Device and method for locating partial discharges

Abstract

A method for locating partial discharges occurring at a discharge site () in an electric apparatus () with elongate geometry and generating corresponding electric pulses () propagating in opposite directions along the apparatus () from the discharge site () comprises the steps: () of detecting the pulses () picked up by a first and a second sensor (), connected to the apparatus () and spaced out along the same; () of deriving shape, phase and amplitude parameters for each of the signals detected; () of separating the sets of signals detected in each sensor into respective subsets which are uniform in terms of pulse waveform; () of identifying the subsets of signals relating to partial discharges and classifying them; () of correlating the subsets relating to different sensors and similarly classified, in order to derive a pair of subsets of signals relating to the same discharge site (); () of selecting, for the pair of correlated subsets, at least one pair of homologous pulses () detected in different sensors in the same time interval; and () of calculating the distance between the discharge site () and the sensors, based on the selected pair of homologous pulses ().