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Acoustic emission from partial discharges in solid dielectrics

Conference Paper · June 2014

DOI: 10.1109/EIC.2014.6869360

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 2014 Electrical Insulation Conference, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 8 to 11 June 2014

Acoustic Emission from Partial Discharges

in Solid Dielectrics

Tadeusz Czaszejko, Jonathan Sookun

Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
Monash University
Melbourne, Australia
tadeusz.czaszejko@monash.edu

Abstract—Properties of acoustic signals emitted from PD mechanical properties of the surrounding insulation material.
sources in solid dielectrics are less well known in comparison This sequence of events can be described as impulse response
with those in liquids. We have investigated three materials used of a physical system, as depicted in Fig. 1.
typically as insulation in high voltage cables and their
accessories, namely, polyethylene (PE), silicon rubber (SiR) and
ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM). Several simple
geometries of defects were considered, such as spherical voids, Transfer
Function of
cylindrical cavities and fissures. COMSOL Multiphysics software Physical System
was used to conduct computer modelling of acoustic emission PD pressure pulse Impulse response of physical
caused by PDs in such defects. A relationship between defect system
dimensions and frequency of the acoustic signal emitted was
established. In spherical voids and cylindrical cavities f ~ 1/d, Fig. 1. Impulse response model of acoustic emission due to partial
where d is the void size. In fissures, f ~ 1/(t0.37w0.5), where t is the discharges.
fissure thickness and w is the fissure width.
An approximation to the amount of electrical energy
Keywords— partial discharge, acoustic emission, solid released in a cavity can be calculated from (1)
dielectrics
1 1
I. INTRODUCTION W  CVbd 2 or W  qVbd (1)
2 2
Very little is known about the acoustic signal emitted by where C is capacitance, Vbd is Paschen breakdown voltage
partial discharge activity in solid insulation of the type that is of the cavity and q is the electric charge dissipated during a PD
typically found in high voltage cable accessories and indeed in event. The pressure created by this energy can be obtained
the cable itself. In this article, we focus on determining the from W in (1) and the cavity volume, vol, as in (2).
nature of the acoustic signal emitted from simple defect types
that can occur: spherical and cylindrical voids as well as from W
fissures. The amount of energy released during a PD event in p (2)
a given defect can be calculated from the apparent charge vol
developed and the PD inception voltage. For simplicity, it is As an illustration of quantities that can be obtained from (1)
assumed that all this energy gets converted into a pressure and (2) we choose a spherical void of 0.1 mm diameter, for
impulse stimulating acoustic emission. The defect becomes a which Vbd  1 kV, C  0.006 pF and q  5.5 pC, giving the
source of an acoustic signal that propagates to the surrounding resulting pressure p  5 kPa. Considering that the human ear
insulating material. As shown further in the paper, there is a can perceive sound pressures over the range from about 20 µPa
clear relationship between the sound wave frequency and up to about 200 Pa [1], the sound pressure at the PD source can
geometrical properties of the source. be very high indeed. The sound pressure level is defined as
p
II. ACOUSTIC EMISSION FROM PDS SPL  20log (3)
The following simple scenario is proposed to explain the pref
process of acoustic emission from partial discharges. A PD were pref = 20 Pa [1]. Therefore, the SPL of our 0.1 mm
event can be regarded as an impulsive release of energy into a wide PD source is equal to 168 dB. At a distance of 100 mm
discharge channel. This energy is mostly converted to heat. away from the void centre the sound pressure level will be still
The rapid rate at which it occurs creates a pressure pulse within considerable
the surrounding ambience - typically a defect in a form of a
cavity in the insulation. The cavity responds to the pulse with a 100
vibration. The vibration natural frequency and attenuation SPL1  SPL  10log  168  33  135 dB (4)
0.05
depend on geometrical properties of the cavity as well as

978-1-4799-2789-0/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 119

 Absorbing
Boundary
Material (m) Material (m)

Brass
Cavity Cavity

d/2 Gaussian Pulse

Gaussian Pulse Source w/2
w
Source
d/ Probe Cavity

t
d
2

Gaussian Pulse Source

Absorbing Absorbing
Boundary Probe Boundary Dielectric
Probe

Fig. 2. Geometrical descriptions of the three types of defects studied.

