IEC TS 61934:2011

Electrical insulating materials and systems - Electrical measurement of partial discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses

IEC/TS 61934:2011(E) is applicable to the off-line electrical measurement of partial discharges (PD) that occur in electrical insulation systems (EIS) when stressed by repetitive voltage impulses generated from electronic power devices. Typical applications are EIS belonging to apparatus driven by power electronics, such as motors, inductive reactors and windmill generators. Excluded from the scope of this technical specification are:
- methods based on optical or ultrasonic PD detection,
- fields of application for PD measurements when stressed by non-repetitive impulse voltages such as lightning impulse or switching impulses from switchgear.
The principal changes with regard to the previous edition concern the addition of:
- an Introduction that provides some background information on the progress being made in the field of power electronics;
- impulse generators;
- PD detection methods;
- a new informative Annex C covering practical experience obtained from round-robin testing (RRT);
- example of noise levels, as shown in new informative Annex D.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 27-Apr-2011
• ICS: 17.220.99 - Other standards related to electricity and magnetism
• ICS: 29.035.01 - Insulating materials in general
• ICS: 29.080.30 - Insulation systems
• Technical Committee: TC 112 - Evaluation and qualification of electrical insulating materials and systems
• Drafting Committee: WG 3 - TC 112/WG 3

Relations

• Revises: IEC TS 61934:2006 - Electrical insulating materials and systems - Electrical measurement of partial discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses
• Effective Date: 05-Sep-2023
• Revised: IEC TS 61934:2024 - Electrical insulating materials and systems - Electrical measurement of partial discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses
• Effective Date: 05-Sep-2023

Standards Content (Sample)

IEC/TS 61934 ®
Edition 2.0 2011-04
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
colour
inside
Electrical insulating materials and systems – Electrical measurement of partial
discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses

IEC/TS 61934:2011(E)
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from either IEC or
IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester.
If you have any questions about IEC copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication,
please contact the address below or your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite
ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie
et les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de la CEI ou du Comité national de la CEI du pays du demandeur.
Si vous avez des questions sur le copyright de la CEI ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette
publication, utilisez les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de la CEI de votre pays de résidence.

IEC Central Office
3, rue de Varembé
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Email: [e-mail]
Web: www.iec.ch
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.
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It also gives information on projects, withdrawn and replaced publications.
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on-line and also by email.
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in English and French, with equivalent terms in additional languages. Also known as the International Electrotechnical
Vocabulary online.
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IEC/TS 61934 ®
Edition 2.0 2011-04
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
PRICE CODE
U
ICS 17.220.99; 29.035.01; 29.080.30 ISBN 978-2-88912-479-4

– 2 – TS 61934 © IEC:2011(E)
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 Impulse generators . 10
4.4.1 General . 10
4.4.2 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 Charge measurements . 16
5.3 Source-controlled gating techniques . 17
6 Measuring instruments . 17
7 Sensitivity check of the PD measuring equipment . 17
7.1 General . 17
7.2 Test diagram for sensitivity check . 18
7.3 PD detection sensitivity check . 18
7.4 Background noise check . 19
7.5 Detection system noise check . 19
7.6 Sensitivity report . 19
8 Test procedure for increasing and decreasing the repetitive impulse voltage
magnitude . 19
9 Test report. 20
Annex A (informative) Voltage impulse suppression required by the coupling device . 22
Annex B (informative) PD pulses extracted from a supply voltage impulse through
filtering techniques . 24
Annex C (informative) Result of round-robin tests of RPDIV measurement . 26
Annex D (informative) Examples of noise levels of practical PD detectors . 28

TS 61934 © IEC:2011(E) – 3 –
Bibliography . 29

Figure 1 – Coupling capacitor with multipole filter . 13
Figure 2 – Example of voltage impulse and 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 (for example an antenna) to
suppress impulses from the test supply. 15
Figure 6 – Circuit using an electromagnetic UHF antenna . 15
Figure 7 – Example of waveforms of repetitive bipolar impulse voltage and charge
accumulation for a twisted-pair sample . 16
Figure 8 – Charge measurements . 16
Figure 9 – Example of PD detection using electronic source-controlled gating (other
PD coupling devices can be used) . 17
Figure 10 – Test diagram for sensitivity check . 18
Figure 11 – Example of relation between the outputs of LVPG and PD detector . 19
Figure 12 – Example of increasing and decreasing the impulse voltage magnitude . 20
Figure A.1 – Example of overlap between voltage impulse and PD pulse spectra
(dotted area) . 22
Figure A.2 – Example of voltage impulse and PD pulse spectra after filtering . 22
Figure A.3 – Example of impulse voltage damping as a function of impulse voltage
magnitude and rise time . 23
Figure B.1 – Power supply waveform and recorded signal using an antenna during
supply voltage commutation . 24
Figure B.2 – Signal detected by an antenna from the record of Figure B.1, using a
filtering technique (400 MHz high-pass filter) . 25
Figure B.3 – Characteristic of the filter used to pass from Figure B.1 to Figure B.2 . 25
Figure C.1 – The sequence of negative voltage impulses used for RRT . 26
Figure C.2 – PD pulses (under) corresponding to voltage impulses (above) . 26
Figure C.3 – Dependence of normalized RPDIV on 100 data (NRPIV/100) on relative
humidity (A-F indicates the participants of RRT) . 27

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 . 28

– 4 – TS 61934 © IEC:2011(E)
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
ELECTRICAL INSULATING MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS –
ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENT OF PARTIAL DISCHARGES (PD)
UNDER SHORT RISE TIME AND REPETITIVE VOLTAGE IMPULSES

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to
...

