2010 International Conference on Solid Dielectrics, Potsdam, Germany, July 4-9, 2010

Frequency Response Analysis - Low Frequency Characteristics and Fault Diagnosis on Power Transformers
Hormatollah Firoozi,
High voltage laboratory, Iran Transfo Corp. Zanjan, Iran.

Mohammad Kharezi,
high vlotahe laboratory, Iran Transfo Corp. Zanjan, Iran

Nami Mahmoodi,
Iran-Transfo after sales services Co. Zanjan,Iran
Abstract Power transformers are considered as one of the essential elements in electrical networks. Any failure in these equipments directly reduces network reliability and increases maintenance costs. Consequently, the preventive maintenance techniques are increasingly developed. In this regard, frequency response analysis is an appropriate method in order to diagnose any change which occurs in transformer physical construction. This contribution has been concentrated on the low frequency range of the Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) measurements. The effects of core magnetization, core grounding condition, terminal connections and etc on transformer frequency response are shown and discussed. Also, practical measurements performed on faulty power transformers are represented. The obtained results are very interesting and applicable for maintenance engineers to find the occurred fault. Keywords-Frequency Response Analysis;core magnetization

M.I.Ghiyasi
Islamic Azad University, Durood branch, Doroud,Iran FRA is a comparative method in which experimental results are comparing to the corresponding reference data. The transformer exhibits a fault whenever there is a significant deviation. Comparison of frequency spectra is traditionally done by graphical inspection and concentrates on identifying changes in overall shape of the response: appearance of new resonant frequencies, disappearance of existing resonant frequencies and shifts or damping of existing resonances [2]. In order to use FRA, two issues should be considered: the first one is obtaining a repeatable frequency response through practical measurements techniques and the second one is the correlation between frequency response variations and what happens inside the transformer. In other words, the success of this method relies on the correct interpretation of the accurate and reliable measurements [3,4]. So, a systematic diagnosis procedure has not been achieved yet. In fact, it is no so easy to have a physical interpretation of frequency response variations. In this regard, experimental and practical studies are very worthwhile to better understand how behave transformer frequency responses due to various faults. This paper concentrates on the behavior of low frequency region of FRA curves. The effects of some issues such as core magnetization, core's ground condition, and terminal connections on transformer frequency response have been investigated. Also, practical measurements performed on faulty power transformers are represented. II. LOW FREQUENCY BAND OF FRA PLOTS

I.

INTRODUCTION

Power transformers are one of the essential and also expensive equipments of electrical networks which play mainly role in the energy transmission and distribution. For this reason, the reliability, quality and economic cost of the company depends strongly of the transformer health and, therefore, an intensive maintenance of the electric machine is required. In spite of corrective and predictive maintenance is carried out, preventive maintenance of the power transformer is getting ahead and it is must be taken into account in order to obtain the highest reliability. Today, preventive maintenance techniques such as Dissolved Gas Analysis, Thermal Monitoring, Partial Discharge measurements and Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) have been developed [1]. The FRA is a powerful method in detecting transformer mechanical damages, which are difficult to detect by conventional measurements. It relies on the fact that transformer winding can be modeled as a network of capacitances, resistances and inductances. When a failure occurs in the transformer construction, the values of these parameters are altered and hence the frequency response from the winding will also change accordingly.

As mentioned earlier, comparison of frequency spectra is traditionally done by graphical inspection and concentrates on identifying changes in overall shape of the response. In order to have an interpretation, the pattern of FRA plots usually divides in sub-bands. In each sub-band, some elements of transformer have specific dominant effect on frequency responses. In this way, the low frequency sub-band which is usually lower than 10kHz is directly affected by magnetic circuit (or core). The magnetic equivalent circuit of transformer is shown in Fig.1. Because of the systematic structure of core, the magnetic path is the same for lateral phases while it is different for the central phase. In fact, there are two separately paths for the lateral phases in order to pass

