Pulse-Sequence Analysis of Discharges in Air, Liquid and Solid Insulating Materials

Electrical discharges may occur in gas, liquid as well as solid insulating materials. This paper describes the investigation results on the discharges in air, silicone oil and low density polyethylene (LDPE) using needle plane electrode system under AC voltage of 50 Hz. The experimental results showed that for discharge in air (corona), discharge pulses were concentrated around the peak of applied voltage at negative half cycle. For silicone oil positive as well as negative discharges were observed which concentrated around the peak of applied voltage. The positive pulse number was smaller but the magnitude was higher than that of negative discharge. Discharges in void took place at wider range of phase of applied voltage. The unbalance in pulse number and magnitude similar to that of oil discharges were observed. For electrical treeing in LDPE, the discharges were spread before the zero cross of the applied voltage up to the peak at both positive and negative half cycles. The discharge pulse sequence analysis indicated that the PD occurrence in air, oil and void were strongly affected by the magnitude of applied voltage. However, for electrical treeing it was observed that the discharge occurrence was strongly affected by the time derivative of the applied voltage (dv/dt).