P4-4
STUDY ON PULSE CURRENT OF TYPICAL PD MODELS
IN POWER TRANSFORMER
Guoli Wang Yanpeng Hao Yanming Li
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, P. R. China
Abstract: In power transformer, partial discharge (PD)
detection is an effective means for monitoring and
evaluation of dielectric faults in an early stage of
development. Traditional PD detection methods can not
completely depict discharge mechanism of insulation
system, so pulse current of PD should be investigated.
In this paper, a broad band measuring system is
developed and the high speed digital oscilloscope
TDS680B is used to measure pulse current of PD. The
whole setup is tested by the PD pulse of standard corona
model. Then several typical PD defect models in power
transformer are designed and these pulse current are
measured by this system. Results show that, the PD
pulse in oil is always instability and oscillatory.
Moreover, for different models, the parameters of pulse
are different, which can be made the reference of PD
pattern recognition.
Keywords: power transformer pulse current of PD
pulse parameter
INTRODUCTION
PD activity is both a symptom of degradation in
the insulating systems of power transformer and a stress
mechanism which causes degradation. Over the years,
many methods for detection of PD phenomena have
been developed, the most common being acoustical,
optical, chemical and electrical techniques[’]. Traditional
PD detection is to measure and analysis the PD signals
under 1 MHz, the PD characteristic of insulation system
can not be completely depicted.
In recent years, the ultra-wide-band (UWB) PD
detection techniques have been put f o r ~ a r d [ * ] [ ~ ~ [ ~ ] .
Comparing with the traditional PD detection methods, it
has many advantages, such as high sensitivity, anti-
interference, large information and so on. To study the
discharge mechanism and the discharge pattern
recognition, the analysis of a single PD pulse should be
emphasized.
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SIMULATING PD SOURCES
In an oil-filled power transformer, because its
configuration is complex, the discharge places and the
discharge types may be various. Usually, the discharge
types could be summed as following:
1) Discharge in oil gap existing in the oil-barrier
insulation between windings;
2) Discharge in oil gap of the end windings;
3) Discharge in oil gap between the insulating wire
and the insulating paper;
4) Partial discharge of oil-paper insulation;
5 ) Discharge in oil gap between turns;
6) Partial breakdown of inter-turn insulation;
7) Surface discharge of insulation paper.
That is, the most common PD sources in power
transformer are voids, floating components, surface
discharge, sharp protrusions and so on[’]. To simulate the
isolation faults, five discharge sources are constructed
(see Fig. 1):
Point-to-plane discharge: The needle electrode has
a tip radius of 10 pm and the brass plane surface
electrode is 2.5 cm in diameter with rounded edges.
(Fig. 1a)
Internal discharge: One layer pressboard with a
void is conglutinated between two layers. The
diameter of the circular void is 20.0 mm. And all
the pressboard have the thickness of 1.0 mm.
(Fig. 1b)
Surface discharge: Two copper belts adhibited to
the pressboard, whose distance is 15.0 mm, are
used to make surface discharge. (Fig.1~)
Bubble discharge: Using a non-oil-immersed
pressboard between two column electrodes, a
bubble discharge in oil can be realized. (Fig. 1d)
Floating part discharge: A copper chip at floating
potential is fixed onto a pressboard to simulate
floating discharge.(Fig. 1e)
 be kept as compact as possible, and the matching of

I ‘Em 5 0 0 non-inductive resistor, 50R coaxial line and 50Q

internal impedance for digital oscilloscope must be
adopted.
The digital oscilloscope samples PD signals using
a fast analog-to-digital converter (ADC). At evenly
spaced intervals, the ADC measures the voltage level
and stores the digitized values in high speed memory.
To achieve real time recording, the raw digitized PD
data, at the same time, must be also transferred at high
speed into the computer through the industry standard
v
I GPIB bus. Once the raw PD data from the interfacing
circuit have been transferred to the computer, the
I HV information can be analyzed immediately and displayed
as required. The format by which the raw PD data are
saved in a computer file is hardware dependent.

EXPERIMENTS
(e) Floating part discharge Performance Verification of the System

Fig.1 Simulated PD sources for power transformer

MEASURING SYSTEM

A schematic diagram of the wide-band measuring

system is shown in Fig.2. The system consists of the
detection units and the data acquisition units. (a) Positive pulse (b) Negative pulse
Fig.3 Corona in air at 8.0 kV
Using the point-to-plane
corona discharge in air, the
response capabilities of the
wide-band PD system are
assessed. Fig.3 portrays a
typical discharge pulse
L VF-Low voltage filter; T-HV test transformer;HVF-High voltage filter; obtained at 8.0 kV for the 25
C, and C2- Arms of capacitive divider; CrCoupling capacitor; Z,,-RC measuring impedance; m m needle to Plane gap in air
C,-Specimen; R,,,-50 Non-inductive resistor: Z-Transient voltage suppressor (TVS); at atmospheric pressure. The
A-Screening box; B-Screening room; L-50 Q Coaxial line; discharge phenomena are
Fig.2 The schematic diagram of wide-band detection system very stable. The rise time is
The PD pulses are observed and recorded typically of the order of ns
simultaneously with a narrow bandwidth 300 ~ H Z and the superimposed ripple on the pulse represents
discharge pulse detector and a wide bandwidth 1 G H ~ mainly the ambient noise contribution. The results
digital oscilloscope (Tektronix type TDS680B), having detected by this wide-band system are in concordance
a sampling capability of 5 G S / ~ .In order to avoid with other systems in literatures. Thus, we can conclude
traveling wave problems, the test circuit’s layout must that the designed measuring system in this paper has

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exce I lent performan~e[~1[~1[~1[~1.

