Influence of rise time on partial discharge extinction voltage at semi-square voltage waveforms

This work presents measurements of the partial discharge (PD) extinction voltage in three different types of test objects, using semi-square voltages with 2 mu s and 100 mu s rise time. A needle creating corona discharges, a twisted pair specimen commonly used for testing motor insulation and a paper/oil test object modelling the turn-to-turn insulation of a transformer winding were investigated, presenting extinction voltages between approximately 1 kV and 8 kV. For the twisted pair specimen the PD extinction voltage was significantly lower at the shorter rise time, whereas for the other test objects, just a small or no difference could be detected. The conclusion is that depending on what range of rise times and what insulation system that are studied, there may be an influence of the rise time of the applied voltage on the PD extinction voltage