Simulation of Pulsed Electro Acoustic Method of Space Charge Measurement

Author XXXXXX AffiliationYYYY e-mail XXXXX

ABSTRACT: In spite of widespread use of the PEA method, several issues related to design of equipment and retrieval of the signal still remain unaddressed. At this juncture, the authors come up with a simulation of the PEA method using which detailed study of the method and several design related issues can be easily understood. In this paper we have presented simulation of the physical model of PEA method, consisting of a pulse source apart from high voltage source. This type of simulation is believed to be not reported in earlier works. It is believed that the simulation is useful for understanding the PEA method in depth and also useful for further improvements in design and signal processing of PEA method. Key words: PEA method, Simulation of PEA INTRODUCTION To make power transmission system more economical electric power is being transmitted at higher voltage levels. This has resulted in further stressing the power equipment to near its breakdown strength. However, with the application of high electric stress space charges are found to be formed in some widely used insulating materials such as Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA). These charges affect the electrical characteristics of insulators and are thought to be damaging the insulation. To improve the utilisation of dielectric strength fully, knowledge of the behaviour of space charges is essential and hence measurement of space charges is considered very important at this juncture. Till late seventies various destructive methods were used to measure the space charge. The major breakthrough was achieved in early eighties with the invention of several non-destructive optical and acoustics methods. In optical measurement category we have Kerr Effect, Pockels Effect and Photoelastic effect [1-3]. In acoustics wave category Pressure Wave Propagation (PWP), Pulsed Electro-Acoustic method

(PEA), etc. are well known [4-5]. Thanks to the ease of application of the technique several laboratories already developed the PEA method and are using it successfully up to certain voltage levels. However, there are still certain design issues for higher voltage levels, as the method involves more than one high voltage source; Pulse source and a DC source. Also for measuring space charges under sudden voltage variations such as voltage breakdown and polarity reversal, measurement & design issues do persist until now. Keeping the above issues in mind, in this paper, the authors have presented a simulation model of PEA method to understand and address the design related issues. In this simulation model PSpice student version [6] is used. PRINCIPLE OF PEA METHOD The principle of the PEA method is well known [7] and for continuity it is described here in brief as follows. Referring to Fig. 1, a high dc voltage, Vdc, (of course, not necessarily a dc voltage always) is applied to a dielectric sample, through a current limiting resistor, R. With this surface charge (0) and (d) on the interfaces and space charges (z) in the sample are formed. A pulse source, e(t) connected to the sample through a capacitor, C is used to apply high pulse voltage of a magnitude <<Vdc with some frequency. The electric field due to the pulse acts on each charge, causing slight displacement of it from its original position and generates an acoustic wave. This wave is sensed by a piezoelectric transducer (normally, Polyvinylidene Fluoride, PVDF), which converts it into electric signal that is amplified by an amplifier for display. This electric signal carries the information about the space charges in the dielectric material. By a procedure called de-convolution, the original charge signal is obtained.

Al Electrode

Backing Material
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + (d)

d z

Dielectric specimen

Vdc

e(t)

+ + + + + + (z) + + + + + + + + + +

Acoustic wave u(t)

- -----------------Ground electrode (Al)

(0)

High Voltage Source For observing space charge behaviour in a sample normally a high voltage (HV) is applied to the sample. Depending upon the study, HV source may be of dc, ac or transient type. In this simulation we have used a 10kV dc source with reversible polarity. This is realized in PSpice with the PWL (Piece Wise Linear) command. To protect the HV (Vdc) source a current limiting resistor is used in practice. Therefore, a 10M resistor is incorporated in series with the HV source. Dielectric sample In our simulation, dielectric sample is modelled as a string of capacitors and resistors connected in series and parallel combination as shown in the model. Here we have assumed the dielectric sample of diameter 10mm and thickness of 200m. With these dimensions, the electrical equivalent of the sample would have capacitance of 8.6924pF and 2.546 1015 resistance (with resistivity = 1015 m and relative permittivity r = 2.5 for given sample). Another important component in Amplifier circuit PEA setup is amplifier. Although this component is not modelled in this paper, this part is electrically separate from the rest of the equipment and therefore does not affect the results of simulation of the rest of the equipment. The PEA model shown in the Fig. 2, was run using PSpice, with all the simulations performed at a temperature of 260C. Transient analysis was performed for different types of simulation as discussed in succeeding section. Depending upon the type of simulation of the circuit, step size of transient analysis was varied (0.1ns & 0.1ms). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION From design point of view, among others, sensitive issues that demand attention are effect of cable termination, coupling capacitor during polarity reversal and during sample breakdown. Each of these issues has been addressed separately in detail in the following sections. Cable Termination

