2014 IEEE International Conference on Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
24-25 November 2014, Bali, Indonesia
Partial Discharges in High Voltage Insulations
Mechanism, patterns and diagnosis
Suwarno
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Bandung Indonesia
suwarno@ieee.org
Abstract—In a power system, high voltage equipments play
important roles. To support the system operates properly with
high reliability; it is necessary to keep all equipments in good
conditions. High voltage equipments contain gas, liquid or solid
insulation to withstand a high electric field. Under operating
condition, excessive electric field may occur and partial discharge
(PD) may take place in gas or solid insulations. The appearance
of discharges may indicate insulation defects and in long term
this may degrade the insulation leading to the failure of the
equipments. Recently, Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) of
high voltage equipments is widely adopted to replace the
conventional Time Based or Breakdown Maintenance. The CBM
program is conducted based on the assessment of the equipment
conditions. Diagnosis of high voltage equipments is the key for
effective CBM implementation. Many researchers and utilities
developed diagnosis methods to assess the equipment conditions.
Partial discharge measurement is an important method to
diagnose high voltage equipments. This paper reports the
experimental results and analysis on time-resolved partial
discharges in gas, liquid and solid insulation. The partial
discharges are presented in various distributions such as φ-q-n, φ-
n and three-dimensional distribution. Here φ is phase angle, q is
the discharge magnitude and n is the discharge number.
Whitehead model for discharges is widely used since long time
ago to explain the phenomena. Based on the recent experimental
results, new models of partial discharges are also presented. The
application of partial discharge data for the diagnosis of
insulation in high voltage equipments is discussed.
Keywords—partial discharge; high voltage; insulation; model;
simulation; diagnosis
I. INTRODUCTION
In an electric power system, there are several high voltage
equipments such as generators, transformers, cables and
insulators. The equipments contain gas, liquid or solid
insulation to withstand a high electric field. Under particular
condition, partial discharges may take place in the insulation.
The appearance of partial discharges may indicate insulation
aging and in long term this may further reduce the integrity of
the insulation leading to the failure of the equipments. The
contribution to system failure and failure due to insulation
problems for main HV equipments are shown in table 1.
Condition based maintenance is widely used in modern
electric power system. This requires the condition status of
key equipments such as generators, transformers, cables,
978-1-4799-8478-7/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE
369
insulators and GIS (gas insulated substation). Interpretation of
partial discharge data may be used for the diagnostics of the
high voltage equipments. The development of the theories of
partial discharge is important to enhance the diagnostics and to
decide the necessary action to make the equipments work
properly. Whitehead has proposed a model of partial discharge
in void [12]. This model has been used extensively to explain
the PD phenomena [2-3]. However, this model could not be
used to explain several PD phenomena such as corona,
discharge in GIS and treeing PD [4-5]. PD data can be used to
diagnose the condition of high voltage equipments [6-8]. For
more effective diagnosis and deeper understanding of PD
phenomenon, simulation of PD using an equivalent model was
introduced [9-11]
TABLE I. CONTRIBUTION TO SYSTEM FAILURE AND FAILURE DUE TO
INSULATION PROBLEMS FOR MAIN HV EQUIPMENTS [12,13]
Contribution to Failure due to
Equipments system failure (%) Insulation Problem (%)
Insulators 35 90
Generators 15 47
Transformers 12 84
GIS & switchgear 15 95
Power Cables 10 89
This paper reports the experimental results and analysis on
time-resolved partial discharges in gas, liquid and solid
insulation. The partial discharges are presented in various
distributions such as φ-q-n, φ-n and three dimensional
distributions. Here φ is phase angle, q is the discharge
magnitude and n is the discharge number. Based on the recent
experimental data new models of partial discharges and
simulation results are also presented. The application of
partial discharge data for the diagnosis of insulation in high
voltage equipments is discussed.
II. PARTIAL DISCHARGE FUNDAMENTAL
A. Partial discharge occurrance
A high-voltage equipment contains insulation (gas, liquid
or solid) and high voltage part. Gas-filled voids may appear
inside insulation during manufacturing, delivery, installation
and operation. Generally, gas-filled cavities in solid insulation
have a lower permittivity than solid insulation. Electric field
strength in void should be higher than that in the solid
insulation. However, the gas-filled void has a much lower
breakdown strength than the insulation material, and therefore,
generally the gas inside void will breakdown before the
insulation. Partial discharge (PDs) occurs when the electric
field across the void exceeds the breakdown strength of gases
in the void. According to IEC standard 60270: 2000[14]
partial discharge is defined as localized electrical discharge
I o (e −α t − e − β t ) (1)
α is the attenuation constant of ion current while β is the
attenuation constant of electron current. As an example a PD
waveform was simulated using α and β as 0.15/ns and
0.0416/ns respectively[15]. It is shown in Fig. 2.
0.36

that only partially bridges the insulation between conductors 0.32

and which can or can not occur adjacent to a conductor. Partial
0.28
discharges are in general a consequence of local electrical Ion cu rrent
stress concentration in the insulation or on the surface of 0.24 0.34*exp (-0.0 416*x)
insulation. When AC voltage is applied, under a given

