Draft, submitted to ICPADM 2003, 'Intl. Conf. on Prop. and Applic. of Dielectric Mat.

', Nagoya, Japan, June 1-5, 2003

Signal Transmission and Calibration of on-line Partial Discharge Measurements

Detlev W. Gross
Power Diagnostix Systems GmbH
Bruesseler Ring 95a, 52074 Aachen, Germany
E-mail: gross@pd-systems.com

Abstract: Relevant standards such as the IEC60270 [1]
concentrate on a measurement frequency band below 1
MHz and on lumped, i.e. non-distributed test objects. On-
line partial discharge measurements often require using
higher frequencies to avoid noise interference.
With respect to the basic gas discharge physics, the rise
time of an electron avalanche under nitrogen atmosphere
results in a partial discharge signal bandwidth of several
hundreds of MHz at its origin.
However, in terms of high frequency properties, distrib-
uted test objects, such as the stator winding of a rotating
machine, for instance, act as a highly complex network.
Mismatch of impedance, dispersion, attenuation, and
other effect influence the applicability of different fre-
quency bands and calibration techniques for partial dis-
charge testing.
Introduction
With on-line partial discharge measurements conven-
tional techniques often find their limitations. Addition-
ally, most standards were written with a focus on the
controlled environment of a well-screened test room.
However, depending on the signal properties of the high
voltage equipment to be tested under field conditions,
measurement principles can be applied, which allow ex-
tending the idea of a calibration in terms of charge into
higher frequencies not yet covered by standards. Hence, a
comparison with results obtained by lab-type measure-
ments becomes possible [4,5,7].
Firstly, this contribution focuses on listing the various ef-
fects hampering partial discharge measurements in differ-
ent frequency bands on specific high voltage equipment.
Secondly, conditions and limitations are discussed where
the rules of calibration remain valid even when applied at
higher frequencies on distributed equipment.
Impulse Properties
Under nitrogen atmosphere, the rise time of an electron
avalanche is in the range of 1ns. The internal charge
transport of a partial discharge in a gas inclusion embed-
ded in solid or liquid dielectric result in a displacement
current, which can be observed externally. With distrib-
uted configurations, such as a stator winding of a rotating
machine, for instance, this current impulse cause an im-
pulse voltage on the conductor's impedance. Subse-
quently, this voltage impulse travels along the conductor
and spreads over the entire winding in case of a machine
stator.
At its point of origin, the bandwidth of the partial dis-
charge impulse under nitrogen, which is the dominating
gas of our atmosphere, covers DC up to several hundreds
of MHz.
With any real insulation system, this original bandwidth
will be limited due to the properties of the involved con-
ductor, its construction and insulation. Besides the mere
limitation of the bandwidth, other properties of the high
voltage equipment lead to a more complex distortion of
the original impulse. Several effects must be considered.
Attenuation
Signals travelling a non-ideal line undergo attenuation
depending on the line properties. With high voltage con-
ductors the resistance of the line is the dominant parame-
ter. With higher frequencies the influence of the skin ef-
fect dominates.
Dispersion
In general, the travel time of signals over conductors is
not constant, but a function of the signal frequency. Espe-
cially, this effect is found in case semi-conductive layers
are used to control the electrical field. Prominent exam-
ples are extruded high voltage cables and bars of rotating
machines. In both cases the insulation system must be
seen as a stacked insulation system combined of a lossy
'insulator' (i.e., the semi-conductive layer), the polyethyl-
ene or epoxy-mica insulation, and another lossy semi-
conductive layer. With this configuration, signals above a
certain frequency, which is determined mostly by the
thickness of the semi-conductive layers, will not only suf-
fer from a strong attenuation, but also undergo a change
of their travel time (group delay).
Practically, this means that higher frequency compo-
nents arrive at a different time, which cause a distor-
tion of the impulse's shape. If viewed in frequency
domain, this dispersion appears as a phase shift. This
effect especially hamper the accuracy of the location of
partial discharge sites in cables, as the high frequency
components are needed to get the time-of-flight infor-
mation. With cable systems, depending on size and
construction, the corner frequency where the disper-
sion becomes dominant is found between 5 MHz and
10 MHz, mostly [12,13].
With generator coils the semi-conductive layers are usu-
ally taped and less thick than with cables. Thus, the in-
ception of the dispersion effect is somewhat higher than
with cable systems (up to 20 MHz). At frequencies of
above 100 MHz, the contribution of the dispersion to the
overall attenuation of a stator coil dominates all other ef-
fects [2,5,6].
With gas-insulated switchgear, the dispersion influences
the transmission of partial discharge signals in two areas.
Firstly, below the corner frequency given by the geometry,
