SWEPT FREQUENCY RESPONSE TESTS FOR CONDITION

MONITORING OF POWER TRANSFORMERS.

Nazar AI Khayat, Lawrence Haydock and G McDowell @

INTRODUCTION
Winding deformation can be caused by lightning, switching or system fault. The principal forces
causing the deformation are radial and axial. In concentric winding transformers radial forces
involve adequate support of the inner winding whilst the outer winding relies upon the tensile
strength of the conductor[ 11. Axial forces include an unavoidable compression of both windings and
a displacement due to the electromagnetilc dissymmetry. Winding deformation may be determined by
either fiequency response analysis (FRA)[2] or low voltage impulse (LVI)[3]. Both methods are
based on a comparison of the response of'the transformer windings before and after damage.

REF LEVEL
0 . 0 0 0 68

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1K
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100K

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Figure 1 .Transformerfrequency response.

Nazar AI-Khayat Dansfoss Flowmetering Ltd, Stonehouse, Gloucester GLlO 2LU.

Lawrence Haydock Newage Internationd Ltd, PO Box 17, Bamack Road, Stamford, PE9 2NB. Previously with
Nottingham Trent University.
George McDowell ERA Technology Itd. Leatherhead. Surrey, KT22 7SA
@

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The FRA method uses a sweep generator to appl; a sinusoidal voltage at different frequencies to the
terminals of a transformer winding. Amplitude and phase of the winding impedances or admittance
are plotted directly as finction of fiequency, figure 1. The LVI method considers the application of
a low voltage impulse to the winding and records of both the applied impulse and the response at the
remote end of the winding. In 1988, ER4 Technology, in collaboration with The Nottingham Trent
University, started a detailed program of research for the development of a means of monitoring the
condition of a power transformer using FRA technique. The research work concentrated on the
establishment of a mathematical model of the transformer windings. The models developed were
general and accurate. Overall 11 transformers were tested (5OOkVA - 70MVA). They range from
distribution type, arc fimace, power station generator and neutral earthing reactors. In this paper
attention will be centred on measuring and predicting the frequency response of iron cored disk-type
windings in a SOOkVAdistribution type transformer.

IRON CORED RESPONSE MEASUREMENT

The signal generator was connected across the transformer windings as shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: Circuit for frequency response of winding under test.

The measured frequency response is shown in figure 1. The point of maximum and minimum
admittance is quite regular and easy to v e m for a single winding irrespective of its end terminal
connection[4]. However, when a secondary winding is introduced, the beat effect between the
oscillations of two windings with different number of tums creates a very irregular pattern of the
admittance-frequency traces, figure 1. It is worth noting that the influence of the secondary winding
on the frequency response of the primary is a fbnction of its radius as well as its terminal
connections. When the secondary winding has a much greater radius than the primary, its effect is
negligible and can approach the response for the primary alone in air.
The change in the measured frequency response of the disk type transformer is very pronounced up
to 40Old-I~.For frequencies up to 400kHz some maxima and minima occur, sharply signifjring the
change from inductive to capacitive resonant circuit. At higher frequencies, the peaks in amplitude
disappear and this can be attributed to higher losses and consequently greater damping effect. It is
also worth noting that after the first resonant frequency the general trends show a decrease in the
admittance as a knction frequency. Since the high voltage winding has been designed for a rated
voltaze much higher than the applied voltage, the iron is expected to be in the linear part of the
magnetisation characteristic. The use of higher voltages will increase the value of the no-load
impedance and so decrease the value of the first resonant fiequency[5-7,12].
DAMAGE PREDICTION
The resonance phenomena on transformer windings resemble the behaviour of transmission line[%
153. Figure 3 shows the standing wave pattern along transformer winding at the lowest resonant and
antiresonant frequencies.

'II

(b)

(a)

wave patterns at resonance and anti resonance.

Figure 3: Current C Jand voltage
(a) Lowest order antiresonance.(b)Lowest order resonance.

