Dynamics of partial discharges and electrical trees

Electrical treeing phenomenon is considered the main way to electrical breakdown of polymers, and therefore, a precursor of power equipment failure. One method for studying electrical trees is analyzing their shape and geometrical structure. Fractal dimension has become a standard quantifier for the characterization of the shape of an electrical tree. Fractal dimension has typically been calculated using two-dimensional (2D) images of a tree. However, the fractal dimension of 2D projected patterns differ from those of the complete three- dimensional (3D) pattern, due to 2D projection overlapping. Our investigation emphasize the importance of 3D analysis for improved and accurate measurement of parameters that characterize the structure of electrical trees.

On the other hand, electrical treeing degradation is associated with partial discharge activity. Hence, we also relate the growth of electrical trees with the correlation dimension of the reconstructed dynamical system obtained from the nonlinear time series of the partial discharges from the tree propagation, and with the box-counting fractal dimensión of the resulting 3D structure of the trees.

Researchers AM2V: Pablo Aguirre.

Chilean collaborator: Roger Schurch (UTFSM).

International collaborator: M. Rowland (University of Manchester, UK).