v(t)
Amplifier

PVDF Backing Material Al Electrode

Fig. 1 Block diagram depicting the principle of PEA method

MODELLING AND SIMULATION The PEA method described in the previous section, Fig. 1, may be construed as a combination of different components. Modelling of the different components, Fig. 2, is detailed below. Pulse source A pulse source of high voltage and very short duration, a few nano seconds, has to be applied in order to get a measureable signal from sample. In our simulation we have considered a pulse e(t) of 0- 600V magnitude with width of 4ns, realized by a double exponential source in PSpice with the following command. EXP (0 600V 0 0.5ns 2ns 0.5ns) To connect the pulse source to sample, a coaxial cable model is considered here with the characteristic impedance of 40 . Cable termination is dealt with separately later, where, three different types of termination has been studied in order that the pulsed voltage doesnt suffer any significant reflection at receiving end and smoothly applied to the sample.
Cable(Z0= 40 ) 1 4 R2 8 Dielectric sample C 9

e(t)

R1

R3

R4 Vdc

Fig. 2. Model circuit of PEA method

Due to very high frequency components of pulsed voltage some stray capacitances are bound to be formed. However the effect of stray capacitances is kept out of scope of the present work.

The termination of cable connecting pulse source to coupling capacitor, if not properly done, can result in multiple reflections in the circuit. It is very difficult to completely eliminate the reflections from the circuit however careful design can help to reduce reflections to negligible level. In the Fig. 3 we have shown three different circuits for terminating the cable in PEA method. All three circuits were simulated using suitable values of resistances for impedance matching. The cable used in simulation has delay time of 5ns (assuming length of cable about a few meters) here. In all the circuits, pulse source is connected to cable through a resistance R, equal to characteristic impedance of cable,

however, R1, R2 & R3 of termination circuit are different for each type of the three circuits. How each type of termination responds during sample breakdown is discussed later. Circuit 1 It is the simplest type of cable termination. When pulse voltage is applied at a time t = 0, the voltage is divided between resistor R and characteristic impedance. With the result the voltage pulse imparted at node 2 is about half of the pulse voltage at node 1. Travelling through the cable, it reaches the receiving end of the cable, node 4, after a delay of 5ns, Fig. 4. The terminating resistor at node 4 has been chosen to match the characteristic impedance, however, it has been found that, the signal gets negligibly small voltage reflections (of a few pV) at an interval of 5ns. This, however, insignificant, may be caused by imperfect matching due to the presence of a capacitor.
1 R e(t) Circuit 1 1 R e(t) Circuit 2 1 R e(t) Circuit 3
Figure 3. Typical cable termination circuits
700 600 500
Voltage

Effect of Polarity Reversals Polarity reversal is a common practice that takes place in certain dc transmission networks especially for reversing power flow in conventional thyristor based dc systems. During the polarity reversal space charge redistribution takes place. Breakdown in cables may occur due to this reason [8]. This necessitates knowing the charge distribution in the dielectric material during polarity reversal. In this section effect of polarity reversal on various components of PEA system has been simulated. The PWL (Piece-wise Linear) source available in PSpice, given below, has been used to simulate the source. PWL (0 10000 20ms 10000 21ms -10000 ) Here the dielectric sample is subjected to polarity reversal at an instant 20ms from the start, with the duration of reversal as 1 ms. The results are shown below in Fig. 5. During simulation it is observed that the value of coupling capacitor plays important role during polarity reversal. We have analyzed three cases by taking different values of coupling capacitor, keeping rest of things unchanged.

2
Cable

4 R1

2
Cable

4 R2 R1 R3

15 10 1pF 1nF 10nF Vdc

2
Cable

4 R1 R2

R3
5

R4

V o lt a g e ( k V )
V1 V4

0 -5

-10 -15 0

0.005

0.01

0.015

0.02 0.025 Time in sec.

0.03

0.035

0.04

400 300 200 100 0 0

Figure 5. Voltage at sample during polarity reversal with (a) C=1nF, (b) C= 10nF, (c) C = 1pF

7 8 9 Time in nsec.

