Non-linear modeling of oil-paper insulation for condition assessment using non-sinusoidal excitation

In high voltage engineering, dielectric response analysis is a widely used tool for insulation diagnostic. Voltages used for studying dielectric response in the laboratory are usually sinusoidal in nature. But the insulation system in operation on site is often stressed by voltages that may deviate significantly from a sinusoid. Thus the use of nonsinusoidal waveform in obtaining the dielectric response is a desirable study for advanced insulation diagnostic technique. Present work involves assessing the condition of electrical insulation using dielectric response analysis under the influence of nonsinusoidal voltage waveform. In dielectric response analysis, characteristics curve of phase response over a frequency band is used to predict the insulation condition, which involves expertise. In this respect parameterization of insulation condition can make the assessment technique much simpler. But the nonlinear behavior of insulation restricts such an attempt to be accurate enough for reliable assessment of minute degradation of insulation condition. Therefore, the present work proposes a non-linear system identification technique, in an attempt to parameterize insulation condition. In this work, a suitable excitation signal has been designed so that the observed response becomes representative of the behavior of the whole system dynamics over the frequency band of interest. Tests have been performed with insulations having different moisture contents. The obtained system parameters, through nonlinear Hammerstein model, were found to be consistent over several experiments, and also accurate enough to detect small variation of moisture content. The proposed method is based on the time domain measurement of input excitation voltage and corresponding response current through the insulation.