Partial discharge（PD）monitoring is an important method for evaluating the XLPE cable insulation state. Because of the PD pulse propagation decay in the cable and electromagnetic interference

the PD detection sensitivity is difficult to satisfy the monitoring requirements.In order to improve the PD detection sensitivity

the double coupled Duffing oscillator system has been used to detect the PD pulse for XLPE cable

which is very sensitive to the pulse excitation

and immunity to the white noise.According to the PD time domain and frequency domain characteristics

the especial coupled Duffing oscillator model for the cable’s partial discharge detecting has been constructed

include the coupling coefficient of the coupled Duffing oscillator

the period and amplitude of the periodic driving force and initial value.Calculating the maximum transverse Lyapunov exponents of double coupled oscillators to judge synchronization between the oscillators

using the synchronization error of the coupled Duffing oscillators to detect PD pulse signal.The simulation and experimental results show that based on the transient synchronization mutation phenomenon of the coupled Duffing oscillator system

the processing method can effectively suppress the white noise

detect the weak PD pulses and greatly improve the PD pulse detection sensitivity.