Design Of Experiments (DOE) procedures for the optimisation of a digital partial discharge measurement system

Digital systems to measure partial discharges (PD) have been widely adopted in recent years. The relevant output consists of large amounts of data, in the form of PD patterns; therefore there arises the need of simple and effective methods to elaborate such data for a given purpose. For example, it has been shown that parameters resulting from a statistical analysis of PD patterns can allow one to determine the nature of PD sites. Whatever the purpose, the output of the pattern analysis is dependent on the operator´s choice of the digital measuring system settings. In this work it is evident that it is possible to make such a choice independent from the operator, implementing suitable Design Of Experiment (DOE) techniques. In this way it is possible to avoid any misleading effect on the diagnostics based on the analysis of such PD patterns. While the present experimental work has been performed on films (materials) subjected to PDs, it is deemed that the extension of the DOE techniques application to the diagnostics of electrical components is very promising