International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering

Research Paper Volume-2, Issue-10 E-ISSN: 2347-2693

Partial Discharge Testing On Power Cable 22KV
Bhalaji Birla
1
, Hemant Sawarkar
2
and Mahesh Lokhande
3

1,2, 3
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering University of RGPV Bhopal, India
1
bhalajibirla10@gmail.com,
2
hsawarkar1008@yahoo.in,
3
maishu123@gmail.com
www.ijcaonline.org

Abstract Partial Discharge (PD) represent a physical phenomenon, in which discharge are involve in electrically weak region
of insulation material. It weakens in insulation region and responsible for appearance of partial discharge. The reason behind it is,
the dielectric constant of the void is less than of its surrounding. So it causes insulation failure in power cables. The purpose of
this paper for measurement of voltage level, when the cable insulation level will become worse in internal.
Keywords Partial Discharge: Cavity discharge, Corona discharge, Surface discharge & Tree discharge.

I. INTRODUCTION

A partial discharge (PD) is defined as an electrical discharge
that is localized within only a part of the insulation between
two separated conductors. In the real world, PD is caused by
the presence of a void in insulation. Even if the local
electrical field in the void surpasses a threshold and a
discharge occurs, it is limited within the void because the
surrounding insulation is strong enough to avoid a complete
breakdown. We can say, the localized electrical discharge res
ulting from ionization in an insulating system when the
voltage stress exceeds the critical value [1]. PD in a void are
considered to be harmful, especially in high-voltage systems
from the view point of engineering because they cause
energy loss and gradually degrade the insulation. Most of
insulators are in impure form. Due to presence of air
impurity bubbles (void) are created within the insulating
material. It weakens the insulation region and responsible for
appearance of PD. PD occur along the boundary between
different insulating materials. If the voltage stress across the
void is increased above the corona inception voltage (CIV)
for the gas within the void, PD activity will start within the
void. PD can also occur along the surface of solid insulating
materials. Partial discharge defects are generally ionisable,
gas-filled voids, which developed already during the
production of the cable insulation, were caused by
mechanical damage or are present inside the high voltage
cable joints or terminations. In addition, thermal degradation
processes inside cable joints with improperly performed
cable jointing workmanship can also lead to partial discharge
(PD) inception [2].

II. PARTIAL DISCHARGE

Partial discharge occurs from electrical breakdown of defect
in the insulation medium or in the surface of insulation
medium when the applied electric field is higher than a
dielectric strength of insulation medium. PD occurs in
insulation system of HV cable due to in uniformity of

electric field distribution as a result of the presence of the
defects [3].

These types of PD are:
A) Surface discharges
Surface discharge occurs in the interface of two insulation m
aterials where substantial high tangential field strength is
present. Surface discharge can be initiated when there is a
high enough of stress component in parallel with the
insulation surface to cause discharges [4].










Fig. 1 Surface discharges

B) Internal discharges
The cavities are generally formed in solid or liquid insulating
materials. It is generally filled with gas or air. When the gas
in the cavity is over stressed such discharges are taking place
[5].











Fig. 2 Internal discharges


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International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering

C) Electrical trees
High intensity fields are produced in an insulating material at
its sharp edges and it deteriorates the insulating material.
That is responsible for production of continuous partial
discharge, called as Treeing channel [6].













Fig. 3 Electrical trees

D) Corona discharges
Corona is defined as a type of localized discharge that results
from transient gaseous ionization in non-uniform electric
fields in an insulation system when the voltage stress locally
exceeds a critical value. This external discharge occurs
mainly in gases at sharp metallic electrodes of electrical
apparatus or devices. Usually these discharges are not
dangerous unless decomposition products of the gas (e.g.
SF
6
) are formed that may be harmful for other materials in
the vicinity of the discharge gap [7].












