Electr Eng DOI 10.1007/s00202-016-0456-4 ORIGINAL PAPER Study on the self-integration of a Rogowski coil used in the measurement of partial discharges pulses Mónica V. Rojas Moreno 1 · Guillermo Robles 1 · Ricardo Albarracín 1,2 · Jorge Ardila Rey 1,3 · Juan M. Martínez Tarifa 1 Received: 31 October 2014 / Accepted: 4 October 2016 © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016 Abstract The maintenance of high-voltage power systems requires the determination of the amplitude and waveforms of fast current pulses that commonly occur in electric equip- ment. These high-frequency pulses may arise from different sources being partial discharges one of the most important events measured to determine the insulation status of elec- trical assets. This paper is a step forward in the modelling of Rogowski coils, which are commonly used to measure these pulses. This study was performed by means of a simplified model based on lumped electrical parameters. The model was simulated in Simulink and validated by measuring partial dis- charges (PD) in two different electrical insulation systems. The validation corroborates that the electrical model can be used to study the time and frequency responses of Rogowski coils with different number of turns and dimensions to obtain a configuration that fits the needs of the designer concerning the type of pulses that she/he wishes to measure. The paper also hints that changing the geometric parameters of the coil can be determinant to simplify the integration of pulses, so the Rogowski coil can be used to measure other type of pulses with different frequency spectra, such as lightning strikes, B Guillermo Robles grobles@ing.uc3m.es 1 Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida Universidad, 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain 2 Present Address: Department of Electrical, Electronic and Automation Engineering and Applied Physics, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ronda de Valencia 3, 28012 Madrid, Spain 3 Present Address: Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Avenida Vicuña Mackenna 3939, 8940000 Santiago de Chile, Chile electrical arcs and post-arc phenomena, switching operations of circuit breakers and gas-insulated switchgears and elec- tromagnetic pulses in general. Keywords Rogowski coil · High-frequency pulses · Partial discharges · Self-integration 1 Introduction The maintenance of high-voltage power systems sometimes involves the measurement of fast current pulses that may occur in electrical machines and power cables. These high- frequency currents may arise from different sources, such as lightning strikes, electrical arcs and post-arc phenomena, switching operations of circuit breakers and gas-insulated switchgears, electromagnetic pulses and partial discharges [1–3]. The measurements of these pulses, with rise times that can vary from a few nanoseconds to a few microseconds, require special techniques. The three most common measur- ing systems of rapidly varying currents are based on optical sensors, pure resistive shunts and inductive transducers [4], such as high-frequency current transformers (HFCT), mag- netic pickup loops [5] and Rogowski coils [6]. A Rogowski coil is a current transformer with a toroidal air core that operates based on the Ampere and Faraday-Lenz Laws to sense alternating or fast magnetic fields produced by the current that passes through the coil core [7]. Rogowski coils are widely used due to their remarkable advantages: they are nonintrusive measuring devices that have the abil- ity to measure large currents from a few miliamperes to mega-amperes and provide galvanic insulation between the circuit under test and the measurement equipment. In addi- tion, Rogowski coils do not show saturation and have very 123