10

11

12

13

14

15

Figure4. Pulse source output & pulse voltage at cable end

When the value of capacitor is 1nF the time constant is about 0.001sec, it is 0.01sec for 10nF and it is 0.000001sec for 1pF. Clearly, referring to Fig. 5, there is considerable delay in the voltage at sample with 10 nF capacitor. For accurate measurement of space charge during polarity reversal, it is essential that the sample voltage be in line with the source voltage. For the sample voltage to be in line with the dc source voltage, the design time constant should be as small as possible and should never exceed the polarity reversal time. This interesting fact seems to have been rarely paid attention in charge measurements during polarity reversals. The authors feel that while reporting space charge measurements during polarity reversals using PEA

Circuit 2 This is type configuration with values of R1, R2 and R3 are so selected that the resulting resistance matches cable characteristic impedance. The pulse voltage of same magnitude as in circuit 1 travels in a similar manner. The magnitude of reflections is in pV similar to the previous case. Circuit 3 This circuit is a ladder type configuration of cable termination [9]. It gives less voltage reflection as compared to circuit1 but more or less same as circuit 2.

method it is also essential to mention the value of the coupling capacitor or time constant. Sample Breakdown There are possibilities that during measurement of space charge, breakdown may occur in the sample itself due to formation of space charge in it [10]. Under these circumstances large voltage may appear on the cable or across the pulse source and may damage the pulse source. In this case the choice of cable termination circuit help in reducing the level of breakdown voltage across the pulse source and other components. The sample breakdown phenomena emulated by short circuiting the sample using a voltage controlled switch connected across the sample. The results obtained at node 4 for different circuits of Fig. 4 are shown in Fig. 6. In circuit1 the voltage appearing at node 4 is a little more than -4.0kV, for circuit 2 it is -1.44kV and for circuit 3 it is -3.14kV. So to reduce the effect of breakdown voltage circuit 2 is considered as a preferred choice. All the voltages shown in the figure may vary somewhat if different combinations of R1, R2, R3 & R4 are chosen.
0.5 -0.5
V o lta g e ( k V )

minimized using appropriate cable termination. The authors are working on to simulate the accessories attached to PEA method, as an extension to this work. In addition, the effects of stray capacitances etc. are also being considered for future study. REFERENCES [1] T. Takada, Y Zhu, T. Maeno, Progress in Japan Electric Field Measurement Technology for Liquid Dielectric, IEEE EI Magazine, Vol.12,pp. 8-20, 1996 [2] K. Hidaka, Progress in Japan Space Charge Field Measurement in Gaseous Dielectrics using a Pockels Sensor, IEEE EI Magazine, Vol.12, No.1pp.17-28, 1996 [3] Arthur J Barlow, Optical fibre Birefringence Measurement using Photo-Elastic Modulator, Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol. LT-3, No.1, February 1985 [4] P. Lawrence, G. Dreyfus, J. Lewiner, New Principle for determination of Potential Distribution in Dielectrics, Phys. Rev., Lett., Vol. 47, pp. 1483-1487, 1981 [5] Ying Li, M. Tasuda, T.Takada, Pulsed Electro acoustic method for measurement of space charge in solid dielcetrics, IEEE Transaction on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, vol 1 No.2,April 1984 [6] Muhamad H. Rashid, Introduction to PSpice using OrCAD , 3rd edition, Prentice Hall of India [7] T. Takada, Acoustics and Optical methods for Measuring Electric Charge Distributions in Dielectric, IEEE Transaction on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, vol 6 No.5,April 1999. [8] T. Takada, Space Charge formation in Dielcetrics, IEEE Transaction on Electrical Insulation,Vol. EI-21 No.6, December 1986 [9] Olivier Gallot-Lavalle, Virginie Griseri, Gilbert Teyssedre, Christian Laurent, The pulsed electroacoustic technique in research on dielectrics for electrical engineering , Srie Revue Internationale de Gnie Electrique (RS-RIGE, in French), vol. 8, No 5, June 2005. [10] C. C. Reddy, Y Murata, Y Sekiguchi, K Abe, Investigations on Hetero Spacecharge in Polymeric Materials until Breakdown Excellent Performance of Nanocomposite Materials, IEEJ Annual Conference, 2008, Hokkaido, Japan [11] H. Fukagawa, H. Miyauchi, Y. Yamada,S. Yoshida and N Anodo, Insulation Properties of 250kV DC XPLE Cables, IEEE Tran. Power Apparatus Syst. Vol. PAS-100, No.7, pp. 31753184,1981.

Peak (circuit 2)

-1.5 -2.5 -3.5 -4.5 3.998 Peak (circuit 3) Peak (circuit 1)

3.999

4 Time in micro sec.

4.001

4.002

Fig 6. Voltage at node 4 for different cable termination circuit

CONCLUSION The simulations have been carried out to understand the problem of cable termination, effect of polarity reversal and sample break down in Pulse Electro Acoustic measurement equipment. It is found that the capacitance of coupling capacitor should be small enough for avoiding delay in sample terminal voltage to follow the supply voltage during polarity reversal. During sample breakdown a possibility of large voltage appearing across cable and pulse source may be