Partial Discharge Signal Pattern Recognition of Composite Insulation Defects in Cross-Linked Polyethylene Cables

Abstract

To investigate the pattern recognition of complex defect types in XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) cable partial discharges and analyze the effectiveness of identifying partial discharge signal patterns, this study employs the variational mode decomposition (VMD) algorithm alongside entropy theories such as power spectrum entropy, fuzzy entropy, and permutation entropy for feature extraction from partial discharge signals of composite insulation defects. The mean power spectrum entropy (PS), mean fuzzy entropy (FU), mean permutation entropy (PE), as well as the permutation entropy values of IMF2 and IMF13 (Pe) are selected as the characteristic quantities for four categories of partial discharge signals associated with composite defects. Six hundred samples are selected from the partial discharge signals of each type of compound defect, amounting to a total of 2400 samples for the four types of compound defects combined. Each sample comprises five feature values, which are compiled into a dataset. A Snake Optimization Algorithm-optimized Support Vector Machine (SO-SVM) model is designed and trained, using the extracted features from cable partial discharge datasets as case examples for recognizing cable partial discharge signals. The identification outcomes from the SO-SVM model are then compared with those from conventional learning models. The results demonstrate that for partial discharge signals of XLPE cable composite insulation defects, the SO-SVM model yields better identification results than traditional learning models. In terms of recognition accuracy, for scratch and water ingress defects, SO-SVM improves by 14.00% over BP (Back Propagation) neural networks, by 5.66% over GA-BP (Genetic Algorithm–Back Propagation), and by 12.50% over SVM (support vector machine). For defects involving metal impurities and scratches, SO-SVM improves by 13.39% over BP, 9.34% over GA-BP, and 12.56% over SVM. For defects with metal impurities and water ingress, SO-SVM shows enhancements of 13.80% over BP, 9.47% over GA-BP, and 13.97% over SVM. Lastly, for defects combining metal impurities, water ingress, and scratches, SO-SVM registers increases of 11.90% over BP, 9.59% over GA-BP, and 12.05% over SVM.