Despite some sound wave attenuation that must occur due Physical properties of materials that were used in the studies
to energy absorption in the dielectric the acoustic signal are listed in TABLE I.
emitted from a PD source in a cable termination can be clearly
audible. This may not come as a surprise to those who had a TABLE I. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF MATERIALS
chance to hear the characteristic crackling sound when testing a Material Density Shore A Young’s Speed of
faulty termination in a PD test room. Hardness Modulus Sound
(kg/m3) (MPa) (m/s)
There have been attempts to determine experimentally the
Brass 8500 - 110000 3597.4
properties of sound emitted from partial discharges, going back
PE 960 - 1035 1038.3
some 20 years [2][3][4]. Conclusions from these experiments
Si 1140 37 1.37 34.7
are limited because of the use of narrow-band electroacoustic
EPDM 1200 60 4.50 61.2
transducers. The question remains whether insulation defects
Air 1.2 - - 340.3
of different shapes and sizes would produce acoustic signatures
that are distinctive so that the development of a wide-band
acoustic sensor be warranted, and subsequently, PD diagnostics B. PD as an acoustic source
be performed on this basis. Computer simulation results Denoting material density by  (kg/m3), the speed of
presented in this paper attempt to provide some answers. sound by cs (m/s) the propagation of the acoustic pressure field,
p(x,t) (Pa) is governed by the wave equation (5).
III. FEA FOR ACOUSTIC MODELLING
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software such as COMSOL 1 2 p 1 
Multiphysics can be used for simulating partial discharge     p   S  x, t  (5)
processes and [5] is one of the most recent publication out of a
 cs t
2 2
 
series of papers on this topic. The focus of that work was on The forcing function term, S(x, t), describes the source . In
the simulation of the behaviour of the electrical discharge itself the case of partial discharge it seems reasonable to use a point
whereas we have turned our attention to the pressure wave, and source that is given by (6)
sound emitted from electrical sparking of this type.
dg
A. Model geometry and materials S  x, t    t   2  x  x0  (6)
dt
Three basic insulation defect shapes were chosen in this in which g(t) is a Gaussian pulse described by (7)
investigation: spherical void, cylindrical cavity and disk-like

 Ae  f0 ( t  ) 0  t  2
2 2 2
fissure. The sample geometries are depicted in Fig. 2. The for
spherical void and cylindrical cavity were placed within a g t    (7)
homogeneous solid dielectric. The fissure was located at a 
 0 otherwise
dielectric/metal interface. These are well known equations that can be presented in
several forms. We have adopted notation used in [6]. The
The following materials were used in the studies: silicon
Gaussian pulse point-source possesses explosion-like
rubber (Si), ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) and
properties, akin to a PD event. It describes a source located at
polyethylene (PE) as well as brass was that used on one side of
x = x0 with A the rate of air flow away from the source in m3/s.
the fissure. The dimension d in voids (sphere and cylinder)
The parameter f0 is proportional to the pulse bandwidth, which
ranged from 0.1 mm to 1 mm. The fissure width w ranged from
1 mm to 30 mm and its thickness t from 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm. is inversely proportional to the pulse width f 0  1  .

120
 p (kPa) SiR p (kPa) EPDM p (kPa) PE

time (s) time (s) time (s)

Fig. 3. Acoustic signal from spherical void: effect of material, d = 0.1 mm.

The choice of the pulse width  is governed by the typical oscillation frequency depended mainly on the defect size
duration of a PD event, ranging from tens to hundreds of whereas the damping rate depended on mechanical properties
nanoseconds. At the same time, in terms of the computing of the dielectric. In the interest of brevity only representative
effort the shorter the pulse width the finer the time step of the examples of the signal traces are presented in this section.
simulation will have to be. A reasonable compromise between
A. Influence of dielectric material
the two is   1 μs . In order to assess validity of the
An acoustic signal produced by a PD in a spherical void is
compromise preliminary studies were conducted, which used in this section to present the effect of dielectric on the
determined that the output pressure signal was not significantly signal properties. Example signal traces are depicted in Fig. 3
sensitive to the pressure pulse width. and show the different damping rates observed in SiR, EPDM
Based on the numerical values obtained from preliminary and PE. The difference in the signal frequency was observed as
calculations presented in section II the order of magnitude of well but it was not very significant. For example, if the void
the peak pressure at the source, Pp = 10 kPa, was required. In diameter was 0.25 mm the frequency was 20.5 kHz, 21.8 kHz
an absence of a conversion formula from peak pressure to flow and 22.6 kHz in SiR, EPDM and PE respectively. There
rate, the magnitude A was determined by computer simulation relationships were qualitatively consistent across all three types
using. The model of a 0.25-mm spherical void in SiR was used of defects considered in the study.
for this purpose. The A value was manipulated until the peak
B. Influence of defect size and geometry
pressure reading on the pressure probe located at the source
The defect size significantly affected frequency of the
was equal to 10 kPa. This gave A  1.65 105 m3 s , which
acoustic signal. In general, a decrease of defect size resulted in
was used throughout all of the studies presented in this article. higher frequency of the acoustic pressure wave emitted. Fig. 4
C. Signal detection contains plots of frequency vs. defect size in one dielectric,
namely EPDM, as an example.
The pressure wave induced in a dielectric by a PD source
was detected by using the pressure probe device contained in
COMSOL. The probe was placed at a location away from the
cavity. The choice of location was affected by the need to
minimise computation time. For this reason, the smaller the
defect the closer the probe was located. This approach resulted
in the peak pressure values read by the probe that were not
easily comparable between the different cases studied. This
does not affect our conclusions because the focus was on the
pressure wave frequency rather than sound intensity. A
comparison was made between frequencies of the acoustic
signal emitted from defects of three different shapes, three
different sizes and placed in three different dielectrics.
IV. RESULTS
The results obtained were consistent in the sense that the
acoustic signal induced by a PD pulse and travelling within
a dielectric had a form of damped oscillation. The systematic Fig. 4. Acoustic signal frequency vs. defect size in EPDM
investigation of defect types and materials showed that the