Current (mA)
0.20
condition, there is a voltage below which breakdown will not discharg e current
occur. This voltage is called the inception voltage (Vi). Even 0.16 0.34 *(exp(-0.0416*x)-exp(-0.15*x))

though the voltage increases and reaches the spark voltage, 0.12
there will not be any discharge until an initial for avalanche is
available to actually initiate the PD. The availability of the 0.08

initial electron is a stochastic process, which is the cause of 0.04

el ectron cur rent
0.34*exp (-0.1 5*x)
the stochastic feature of partial discharge. Initial electrons may
0.00
appear from an electric field enhancement site such as 0 20 40 60 80 100
protrusion on the surface of cathode. This site may produce Time (n s)
electron emission due to very high electric field (several
MV/m). Initial electrons may also released by photon in a
photoelectric effect. The electrons emitted from cathode travel Fig. 2. Example of simulated PD waveform with α = 0.15/ns and
to anode due to electric field and gain kinetic energy. If the β =0.0416/ns respectively
kinetic energy is high enough the hot electron may ionize gas
atom when they collide. Further process may lead to the Fig. 3 shows void in solid/liquid insulation-electrode
electron avalanches as illustrated in right picture. The motions system (a) equivalent circuit (b) and discharge pulse
of electron avalanches and positive ions contribute to the generation (c). Cg is void capacitance; Cb is series capacitance
charge magnitude of the partial discharge. The typical of the material while Cm is the capacitance of the rest
magnitude of current is several μA to mA while time in ns as insulation. The voltage v(t) is applied to the series
shown in Fig. 1. capacitances Cg and Cb. When no PD takes place in the
preceding cycles, the voltage across the void is
Cb (2)
0.20 Electron contribution at rise time v g (t ) = v (t )
C g + Cb
(fast)
0.15 Under sinusoidal voltage multiple discharges may occur.
PD Current (mA)

When an AC voltage of v(t) is applied the void voltage vg

0.10 Ion contribution at the tail increase. The discharge takes place when the void voltage
(slow) reaches a spark voltage of Vs, discharge current pulse and the
0.05
void voltage collapse to a residual voltage Vr. The void
voltage increases and the next PD takes place again after Vg
exceeding Vs. Similar process occurs in negative half cycles.
0.00
Electrode
0.0 30.0n 60.0n 90.0n 120.0n

Time (s)

VOID Cg
Fig. 1. Typical discharge current pulse wave shape
(needle-lane electrode, 4 mm separation) Cm
Solid/
The current waveforms of partial discharges increased liquid Cb
steeply at the front within very short period of several ns and insul
then the current decay at the tail in a period of about 100 ns.
The sharp rise of the current was due to the high speed
electrons while the tail was mainly due to the contribution of Electrode
ions which traveled with lower velocity. Mathematically, it
can be explained by using a double exponential equation Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit of a void for PD

370
B. Partial discharge sources and detection
In general there are 3 types of PD sources. They are
internal PD, surface PD and corona PD. The PD sources are
illustrated in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. PD source

