th

The 20 International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 27 – September 01, 2017
STUDY OF THE AC SURFACE DISCHARGE
CHARACTERISTICS OF INSULATION SAMPLES USING THE UHF
METHOD
F. A. Nugraha, N. Harid, H. Griffiths, B. Barkat and Naji Al Sayari
The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE, nharid@pi.ac.ae

Abstract: Surface discharges occurring on high voltage insulators and bushings can lead to
disruption of equipment and ultimately disconnection of power supply. With the increasing use of
polymeric material for outdoor insulation, degradation of the insulation surface over time due to
pollution and environmental effects such as temperature and humidity can evolve into severe
damage to the insulation. Therefore, early detection of surface discharge can help prevent such
damage from developing into a disruptive fault.
In order to be able to detect surface discharges on operating equipment and to understand their
properties, effective techniques should be used. The use of ultra-high-frequency (UHF) and
acoustic techniques have been proposed for the study of partial discharge generated in
transformers, GIS equipment and outdoor insulation. This paper reports the results of
experimental measurements of surface discharges on acrylic insulation surfaces using UHF
antennas, and analyses the characteristics of the emitted UHF signals using advanced digital
processing. The results are correlated with those obtained with a monopole antenna, a horn
antenna, and a high-frequency current transformer (HFCT) measurements to help elucidate the
discharge properties.
The measurements are carried out under clean surface conditions. Analysis of the initial results
indicate that the amplitude frequency spectrum of the electromagnetic waves emitted by the
surface discharge under clean conditions lies between 0.5GHz and 1.5 GHz, with a prominent
peak at 1.1 GHz. It is expected that this study will help in defining the bandwidth and sensitivity
requirements of UHF sensors used for detection of surface discharge in power system
equipment, transmission lines and cables.

voltage AC magnitude to the emitted EM signals and

1. INTRODUCTION
PD current are explored.
Surface discharges occurring on high voltage
insulators and bushings can lead to disruption of
2.1 TEST SET-UP
equipment and ultimately disconnection of power
supply. With the increasing use of polymeric material Figure 1 shows the test set-up for surface discharge
for outdoor insulation, degradation of the insulation detection on acrylic insulation material using UHF
surface over time due to pollution and environmental method. The acrylic block sample has dimension of
effects such as temperature and humidity can evolve 90x90x7 mm. The measurements were carried out
into severe damage to the insulation. Therefore, under clean surface. The UHF sensors were put
early detection of surface discharge can help prevent 50cm away from the test object on the same height
such damage from developing into a disruptive fault. level. While the HFCT was clamped over the ground
To be able to detect surface discharges on operating connection cable. A 10-m coaxial cable was used to
equipment and to understand their properties, connect the sensors to oscilloscope. The sample was
effective techniques should be used. The use of placed between a high-voltage rod and ground plane
ultra-high-frequency (UHF) and acoustic techniques electrode system and was stressed with variable AC
have been proposed for the study of partial test voltages. To obtain sustained discharge
discharge generated in transformers [1], GIS activities, the applied voltages were selected
equipment [2] and outdoor insulation. between the PD inception voltage (PDIV) and
breakdown voltage. From the preliminary test, the
2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
PDIV and breakdown voltage were found to be
A monopole antenna and a horn antenna having 4.1kVrms and 28kVrms, respectively, and the test
frequency bands of 120 – 900MHz and 800 – voltages levels were set to 10, 15, 20, 24, and
5000MHz, respectively, were used to detect the 26kVrms.
electromagnetic (EM) radiation signals emitted from
Table 1: Characteristics of monopole antenna
the PD source. Table 1 and 2 summarize the
Operating
characteristics of each antenna. In addition, a split- Power Z Type Tilt angle
Freq.
core HFCT having a transfer impedance of 3.9 0
10 W 50 Ω ¼λ 180 120 – 900 MHz
mV/mA and 3-dB frequency response of 100kHz-20
MHz range was used to detect the PD current flow Table 2: Characteristics of horn antenna
through to the ground. Subsequently, all the detected Antenna Operatin
Power VSWR Type
Factor g Freq.
signals from the three sensors were recorded using a
23 – 32 Double
2.5GHz, 40GS/s oscilloscope. The effect of high 300 W
dB/m
<2
Ridged
0.8 - 5 GHz
Figure 1: Measurement set-up for surface discharge test on acrylic
block sample