At resonant frequencies, the winding exhibits a standing wave pattern of an integer number of half
sinewaves distributed along the winding length and experiences large amplitude voltage oscillations.
Also, at antiresonant frequencies, a standing wave pattern exists consisting of an odd integer number
of quarter sinewaves. Now each of those resonant or antiresonant frequencies corresponds to a
winding section which behaves as either series or parallel resonant circuit. Winding damage detection
employing FRA method can be accomplislhed by comparing the fingerprints of a healthy winding (or
the calculated response using the equivdent circuit) with the fingerprints of a damaged winding.
Changes in fingerprints can be used to estimate the degree of winding damage and moreover, its
location[4].
IRON CORED RESPONSE PREDICTION
With increasing power of computers and the compatibility of circuit solvers, in became possible to
write a program for the solution of an equivalent circuit model for analysing the frequency response
of iron cored coils.
The program was written in PASCAL and it calculates the various circuit parameters of the
transformer windings, using their physical dimensions and the material properties of the insulation.
(permeability and resistivity of the core, permitivity of insulation). The generated equivalent circuit
was solved using SPICE[4]. The predicted response is shown in figure 4.
1.000E+00
1.000E-01
1.000E-02

8
8

-=

B
._
T

1.000E-03

1.000E-04
1.000E-05
1.000E-06
1.000E-07

1 .ODOE-08
1.000E+O3

1.000E+04

1.000E+05

Frequency

(Hz).

Figure 4: Predicted frequency response for disk type transformer.

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I .000E+06

There are close similarities between the trend of the predicted and measured frequency response. It
should be pointed that the prime factor of interest in winding damage detection is the frequency
trend. Any small winding movement can alter the frequency response by a significant amount.
Nevertheless, table 1 shows a comparison between measured and calculated methods for the first
seven modes of oscillation. The bracketed numbers represent the percentage difference with respect
to the measured values. The equivalent circuit considered for this analysis ignored the frequency
dependence of parameters like conductivity Ocore and directional permeability pz(core).

Table 1. Measured and calculated fundamentalresonantfrequencies

CONCLUSION
The paper has discussed of the modelling and testing of a large distribution type power transformer.
The models developed show a close trend between the measured and predicted fiequency response.
The results are believed to be very encouraging for krther work in this area. Furthermore, the
method used in this paper is sufficientlygeneral to be easily applied to other electromagnetic devices.

REFERENCES.
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Part A, pp. 289-306, 1952.

[2] Dick E. P. : Transformer diagnostic testing by frequency response analysis, IEEE Trans. on
PAS, Vol. PAS 97, 1978.
[3] Lech W. : Detecting transformer winding damage, Electrical Review, Vol 179, pp. 768, 1966.
[4] AI-Khayat N. : Transformer Simulation Models, PhD Thesis, Nottingham Trent University,
Nottingham, U.K., 1994.
[ 5 ] Abetti P. A. and Magimiss F. J. : Natural fiequencies of coils and windings determined by
equivalent circuit, Trans. of AIEE, Vol. 72, pp 495-504, 1953.
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p p ~986-96, 1959.
[7] Degeneff R. C. : A general method for determining resonances in transformer windings, IEE
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[lo] Dahab A. A. , Burke P. E. and Fawzi T. H.: A complete model of a single layer air - cored
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[12] Jiang Qin and Bodger P. S. : Harmonic response and terminal rsonances of high voltage
transformers, Int. J. Elect Enging. Educ., Vol. 28, pp. 144-156, 1991.

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[13] Hurley W. G. and McNamara P. S. : Charakerization of transformer cores using a new mutual
impedance formula, European Conference Power Electronics & Applications, Italy, Vol. 2, pp. 4527, 1991.
[14] Snelling E.C.: SoftFerrites, ILIFFE Books, London, 1969.
El51 Kress K. et al : Travelling Waves i%S Causes of Internal Resonance Phenomena in Coils and
Windings, CIGRE, 12-303, 1992.

G 1995 The Institutionof Electrical Engineers.

Printed and published by the IEE, Savoy Place, London WCZR OBL, UK.

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