Diagnostic study of the surface condition of the insulation structure using wavelet transform and neural networks

In the present work, tracking phenomenon in high density polyethylene material has been studied under AC voltage, with ammonium chloride as a contaminant. It is observed that the tracking time depends on both conductivity and flow rate of the contaminants. The surface conditions of the insulation structure such as normal conditions and surface discharges or tracking were characterized by using the leakage current measurement, utilizing the multi resolution signal decomposition technique. The process of identification of surface condition of the insulation structure was automated using Artificial Neural Network. © 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.