Localisation of single and multiple partial discharge sources based on sequence of arrival and levels of peak amplitude of acoustic emissions

Partial Discharge (PD) is one of the most critical electrical phenomena affecting the life of electrical equipment. Repetitive PD can lead to gradual deterioration of the insulation, which may further lead to complete failure of the electrical insulation. Hence, detection and localization of PD inside electrical equipment is necessary for early detection of impending failure. Keeping this in mind, this paper proposes a methodology to localize single and multiple PD sources based on acoustic signals emanated from such sources. The localization has been done based on sequence of arrival and levels of peak amplitude of acoustic waves. The proposed approach makes use of a low complexity methodology for PD localization without the use of complex classification tools. The results show that this developed methodology is able to localize the single and multiple PD events with considerable accuracy.