AIR UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

EXPERIMENT NO 13

Lab Title: Open ended lab

Student Name: Reg. No:
Objective:

LAB ASSESSMENT:

Excellent Good Average Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

Attributes (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Ability to Conduct
Experiment
Ability to assimilate the
results
Effective use of lab
equipment and follows the
lab safety rules

Total Marks: Obtained Marks:

LAB REPORT ASSESSMENT:

Excellent Good Average Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

Attributes
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)

Data presentation

Experimental results

Conclusion

Total Marks: Obtained Marks:

Date: Signature:
Experiment 13

Open ended lab

Identifying internal partial discharge

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS!!!

It is important and essential that all participants familiarize themselves and strictly follow
all safety precautions.

Objectives:

In insulation systems with strongly inhomogeneous field configurations or with an inhomogeneous

dielectric, the breakdown field strength can be locally exceeded without complete breakdown
occurring within a short time. Under these conditions of incomplete breakdown, the insulation
between the electrodes is only partially bridged by discharges. These partial discharges (PD) have
considerable practical significance, particularly in the case of voltage stress by alternating voltages.

The topic covered in this experiment is internal partial discharge.

Equipment to be used:
Circuit diagram:

Internal partial discharges:

Internal partial discharges are cavity discharges or gas discharges that occur in solid and/or liquid
dielectrics. In most cases, the insulation system of electrical devices consists of several dielectric
substances. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the field strength in the insulating material with low
dielectric constant when determining/dimensioning the insulation system. The internal PD takes place
inside the material, and they are generally associated with defective manufacturing as they are caused
due to cavities or holes inside the equipment that generate small gas breakdowns. These PD generate
an accumulated effect which on the long term could damage the structure of the equipment, affect its
electrical or insulation properties and in the worst cases even crack the material. Internal PD cannot be
corrected as they are caused by a bad design in the structure of the equipment, therefore their
detection implies taking preventive measures to substitute the equipment.

PD Test:

The cavities or voids which cause partial breakdown in solid insulation is because of low quality
manufacturing. To test the quality, manufactured insulator is subjected to the voltage that is 1.8 times
greater than the rated voltage of insulator for 5 sec. Voltage is then decreased to 1.5 times of rated
voltage for 15 sec and partial discharge is observed. If partial discharge of less than 100PC is
observed, then the insulator is manufactured according to standard and less prone to future damage.
Procedure:

Write down the procedure to identify partial discharge of specimen to be tested.

Observations:

Observe partial discharge for positive and negative cycles.

Results:

Paste your results and explain them.

What are brush discharges? Have you observed them during the experiment? Attach
picture of brush discharges you observed and write your findings.
 Identifying external partial discharge

SAFETY PRECAUTIONS!!!

It is important and essential that all participants familiarize themselves and strictly follow
all safety precautions.

Objectives:

In insulation systems with strongly inhomogeneous field configurations or with an inhomogeneous

dielectric, the breakdown field strength can be locally exceeded without complete breakdown
occurring within a short time. Under these conditions of incomplete breakdown, the insulation
between the electrodes is only partially bridged by discharges. These partial discharges (PD) have
considerable practical significance, particularly in the case of voltage stress by alternating voltages.

The topic covered in this experiment is external partial discharge (corona).

Equipment to be used:

Circuit diagram:
 Figure 1

Partial discharge:

Partial discharge (PD) is a localized dielectric breakdown (which does not completely bridge the
space between the two conductors) of a small portion of a solid or fluid electrical insulation system
under high voltage (HV) stress.

Partial discharges produce damage that on the long term can end up in electrical failure, which is why
it is convenient to establish preventive maintenance in order to consider replacement at proper time
before the electrical failure takes place.

Short-time PD measurements can be used as non-destructive testing methods for controlling the
quality of insulation systems in electronic and electrical components. Partial discharges may also
occur in low voltage applications (transformers, electric motors, sensors, voltage converters and
current transformers). These are mainly two types of partial discharges.

 Internal partial discharges :

Internal partial discharges are cavity discharges or gas discharges that occur in solid and/or liquid
dielectrics. Gas discharges inside solid or liquid insulating materials that accelerate ageing because of
the continuous disintegration of the insulating material, thereby weakening the insulation system or
even causing it to fail.

 External and surface partial discharges:

External and surface discharges include corona glow and sliding discharges, pulse-free partial
discharges. Although external partial discharges can occur in the insulation systems of low voltage
applications, for design reasons they are rather rare. These are referred to the well-known Corona
Effect which is an electrical phenomenon caused when the intensity on the conductor surface exceeds
the breakdown strength of the surrounding gas and ends up creating the corona sparks (PD) around the
conductor (metal).
A typical occasion in which these external partial discharges occur is on the terminals of a
transformer, when energized and you try to connect a measurement instrument to the transformer you
might see some sparks around the terminal, these are external PD.

Figure 2

Corona cage:

Corona measurements can be carried out in the laboratory using a corona cage. It consists of an inner
conductor and outer cylinder. The inner conductor consists of a bare copper wire of 0.4mm diameter
and the outer cylinder is made up of steel. In such a corona cage, the field configuration near the
conductor differs very little from that of the actual transmission line, since one may safely assume that
the conductor spacing in the latter is very large compared with the conductor radius and therefore the
field in the vicinity of the conductor similarly possesses cylindrical symmetry. This arrangement of
corona cage can be used for AC experiments up to 20kV.

Procedure:

1. Place corona cage inside the vacuum/ pressure vessel.

2. Set up the components to make external partial discharge detector as shown in figure 1.
3. After completing the setup, provide main power supply from the control panel.
4. Observe the partial discharge detector for any corona pulses.
5. Keep increasing input voltage, once the detector detects corona, note down the voltage.
6. Observe the corona pulses and identify positive and negative corona pulses.
 A positive corona has a much lower density of free electrons compared to a negative corona;
perhaps a thousandth of the electron density, and a hundredth of the total number of electrons.
However, the electrons in a positive corona are concentrated close to the surface of the curved
conductor. Whereas in a negative corona many of the electrons are in the outer, lower-field
areas. Therefore, if electrons are to be used in an application which requires high activation
energy, positive coronas may support a greater reaction constant than corresponding negative
coronas; though the total number of electrons may be lower, the number of very high energy
electrons may be higher. Positive corona discharge possesses periodic motion whereas
negative corona represents randomness.

 Coronas are efficient producers of ozone in the air. A positive corona generates much less
ozone than the corresponding negative corona, as the reactions which produce ozone are
relatively low energy. Therefore, the greater number of electrons of a negative corona leads to
increased production.

7. Increase input voltage to the safe limit and observe prominent corona discharges on the partial
discharge detector.

8. Down the voltage level and then turn off the main supply and control panel.
9. Discharge the equipment by controlling discharge switch through control panel.

Observations:
  Paste the obtained corona discharge and voltage magnitude.
 Paste the obtained corona discharge on increased input volage and identify positive and
negative corona, write down your findings.

Conclusion: