Design and Implementation of Ultra-Wide Band Antenna for Partial Discharge Detection in High Voltage Power Equipment

Abstract

Partial discharges (PD) are the most common and harmful threat to the health of electrical insulation of high voltage (HV) and high field (HF) equipment. The occurrence of PD activity in HV and MV equipment is at the same time a cause and a sign of insulation degradation that may eventually result in the breakdown of the HV power equipment. For the safe and reliable operation of HV power equipment, continuous PD monitoring needs to be conducted conveniently to prevent any unplanned power outages and damage to electrical power equipment. The ultra-high frequency (UHF) PD measurement method has been widely used as an effective technique to detect PD activity on HV power equipment due to its noninvasive principle. To enable PD detection accuracy, there is still a need for more sensitive PD sensors that can assist the UHF PD monitoring system by suppressing ambient background noise and low-frequency electromagnetic interferences from telecommunication such as GSM signals. To tackle the sensitivity issues, this article presents a new design of ultra-wideband (UWB) microstrip patch antenna that is capable of effective suppression of low-frequency interference signals. The proposed antenna, designed, simulated, and optimized using the CST Microwave Studio software, has a bandwidth of 3.3GHz, below -10dB, in the operating frequency range of 1.2GHz-4.5GHz. The prototype of this antenna, printed on an FR4 substrate of a thickness of 1.6mm and a dielectric constant of 4.4, featuring a compact size of 100mm × 100mm × 1.6mm, was implemented to detect PD through laboratory experiments. This paper shows that the designed UWB antenna has high sensitivity, good noise rejection and it is, therefore, a promising candidate sensor for PD detection on HV equipment.INDEX TERMS Partial discharge, UHF sensors, high-voltage equipment, UWB antenna.

Comparative Analysis of Partial Discharge Detection Features Using a UHF Antenna and Conventional HFCT Sensor

“…3 (b)). More details about simulation and optimization of the proposed antenna can be found in our previous research [24].…”

“…Simulation and optimization process of this UHF antenna was presented in our previous research [24], where preliminary work was conducted by implementing the designed antenna for PD detection using the needle-plate electrode model to generate corona discharge in air. To further evaluate the sensitivity performance of the designed UHF antenna in detecting PD activity in different insulation media and different types of insulation defects (PD sources), this article focuses on performing the comparative analysis of partial discharge detection and measurement on both airinsulated and oil-insulated power equipment.…”

Textile UWB 5G Antenna for Human Blood Clot Measurement

“…Garbaruk et al [22] investigated planar antenna for uniform power distribution using two layers of dielectric with stair-case shape sections to improve the impedance matching in the network. Uwiringiyimana et al introduced [23] partial discharge detection accuracy using a UWB antenna for the suppression of low-frequency signals. Lukacs et al [24] investigated the antenna used for plasma treatment and conventional technology used as a sensor.…”

Non-Destructive Detection of Pipe Line Cracks Using Ultra Wide Band Antenna with Machine Learning Algorithm

“…In industries, it is necessary to monitor the partial discharge (PD) from the high voltage equipment for smooth operation. A UWB antenna operates from 1.1 to 4.5 GHz and has been used to detect PD efficiently [20].…”