Internal discharges may appear in voids contained inside

insulation. The shape, size and position of the voids in the Fig. 5. Energy released by PD
insulation strongly affect the magnitude and number of partial
discharges. Surface discharges occur at the surface of
insulation with relatively short leakage distance between
TABLE II. PD SIGNAL, SENSOR TYPE AND APPLICATION
electrodes under high electric field. The last discharge source
is corona where discharge takes place at the tip of conductor PD signal Sensor type Application
(typically protrusion on the conductor surface). Since each EM wave UHF Electrode, GIS, Switchgear, OH
discharge occurs with particular processes, the PD pattern of Antenna Lines
Voltage from Coupling Capacitor Rotating Machines,
each source may show specific properties. PD occurring in a impulse current Cables
HV equipment releases energy in various forms as shown in Impulse Current HF CT Cable , transformer
Fig. 5. Impulse current released by partial discharges. The Sound/ Ultrasonic sensor (AE) Transformer, GIS
impulse current can be integrated to obtain the charge Vibration
associated with the discharge. Partial discharge releases light Light Pockels sensor GIS , insulators,
radiation which mainly in the range of ultra violet (UV). The UV camera transformer
intensity of the UV radiation strongly correlates with the PD Heat IR Camera Insulator, rotating
machine
magnitude and number. Since PD is a kind of impulse
phenomena it acts as a knock to the material around the PD
site resulting in a propagate acoustic wave. III. MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS OF PARTIAL
In particular compartments such as gas insulated sub DISCHARGE
station (GIS) the acoustic wave is strong enough to be A. Partial discharge measurement
detected and it cane be used for GIS condition diagnosis. As
other discharge, PD also emits electromagnetic wave. This
wave propagates from the PD site outward the insulation
system. PD occurrence also produced heat. The heat may heat
up the surrounding insulation and causes an increase of
temperature. The energy released by PD may degrade
insulation and in the term of diagnosis can be detected using
suitable sensors. They showed in Table 2. The most common
electrode arrangement for investigating partial discharges is
plane – needle system which is able to produce very high
divergent filed around the needle tip. The needle is located in
insulation where PD behavior is under investigation such as
air, gas, liquid insulation as well as solid like polymeric
insulation. The typical curvature of the needle tip is 30o and
the tip radius is 3 - 100 μm. With this geometry, sufficiently
high electric field can be easily obtained to generate
discharges at the needle tip. The electric field at the tip of the
needle electrode is estimated by using the following equation
Fig. 6. PD pulses with (a) and without (b) fundamental wave
[16].
2V The advances of computer technology have resulted in the
Em =
⎛ 4d ⎞ increased ability of measurement system in various fields and
r ln⎜ ⎟
⎝ r ⎠ enabled one to obtain more detailed information which
(3)
correlates with the physical aspects. Computer-aided PD
measurement systems enable to measure and analyze of a

371
tremendous amount of PD data. Discharge pulses were
measured using a personal computer-based measurement
system. The PD parameters measured were PD magnitude and
its phase angle. In each measurement PD pulses took place in
several consecutive cycles were measured. Generally a PD
pulse is represented by the charge (q) of the PD and the phase
(φ) of the applied voltage where the PD takes place. In a given
cycle PD accompanied by the fundamental wave. By filtering
of the fundamental wave using high pass filter or applying
fundamental wave with similar magnitude but opposite
polarity the pure PD signals can be obtained. PD pulses with
and without fundamental wave are shown in figure 6.
In actual measurement, a large amount of PD pulses take
(a)
place in a number of cycles can be obtained in once
measurement. The PD pulse in a number of successive cycles
can be represented in the form of PD pulse sequences as
shown in figure 7.

175
150

125
100
75

50
PD Charge (pC)

25
0
-25
-50
-75
-100
-125
-150
-175
0 360 7 20 1080 1440 1 800 21 60 (b)
Ph ase an gle (de g)
Fig. 8. φ−-q-n pattern(a) and 3 dimensional representation (b) of PD
Fig. 7. Typical PD pulse sequences

PD may also be characterized by phase-charge-number (φ -

q-n pattern) as shown in figure (a). The three dimensional
characteristics of the PD can be more understood by
representing the PD pulse in three dimensional figure as
shown in (b).
A φ-q-n pattern can be simplified into a φ-n pattern by
taking the average PD number in a given phase angle for c
successive cycles. The average PD number in a phase window
I can be expressed as

∑
j =c
n j (φi )
n(φ ) =
i
j =1
(4)
c
here c is the number of successive cycles where Pd pulses
were measured.
PD pattern can also be expressed in the form of f-q pattern
by averaging the PD magnitude of all cycles at each phase
angle window. Average PD magnitude in a phase window i
can be obtained by

∑
j =c
q j (φi )
q (φ ) =
j =1 (5)
i
c
where qj(φi) is the PD magnitude of a PD pulse takes place in Fig. 9. φ−n pattern(a) and n pattern(b) of PD
phase window I in a cycle number j.

372
B. Partial discharge patterns higher at around zero cross of applied voltage (high the dv/dt)
Figure 10(a) shows corona PD patterns at 3 μm needle- than that around peak (small dv/dt) of the applied voltage.
plane electrode system with 4 mm separation under sinusoidal These suggested the important role of the time derivative of
Voltage. The figure indicates that discharge pulse occurred in applied voltage (dv/dt) on the occurrence of treeing discharges
negative half cycles and concentrated around the peak of the [19,20]. The figure also indicates a trend that PD magnitude
negative half cycle of the applied voltage. No phase shift was increases with the applied voltage.
observed which indicated that there was no evident role of C. Partial discharge simulation
space charge in the discharge process.
Based on the properties of PD such as the role of applied
30
voltage on PD magnitude and number from various sources,
computer simulation was conducted. Random number was
250

20

10
200
used to represent stochastic behavior of PD. The results are
PD Charge[pC]

shown in Fig. 11.