Measuring Results

Using this wide-band measuring system, the pulse

current of typical PD models in power transformer is
detected and analyzed. For every discharge type, many
models are designed; and for every model, several (a) Positive pulse (b) Negative pulse
experiments are done. In this way, the deconcentration Fig.6 Bubble discharge in oil at 7.0 kV
of results can be decreased.,
Fig.7 portrays a typical
Fig.4 portrays a typical discharge
discharge pulse obtained at 18.0 kV for floating part
pulse obtained at 15.0 kV for internal discharge in oil.
discharge in oil. With the voltage rising, the amplitude
The positive and negative discharges occur almost in the
of pulse increases, but the pulse shape changes little.
same voltage, and the pulse shapes are also similar.
The parameters of this single PD pulse are shown in
With the voltage rising, the amplitude of pulse increases,
Table 1.
but the pulse shape changes little. The parameters of this
single PD pulse are shown in Table 1.

(a) Positive pulse (b) Negative pulse

Fig.7 Floating part discharge in oil at 18.0 kV
(a) Positive pulse (b) Negative pulse
Fig.4 Internal discharge in oil at 15.0 kV Tab. 1 Pulse oarameters for tvoical PD models
Pulse parameters (ns)
This discharge has very high
PD type" - . _ l lT,
l-._"~ Td T,", T,,, L,"
....................."
" ...........
intensity. Once PD phenomena occur, the tree-shape 1 5-6 10-11 13-14 19-21 80-90
2 6-8 9-10 11-13 14-16 140-150
carbonized trace will appear in the pressboard contacted 3 3-4 9-11 11-13 14-15 120-140
with the needle electrode. A typical discharge pulse, 4 8-9 11-12 18-19 28-30 290-300
which obtained at 16.0 kV for surface discharge in oil, 1- Internal discharge; 2- Surface discharge;
is shown in Fig.5. The parameters of this single PD 3-Bubble discharge; &Floating part discharge
pulse are shown in Table 1. In Table 1, the parameters (calculated by the given
program) of PD pulse are illustrates clearly in Fig.8I6I.
They include pulse risetime T,= t j - I,, pulse droptime
T,= t2 - t6, 50%, pulse duration T,,= t, - t3, 10% pulse
duration T I ,= tz - t, and the total pulse duration c,,,,,,
(including the oscillating components).

(a) Positive pulse (b) Negative pulse

Fig.5 Surface discharge in oil at 16.0 kV

e The phenomena of bubble

discharge are very similar to internal discharge. Fig.6
portrays a typical discharge pulse obtained at 7.0 kV for
bubble discharge in oil. The parameters of this single Fig. 8 The parameters of a single PD pulse
PD pulse are shown in Table 1. From the data in Table 1, we can conclude that, for

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different PD models, the pulse parameters are different.
Thus, detecting the pulse parameters for every discharge
as the reference samples, the simply PD pattern
recognition can be realized using artificial neural
networkIJ01.
CONCLUSIONS
a. A real-time high-speed measuring system is
developed for PD pulse waveform measurement. The
whole setup is tested by PD pulse of standard corona
model, the results are in concordance with systems
published in international literatures.
b. Several typical PD defect models in power
transformer are designed, also these pulse currents are
measured and analyzed by this system.
c. Results show that, PD pulse in oil is always
instability and oscillatory. Moreover, for different
models, the parameters of pulse are different, which can
be made the reference of PD pattern recognition. Thus,
the features of pulse waveform are extracted and the
recognition can be realized using artificial neural
network (ANN).
degradation by ultra-wide-band PD detection”,
IEEE Trans. on Diel. and Elect. Insul., 1995, 2(5):
744-760.
[SI M. Pompili, C. Mazzetti and R. Bartnikas, “Early
stage of negative PD in dielectric liquids”, IEEE
Trans. on Diel. and Elect. Insul., 1995, 2(4): 602-
613.
[9] M. Pompili, C. Mazzetti and R. Bartnikas,
“Simultaneous ultrawide and narrowband detection
of PD pulses in dielectric liquids”, IEEE Trans. on
Diel. and Elect. Insul., 1998,5(3): 402-407.
[10]E. Gulski and A. Krivda, “Neural networks as a
tool for recognition of partial discharges”, IEEE
Trans. on Elect. Insul., 1993,28(6): 984-1001.
ADDRESS OF AUTHOR
Guoli Wang
Department of Electrical Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an city, 710049, China.
E-mail to ‘‘w~1-0 10I-I7-’
5 * -or‘ ‘ -

REFERENCES

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