Classification of common partial discharge types in oil-paper insulation system using acoustic signals

This paper addresses classifying different common partial discharge (PD) types under different acoustic emission (AE) measurement conditions. Four types of PDs are considered for the multi-class classification problem, namely; PD from a sharp point to ground plane, surface discharge, PD from a void in the insulation, and PD from semi parallel planes. The collected AE signals are processed using pattern classification techniques to identify their corresponding PD types. The measurement conditions include the influences of various PD locations, oil temperatures, and having a barrier in the line-of-sight between the PD source and the AE sensor. A recognition rate of 94% is achieved when classifying the different PD types measured at the same conditions. In addition, it has been found that the different PD source locations, oil temperatures, and barrier insertion have an impact on the recognition rate. However, by including AE samples at these different conditions in the training process, a recognition rate around 90% for all cases is achieved.