PD Number (a.u.)

150
0

100
-10

-20 50

-30
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 0
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
Phase Angle [deg.] Ph ase a ng le (de g.)

(a)

30
70
60
20
50 (a)
40
10
PD Charge[pC]

30
20
PD n umb er (a .u.)

0 10
0
-10
-10
-20
-30
-20 -40
-50

-30 -60
0 60 120 180 240 300 360 -70
0 30 60 90 1 20 150 180 2 10 240 270 300 330 360
Phase Angle [deg.] Ph ase angle (deg )

(b)
(b)
125
100
75
50
PD Charge[pC]

25
0
-25
-50
-75
-100
-125
0 60 120 180 240 300 360

Phase Angle [deg.]

(c) (c)
Fig. 11. Simulated PD patterns in (a) gas (b) liquid (c) solid
Fig. 10. Typical φ-q-n and φ-n patterns in (a) gas (b) liquid and (c) solid
insulations under sinusoidal voltage
IV. DIAGNOSIS USING PARTIAL DISCHARGE DATA
Fig. 10 (b) shows PD patterns in liquid. It is seen that both The main purpose of diagnosis of HV equipments is to
positive and negative discharges took place around the peak of determine the level of insulation integrity. Partial discharge
applied voltage. Similar results were reported in experimental diagnosis of HV equipments consists of 2 steps. They are the
results in various oils [17-18]. The figure also indicates that determination of PD sources and the level of PD intensity. In
the magnitude of positive discharge was higher than negative order to determine the PD source there are several methods
discharge. These results indicated that positive discharges took such as recognition of PD statistical parameters and PD
place at higher over voltage than negative one. This pattern recognition.
asymmetrical behavior reflects the asymmetrical role of
electrode system in producing discharge in silicone oil. The A. Statistical parameters
magnitude of discharge in both half cycles was proportional to There are several statistical parameters used for PD
the applied voltage. diagnosis in high voltage insulation such as
Fig. 10 (c) shows PD patterns in solid. From the figure it is
clearly seen that discharge occurrence (repetition rate) was

373
 Nt For determining the most similar pattern, the recognition is
∑ xi conducted by determining the shortest distance between the
unknown PD pattern and the references. This is illustrated in
Mean xm = i=1
(6) Fig. 13.
Nt
Nt

∑( x − x )
2
i m
Variance σ 2 = i=1 (7)
Nt
( xi − x m )
Nt 3

Skewness Sk = ∑ (8)
i=1 σ3
Nt

∑( x − xm )
4
i
Kurtosis Ku = i=1
−3 (9)
σ4
The distribution of PD pulse magnitude and number in
certain period or phase angle window are used in the statistical
analysis. Every PD source has its typical statistical parameter
and thus unknown measured PD data can be assessed by using
a data base already obtained from existing sources.
B. φ-q-n pattern recognition
Determining the source of PD can be done using φ-q-
pattern recognition. This method requires a set of reference
PD patterns. PD patterns obtained from HV equipments are
compared to the reference PD patterns. The similarity of the
measured PD pattern and the references is used to determined
the most likely PD source. PD patterns are represented by a
designed size of matrices. The row of the matrice is the phase
angle while the collumn is PD magnitude and the number of
Fig. 13. Matching of an input simplified PD pattern with a simplified
PD pulse in particular phase angle and PD magnitude is the reference PD pattern
content of a cell in the matrice. This is illustrated in Fig. 12.
The distance between 2 PD patterns is determined using
the following equation
Dp(R,X) = (10)
∑ d (R
i, j
i, j , X i, j )

where

2
d(Ri,j,Xi,j) = ( Ri , j − X i , j )
( Ri , j + X i , j ) 2

Finally the X pattern is categorized as belongs to one of

the reference PD pattern by selecting the minimum value of
Dp(R,X). Another method to determine the PD source is to
recognize the properties of each PD source such as the
unbalance and phase position of PD pulses.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Phase-resolved measurement and analysis of PD in gas,
liquid and solid insulations was conducted. Based on the
obtained data a model of PD was developed and PD
phenomena were simulated. Diagnosis of HV insulation using
PD data was also presented by PD pattern recognition
Fig. 12. (a) PD pattern (b) normalized PD pattern
techniques.

374
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