A fiber optic interferometric sensor with an intrinsic transducer along a length of the fiber is presented for ultrasound measurements of the acoustic emission from partial discharges inside oil-filled power apparatus. The sensor is designed for high sensitivity measurements in a harsh electromagnetic field environment, with wide temperature changes and immersion in oil. It allows enough sensitivity for the application, for which the acoustic pressure is in the range of units of Pa at a frequency of 150 kHz. In addition, the accessibility to the sensing region is guaranteed by immune fiber-optic cables and the optical phase sensor output. The sensor design is a compact and rugged coil of fiber. In addition to a complete calibration, the in-situ results show that two types of partial discharges are measured through their acoustic emissions with the sensor immersed in oil.

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A multichannel interferometric system is proposed for the ultrasonic detection of partial discharges using intrinsic optical fibre sensors that may be immersed in oil. It is based on a heterodyne scheme which drives at least four sensor heads in order to localize the source of the acoustic emissions. Proper design of the sensing head improves its sensitivity through magnification and reaches a compact encapsulated probe able to be installed within power transformers. The optoelectronic implementation and the experimental tests are presented to optimize the resolution (4 channels—4 mrad). In addition, the results of ultrasound measurements at 150 kHz with an optical fibre sensor immersed in water in an acoustic test bench are shown, in which a resolution better than 10 Pa was obtained. Finally, the set-up for three-phase power transformers is demonstrated and characterized to detect and locate the source of acoustic emissions.

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