Fig. 4 Corona discharges


III EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT

If there are any partial discharges in a dielectric medium,
these can be measured only across its terminal. The show in
figure a simple capacitor arrangement in which a gas filled
void is present. The partial discharge in the void will take
place as the electric stress in the void is
r
times the stress in
the rest of the material where
r
is the relative permittivity of
the material. Due to geometry of the material various
capacitances are formed as shown in figure. Flux lines
starting from electrode and terminating at the void will form
one capacitance C
b1
and similarly C
b2
between electrode B
and cavity. C
c
is the cavity capacitance. Similarly C
a1
and
C
a2
are the capacitances of the healthy portion of the
dielectric on the two sides of the void [5].
Vol.-2, October 2014, E-ISSN: 2347-2693


C
a
=C
a1
+C
a2

And
C
b
=C
b1
C
b2
/ (C
b1
+C
b2
)
Where,
C
a1
and C
a2
= The capacitances of the healthy portion of the
dielectric on the two sides of the void.
C
b1
and C
b2
= Capacitor representing insulating material
around cavity.
C
c
= The cavity capacitance.














Fig. 5 Equivalent circuit

Closing of switch S is equivalent to simulating partial
discharge in the void as the voltage V
c
across the void
reaches breakdown voltage. The discharge results in a
current i
c
. Suppose voltage V is applied across the electrode
A and B and the sample is charged to this voltage and source
is removed. The voltage V
c
across the void is sufficient to
breakdown the void. It is equivalent to closing the switch S.
as a result the current i
c
(t) flows which releases a charge,

qc = V
c
C
c


This is dispersed in the dielectric material across the
capacitance C
b
and C
a
. Here V
c
is the drop in voltage V
c
as
a result of discharge. The equivalent circuit during
redistribution of charge qc is shown in fig.











Fig. 6 Equivalent of fig. 5

The voltage across AB


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International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering

Ordinarily V
c
is in kV whereas V is a few volts since the
ratio C
b
/C
a
is of the order of 10
-4
to 10
-3
. The voltage drop
V even though can be measured but as C
b
and C
c
are
normally known neither V
c
nor qc can be obtained. Also
since V is in kV and V is in volts the ratio V/V is very
small= 10
-3
, therefore the detection of V/V is a tedious task
[5].
A coupling capacitor should have low inductance. It holds up
low level partial discharge at a particular applied voltage for
measurement of discharge magnitude when coupling
capacitor is connected in series with the measuring system.
A higher level of partial discharge is measured when
coupling capacitor and measuring system is connected
separately. This happens when measuring system is
connected in series with the test objet.

VI PARAMETERS ON WHICH PARTIAL
DISCHARGE DEPENDS


The various parameters on which partial discharge depends
are,

A) Supply voltage
The partial discharge patterns are dependent on the
magnitude of the supply voltage. The greater the supply
voltage more is the slope and early the partial discharge
occurs. And if the supply voltage is reduced the slope
decreases and there is some delay in partial discharge.

B) Area of the void
The partial discharge patterns are heavily dependent on the
area of the void, the void size. The relative permittivity of
the void is nearly equal to 1, as the void is mainly the air
gaps present in the dielectric. If there is no void then the
electric field line would go straight without any deviation,
and there will be no partial discharge, shown in fig.7.






Fig. 7

When the void size is very small then deviation is observed
in the patterns of the electric field lines. Instead of going
straight these lines bend towards the higher permittivity
region as they have the tendency to pass through the higher
permittivity. The bent field lines gives rise to the horizontal
and the vertical component of the voltage. The vertical
voltage is mainly responsible for the breakdown. As the
overall voltage is divided into horizontal and the vertical
voltages, the vertical component gets reduced and thus more
amount of voltage is required for the inception of the partial
discharge, shown in fig. 8.
Vol.-2, October 2014, E-ISSN: 2347-2693













Fig. 8

When the void size is quite large, there is absence of
horizontal component and the vertical component is mainly
present. So small amount of voltage is required for the
inception of partial discharge [7].

