Impact of Diameter and Gap Distance on Partial Discharge Detection in Transformer Oil using RTL-SDR Method

The detection of partial discharge has an important role in high voltage equipment maintenance. Partial discharge occurs in pre-breakdown condition affected by several factors. There are many partial discharge detection methods. Unfortunately, less of them are applied for liquid insulation. In this paper, detection of partial discharge using RTL-SDR is used. Method in oil insulation will be studied. The experiment is conducted using HVAC generator and point to plane electrode. The analysis is performed on various air gaps and electrode's diameters in UHF band. The gap distances analyzed are at 1, 1.5 and 2 cm condition. Meanwhile, Diameter of electrode used in this experiment are 1, 2 and 6 mm. The results showed that signal strength from RTL-SDR method increased every addition of gap distance. The increasing of electrode's diameter only affected the breakdown condition. The result from RTL-SDR method were also validated and compared with leakage current method. Therefore, it is found out that RTL-SDR method is more sensitive than leakage current method for detecting partial discharge in oil insulation.