transmission of the H10 wave is not possible. Close to this
corner frequency the effect of dispersion appears as at-
tenuation. Secondly, a similar situation as described with
the stator coils and cables is found in the UHF frequency
range, where the internal paint layers and coatings must
be seen as a lossy part of the overall insulation [8,9,11].
Reflection
With any conductor, a travelling wave undergoes a re-
flection in case the impedance of the conductor changes.
Such change in impedance is found frequently with real-
life conductors in power engineering.
With cable systems, for instance, each accessory cause
reflections due to the geometry and material change with
the transition of the coaxial cable into the (larger) acces-
sory and back into the cable. This effect can be used to
locate cable joints [12,13].
With rotating machines, the slot section of the stator coil
can be seen as a coaxial cable [2]. With respect to the ge-
ometry, the impedance is found in the range of 10-20
Ohms within the slot.
With the transition to the so-called overhang, the im-
pedance changes to well above 100 Ω (Fig. 1). Thus,
high frequency signals above a corner frequency,
which is determined by the length of the bar, remain
trapped within the slot section because of a positive
Overhang:
ZL > 100 Ω
Slot Section:
ZL ~ 10-20 Ω
Overhang:
ZL > 100 Ω
Fig. 1, Modeling a stator winding of a rotating machine.
reflection at each slot exit (Zoverhang >> Zslot). With
large turbine generator bars, this effect incepts at
much lower frequencies than with large hydro gen-
erators having relatively short bars [2]. However, with
hydro machines the multiple reflections due to the
large number of bars must be considered.
Cross Coupling
In case unscreened or poorly screened conductors run in
parallel over a certain distance, so-called cross coupling
may occur. I.e., a conductor receives signals being radi-
ated by an adjacent conductor. This effect is typical for
windings such as with transformers or with the overhang
of stator windings [3,5].
Typically, cross coupling is found in higher frequencies as
the impedance of stray capacitance decrease and the effi-
ciency of antenna effects increase. Often, cross coupling is
a 'short cut' for the signal. I.e. the high frequency compo-
nents of a signal are coupled to the adjacent coil, while
the low frequency components travel the winding. Thus, a
similar effect as with the dispersion is observed: Different
frequency components of the original impulse arrive at
different times and distort the shape of the impulse.
Resonance
With complex networks, such as large power transform-
ers, parts of the structure can act as a resonator for spe-
cific frequencies. Mostly, the resonating elements are
formed by coil inductance and unevenly distributed stray
capacitance.
The apparent resonant signal behavior found with large
gas-insulated switchgear is mostly caused by multiple re-
flections due to impedance mismatch and T-stubs.
Charge referred Partial Discharge Measurements
Traditional partial discharge measurements, as described
with the IEC60270, revised in 2000, rely on the (quasi-)
integration of the voltage impulse detected at the so-called
quadrupole or measurement impedance. According to
IEC60270, for a wide-band partial discharge detector the
recommended values of the lower (f1) and the upper (f2)
corner frequency are 30 kHz ≤ f1 ≤ 100 kHz and f2 ≤ 500
kHz [1].
However, the used frequency band can be widely ex-
panded if few basic rules are met. First of all, the principle
of quasi-integration with a low pass filter remains valid, if
the upper corner frequency of the detected PD signal fpd is
large compared to the upper corner frequency of the de-
tector fpd >> f2. The same condition, of course, must be
met by the signal bandwidth of the charge calibrator used
to obtain a valid calibration.
Additionally, using heterodyne techniques allows further
expanding the frequency range of charge referred meas-
urement [4]. In such cases, the demodulator filter that
follows the mixer forms the low pass filter offering the
quasi-integration. Care must be taken that the resolution
bandwidth is selected large enough to process and sepa-
rate the individual partial discharge impulses.
The typical epoxy-mica insulation of rotating machine
stator coils with their multiple partial discharge sources
show discharge activity of a high repetition rate.
Thus, the resolution bandwidth must be chosen wide Thus, with field measurements, other than with lab-type
enough. Likewise, narrow band detectors such as the tra- acceptance testing, emphasis is more put on the identifi-
ditional RIV meters often produce misleading results, if cation of the defect type and the risk assessment than
applied on equipment having high repetition partial dis- solely on the apparent discharge magnitude [2,3,5].
charge.
Additionally, ultra wide band processing can be used. If
an adequate low pass filter follows the detector circuit,
charge referred calibration is possible. The goal with all
the above techniques in general is to acquire the integral
of the discharge impulse and not to refer to the peak volt-
age, which is for distributed equipment mostly determined
by the effects of reflection and cross coupling. Thus, often
the detected peak amplitude has a poor correlation with
the original amplitude.