IEC/TS 61934 ®
Edition 2.0 2011-04
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
colour
inside
Electrical insulating materials and systems – Electrical measurement of partial
discharges (PD) under short rise time and repetitive voltage impulses

IEC/TS 61934:2011(E)
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by

any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from either IEC or

IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester.
If you have any questions about IEC copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication,
please contact the address below or your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite
ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie
et les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de la CEI ou du Comité national de la CEI du pays du demandeur.

Si vous avez des questions sur le copyright de la CEI ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette

publication, utilisez les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de la CEI de votre pays de résidence.

IEC Central Office
3, rue de Varembé
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Email: [e-mail]
Web: www.iec.ch
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.
 Catalogue of IEC publications: www.iec.ch/searchpub
The IEC on-line Catalogue enables you to search by a variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical committee,…).
It also gives information on projects, withdrawn and replaced publications.
 IEC Just Published: www.iec.ch/online_news/justpub
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published details twice a month all new publications released. Available
on-line and also by email.
 Electropedia: www.electropedia.org
The world's leading online dictionary of electronic and electrical terms containing more than 20 000 terms and definitions
in English and French, with equivalent terms in additional languages. Also known as the International Electrotechnical
Vocabulary online.
 Customer Service Centre: www.iec.ch/webstore/custserv
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need further assistance, please visit the Customer Service
Centre FAQ or contact us:
Email: [e-mail]
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
IEC/TS 61934 ®
Edition 2.0 2011-04
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
PRICE CODE
U
ICS 17.220.99; 29.035.01; 29.080.30 ISBN 978-2-88912-479-4

– 2 – TS 61934 © IEC:2011(E)
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 Impulse generators . 10
4.4.1 General . 10
4.4.2 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 Charge measurements . 16
5.3 Source-controlled gating techniques . 17
6 Measuring instruments . 17
7 Sensitivity check of the PD measuring equipment . 17

7.1 General . 17
7.2 Test diagram for sensitivity check . 18
7.3 PD detection sensitivity check . 18
7.4 Background noise check . 19
7.5 Detection system noise check . 19
7.6 Sensitivity report . 19
8 Test procedure for increasing and decreasing the repetitive impulse voltage
magnitude . 19
9 Test report. 20
Annex A (informative) Voltage impulse suppression required by the coupling device . 22
Annex B (informative) PD pulses extracted from a supply voltage impulse through
filtering techniques . 24
Annex C (informative) Result of round-robin tests of RPDIV measurement . 26
Annex D (informative) Examples of noise levels of practical PD detectors . 28

TS 61934 © IEC:2011(E) – 3 –
Bibliography . 29

Figure 1 – Coupling capacitor with multipole filter . 13

Figure 2 – Example of voltage impulse and 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 (for example an antenna) to

suppress impulses from the test supply. 15

Figure 6 – Circuit using an electromagnetic UHF antenna . 15
Figure 7 – Example of waveforms of repetitive bipolar impulse voltage and charge
accumulation for a twisted-pair sample . 16
Figure 8 – Charge measurements . 16
Figure 9 – Example of PD detection using electronic source-controlled gating (other
PD coupling devices can be used) . 17
Figure 10 – Test diagram for sensitivity check . 18
Figure 11 – Example of relation between the outputs of LVPG and PD detector . 19
Figure 12 – Example of increasing and decreasing the impulse voltage magnitude . 20
Figure A.1 – Example of overlap between voltage impulse and PD pulse spectra
(dotted area) . 22
Figure A.2 – Example of voltage impulse and PD pulse spectra after filtering . 22
Figure A.3 – Example of impulse voltage damping as a function of impulse voltage
magnitude and rise time . 23
Figure B.1 – Power supply waveform and recorded signal using an antenna during
supply voltage commutation . 24
Figure B.2 – Signal detected by an antenna from the record of Figure B.1, using a
filtering technique (400 MHz high-pass filter) . 25
Figure B.3 – Characteristic of the filter used to pass from Figure B.1 to Figure B.2 . 25
Figure C.1 – The sequence of negative voltage impulses used for RRT . 26
Figure C.2 – PD pulses (under) corresponding to voltage impulses (above) . 26
Figure C.3 – Dependence of normalized RPDIV on 100 data (NRPIV/100) on relative
humidity (A-F indicates the participants of RRT) . 27

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 . 28

– 4 – TS 61934 © IEC:2011(E)
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________
ELECTRICAL INSULATING MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS –

ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENT OF PARTIAL DISCHARGES (PD)

UNDER SHORT RISE TIME AND REPETITIVE VOLTAGE IMPULSES

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itsel
...