C) Supply frequency
The partial discharge is also dependent on the supply
frequency. If we raise the supply frequency, the rate of
change of the voltage becomes high and the partial discharge
occurs at lower voltage.

D) Supply frequency
The partial discharge is also dependent on the supply
frequency. If we raise the supply frequency, the rate of
change of the voltage becomes high and the partial discharge
occurs at lower voltage.

E) Upper and lower threshold voltage
The partial discharge patterns are also dependent on the
upper threshold voltage and the lower threshold voltage (of
the Schmitt trigger used here). The PD patterns are mainly
dependent on the difference of the upper and the lower
threshold voltage as the charge transfer is dependent on the
difference: Q (V
UT
-V
LT
). More is the difference between
V
UT
and V
LT
more early the PD occurs. If we fix the V
UT

and start increasing the V
LT
the PD starts at higher voltage
and vice versa. Same case occurs when we fix the V
LT
and
start decreasing V
UT
.


V SIMULATION MODEL & RESULT

This circuit was implemented with Simulink application in
MATLAB software. The spark gap in the Figure 9 has
been change with the breaker in simulation circuit in Figure
7. This breaker set with the certain time value to represent
PD time occurs.




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International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering Vol.-2, October 2014, E-ISSN: 2347-2693

A) Simulation Modal


























Fig.9 PD circuit in Simulink


B) Result (22KV)

























Fig. 10 Result of simulation of applied voltage 10kV


All the graph are taken from scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3.
The graph then rearrange before it can be analyzed.




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International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering Vol.-2, October 2014, E-ISSN: 2347-2693


VII CONCLUSION

PD is very important to ever insulation. This mostly happen
in electrical weak regions of solid dielectric material.
Through the simulation that been conducted showed the PD
extended equivalent circuit was succeed to represent the
demeanor of PD in solid dielectric. This circuit is more
accurate because it takes care of the influence of local charge
amount generated by preceding discharges. There are still
have a slight different from the real model of experiment for
voltage waveform and also in the current discharges in void.
This is because of the timing in breaker. Breaker cannot
simulate the perfect timing for PD to occur. The breaker only
make the PD happen once. The value of discharge current is
depending on input voltage. If the input voltage is increase
then the discharge current will increase too. This project was
successfully simulated the circuit of PD in solid dielectric
material with the cavity.


REFERENCES

[1] W. Muhammad Taufik, B. W. Ibrahim, Modeling Of Partial
Discharges Mechanisms In Solid Dielectric Material,
Electrical Engineering University Teknologi Malaysia, 13 May
2009.

[2] Edward Gulski, Computer-Aided Recognition of Partial
Discharges Using Statistical Tools, Ph.D Thesis, Delft University
Press, The Netherlands, 1991.

[3] Edward Gulski, Piotr Cichecki, Frank Wester, Johan J. Smit,
Riccardo Bodega, Theo J.W.H. Hermans, Paul P. Seitz, Ben Quak,
Frank de Vries, On-site Testing and PD Diagnosis of High Voltage
Power Cables, Electrical Insulation 2008, ISEI 2008.

[4] Dr. J.J. Smit, Dr. hab, E.Gulski ,Dr. P. Bauer, MSc. Piotr
Cichecki, Investigation of Partial Discharge Occurrence and
Detectability in High Voltage Power Cable Accessories, Delft
University of Technology, November 2009.

[5] C.L.Wadhwa, high voltage engineering, New Age International
(P) Ltd., Publishers Jan 1, 2007.

[6] Dr. rer. nat. Rainer Patsch, Dr. Ing. Dirk Peier Pulse Sequence
Analysis and Pulse Shape Analysis Methods to Analyze partial
discharge processes, 6 Jun 2008

[7] Prof. S. Karmakar and A. Sabat, Simulation of Partial
Discharge in High Voltage Power Equipment, Department of
Electrical Engineering National Institute of Technology, Rourkela-
769008, June-2011.









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