At each applied voltage level, 1000 signals were

recorded to satisfy the statistical data requirement
where each signal has time window of 500ns at
sampling frequency of 10GS/s. Subsequently, all
collected data were examined using both
conventional FFT and advanced time-frequency
analysis to analyse the characteristics of surface
discharge. Figure 2: Typical background noise within HV Lab. Top trace:
monopole antenna; bottom trace: horn antenna

3. TIME FREQUENCY ANALYSIS

Partial discharge activity is inherently a non-
stationary signal and therefore, analysis of such
signals using the FFT technique may produce limited
information about the discharge characteristics. For
instance, the FFT gives no indication as to how the
frequency content of the signal changes with time
[3], which is an important information when dealing
with signals such as PD signals. In contrast, by using
time-frequency analysis (TFA), a clearer picture of
the signal’s composition can be attained. In this
paper, a time-frequency distribution (TFD) from the Figure 3: Measured voltage magnitude of the EM signals detected
quadratic family, called B – Distribution is utilized to by horn antenna (1000 signals at each voltage level)
analyse discharge emission signals detected by UHF
sensors. This B-distribution showed excellent results When the voltage increases, the surface charges
with removal of cross-terms while achieving high grows longer along the acrylic surface, emitting EM
resolution in the time–frequency domain [4]. signals of higher intensity. The variability of EM
signal amplitudes increases with voltage, as shown
by the increasing values of the standard deviation.
4. RESULT AND ANALYSIS
Typical examples of time-domain plots of EM signals
Measurement of the background noise within the HV having the maximum peak to peak value are shown
Lab was carried out prior to the test. Figure 2 shows in Figure 4. As can be seen, the EM signals have
the typical background noise level measured by both similar waveforms with duration of several
antennae. It mainly consists of GSM signals (950 nanoseconds, which is indicative of fast PD current
MHz and 1800MHz) and unidentified low-frequency gradients.
signals (< 20MHz) which remained consistently low
Table 3 : Statistical parameters of measured data (1000 EM
during experiments.
signals detected by horn antenna)
Voltage Min Average Std.
Max (mV)
4.1 Effect of voltage magnitude (kVrms) (mV) (mV) dev.
10 268.80 44.80 79.31 25.73
4.1.1 Measurement by horn antenna: 15 374.00 50.00 117.14 55.96
Figure 3 shows the changes in amplitude peak-to- 20 553.60 70.40 156.34 69.60
peak of recorded signals detected by horn antenna 24 792.00 136.00 327.10 132.40
as a function of applied voltage. Table 3 summarizes 26 1092.00 216.00 527.90 153.66
the statistical parameters characterising the
measurement data. As expected, the average
voltage peak-to-peak of emitted PD signals
increases with the applied voltage.
 a) 15kVrms

Figure 4: Time-domain plots of the typical EM signals detected by

horn antenna at different voltage magnitudes

The frequency spectrum of typical EM signals

obtained using the FFT method at various voltage
magnitudes is shown in Figure 5. It is seen that the
dominant frequency components are found within the
range of 0.5 – 1.5GHz, with prominent peak at
1.1GHz. It is also observed that although the
amplitude of the signal increases with the voltage
magnitude, the frequency content characteristics do
not vary significantly. Figure 6 shows the TFA plots
of the recorded EM signals corresponding to the b) 26kVrms
maximum peak to peak amplitudes. The frequency Figure 6: TFA plots of signals detected by horn antenna at (a)
components lie roughly between 0.5 GHz and 15kVrms and (b)26kVrms
1.5GHz, with a prominent peak at 1.1GHz and a
duration of 5ns on average. The duration and
frequency band are not altered by the applied
voltage, but the amplitude varies with voltage.

