Influence of disconnecting part on propagation properties of PD-induced electromagnetic wave in model gis

Partial discharge (PD) detection using a UHF (ultra high frequency) band signal is a well known advanced insulation diagnosis method in gas insulated switchgear (GIS), and has been actively studied. Detailed investigation of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation inside the GIS tank is required for significant improvement of detecting PD signal by UHF method. When practically applying the UHF method to GIS insulation diagnostics, it is necessary to examine the effects of GIS components such as circuit breakers, isolators and disconnectors on EM wave propagation properties. In this paper, attention is paid to the effects of a disconnecting part of a high voltage (HV) conductor like a circuit breaker or a disconnector in GIS. To examine the effects of disconnecting part, the gap length of the disconnecting part was set as parameter, and waveforms and frequency spectra of the propagation PD-induced EM wave were measured with UHF sensors. For the purpose of discussing the effects of the disconnecting part theoretically, a finite difference time domain (FD-TD) simulation was also carried out. The experimental results show that the PD-induced wave could propagate through the disconnecting part with higher frequency components over the cutoff frequency components of TE11 mode for disconnecting part, i.e. cylindrical shape formed by GIS tank without HV conductor. The propagation of the lower frequency components below the TE11 mode depended on the gap length of the disconnecting part.