Usage of the Term Calibration

Calibration, i.e. referring a measurement to an established

standard, is a strong word and implies accuracy, repro- Fig. 2, Stator coil, discharge and excitation noise.
ducibility, and traceability.
An impulse charge calibrator for partial discharge meas- With on-line measurements on large generators, partial
urements is in principle a step voltage source along with discharge measurements are often hampered by noise in-
an injection capacitor. The injected charge Q simply terference caused by the excitation system. Fig. 2 shows a
equals Ustep times Cinj. The procedures given with the ϕ-q-n pattern, taken at 100-800 kHz, which is dominated
IEC60270 to validate the charge output are simple and by the six switching pulses of a static excitation. In the
reproducible. frequency band below 1MHz, i.e. covered by the
In case of small, lumped test specimens referring a partial IEC60270, those noise impulses can be removed by an
discharge detector to the signal of an impulse charge cali-
bration source can surely be called 'calibration'. However,
care must be taken that the injection capacitance is com-
parably small versus the specimen's capacitance.
In all other cases, where the earlier mentioned influences
hamper the impulse integrity, the process of 'calibration'
shall be seen as the evaluation of the sensitivity of the
measurement rather than as a calibration in the strong
sense of the word.
Especially with large power transformers or large stator
coils obtaining the calibration or cross coupling matrix by
connecting a calibrator to accessible points, couplers, or
sensors and observing the readings on the other coupling
points is an important measure to understand the high
frequency properties of the equipment [10]. Further, this Fig. 3, Excitation impulse noise removed using gating.
cross coupling matrix gives important indications con-
cerning the location of a defect. However, usage of the
term calibration is misleading.

Apparent Charge Level vs. Pattern Identification

Considering the attenuation and other effects causing

distortion and modification of the partial discharge im-
pulses, the mere partial discharge magnitude becomes less
important as the observed magnitude strongly depends on
the location of the defect.
On the other hand, the structure of the partial discharge
pattern, i.e. the ϕ-q-n pattern, is not affected by any of the
effects mentioned, since both phase position and ampli-
tude relation of the acquired pulses are invariant. Fig. 4, Discharge activity acquired at 9.4 MHz.
event-triggered noise gating, which blocks the acquisition
for few microseconds (Fig. 3).
Alternatively, the acquisition frequency can be set to an
elevated frequency, where the amplitude spectra of the
excitation pulses already significantly decreased, while
the spectra of the partial discharge activity prevails. Fig. 4
shows a measurement on the same machine, but taken at
9.4 MHz. Appearance and shape of the dominant internal
discharge is found identical with both frequency bands,
while the disturbance signal was detected up to 3 MHz,
only. The pattern was acquired using a spectrum analyzer
as pre-processing unit followed by a phase-resolved par-
tial discharge analyzer (ICMsystem, Power Diagnostix)
for the acquisition of the pattern distribution.
With this example, the conclusion that this is an internal
discharge activity of the main insulation is drawn from
the properties of the pattern, such as the typical triangular
shape. Further information concerning the defect, such as
the inception voltage and severity is derived when ana-
lyzing the distribution, magnitude, and phase position.
Conclusion
Field type partial discharge measurements referring to an
impulse charge calibration offer comparing lab type re-
sults with on-site findings.
Measurement techniques using the principle of 'quasi-
integration' can be applied at significantly higher frequen-
cies in environments of strong electromagnetic noise in-
terference. However, the limitations introduced by the
high frequency behavior of real-life high voltage equip-
ment must be taken into consideration.
Using broadband impulse-charge calibration sources help
to understand this behavior and to assess the location de-
pendent sensitivity.
REFERENCES
[1] IEC60270, High-voltage test techniques - Partial dis-
charge measurements, CEI/IEC 60270:2000.
[2] Gross, D., "Partial Discharge Measurement and
Monitoring on Rotating Machines," ISEI 2002 Confer-
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570-574.
[3] Gross, D., "On-line Partial Discharge Diagnosis on
large Motors," CEIDP 2002 Conference, Cancun, Mex-
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[4] Fruth, B., Gross, D., "Phase Resolving Partial Dis-
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[5] Hudon, C., Torres, W., Bélec, M., and Contreras, R.,
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[13] Gross, D., "On-site partial discharge diagnosis and
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