) sensor is presented for detection of partial discharge (PD) activities in high voltage (HV) equipment. The proposed sensor is cavity-backed cosine slot Archimedean spiral (CSAS) antenna with an electromagnetic (EM) transparent radome. The dual-arm slot spiral was meandered as cosine wave for size reduction and optimized for broadband operation with circular polarization (CP) over 0.5-5 GHz. Unidirectional radiation pattern with CP was achieved over 0.5-5 GHz using an optimized cavity loaded with EM absorber. The fabricated UHF CSAS sensor has the widest operating bandwidth of 0.5-5 GHz with circular polarization and the smallest aperture of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.26\lambda {}_{L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> when compared to the existing UHF PD sensors, where <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\lambda {}_{L}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. Time domain incipient discharge signals and phase resolved PD patterns gathered for three commonly occurring defects in test cells mimicking gas insulated switchgear (GIS) indicate better sensitivity and detection capability for the fabricated CSAS UHF sensor than the reference PD sensor. PD signal measurements and comparison with other UHF PD sensors indicate that the proposed UHF CSAS sensor could be used for PD detection in HV equipment.

A Fuzzy Interpolation Cross-Correlation Method for Time-Delay Estimation of Partial Discharge UHF Pulse Signals

Time-delay estimation of partial discharge (PD) ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) pulse signals is one of the effective means to diagnose the local defect of electrical equipment. In order to improve the time-delay estimation accuracy of a multielement PD UHF pulse signal sensor array and reduce the cost of the PD detection system, a fuzzy interpolation cross-correlation method for time-delay estimation of PD UHF pulse signals was proposed in this paper. Improving the signal sampling rate is an effective way to improve the time-delay estimation accuracy. In this work, the fuzzy interpolation inference method was applied to interpolate intermediate values into the feature area of the PD UHF signal to improve the sampling rate, and then the cross-correlation method was used to estimate the time delay. This method not only improves the system sampling rate by fuzzy interpolation inference, which can make up for the deficiency of system equipment sampling performance, but also reduces the estimation error caused by noninteger multiple sampling intervals of signal time delay. The comparative experiment results demonstrate the power of the proposed method in improving the accuracy of the time-delay estimation of PD UHF pulse signals.

Analysis of Partial Discharge Spectrum Based on Ultra-High Frequency Detection Method

Oil immersed power transformer is the most widely used large power transformer in power system and its insulation structure is mainly composed of oil, paper and other solid insulation materials. Partial discharge monitoring is an effective means to find dielectric faults of transformer in an early stage of development. Ultra-high frequency(UHF) partial discharge detection technology has high detection frequency and strong anti-interference ability, which is suitable for transformer online detection. In this paper, five typical transformer discharge models are built, and the discharge spectra of each model are measured by a UHF sensor. The test results show that the surface discharge and wedge discharge most occurs near the voltage peak, the discharge phase distribution of floating part discharge is very wide, the internal air gas discharge mostly occurs in the area where the absolute value of voltage increases, and the point-to-plane discharge has a typical polarity effect.

Research on PD source successive approximation positioning method based on multi sample information

Ultra High Frequency (UHF) detection technology is widely used in Partial Discharge (PD) detection and positioning of electrical equipment. However, how to achieve accurate and reliable fault localization based on UHF PD is an urgent problem to be solved. In this paper, the multi-samples of PD are calculated by the successive approximation method and the optimization function is established by using the linear spatial relationship between the initial value and the sensors. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) is exploited to search for the minimum value of function, and the optimal result is obtained by cyclic calculation. The optimal PD source position determined by this way has higher accuracy, solving the problem of strong dispersion and large error in PD location by a single sample. The positioning error is reduced from tens of centimetres of the single sample to few centimetres, which is fewer than the results calculated by the average method. In addition, it is found that the positioning precision becomes higher as the number of samples selected for optimize calculation (i.e. m) decreases.

Research on improved time difference estimation algorithm based on fourth-order cumulant in UHF PD location

Ultra-high frequency (UHF) detection technology is a fast-developing method for partial discharge (PD) diagnosis of electrical equipment in recent years. Extracting accurate time difference is the priority for PD location in electrical equipment using UHF technology. An improved time difference estimation algorithm based on fourth-order cumulants was first proposed in this article. It mainly included the following two steps, that is using the “correlation-shift-superposition” transformation method to process multiple samples collected from a PD source at first, and then utilizing the statistical characteristics of the fourth-order cumulant to calculate the time difference. In addition, the accuracy and stability of the improved algorithm and the other three common methods were compared. The calculation results show that the improved time difference estimation algorithm based on the fourth-order cumulant can obtain a more accurate and stable time difference than the other three methods. Improved time difference estimation algorithm based on fourth-order cumulant can approximately meet the requirements for reliable location of PD sources.

Experimental Research on the Sensitivity of Partial Discharge Ultra High Frequency Sensor Structure Parameters

With the development of intelligent high voltage switch, online gas insulated switchgear discharge detection technology has been more and more widely applied. Because of the high sensing sensitivity and good antiinterference performance of build-in partial discharge sensor, it is currently required to install them on gas insulated switchgear products with voltage levels of 220 kV and above at the factory. The structural parameters of the build-in partial discharge sensor is of great importance to its sensing sensitivity. Therefore, in this paper, the influence of the structure change on the sensitivity of axisymmetric gas insulated switchgear build-in partial discharge sensor is experimentally studied. A practical gas insulated switchgear test model was established in the laboratory, and the frequency domain measurement system based on Spectrogram analyzer and synchronous sweep signal generator was adopted. By comparing the insertion loss generated by the build-in sensor when receiving sweep signal, the influence of structural parameter changes on the sensing sensitivity was analyzed. The results show that the diameter of the build-in sensor should be matched with the diameter of the hand-hole. The match of the larger diameter of the hand-hole and the smaller diameter of the sensor can increase the sensing sensitivity, but when the diameter of the sensor is close to the diameter of the hand-hole, the sensitivity will be significantly reduced. In addition, metal bolts with the sensor electrode and its insulating support fixed to the hand-hole cover can also result in a significant reduction in sensing sensitivity. Using the same measuring principle and system, the propagation attenuation characteristics of partial discharge ultra high frequency signal in gas insulated switchgear typical structures (linear and L-shaped structures) are also experimentally studied. The results show that the average attenuation of partial discharge ultra high frequency signal in gas insulated switchgear along the linear distance is 0.3 dB/m, and the attenuation through every L-shaped structure is 4.2 dB.