Basics of Partial Discharge Phenomenon

A) PD inception in void:

For simplicity let there be a rectangular void in between two parallel plate
electrodes in a 2-D system as shown in Fig-1. Then the potential distribution will be
capacitive in nature and the potential that will appear across the void will depend on
its dimension w.r.t. the whole arrangement as shown in Fig-2. The field intensity
within the
V V

V− V2
V1 = C1 ε rε0A
2 C1 =
εr (d − d 1 ) / 2
d1 d V2 C2
ε 0 A1
V− V2 C2 =
A1 V1 = d1
C1
2

A
Fig-1. Void in parallel-plate arrangement Fig-2. Equivalent capacitive network

V2
void will be given by Evoid = . If the field intensity exceeds the breakdown
d1
strength of the gas in the void, then partial discharge will take place within the void.
The voltage V at which PD starts within the void is known as PD inception voltage.
The voids are generally filled with gas, mostly air. Breakdown strength of air at NTP
is 3 kV/mm. However, this breakdown strength is a function of the gas pressure as
shown in Fig-3.

Ebr

3kV/mm
Ebr-min

Pm 1atm. Pressure
Fig- 3. Breakdown strength of air as a function of pressure

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At a pressure below 1 atm upto Pm , the breakdown strength of air is less than 3
kV/mm. Since, the pressure within the void is often less than 1 atm, the breakdown
strength of gas in void can be assumed to be anything between 2.5 to 3 kV/mm for the
simulation of partial discharges.

B) Generation of PD pulse under sinusoidal applied voltage:

v
+Vm

PD PD

π θ1' θn' α1' 2π

t
θ1 θ2 θn α1

PD PD

-Vm

Fig- 4. Sinusoidal applied voltage

In the case of sinusoidal applied voltage, the instantaneous voltage between the plates
increases with time. Say, the instantaneous voltage corresponding to the phase angle
θ1 as shown in Fig-4 is such that the field intensity within the void exceeds the
breakdown strength of gas in void and PD starts within the void. Due to PD, charges
+v(θ1) start
v(θ1)
accumulating at
+ + + + + + + the surfaces of the
void as shown in
Fig-5. Say, this
q
= V3 charge is q and
E(θ1) - - -
V2(θ1)
+++ C 2 the capacitance of
q the void is C2. So,
a voltage appears
- - - - - - across the void
given by V3 =
q
Fig-5. Charge accumulation across the void due to PD at the and it acts in
phase angle θ1 C 2
opposition to V2
of Fig-2. Hence the voltage across the void becomes (V2-V3) and the field intensity
within the void becomes (V2-V3)/d1. If the rate of accumulation of charge within the
void is higher than the rate of rise of applied voltage, which is true in most of the
cases, the field intensity within the void decreases quickly due to charge
accumulation. Again it is well known that the field intensity that is required to
maintain a discharge is lower than that required to initiate the discharge. Hence the
field intensity below which PD stops is lower than that for PD inception. For PD
simulation, the field intensity at PD extinction can be taken as 1 to 2 kV/mm. Due to
fast charge accumulation across the void, when the field intensity within the void goes
below this PD extinction value, then PD stops within the void. This generates one PD

