Monitoring the Current Operating Condition and Forecasting the Remaining Life of High-Voltage Insulators

Features are considered of a complex remote way of diagnosing the current operating condition and predicting the residual life of high-voltage insulators (HVIs). The procedure is based on the registration and subsequent computer analysis of a set of experimentally established diagnostic parameters of partial discharges. A two-channel contactless way of registering partial discharges with electromagnetic and acoustic sensors as parts of narrow-focused antennas is used to find and localize the location and type of defects, and the degree of danger from them. Special attention is given to the influence of the most dangerous defects caused by induced electric fields created by previous partial discharges. Extensive experience with deuteron and proton beams is accumulated.