A Comparison of Inductive Sensors in the Characterization of Partial Discharges and Electrical Noise Using the Chromatic Technique

Partial discharges (PDs) are one of the most important classes of ageing processes that occur within electrical insulation. PD detection is a standardized technique to qualify the state of the insulation in electric assets such as machines and power cables. Generally, the classical phase-resolved partial discharge (PRPD) patterns are used to perform the identification of the type of PD source when they are related to a specific degradation process and when the electrical noise level is low compared to the magnitudes of the PD signals. However, in practical applications such as measurements carried out in the field or in industrial environments, several PD sources and large noise signals are usually present simultaneously. In this study, three different inductive sensors have been used to evaluate and compare their performance in the detection and separation of multiple PD sources by applying the chromatic technique to each of the measured signals.