Figure 7: EM peak to peak magnitude of signals measured by

monopole antenna

Figure 5: FFT of signals measured by horn antenna

4.1.2 Measurement by monopole antenna: Table 4: Statistical parameters of measured data of 1000 EM
The monople antenna was used simulateneously signals detected by monopole antenna
Voltage Min Average Std.
with the horn antenna to observe the corona Max (mV)
(kVrms) (mV) (mV) dev.
discharge [5], because its frequency spectrum is 10 274 54 110.64 37.56
withing the range of spectrum of corona-emitted EM 15 536.40 118.80 247.03 81.23
signals, which are typically between 100 MHz and 20 586.60 129.60 303.28 86.67
500 MHz. Hence direct discrimination by 24 1008.00 280.00 559.34 122.64
measurement is achieved. Figure 7 shows the EM 26 1272.00 264.00 622.43 159.24
signals detected by the monopole antenna at
increasing applied voltage. The statistical
parameters of the measured data fare summarised
in Table 4. As expected, the average voltage peak-
to-peak of the signals increases with voltage
magnitude. The magnitudes the corona discharge-
emitted EM signals are higher than those emitted by
the surface discharge.
Figure 8 shows the time-domain plot of typical
corona discharge signals measured at each applied
voltage. The plot represents the maximum voltage
Figure 9: FFT of signals detected by monopole antenna at various
peak-to-peak signal out of 1000 signals at each voltage magnitudes
voltage. As can be observed, the signals have
relatively similar waveform. In addition, the first peak Figure 9 depicts the frequency spectrum of the
of oscillation from the detected corona discharge is typical detected corona discharged generated by the
of positive polarity. FFT technique. As expected, the frequency
components lie below 300MHz, with a prominent
peak at 50MHz. Under different voltage magnitudes,
only the amplitude of its frequency components
varies with applied voltage, the frequency bands
remain unaffected. The TFA plots of signals detected
by monopole antenna are shown in Figure 10. The
frequency components lie below 500MHz, with a
prominent peak at 100MHz, which is different from
the one obtained with FFT. In addition, its prominent
component has duration of 50ns, on average. If we
These results are an indication of typical corona
discharge activity, as observed in [5].

Figure 8: Time-domain plots of the typical EM signals measured

by monopole antenna at different voltage magnitudes

(a) 15kVrms
 (b) 26kVrms
Figure 10: TFA plots of signals measured by monopole antenna at
(a) 10kVrms and (b)26kVrms

4.1.3 Determination of apparent charge:
The PD current peak to peak magnitudes measured
by HFCT over the range of voltage magnitudes is
shown in Figure 11, and the corresponding statistical
parameters of measured data are summarized in
Table 5. Figure 12 shows typical time-domain plots
of PD current.
Figure 12: Time-domain plots of the PD current detected by HFCT
at different voltage magnitudes.
The apparent PD displacement charge at a given
applied voltage is obtained as follows:
(1)

Where the transfer impedance of the HFCT=3.9Ω.

Table 6 provides a summary of the calculated
apparent charge at each voltage level, as well as the
rise of the measured signal corresponding to the
maximum peak to peak values. As can be observed,
the apparent charge varies non-linearly with voltage
magnitude, showing a sharp increase at higher
voltage levels due to increase of both surface
discharge and corona discharge activity. On the
other hand, the rise-time of the PD current signals is
Figure 11: Effect of voltage magnitude on PD current signal peak not significantly affect by the applied voltage.
to peak measured by HFCT
Table 6: Characteristics of PD current detected by HFCT at
Table 5: Statistical parameters of measured data by HFCT sensor different voltage magnitude
Voltage Min Average Std. Applied Voltage Vpeak Rise Time Calculated
Max (mV) (kVrms) (mV) (ns) Charge (pC)
(kVrms) (mV) (mV) dev.
10 760.00 140 330.78 102.77 10 302.4 13.18 7,420
15 1056.00 60 258.64 197.69 15 700 10.92 7,810
20 1620.00 108.00 206.32 95.11 20 948 11.16 9,700
24 1644.00 120.00 244.46 94.7 24 1504 13.16 18,540

26 3072.00 168.00 360.22 184.16 26 2810 15.08 39,030

5. CONCLUSIONS
This work highlighted some features of the surface
discharge on an acrylic insulation material sample
under clean conditions using the UHF method. UHF
antenna of sufficient frequency bandwidth placed at
an appropriate distance from the PD source can be
used for the detection of surface discharges in air. In
applications such as outdoor insulators and
bushings, this may provide an efficient condition
monitoring tool. A monopole antenna allowed
discrimination between surface and corona
discharges. Time Frequency Analysis of measured
UHF signals showed that the surface discharge
emits electromagnetic waves in the frequency band
0.5 GHz- 1.5 GHz, with a prominent peak at around
1.1 GHz, whose magnitude increases with applied
voltage. The apparent charge measured using an
HFCT sensor show a strong dependence on applied
voltage. The shape of the measured PD current is
also affected by the applied voltage. The
characteristics of surface discharge of samples of
different dielectric material under clean and polluted
condition is being investigated and will be reported in
future.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the ADNOC
Research and Innovation Centre (ADRIC) at the
Petroleum Institute for its support in funding this
research.

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