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the flux while these two paths for the central phase are equal. Therefore, the reluctance of the central phase is minor than the double of the reluctance of the lateral phases. This matter leads to creation of only one resonant point for central phase and two resonant points for lateral phases in low frequency band of FRA plots. Any change in the magnetic circuit will have repercussion in the low frequency region. Some electrical failures such as short circuit between turns or windings and core, open-circuit, high impedance, and shorten core laminations can influence low frequency band of FRA plots.

input signal has been injected to the HV terminal and the output has been measured on neutral terminal. The frequency response is measured before and after Switching Impulse Test in high voltage laboratory. The main idea in this study is that the core will drive into a deep saturation after applying switching impulse voltages. The result is shown in Fig.2.

Figure 2. Core saturation effects on FRA measurements. Figure 1. Magnetic equivalent circuit of a transformer.

Therefore, it is very important that the variations of frequency response only have been caused by a change in transformer's structure. In other word, the comparison of FRA results measured under different conditions is one of the possible caused of deviations that could lead to an erroneous assessment of FRA results. Also, it should be noticed that some transfer functions are more capable in order to fault detection rather than the others. In the following sections, the effects of measuring conditions and some real faults which influence the low frequency region of FRA plots are discussed. III.
EFFECTS OF MEASURING CONDITION

As it can be seen, core saturation only influences the low frequency region of FRA curves and without any influences on other frequency regions. After core saturation, the first main resonance which strongly depends on the amount of magnetizing inductance is shifted to the right because of decreasing in inductance. According to above, we recommend that for avoiding the effects of core magnetization, FRA measurements on transformers should not be performed directly after disconnection from network. Also, during manufacturing test which the FRA measurements are performed for obtaining the reference data, the state of core magnetization must be specified. B. Test configuration effect How the transformer terminals are connected can also affect the results of FRA measurements. To study the sensitivity of frequency response to test configuration and transformer terminals condition, two measurements have been performed on the HV winding of a 132/33KV 50MVA power transformer. During first measurement LV winding was left open and for the second measurement it was grounded. The comparison is revealed in Fig. 3. With respect to measurement results, during second state, all the low frequency resonances caused by magnetic circuit were significantly shifted. In fact, when all terminals of one winding are grounded or shorted, this state severely decreases the core inductive effect. This matter can be explained as following: when a phase is shorted, according to Faraday law, the flux passage through that phase will be prevented and the flux path will change. Therefore, the flux will pass through the air as long as when terminals of one winding are grounded or shorted. This leads to eliminate the inductive effect of core. As a result, using the second

A. Core saturation effect The magnetic circuit determines the quality of flux distribution inside transformers. Therefore, it influences the inductances and so the frequency response. The core inductance is calculated based on core material properties and physical dimensions, using

Lcore

P0 Pr N 2 A
l

(1)

Where N is the number of turns of the winding, A is the cross sectional area of the core section, P 0 is the permeability of vacuum, P r is the permeability of the core and is the length of the core section. According to (1), it is expected that the saturation of core reduces the amount of core's inductance. The following case study is done to identify the effect of core saturation on the FRA spectrum. A single phase 200 MVA, 400/132/33 Kv power transformer is used for this study. The

arrangement makes distinguishing faults due to core nearly hard. It is recommendable that for not loosing the sensitivity of transfer functions at low frequency range, to not short-circuit nor ground all the terminals of other winding during FRA measurements on one winding.

(a)

Figure 3. Test configuration effect on FRA measurements.

C. Core grounding effects This case investigates the effect of transformer core in the measured FRA measurement results. Fig. 4 shows FRA measurement results for a of 132/15.75KV 90MVA power transformer. The experimental results for two states of grounded and ungrounded core have been compared in Fig. 4. The performed measurements on a LV winding and a HV winding have been shown in Fig.4 (a) and Fig.4 (b), respectively. As it can be seen, core grounding does not lead to any changes in the FRA plots. At first, it was expected that the resonances shift to higher frequencies because of decreasing the shunt capacitances between the LV winding and ground due to the ungrounded core. Therefore, we have repeated this test for a number of large power transformers. The new obtained results have confirmed the previous one. With respect to practical measurements, the above mentioned capacitances have not a comparable effect on capacitances between LV winding and the ground. We believe that it is much more difficult to identify ungrounded core for large power transformers by using FRA, in practical. IV.
CASE STUDIES

