Evaluation of an iterative method used for partial discharge RF location techniques

Partial discharges (PD) are electrical discharges that occur when the insulation system of high voltage equipment is in the process of degradation. Radio frequency (RF) measurement methods may be employed for detecting radiated energy from PD activity and subsequent location of the PD source. Based on suitable arrangements of multiple antennas and measured time differences of arrival between detected antenna RF signals, the three dimensional location of the PD source may be determined using iterative triangulation algorithms. This paper evaluates the performance of one common iterative method, namely the Hyperbolic Least Squares (HLS) algorithm. Two different antenna arrangements (a “Y” and square shaped) each comprising 4 antenna positions have been selected in order to evaluate the HLS performance. Simulation results demonstrate that the accuracy of located PDs and the number of iterations required by the algorithm for each antenna arrangement are significantly different and highly dependent on the selected error bound. The results also demonstrate that it is possible to determine some measure of the performance ability of the HLS algorithm dependent on the potential PD location.