121
 The trend line equations included with the plots reveal an experimental findings. The models suggest that acoustic
inverse power behaviour of frequency in all three defect types. oscillations produced by partial discharges in cavity-type
In the case of fissures, there were two dimensions to consider defects do not go beyond 100 kHz and can be as low as several
in this respect, their width w and their thickness t. Fig. 4 kHz.
presents f(w) plots. However, a similar inverse power law rule
applies to the f(t) relationship, although with a different There can be an explanation why a very high frequency
exponent value. At the same time, the type of dielectric had no signal was detected in the experiments that involved
significant effect on the exponent. The inverse power rule for electroacoustic sensors. Such sensors are placed by necessity
all cases considered in the study is described by formulas (8) very close to the PD source and they are electrically connected
and (9). to the measuring equipment (amplifiers, oscilloscopes etc.).
These lengths of wire, together with the sensor itself, constitute
1 an antenna that picks up an electromagnetic signal that is
f  for 0.1 mm  d  1 mm (8) coupled into the measuring equipment. The frequency of
d electromagnetic emission from a PD test circuit can often be in
1 0.1 mm  t  0.3 mm the range of several to several tens of MHz [10].
f  0.5 0.37 for (9)
w t 1 mm  w  30 mm The above explanation is based on the author's own,
It is interesting to observe that formula (8) applies to a unpublished experience with detecting sound emitted from
spherical void as well as to a cylindrical cavity, remembering partial discharges. This is why a non-electrical electroacoustic
that the cavity height and diameter were both equal to d. sensor is currently being developeda. The results of preliminary
tests conducted to date with a prototype sensor seem to confirm
V. DISCUSSION computer modelling results.
All results presented in this article were obtained from
computer simulations. They revealed an inverse power law VI. CONCLUSIONS
relationship between dimensions of a defect and the frequency The results obtained from computer modelling described in
of the acoustic pressure wave emitted from it. Theoretical this article shows that the acoustic signal emitted from a cavity
explanation of such a relationship would provide grounds for that is a source of partial discharges can have frequency
validation of the results obtained. between several kHz and several tens of kHz. The sound
frequency is related mainly to the defect size. The findings
There exists an extensive body of work studying bubbles in from computer modelling of a spherical void have been
water under the influence of acoustic stimulus [7]. Such validated by theoretical calculations. This validation also gives
bubbles exhibit resonant behaviour with the frequency of confidence to simulation results obtained for the other cavity
resonance that depends on the bubble radius, external pressure shapes investigated.
and density of the surrounding liquid. The phenomenon was
first studied by Minnaert [8] who arrived at the following There exists a need to develop non-electrical means of
equation: detecting acoustic signals emitted from electrical discharges.
Otherwise, it may be difficult to shield the acoustic signal from
1 3 p electromagnetic interference when both are coming from the
f  (10)
d  same source.
where d is the bubble diameter, p is ambient pressure,  is
density of the surrounding water and  is the adiabatic index
equal to 1.4.
A number of idealising assumptions were made to derive
the formula, such as neglecting compressibility and viscosity of
the liquid and neglecting surface tension in the bubble. It
seemed doubtful, at first, that a formula obtained for a bubble
in an idealised fluid could be applied successfully to a spherical
void in a solid. Remarkably, a very good agreement can be
observed between the frequency values calculated from (10)
and those obtained from computer simulations, as illustrated in
Fig. 5. This gives a degree of confidence about the quality of
models developed. It also confirms the validity of describing
acoustic emission from a PD as an impulse response of a
damped oscillator in which the PD pulse is a stimulus and a
defect is the oscillator.
It is interesting that in the few investigations of acoustic Fig. 5. Comparison of computer model results and calculated
emission from PDs in solids published so far the focus was on frequency of sound waves emitted from spherical voids.
the signal frequencies ranging from several hundred kHz [9] to
even as high as several MHz [2][3][4]. The computer models a
This work has been funded from the Australian Strategic Technology
described in this article do not seem to confirm those Programme of Energy Networks Association.

122
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