2
pulse at phase angle θ1. Say, the charge accumulated at the surfaces of the void is q1
when the first PD pulse is extinguished. Since, the dielectric surrounding the void is
assumed to be a perfect insulator, hence this charge will remain across the void. So,
the next PD pulse will occur corresponding to the phase angle θ2, for which the
difference between the voltage across the void due to applied sinusoidal voltage and
the voltage across the void due to accumulated charge at the extinction of the first PD
pulse causes a field intensity in the void in excess of the PD inception strength. Thus
the condition for the inception of second PD pulse is as follows:
 q 
Evoid(θ2) = v(θ 2 ) − 1  / d 1 > PD inception strength.
 C2 
In effect, the second PD pulse occurs at a voltage higher than that required for the first
PD pulse. At the extinction of the second PD pulse, the total charge across the void
will be q2, where q2 = q1 + q2′ and q2′ = charge accumulated due to the second PD
pulse only. In this way, PD pulses will occur at increasingly higher voltages and the
accumulated charge across the void will go on increasing. After a certain phase angle
θn before the positive peak of the sinusoidal applied voltage, the rate of rise of applied
voltage becomes small. Say, the total charge across the void at the extinction of the
PD pulse corresponding to the phase angle θn is qn. Then the voltage across the void
q
acting in opposition to the applied voltage will be Vn = n . After the phase angle θn,
C2
due to lower rate of rise of voltage, the applied voltage between the two plates will
not be sufficient enough to cause a field intensity within the void in excess of PD
inception strength. Therefore, there will be no PD after the phase angle θn. In other
words, PD will occur between the phase angles θ1 and θn.
After the phase angle θn, the total charge qn across the void remains trapped as
the conductivity of the surrounding dielectric is assumed to be zero. Then, between
the phase angles θn and α1, the field intensity within the void will always be less than
the PD inception strength and hence there will be no PD. Therefore, for θn < θ < α1,
 q 
Evoid = v(θ ) − n  / d1 < PD inception strength.
 C2 
But, at α1, the applied voltage between the plates becomes too small. Hence, the
difference between the voltage across the void due to qn and the voltage across the
void due to the instantaneous applied voltage at α1 will be large enough to cause a
field intensity within the void in excess of PD inception strength as shown in Fig-6.
However, in this case the voltage across the void due to accumulated charge qn will be
higher than that due to applied voltage. Hence the field intensity within the void will
act in opposite direction to that due to the applied field. Thus, PD will again occur in
the void but in such a way that positive charges will accumulate at the upper surface
and negative charges will accumulate at the lower surface of the void as shown in Fig-
7. These charges will cause reduction of the total accumulated charge across the void,
which in turn will cause extinction of this PD pulse. At the extinction of the PD pulse
at the phase angle α1, the total charge across the void will be q1″ = qn – q1´ , where
q1´ is the charge due to the PD pulse at α1. In this way there will be PD pulses
between α1 and π, which will gradually reduce the charge accumulated across the void
to zero for all practical purposes.

3
Then in the negative half cycle, again PD will take place between the phase angle θ1´
and θn´ and then between α1 ´ and 2π. Such PD pulses will then reappear in the
subsequent cycles of the applied sinusoidal voltage.

v(α1)
v(α1)

+ + + + + + +

qn - - -
V2(α1) C2 E(α1) +
- +- +- q1'
C2 E(α1) + q+ +
n

q  - - - - - -
E void (α1 ) =  n − V2 (α1 ) / d1
 C2 
>PD inception voltage
Fig-6. PD inception at θ = α1 due to Fig-7. PD at the phase angle α1 causing
accumulated charge reduction of accumulated charge

C) Development of an Intelligent, Low-Cost Partial Discharge (PD) Detection

System at Jadavpur University

Fig. 8. Schematic of PD data acquisition

from a sample. Fig. 9. Wiring diagram of the laboratory.

Fig.10 Double shielded PD laboratory Fig.11 Photograph of the Partial Discharge

Laboratory.

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 Fig. 13. Front view of the detector unit.
Fig. 12. Photograph of the Control Room.

• A shielded PD laboratory has been constructed.

• Laboratory schematic of PD data acquisition has been studied from literature.
• Schematic of Fig.8 is explained below:
* Test voltage is applied across the sample.
* PD is filtered through the coupling capacitor.
* PD signal appears across the inductor.
* C1 and C2 forms the potential divider for the power frequency signal to be used
as phase reference along with PD signal. C1 is the high voltage measuring
capacitor.
* Two inputs, one from the inductor and one from the measuring capacitor are fed
to the detector.
* All the used components are free from internal partial discharge.
* All the conductors are carefully constructed to avoid corona.
* The detector unit is totally developed in-house which is the major goal of the
present work.

Publications:

1. B.Chatterjee, D.Dey, S.Chakravorti and C.K.Roy “Experimental Investigation of

the Electromagnetic Signal Attenuation Characteristics of the Partial Discharge
Laboratory at Jadavpur University”, International Journal of Emerging Electric Power
Systems, The Berkeley Electronic Press, Vol. 9, Issue 2, Article 4, 2008.
2. P.Das and S.Chakravorti, “Studies on Partial Discharge Simulation based on a
stochastic model considering the variation of discharge area and temperature of the
void surface”, International Journal for Computational Methods in Engineering
Science & Mechanics, Taylor & Francis, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp 393-405, 2009.
3. D. Dey, B Chatterjee, S. Chakravorti and S. Munshi, “Cross-Wavelet Transform as
a New Paradigm for Feature Extraction from Noisy Partial Discharge Pulses”, IEEE
Trans. on Dielectr. and Electr. Insul., In Press, Paper No. 2250, 2009.
4) P.Das and S.Chakravorti, “Simulation of PD Patterns Due to Narrow Void in
Different E-Field Distribution”, Journal of Electrostatics, Elsevier, In Press, 2009.