The understanding of the excitation mechanism of ultra high frequency (UHF) electromagnetic waves (EW) is essential for ap- plying UHF method to partial discharge (PD) detection. Since the EW induced by PD in gas insulated switchgear (GIS) contains not only transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave, but also high-order transverse electric (TE) and high-order transverse magnetic (TM) waves, we analyzed the proportions between the TEM wave and the high order waves, as well as the influence of the PD position on this proportion, using the finite different time domain (FDTD) method. According to the unique characteristics of the waves, they are separated only ap- proximately. It is found that the high-order mode is the main component, more than 70%, of the electric field around the enclosure of GIS, and that with the increasing distance between PD source and inner conductors, the low frequency ( below about 800 MHz) component of EW decreases, but the high frequency component (above 1 GHz) increases, meanwhile the proportion of high-order components in EW could reach 77% from 70%. It concluded that the closer the PD source to the enclosure is, the easier high order EW may be excited.
