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A Software Implementation of the Duval Triangle

Method
CONFERENCE PAPER in ELECTRICAL INSULATION, 1988., CONFERENCE RECORD OF THE 1988 IEEE INTERNATIONAL
SYMPOSIUM ON JULY 2008
DOI: 10.1109/ELINSL.2008.4570294 Source: IEEE Xplore

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Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology

Jundi Shapur University of Technology, Iran,

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A Software Implementation of the Duval Triangle

Method
A. Akbari*, A. Setayeshmehr, H. Borsi, E. Gockenbach
Institute of Electric Power Systems, High Voltage Engineering Section (Schering-Institut)
Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Callinstr. 25 A, 30167 Hannover, Germany
*

E-mail: Alireza.Akbari@si.uni-hannover.de

Abstract- Monitoring and diagnosis of electrical equipment, in

particular power transformers, has attracted considerable
attention for many years. It is of great importance for the utilities
to find the incipient faults in these transformers as early as
possible. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is one of the most useful
techniques to detect incipient faults in oil-filled power
transformers. Various methods have been developed to interpret
DGA results such as IEC ratio code, Rogers method and Duval
triangle method. One of the most frequently used DGA methods
is Duval triangular. It is a graphical method that allows one to
follow the faults more easily and more precisely. In this paper a
detailed implementation of Duval triangle method was presented
for researchers and utilities interested in visualizing their own
DGA results using a software program. The Java language is
used for this software because of its growing importance in
modern application development.

PD
T1
T2
40

60

%CH4
40

%C2H4
60

D1
D2

20

80

I. INTRODUCTION

60

DT

40
%C2H2
Fig. 1. Duval Triangle method

T3

80

20

These three gases in ppm, CH4 = g1, C2H4 = g2 and C2H2 = g3,
must be transformed into triangular coordinates before being
plotted onto the triangle. First the sum of these three values,
g1+g2+g3, should be calculated and then the relative proportion
of the three gases: P1 = %CH4 = 100 g1/(g1+g2+g3), P2 =
%C2H4 = 100 g2/(g1+g2+g3), P3 = %C2H2 = 100
g3/(g1+g2+g3).

A. The Duval Triangle DGA method

The Duval Triangle diagnostic method for oil-insulated
high-voltage equipment, mainly transformers, was developed
by Michel Duval in 1974 [1]. It is based on the use of 3
hydrocarbon gases (CH4, C2H4 and C2H2) corresponding to the
increasing energy levels of gas formation in transformers in
service. This method has proven to be accurate and
dependable over many years and is now gaining in popularity.
One advantage of this method is that it always provides a
diagnosis, with a low percentage of wrong result. Duval
method is special since fault diagnosis is performed based on
visualisation of the location of dissolved gases in the
triangular map. The Triangle method is indicated in Fig. 1.
Generally, three types of faults are detectable, i.e. partial
discharge, high and low energy arcing (electrical fault) and hot
spots of various temperature ranges (thermal fault) [2]. These
fault types will be determined in 6 zones of individual faults
mentioned in Table I (PD, D1, D2, T1, T2 or T3), an
intermediate zone DT has been attributed to mixtures of
electrical and thermal faults in the transformer. Since no
region is designated for normal ageing condition, careless
implementation of Duval triangle will result in the diagnosis
of either one of the mentioned faults. To avoid this problem,
dissolved gases should be assessed for their normality before
being interpreted using Duval triangle. The three sides of the
Triangle are expressed in triangular coordinates (P1, P2, P3)
representing the relative proportions of CH4, C2H4 and C2H2,
from 0 to 100 for each gas.

978-1-4244-2092-6/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE

20

80

Symbol

PD

Partial discharges

D1

Discharges of low
energy

D2

Discharges of
high energy

T1
T2
T3

124

TABLE I
Examples of faults detectable by DGA
Fault
Examples

Thermal fault, T
<300 C
Thermal fault,
300 <T<700 C
Thermal fault, T
>700 C

Discharges of the cold plasma (corona)

type in gas bubbles or voids, with the
possible formation of X-wax in paper.
Partial discharges of the sparking type,
inducing pinholes, carbonized punctures in
paper. Low energy arcing inducing
carbonized perforation or surface tracking
of paper, or the formation of carbon
particles in oil.
Discharges in paper or oil, with power
follow-through, resulting in extensive
damage to paper or large formation of
carbon particles in oil, metal fusion,
tripping of the equipment and gas alarms.
Evidenced by paper turning brownish (>
200 C) or carbonized (> 300 C).
Carbonization of paper, formation of
carbon particles in oil.
Extensive formation of carbon particles in
oil, metal coloration (800 C) or metal
fusion (> 1000 C).

For example, if the DGA results are g1 = 70, g2 = 110, g3 =

20 ppm, P1 = 35%, P2 = 55%, P3 = 10%, which corresponds to
only one point called R in the right side of the Triangle, as
indicated in Fig. 2 and determined as a T3 fault.

