IEC TS 61934:2024

IEC TS 61934 ®
Edition 3.0 2024-01
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
colour
inside
Electrical insulating materials and systems – Electrical measurement of partial
discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses

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IEC TS 61934 ®
Edition 3.0 2024-01
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
colour
inside
Electrical insulating materials and systems – Electrical measurement of partial

discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 17.220.99; 29.035.01; 29.080.30 ISBN 978-2-8322-8116-1

– 2 – IEC TS 61934:2024 © IEC 2024
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Measurement of partial discharge pulses during repetitive, short rise-time voltage
impulses and comparison with power frequency . 9
4.1 Measurement frequency . 9
4.2 Measurement quantities . 9
4.3 Test objects . 10
4.3.1 General . 10
4.3.2 Inductive test objects . 10
4.3.3 Capacitive test objects . 10
4.3.4 Distributed impedance test objects . 10
4.4 Voltage impulse generators . 10
4.4.1 General . 10
4.4.2 Voltage impulse waveforms . 11
4.5 Effect of testing conditions . 11
4.5.1 General . 11
4.5.2 Effect of environmental factors . 12
4.5.3 Effect of testing conditions and ageing . 12
5 PD detection methods . 12
5.1 General . 12
5.2 PD pulse coupling and detection devices . 12
5.2.1 Introductory remarks . 12
5.2.2 Coupling capacitor with multipole filter . 13
5.2.3 HFCT with multipole filter. 14
5.2.4 Electromagnetic couplers . 15
5.2.5 Electromagnetic UHF antennae . 15
6 Measuring instruments . 16
7 Sensitivity check of the PD measuring equipment and high voltage source
generator . 16
7.1 General . 16
7.2 Test diagram for sensitivity check . 16
7.3 PD detection sensitivity check . 17
7.4 Background noise check . 17
7.5 Detection system and HVIG noise check . 17
7.6 Sensitivity report . 17
8 Test procedure for increasing and decreasing the repetitive impulse voltage
magnitude . 18
9 Test report . 19
Annex A (informative) Voltage impulse suppression required by the coupling device . 20
Annex B (informative) PD pulses extracted from a supply voltage impulse through
filtering techniques. 22
Annex C (informative) Results of round-robin tests of RPDIV measurement . 24
Annex D (informative) Examples of noise levels of practical PD detectors . 26

Bibliography . 27

Figure 1 – Coupling capacitor with multipole filter . 13
Figure 2 – Example of voltage impulse and ideal PD pulse frequency spectra before
and after filtering. 14
Figure 3 – HFCT between supply and test object with multipole filter . 14
Figure 4 – HFCT between test object and earth with multipole filter . 15
Figure 5 – Circuit using an electromagnetic coupler (e.g. an antenna) to suppress
impulses from the test supply . 15
Figure 6 – Circuit using an electromagnetic UHF antenna . 16
Figure 7 – Test diagram for sensitivity check . 17
Figure 8 – Example of relation between the outputs of LVPG and PD detector . 18
Figure 9 – Example of increasing and decreasing the impulse voltage magnitude . 19
Figure A.1 – Example of overlap between voltage impulse and PD pulse spectra
(dotted area) . 20
Figure A.2 – Example of voltage impulse and PD pulse spectra after filtering . 20
Figure A.3 – Example of impulse voltage damping as a function of impulse voltage
magnitude and rise time . 21
Figure B.1 – Power supply waveform and recorded signal using an antenna during

supply voltage commutation . 22
Figure B.2 – Signal detected by an antenna from the record of Figure B.1, using a
filtering technique (400 MHz high-pass filter) . 23
Figure B.3 – Characteristic of the filter used to pass from Figure B.1 to Figure B.2 . 23
Figure C.1 – Sequence of negative voltage impulses used for RRT . 24
Figure C.2 – PD pulses corresponding to voltage impulses . 25
Figure C.3 – Dependence of normalized RPDIV on 100 data (NRPDIV/100) on relative
humidity . 25

Table 1 – Example of parameter values of impulse voltage waveform without load . 11
Table D.1 – Examples of bandwidths and noise levels for practical PD sensors . 26

– 4 – IEC TS 61934:2024 © IEC 2024
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ELECTRICAL INSULATING MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS –
ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENT OF PARTIAL DISCHARGES (PD)
UNDER SHORT RISE TIME AND REPETITIVE VOLTAGE IMPULSES

FOREWORD
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