Apparatus for Partial Discharge and Space Charge Testing of MVDC Cables and Insulated Bus Pipes on Navy Platforms

The Balcones Technologies and UT Center for Electromechanics engineering teams have broad experience in partial discharge (PD) testing under both medium voltage ac and dc (MVAC, MVDC) power as well as mixed MVDC and pulse width modulated (PWM) ripple, and have conducted an extensive research program in recent years investigating methods for testing for PD and space charge (SC) on cables and test coupons specifically for MVDC applications.  This ongoing research is focused on the data generation, acquisition, and reduction during testing with a variety of test equipment and environmental conditions, and on deriving from the obtained results an estimate of the health condition of the insulation in the system under test (SUT).  This combined experience resident within the proposing team will be valuable in the execution of the herein proposed effort and in providing the Navy with a viable solution for a low cost apparatus for partial discharge and space charge testing to be applied on actual Navy platforms during service and for estimating the health index and remaining life of the insulation system. Broad experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that the insulation failure in a cable is preceded by a significant increase in PD activity. Thus, the main diagnostic technique adopted at UT-CEM has been based on the detection of PD activity in the cable under test in different conditions of electrical, mechanical, thermal, and environmental stress. The present test system at UT-CEM was assembled largely from a DURIP Grant awarded to UT-CEM by ONR in 2012 (contract no. N000141211058) which, together with other equipment and facilities already existing at UT-CEM, has resulted in the assembly of a state-of-the-art system for the study of PD generation in dc cables.