Proceedings
Method of pulse function fitting based on the corona
current measurement data
Hu Xiaofeng
Institute of Electrostatic and Electromagnetic Protection
Mechanical Engineering College
Shijiazhuang, China
Snowfox2270@163.com
Abstract-As an important gas discharge form,
discharge can generate electromagnetic radiation field which will
interfere with the electronic devices and systems. Calculation of
electromagnetic radiation field requires quantitative research of
corona pulse current and analytical expression. According to the
research situation abroad that the corona current was fitted
using double-exponential function and Gaussian function,
corona pulse current function is proposed in the paper. It is
researched based on the physical processes of corona discharge
current excitation. And the fitting parameters and analytic of -60
kV negative corona discharge current are deduced based on the
measurement data and compared with the double-exponential
fitting result. The result shows that time derivative at zero time of
fitting expression corona current pulse function is zero. And the
waveform frontier is consistent with the measured waveform,
which is better than double-exponential function. The proposed
fitting method is suitable for describing the corona discharge
pulse current waveform.
Keywords-corona discharge, corona current, pulse function,
jitting expression
I. INTRODUCTION
Corona discharge is one of the most important gas
discharge form. When corona discharge generate on the tip of
the conductor, the conductor will produce a corona discharge
current. Corona discharge has a deep rising edge and radiate
intense electromagnetic field[1-4]. The electromagnetic field
will interfere with the electronic devices and systems.
Therefore, the corona discharge radiated field calculation is an
important research content in the electricity fields. To acquire
effective calculation results of corona discharge radiated field,
the accurate corona discharge pulse current expression is need.
The corona current is generally expressed by double­
exponential function. To calculate corona discharge radiated
field conveniently, a novel corona discharge current pulse
function is proposed in the paper. By comparing the
measurement results and fitting results, the pulse function is
consistent with the generated physics process of corona
discharge current. This research is a good foundation for
corona discharge radiated field calculation.
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CEEM'201S/HangZhou
Zhang Yue, Wang Lei, Liu Hao
Institute of Electrostatic and Electromagnetic Protection
Mechanical Engineering College
Shijiazhuang, China
corona
II. ANALYTICAL EXPRESSION OF CORONA CURRENT
According to the theoretical calculation and experiment
results, corona current has fast rising edge and short duration
time[5-8]. It is known that the mathematic expression of corona
current is needed to put forward to analytically calculate the
a
corona radiation field. At present, the double exponent
expression is mostly used. Deimdorfer and Uman put forward
the DU model when they studied the space-time distribution of
lighting channel current, in which, the channel current consists
of put forward and breakdown current, the corona current is
expressed by double exponent function, which shows as
following[9]:
i(O, t) = IBD[1-exp(-tl r,)f exp(-t I rJI 17
(1)
+Idexp(-t I a) -exp(-t I b)]
Where, the last term is the corona current expression, Ie is
the current amplitude, a and b are constant.
In 2005, S. K. Nayak and M. 1. Thomas put forward the put
forward based on double exponent function when they studied
the EMI of high voltage transportation lines[lO]. Xiao D. P. et
al. also put forward the put forward based on double exponent
function when they studied the EMI of high voltage
transportation lines[ll].
After corona discharge occurs, the current cannot change
suddenly, therefore, the corona current should be ° at t=0. The
corona pulse current and its derivative are important factors for
transient electromagnetic field, the radiation field cannot
change suddenly as the corona discharge occurs, and the
current derivative should be 0, therefore, the mathematic
expression of corona current should firstly meet the
requirement that the current and its derivative are 0. The double
exponent is ° at t=0, whereas, its derivative is not ° at t=0,
therefore, it is not fit with the physics process of corona current.
III. CORONA CURRENT EXPERIMENT SETUP AND
MEASUREMENT DATA
The corona current is related to the voltage and polarity of
the electrode, it is also affected by the shape, material and
conductive plate arrangement of the corona electrode[12]. The
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 Proceedings CEEM'201S/HangZhou

