Partial discharge location in power transformers using wideband RF detection

This paper presents a method for partial discharge (PD) source location in power transformers based on detecting electromagnetic (EM) radiation emitted from PD. The key problem of PD location by EM waves is the difficulty in getting the accurate time arrivals of the signals from the source to multiple sensors. Several measures are taken to improve the time arrival resolution. Firstly, a measuring frequency band (1 GHz-5 GHz) within RF band is proposed to accurately pick up the fast rise time of the signals. Secondly, an antenna array with diamond-shaped configuration is designed to improve the correlation coefficient of the waveforms from multiple sensors. Thirdly, two antenna arrays are proposed to eliminate the influences of the EM wave scattering caused by the iron core. Fourthly, an algorithm is proposed to increase the signal to noise ratio and to measure the time arrivals automatically through cross-correlation and averaging operation. Lastly, a hyperboloid-genetic algorithm is developed to search the PD source. Experiments on a single-phase transformer model were conducted in the laboratory. The tested results proved the validity of the proposed method and showed that the location error in 16 cm, mostly is about several cm