For example if point R is located on vertex B, it means that

P1 and P2 are zero and P3 is 100.
A. Cartesian coordinates and triangular coordinates
To plot Duval triangle, the triangle coordinate should be
converted to Cartesian coordinate using simple trigonometry.
Consider the triangle ABC in Fig. 4. The triangle is equilateral,
therefore: AB = BC = AC = L.
First we consider vertex B at Cartesian coordinate (Bx , By),
which can be a point anywhere in our coordination system.
The coordinates of point A (Ax , Ay) can be considered as
follow:
Ax = Bx + 0.5L,
Ay = By + AH = By + Lcos 30

100
20

P2 = %C2H4

P1 = %CH4
40

100
60 P3 = %C2H2

100

The coordinates of point C (Cx , Cy) can be considered as

follow:
Cx = Bx + L,
Cy = B y

Fig. 2. Example of a point displayed in triangle

II.

TRIANGULAR COORDINATES

90
P2

As shown in Fig. 3 the system consists of an equilateral

triangle ABC with three vertices A, B and C and three
components namely P1, P2 and P3 that are determined with
points D, E and F respectively. These three fractions are
between 0 and 100, and (P1 + P2 + P3) should always have the
value of 100.
Plotting P1, P2 and P3 in the Triangle provide only one point
inside the Triangle. To obtain this point that is determined as
R in Fig. 3, three parallel lines should be drawn from D, E and
F. For point D a line should be drawn parallel to BC, for point
E a line should be drawn parallel to AB and for point F a line
should be drawn parallel to AC. The intersection of these three
lines will be the point R that is somewhere inside the triangle.

P1

) 60

90
60 (

) 60
90

Fig. 4. Cartesian coordination of a point inside the triangle

To calculate the Cartesian coordinates of a point R (Rx , Ry)

which are obtained from three fractions P1, P2 and P3 , the
following calculations should be done.
In triangle EBD: ED = BEcos 30 = P1Lcos 30 = RG
In triangle ABC: AH = ABcos 30 = Lcos 30
From these follow that
ED = P1AH , ED = RG
and
RG = P1AH
Hence
Ry = By + RG = By + P1Lcos 30
(1)

90
P2

E
D

R (Rx,Ry)

P1
90

Calculation of Rx needs consideration using two similar

triangles ABH and RFG in ABC. From the similarity of
triangles ABH and RFG it can be concluded that:

90

P3
Fig. 3. Example of a point displayed in triangle

FR/AB = RG/AH = P1AH/AH = P1

The point R at edges AB, BC or AC represents one of the

components P1, P2 and P3 is zero. For example if point R is
located on point D in Fig. 3, it means that P2 is zero. Also
Point R at vertices A, B or C means that two of the
components P1, P2 and P3 are zero and one of them is 100.

and therefore FR = P1AB = P1L

In triangle RFG: FG = FRcos 60 = P1Lcos 60
BG = BF + FG = P2L + P1Lcos 60 = L(P2 + P10.5)

125

consequently
Rx = Bx + BG = Bx + L(P2 + P10.5)

and CartesianX() was used to calculate (1) and (2)

respectively.

(2)

We consider the mentioned example in section I again and

calculate the point R inside the triangle. The fractions are
calculated according to input DGA gases as P1 = 35%, P2 =
55%, P3 = 10%, or P1 = 0.35, P2 = 0.55, P3 = 0.1.
The Point B(Bx , By) consider to be placed at origin (0,0) and
the length of triangle side L is 200 . For this example, (1) and
(2) can be calculated as below:

Area
D1

Ry = By + RG = By + P1Lcos 30 = 0 + 0.35 200 0.866

= 60.62
Rx = Bx + L (P2 + P10.5)= 0 + 200 (0.55 + 0.35 0.5)
= 145

D2

B. Duval triangular fault zones coordinates

To determine different zones of Duval triangular method, we
need to define a polygon for each zone. As depicted in Fig. 5,
we need seven polygons to define different fault zones.
The four points of zone D1 is specified as D11, D12, D13,
D14. Each point such as D11 is defined by its fraction values
P1, P2 and P3 that can be determined according to Fig. 5.
Table I shows all points of each polygon of Duval triangle.

DT

T1

PD
T2

T1
20

80 D14
P1 = %CH4
40

T2
D13

60

40

P2 = %C2H4

T3

60

D1

PD
D2

20
D11

D12
80

60

DT

40

T3

80

TABLE II
Triangular coordinates for Duval triangle zones
Points
P1
P2
D11
0
0
D12
0
0.23
D13
0.64
0.23
D14
0.87
0
D21
0
0.23
D22
0
0.71
D23
0.31
0.40
D24
0.47
0.4
D25
0.64
0.23
DT1
0
0.71
DT2
0
0.85
DT3
0.35
0.5
DT4
0.46
0.5
DT5
0.96
0.0
DT6
0.87
0.0
DT7
0.47
0.4
DT8
0.31
0.4
T11
0.76
0.2
T12
0.8
0.2
T13
0.98
0.02
T14
0.98
0.0
T15
0.96
0.0
T21
0.46
0.5
T22
0.5
0.5
T23
0.8
0.2
T24
0.76
0.2
T31
0.0
0.85
T32
0.0
1
T33
0.5
0.5
T34
0.35
0.5
PD1
0.98
0.02
PD2
1
0.0
PD3
0.98
0.0

