Propagation of acoustic pulse due to PD in polymeric insulating material

In the current operational climate, continuity of electricity supply is a big challenge especially during the winter months. The power system therefore must remain operational and not affected by unplanned outages. For this to be prevented, the insulation of the electrical transmission and distribution network plays a vital role. Solid dielectrics, particularly polymeric insulating materials, are widely used as an insulation in electrical power cables. These materials are not expensive and easy to process. When the insulation is degraded, the continuous high voltage stress can initiate partial discharges (PD) which deteriorate the insulating properties of these materials. The insulation failure of the power cable network can be costly for both utilities and supplier. Therefore, in parallel to engineering novel dielectric materials with better dielectric strength, detection of the PD at initial stages is very important. Numerous PD detection techniques have been applied in recent past. The acoustic emission (AE) technique is a non-invasive PD detection and localising technique [1] , [2] . This is a well-established technique to detect and locate the PD from gas and liquid insulation systems. This technique is yet not fully explored for solid insulation systems.