Propagation and attenuation characteristics of partial discharge signal in high voltage XLPE power cable

The propagation characteristics of partial discharge(PD) signals in cables are very important for the discharge assessment, PD source localization, and interference distinction. Thus, the study is concentrated on the Zhuhai Gong'ao 110 kV cable system. Experiments on propagation characteristics of single frequency sinusoidal signals were conducted on cables with different lengths. Thereby, the attenuation constant of single frequency sinusoidal signal that propagates in this cable was obtained based on the transmission line theory. Through the Fourier transform, the propagation characteristics of Gaussian partial discharge pulses in the cable were calculated, including amplitude, width, and area. The propagation characteristics of partial discharge signals were experimentally verified on different lengths of cable. The results show that the attenuation constant of single frequency sinusoidal signal is proportional to frequency, the propagation of Gaussian PD pulses obey the discipline that is described by the product of exponential function and Gaussian error function, and the amplitude of Gaussian pulse with a 10 ns rise time will decrease to 10% after propagating for 490 m. And the area under the pulse equals to the product of charge Q and characteristic impedance Z within a certain distance.