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6 authors, including:
Guillermo Robles
Ricardo Albarracn
22 PUBLICATIONS 42 CITATIONS
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Eva Rajo-Iglesias
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I. Introduction
Electrical insulation is a key issue in power systems
reliability. It is well known that oil-impregnated paper
in power transformers, epoxy resins in generators and
polyethylene in power cables are subjected to several
mechanical, thermal and electrical stresses that degrade
their behaviour leading to unexpected failures of these
expensive assets and to power outages [1]. A well-known
ageing mechanism of electrical stress is partial discharges
(PD) activity [2]. Partial discharges are low energy ionizations that take place in microscopic sites of electrical
insulation due to its lack of homogeneity in permittivity
and dielectric strength. This is typical in air voids within
solid and liquid insulations where, even rated voltages
applied to the power apparatus, provoke ionizations of
the air. Partial discharges do not cause an immediate
failure of electrical insulation, but degrade its properties
due to chemical and physical attack [3]. Moreover, partial
discharges can be a symptom of other ageing mechanisms
mentioned above [4]. For all these reasons, partial discharges measurements have been standardized as tests for
electrical equipment maintenance [5]. In these classical
tests, a capacitive branch is connected to the equipment
terminals to detect high frequency pulses created from PD.
The pulse amplitude is represented superimposed to the
phase of the applied voltage (Phase Resolved Partial Discharge patterns, PRPD patterns) in order to distinguish
between different kinds of partial discharges [2]. However,
PD measurements are usually made in industrial facilities
where high levels of electrical noise are always present.
This makes difficult the interpretation of the PD pattern
and the diagnosis of the insulation. PD recognition is done
by analysing PD pulse waveforms acquired with inductive
devices as High Frequency Current Transformers (HFCT),
Rogowski Coils or inductive loops [6], [7], [8]. In any case,
these measurements require the disconnection of electrical
equipment before installing the measurement setup. In
addition, all these techniques cannot locate PD sources
geometrically, which could be useful for power equipment
maintenance. Electro-acoustic and Ultra High Frequency
(UHF) emissions from partial discharges can be measured
to overcome these limitations, [9]. The first option uses
piezoelectric sensors to detect pressure waves propagating
through oil, which rejects any electrical noise coupling to
the acquired signals [10]. However, these sensors cannot
detect PD occurring inside solid dielectrics; they have
typically low sensitivity and narrowband, which makes
it difficult to detect PD that are close in time [9]. As
mentioned before, another new research trend for PD
detection is the use of antennas for UHF detection of
partial discharges. This technique is based on non-contact
measurements, so its application to on-line measurements
is appropriate [11], [12], [13]. These sensors can also be
used for any kind of insulating material and give excellent results in PD location in large facilities such as
substations [14]. Moreover, the increasing number of High
Voltage DC applications in power grids require that PD
are detected without synchronization signals [15], which
can be solved with antennas. The main drawback of PD
detection through antennas is the presence of noise sources
due to FM, TV, GSM, WiFi emissions, so the antenna
response to both PD and noise is an interesting research
topic for PD detection [16], [17]. The comparison of several
antennas had been presented before [12], but a deeper
analytical background for these devices (monopole, zigzag,
cone shaped...) was missing in order to model PD and noise
detection capability. A good theoretical model for patch
antennas is found in [18] and [19], but the response to PD
1569264829
10
10
|SPD(f)|norm
10
10
10
0,72
0,5
0,12 0 0,12
f T
0,5
0,72
where t0 = Th
2
log 2
|SPD (f )| = 2 f t0 e 4
(2)
2
2 fn
1
max |SPD (fn )| =
(3)
fn e 4 log 2
2 fn
log 2
The solutions are fnmin = 0.12 and fnmax = 0.72.
Consequently the signal would be approximately located
in the band of 0.12/Th 0.72/Th Hz, as shown marked
with a thicker trace in Fig. 1. The relationship obtained
given those values for the 3 dB bandwidth and considering
that the typical values of Th for internal discharges are
below 1 ns, will locate the detected signal in the UHF
band. Those are shown in Fig. 2, where the PD bandwidth
is plotted versus Th parameter and as a reference, the
UHF band frequency is also given. Thus all the antennas
proposed should at least cover part of this band.
Once located the antenna working frequencies, there
are some other antenna characteristics that should be
defined to specifically match our sensing environment and
those are the radiation pattern, that also characterizes the
antenna directivity, and the antenna efficiency by means
of the S11 parameter.