corona pulse current of tip conductor is tested as shown In diet) -1 ( P-I

Fig. l[13]. 10(7172 ) [l-exp -t I 71 ) ]
dt
-- =

(3)
Tip conductor exp(-tI 7z } [(p72 + 71) exp(-t171) - 71]
k
p ( - l ) p I tt I 2
f(t) = oi(t)dt= - loa . exp(- ktltl- tltz}
k�O k!(p- k ! ) tI + kt2
Metal ball

en
Insulating
(4 )
bracket As seen in (3), dietI
) dt = 0 at t=0. It is known that the
dipoles have current term, the differential and integration of
current, which can be easily calculated by pulse function.
By adjusting the parameters, we have obtained the current
waveform expression of -60kV corona test data, which shows
Figure 1 test setup of corona pulse current of tip conductor as following:
In the experiment, the tip conductor is fixed to the
insulating holder, and grounded by high-voltage insulated wire.
The voltage of the DC high voltage source is raised from - i(t) = 18(1- e -[ 11.04 ) 2 e -[ 15.04 (5)
60kVand +60kV. The tip conductor is moved to the charging Where, t is in ns.
metal ball from far to near, until corona discharge occurs. The
Fig. 3 shows the comparison of double exponent function,
corona pulse current is measured by the oscilloscope and
pulse function and test results. Fig. 4 shows the extended pulse
current probe. The temperature and humidity during the
rising edge, in which, pulse function is in red, double exponent
experiment are 23°C and 65% respectively. When. The corona
function is in blue, and test results are in black. As seen in Fig.
discharge occurs when the voltage of the DC high voltage 3 and Fig. 4, the derivative of pulse function is 0 at 0 ns, and it
source is raised to +60kV and the distance between the tip rising edge fits better than that of double exponent function.
conductor and the voltage source is 90 mm. The tested typical
pulse current waveform is shown in Fig. 2. 12
- test results
006 10
_. double exponent
- - pulse function
0.05

«
E
0.04 ""

003
::::
�
002
� ·2

0.01 10 12 14 16 18 20
Uns

Figure 3 Comparison of fit waveforms

.001
0 20 40 60 80 1 00 120 140 1 60 180 200
Time/ns
12

10

Figure 2 Typical current waveform of negative corona .......

.
�

. ... . ..... "'

IV. FITTING EXPRESSION OF THE CORONA CURRENT BASED -
..
ON PULSE FUNCTION - test results
- - double exponent
Pulse function can express corona current waveform, _. pulse function
because it is 0 at t=O, and its integration and differential are
·2
easy to calculate. We can adjust its parameters to fit the pulse
current waveform well. Due to mostly contributing to the
Uns
radiation field, the first pulse can be expressed by the single
pulse function, as following:
Figure 4 Comparison of fore edge of waveforms
2
i(t)=Io(1-e-tlr'Ye-tlr (2)
V. CONCLUSION
By calculated, the differential and integration expression of To calculate corona discharge radiated field conveniently, a
pulse function show as following respectively [14]: novel corona discharge current pulse function is proposed

399

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 Proceedings CEEM'201S/HangZhou

based on the physical processes of corona discharge current [5] [5] Zhu Yi-min, Kong Xian-gpeng. Current-voltage
excitation in the paper. By building test systems of pulse characteristics of multi-needles-to-plate corona
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generated physics process of corona discharge current. In the 2006,32(1):57-58.
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fitting result. The result shows that time derivative at zero time
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The proposed fitting method is suitable for describing the [9] [9] G. Diendorfer and M.A. Uman. An imp roved return
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
the Computation of Radiated EMI due to Corona on HV
The authors wish to thank the project supported by National Transmission LinesrJ]. IEEE EMC International
Symposium, 2003,2:738-742.
Natural Science Foundation of China (61172035).
[11] rl1] Xiao Dong-Ping, He Wei, Xie Peng-Ju, el al.
Study on Corona Discharge Characteristic of High Voltage
Transmission Line and Calculation of Its Electromagnetic
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