Position location of partial discharges in power transformers using fiber acoustic sensor arrays

A novel partial-discharge positioning system was demon- strated using an acoustic sensor array composed of four fiber acoustic sensors and a signal-processing unit. A hyperbolic position-fixing algo- rithm was employed to locate partial discharges. Convolution, correla- tion, and leading edge with finite impulse response filtering were used to determine time differences of arrival TDOAs. Partial-discharge posi- tioning was demonstrated in a 500-gallon tank. The positioning results showed that the correlation and leading edge methods are more robust and accurate in determining the TDOAs than the convolution method. A positioning accuracy of 3.0% was achieved using the leading edge method with a sensing range of 755 mm. These positioning results also indicated that the best sensor array layout is to spread the sensors in the tank in order to achieve high positioning accuracy. © 2006 Society of Photo-