The radiation pattern needed is determinant in the
design of an antenna, and our focus for the application
addressed should be radiation patterns with medium to
low directivity, as for instance, omnidirectional ones. The
reason for that is that, although in our case study the
measurement environment is controlled and therefore we
1569264829
10
10
Frequency [Hz]
UHF Band
10
detectable fmin
10
detectable fmax
300 MHz
3 GHz
10
10
10
Th [s]
10
10
cos2 ( 2 cos())
sin2 ()
(4)
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S11 [dB]
S11 [dB]
5 cm
10 cm
Zigzag
10
15
0
0.5
5 cm
10 cm
Zigzag
10
1.5
Frequency [Hz]
2.5
15
0
0.5
1.5
2.5
Frequency [Hz]
x 10
3
9
x 10
S11 [dB]
10
15
0
0.5
1.5
Frequency [Hz]
2.5
3
9
x 10
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the better matching of the resonant frequency and the augmented directivity. Under this assumption, two monopoles
10 cm long were manufactured, one with ground plane and
the other without ground plane to measure the differences
when detecting partial discharges. The trapezoidal zigzag
antenna also had ground plane but not the monopole 5 cm
long because it is so short that the connector behaves as
ground plane.
The antennas are deployed around the test object and
their outputs connected to an oscilloscope with RG-223
coaxial cables. The position of the antennas in the measurement environment is an important issue that should be
taken into account, since the distance between the antenna
and the source of the PD should force the antennas to work
in the far field region. The reason for that is to assure
that we are working in a distance where the radiation
pattern does not change with distance. Since the three
manufactured antennas have dimensions smaller than /2,
it is convenient that they are placed at a distance of
approximately 1-2 (40-80 cm for the monopole 10 cm
long). In the case of the logperiodic, this distance must
be longer as the antenna size is larger. At the same time,
it should be noted that the radiated field decays inversely
proportional with the distance and when comparing received signal levels, therefore all antennas should be placed
at the same distance from the PD source. Thus, special
attention has been put to maintain the same distance, 45
cm, between the test object and all the monopole antennas
showing another advantage of the use of monopolar type
of antennas as we can be quite close to the source of the
discharges if required. The logperiodic has been placed at a
longer distance, 90 cm, to ensure that it measures far-field
radiation and with the dipoles parallel to ground.
1569264829
Monopole 5 cm.
Logperiodic.
Fig. 9: Noise backgrounds spectra in volts for all the
antennas.
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Monopole 5 cm.
Logperiodic.
Fig. 12: Partial discharge pulse measured with every antenna.
Monopole 10 cm without ground plane.
Fig. 11: Partial discharge spectra for two monopoles 10 cm
long with and without ground plane.
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Monopole 5 cm.
Monopole 5 cm.
Logperiodic.
Logperiodic.
1569264829
5 cm
Noise
10 cm
Noise
Zigzag
Noise
Logperiodic
Noise
0-250
845
153
2180
422
3640
1140
16500
1260
250-500
346
59.3
186
28.3
244
37
3930
370
500-750
72.4
67.2
170
77.8
250
84.9
674
409
750-1000
114
98
195
106
106
64.5
653
545
1000-1250
491
55.6
234
18.7
92.2
17.6
295
53.5
1250-1500
2210
54.5
399
19.9
175
18.5
260
52.6
1500-1750
306
56.9
191
22.5
103
21
341
55
1750-2000
99.1
104
78
44.4
45.8
33.9
329
153
2000-2250
72.6
70.8
95.7
84.2
48.4
43.1
197
81.6
2250-2500
49.5
60.9
31.6
27.2
74
28.9
116
63.8
TABLE I: Average cumulative power in V 2 109 for the four types of antennas measuring partial discharges and
background noise. The columns are the frequency bands in MHz.
V. Conclusions
The theoretical analysis done of the electromagnetic
radiation of partial discharges pulses shows that sensors in
the UHF range can detect them. Under this assumption,
four antennas with different frequency behavior have been
45
monopole 5 cm
monopole 10 cm
zigzag
40
35
30
Percentage of energy
25
20
15
10
A1
D7
D6
D5
D4
Aproximation and detail levels
D3
D2
D1
Interval (MHz)
2500 - 5000
1250 - 2500
625 - 1250
312.5 - 625
156.25 - 312.5
78.125 - 156.25
39.0625 - 78.125
0 - 39.0625
Noise
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Matilde Snchez-Fernndez
got her
Telecommunications Engineer degree and her
PhD from Polytechnic University of Madrid in
1996 and 2001 respectively. She joined University Carlos III of Madrid, Spain in 2000 where
she holds an Associate Professor position since
2009. Previously, she worked for Telefnica
as a Telecommunication Engineer. She has
performed several research stays at the Information and Telecommunication Technology
Center in Kansas University (1998), Bell-Labs,
New Jersey (2003-2006), Centre Tecnolgic de Telecomunicacions de
Catalunya, Barcelona (2007) and Princeton University, New Jersey
(2011). Her current research interests are MIMO techniques, wireless
communications and simulation and modeling of communication
systems and in these fields she has (co)authored more than 40 contributions to international journals and conferences. As an Associate
Professor she is teaching several undergraduate and graduate courses
(MSc. and PhD) related to Communication Theory and Digital
Communications.
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