P3
1
0.77
0.13
0.13
0.77
0.29
0.29
0.13
0.13
0.29
0.15
0.15
0.04
0.04
0.13
0.13
0.29
0.04
0.0
0.0
0.02
0.04
0.04
0.0
0.0
0.04
0.15
0.0
0.0
0.15
0.0
0.0
0.02

C. Recognizing DGA fault

To find out the DGA fault according to the seven defined
fault zones or polygons, the input DGA fractions P1, P2 and
P3 should be calculated as described before in section I. The
fractions will be converted to Cartesian coordinates that will
lead the point R and then the zone in which it falls, allowing
the identification of the fault corresponding to the DGA data.
To determine which one of the seven zones contains point R,
a Java built in function called contains() that is applicable for
each defined polygon can be used. But if the point is located in
the boundary of a polygon it cannot be recognized using this
function. To overcome this problem a small circle with centre
R and radius r can be considered. The radius r should be
selected carefully.
In developed program the assigned value to r was 5 and
there were about 105 points inside it. All points belonging to
this circle should be tested to see whether belong to each of
the seven polygons. Finally a percentage value can be
assigned to each polygon according to the number of points
that are inside each polygon divided by the total number of
points of this circle in our case 105.

20

P3 = %C2H2
Fig. 5. Different fault zone inside the triangle

It is obvious that some points are common in neighbouring

polygons, e.g. points D12 and D21 of polygons D1 and D2 are
the same, which can also be seen in Table II. To define each
polygon, the points defined in Table II should be converted to
Cartesian coordinates using (1) and (2).
To implement the Duval triangle DGA method the java
programming language was used because of its growing
importance in modern application development and its
popularity. Java is platform independent and there are a lot of
free compilers and tools for that.
Using java Polygon() function, all the seven zones can be
defined. The function addpoint() can be used to add each
single Cartesian point to a polygon. Fig. 6 shows the source
code needed for defining polygon D1.
The four points D11, D12, D13, D14 should be added to this
polygon using addpoint() function. The methods CartesianY()

126

converting is straight forward just by changing Y Cartesian

coordinate as below:
Ynew = H - Y

Polygon D1 = new Polygon();

P1=0; P2=0; P3=1; //Point D11
xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L);
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);

0,0

P1=0; P2=0.23; P3=0.77; //Point D12

xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L);
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);

width , 0

P1=0.64;P2=0.23;P3=0.13; //Point D13

xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L);
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);

0 , height
width , height

P1=0.87; P2=0; P3=0.13; //Point D14

xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L);
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);

Fig. 8. Graphics coordinate system, circles represent coordinates, and squares

represent pixels.

H is the windows height, the triangle should be drawn inside

it. Fig. 9 shows the program user interface and the result of the
diagnosis for the example mentioned in section I.

Fig. 6. A brief Java code for defining D1 zone as a polygon

This value shows the percentage of the circle in each of the

polygons. If the circle is out of a polygon range the percentage
value will be zero. Fig. 7 shows an example that point R
located in zones D1 and D2.
100
20

P1 = %CH4
40

D1

P2 = %C2H4

D2

Fig. 9. Example of a diagnosis by designed program

IV.
100

60

100

P3 = %C2H2

Fig. 7. Example of a point displayed in triangle

The calculated percentage value in this case for D1 is 32%

and for D2 is 68% and for other zones zero.
III.

THE GRAPHICS COORDINATE SYSTEM AND DISPLAYING

CONCLUSION

In this paper an implementation of Duval Triangle DGA

diagnostic method was investigated. This method is widely in
use for interpreting DGA data. The developed java program
can be used as a stand alone system or as a part of a DGA
diagnostic system that includes other DGA methods such as
Rogers or IEC. This program can also be used for
investigating on other type of insulation fluids such as Ester as
a tool for simplifying the process of finding the best zone for
each fault.

TRIANGLE

REFERENCES

To display Duval triangle and polygons inside it, a

conversion from Cartesian coordinate to graphics coordinate is
necessary. The graphics coordinate system is anchored in the
upper left-hand corner of a component, with coordinates
increasing down and to the right, as depicted in Fig. 8. The

[1] Michel Duval, Fault gases formed in oil-filled breathing EHV power
transformers- The interpretation of gas analysis data, IEEE PAS Conf.,
Paper No C 74 476-8, 1974.
[2] Michel Duval, James Dukarm, Improving the Reliability of Transformer
Gas-in-Oil Diagnosis, IEEE Elec. Insul. Mag., Vol.21, No.4, pp. 21-27,
2005.

127