(b) Figure 4. Effects of grounded and ungrounded core on FRA measurements. (a) performed on LV winding. (b) performed on HV winding

In the following, two cases are represented for which frequency response analysis have been used for their fault diagnosing. A. Short-circuit between strands of a turn of winding The results of no load losses tests on two 132/20Kv, 30MVA newborn sister transformers revealed that the amount of losses for one of them was four times more than for the other. It was unusual and implied the occurrence of a fault in transformer structure. In order to fault detection, the FRA measurements

Have been done on LV windings of both of transformers. Fig.5 (a) and Fig.5 (b) compare the FRA measurements on a lateral phase and on central phase of two transformers, respectively. As it can be seen, the responses of these two transformers are quite similar except in low frequency region below 10KHz. In faulty case, the magnetizing inductance is reduced and therefore the magnitude of transfer function is increased in lower frequency band. Also, the first and second resonances are shifted to left for faulty transformer. The amount of shift for first resonance which is affected by the reluctance of the middle limb of core is more significant than the second resonance. Hence, it has been guessed the existence of a fault in the central phase of the transformer. Finally, by use of thermograph methods, the fault in LV winding of phase V has been found. This fault is caused by short circuit between the parallel strands of a turn (not turn to turns). This kind of fault is detected hardly using traditional fault diagnosis method. B. Short-circuit fault on a substation transformer In this case, FRA measurements have been performed on a 230/63/20KV, 90MVA substation power transformer for which the occurrence of a fault inside it has been reported. In order to fault diagnosis, it had been decided that the FRA

band. The main point in this comparison is the difference between FRA curves of W phase against two other phases. Also, the magnetizing inductance of W phase (W limb of core) in low frequency is significantly decreased. In a healthy state, the curves of U and W phases must be quite same because of symmetric structure of transformer. Therefore, it surely can be said that the W phase is damaged. Also, whereas only the low frequency band is affected thus this damage certainly is a short-circuit between turns or core laminations. It should be noticed that after using traditional method, it was detected a turn to turn fault in LV winding of W phase.
CONCLUSION (a)

In this paper, some measurements of frequency response were carried out to better understand the characteristics of low frequency band of FRA plots. The effects of core magnetization, terminal connection and core grounding condition are considered. The obtained results are very important to have a correct assessment of FRA results. Also, practical measurements performed on two faulty power transformers are represented. The results are very interesting and applicable for maintenance engineers to find the occurred fault. REFERENCES
[1] E. Rahimpour, J. Christian, K. Feser, and H. Mohseni, Transfer function method to diagnode axial displacement and radial deformation of transformer windings, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 493-505, Apr. 2003. S. Ryder, Diagnosing a wide range of transformer faults using frequency response analysis, presented at the 13th Int. Symp. High Voltage Engineering, 2003. A. Akbari, H. Firoozi, M.Kharezi, Investigations on sensitivity of frequency response analysis technique to measuring setup, presented at the 15th Int. Symp. High Voltage Engineering, 2007. N. Abeywickrama, Y. serdyuk, S. Gubanski Effect of core magnetization on frequency response analysis(FRA) of power transformers IEEE Trans. Power Delivery. Vol.23, no.3, PP. 14321438, January 2008.

[2] (b) Figure 5. Comparison of FRA measurements on faulty and healthy transformers. (a) Lateral phase. (b) Central phase.

[3]

[4]

Figure 6. Comparison of FRA measurements on three LV winding of a 230/63/20KV, 90MVA faulty power transformer.

measurements perform before any other tests. The result of FRA measurements on LV windings of transformer is shown in Fig.6. As it can be seen, three measurements have a suitable accordance along frequency spectrum except in low frequency