Abstract: Insulators plays an important role in high voltage power equipments as they protect the equipments and ensure their reliable operation. The insulator has certain impurities in it such as voids and cracks as no insulator can be completely free from impurities. The insulator when subjected to high voltage degrades in terms of its performance due to the imperfections present in it such as voids. It is linked to occurrence of partial discharge. Partial discharge is nothing but localized electrical discharge that only partially bridges the insulation between conductors and which may or may not occur adjacent to a conductor [1]. It indicates the presence of an imperfection within the insulation. The magnitude of these discharges though small, can cause progressive deterioration and ultimate failure. Considerable efforts have been made so as to analyze PD pulse patterns, PD pattern recognition and charge transfer [5]. Thus while diagnosing insulator for its desired performance partial discharge is an important phenomenon that has to be considered. In this work an electric circuit model of an epoxy resin with void of cylindrical and cubical shape is considered for realization of partial discharge activity inside the insulator with the application of high voltage using MATLAB Simulink environment. The results obtained with cylindrical and cubical void as an impurity is compared and analysed.

Keywords: Partial discharge (PD), void, High voltage (HV), Ca, Cb and Cc.