Condition Assessment Of Oil-paper Insulation Research Articles

Temperature Compensation of Frequency Domain Spectroscopy Measurement for Condition Assessment of Oil-Paper Insulation

This article proposes a novel method for predicting frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) characteristics of oil–paper insulation at a temperature, which is different from the measurement temperature, through estimating activation energy. The predicted FDS characteristics curves at different temperatures show a very good agreement with each other when compared to the experimentally measured characteristics. From the FDS characteristics, two moisture-sensitive parameters are proposed for accurate estimation of moisture content of oil–paper insulation. The proposed technique is experimentally validated on several test samples with different moisture contents and also on a real-life transformer.

Determination of optimized slope of triangular excitation for condition assessment of oil-paper insulation by frequency domain spectroscopy

This paper presents a novel technique to determine the optimized slope of triangular excitation in frequency domain spectroscopy that can provide better information about condition of oil-paper insulation. In conventional frequency domain spectroscopy, estimation of frictional losses due to the interactions of oscillating dipoles helps in investigating insulation condition. But, different types of dipoles in insulation cannot have similar dielectric relaxation times. Therefore, excitation having multiple frequencies is necessary for the dipoles to undergo more synchronized oscillations. This synchronized oscillation of dipoles reduces the inter-dipolar interactions and provides better information regarding insulation condition. Hence, in this work, triangular excitation is used for frequency domain spectroscopy since its harmonic contents can be varied by changing the slope. The slope of the triangular excitation is optimized to obtain more accurate information about the insulation condition. The optimized triangular excitation for insulation is determined using the proposed equivalent circuit model. To experimentally determine the effectiveness of the model, three test samples having preset moisture content in paper have been prepared in the laboratory. The optimized triangular excitations are then applied to the test samples to estimate their insulation condition. Experimental results show that the use of optimized triangular excitation provides information regarding the condition of oil-paper insulation with greater accuracy. In order to investigate the applicability of the proposed equivalent circuit model, the experiment has also been performed on real-life transformers.

Estimation of paper moisture content based on dielectric dissipation factor of oil-paper insulation under non-sinusoidal excitations

Frequency Domain Spectroscopy is a popular non-invasive method that is widely used for condition assessment of oil-paper insulation in real-life power transformers. Conventional Frequency Domain Spectroscopy is done using sinusoidal excitation over a wide frequency range. In this work, a different approach has been taken to investigate some more possibilities of Frequency Domain Spectroscopy using non-sinusoidal excitation for a better condition assessment of oil-paper insulation. For that, triangular waveshape was chosen as non-sinusoidal excitations whose slope can be changed to vary the harmonic content and amplitudes of constituent components. Samples with preset moisture contents that emulate the oil-paper insulation of real-life transformer have been prepared in the laboratory for the assessment of insulation condition. For a comparative study, both sinusoidal and triangular excitations having same peak as well as time period are applied to the prepared samples under controlled environmental condition and corresponding dielectric response currents are measured. From the applied voltages and corresponding dielectric response currents, dielectric dissipation factors are calculated and compared. It has been observed that use of nonsinusoidal excitation provides better results than sinusoidal excitation in the estimation of paper moisture content. It has also been observed that among the applied non-sinusoidal excitations, a particular waveform provides more accurate information about the paper moisture content.

Investigation of characteristic parameters for condition evaluation of transformer oil-paper insulation using frequency domain spectroscopy

SUMMARY Frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) is employed to evaluate the moisture content and aging state of oil-paper insulation in power transformers. Oil-paper insulation samples with different moisture content and aging states were primarily prepared in the laboratory. A method was proposed based on a study of the influence of the aging state and moisture content on the frequency domain dielectric property of oil-paper insulation. This method distinguishes the influence of moisture content and aging state on FDS through the imaginary part of complex relative permittivity (er″). Relevant characteristic parameters that characterize the moisture content and aging state of oil-impregnated pressboards were also extracted. Results reveal that the extracted characteristic parameters are sensitive to moisture content in the range of 10−1 Hz to 101 Hz and in the range of 10−3 Hz to 10−1 Hz for the aging state. An obvious exponential relationship exists between the maximum values of the characteristic parameters in the given frequency ranges and degree of polymerization and moisture content. The new method can be utilized for a non-destructive condition assessment of oil-paper insulation of transformers. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Effect of temperature on frequency dependent dielectric parameters of oil-paper insulation under non-sinusoidal excitation

Frequency domain spectroscopy is a potential tool for non-invasive condition assessment of oil-paper insulation in power equipment. On the other hand, it is well known that the results of frequency domain spectroscopy are affected predominantly by temperature. Moreover, the voltage used for frequency domain spectroscopy is sinusoidal is nature. But the actual insulation system at site is stressed by voltage that may deviate significantly from sinusoid during operation. Considering these two aforesaid facts, in this paper, the response of oil-paper insulation has been studied at different temperatures using both sinusoidal as well as non-sinusoidal excitation. An experimental sample has been prepared in the laboratory that emulates the composite insulation of oil immersed type power transformer at site. The results of frequency response using sinusoidal voltage waveform at different temperature show good agreement with the conventional results that validates the scheme of the experimental setup. Some more information is obtained from the response of non-sinusoidal excitation that could help to get a better interpretation of the actual physical condition of oil-paper composite insulation.

Aging condition assessment of transformer oil-paper insulation model based on partial discharge analysis

This paper presents aging condition assessment of oil-paper transformer insulation based on partial discharge analysis in order to realize statistical parameters reduction. The extracted feature factors of this proposed model were used to identify oil-paper samples with different aging degrees. An accelerated aging test was implemented using artificial oil-paper samples with an internal flat air gap. During the aging test, partial discharge signal acquisition was conducted periodically. In the new model, conventional statistical parameters of phase resolved partial discharge (PRPD) patterns were analyzed using principal component and factor analysis (PCFA), and a group of new features constituted by the extracted factors was obtained. These factors were not only independent of one another, they had their own specific properties. To a great extent, these factors represent information on PRPD patterns through a limited number of variables. Through the use of the new features extracted from PCFA method, the clustering and discriminating results of the samples with different aging stages provided significantly referenced information on the condition assessment of oil-paper insulation.

Low temperature and moisture effects on polarization and depolarization currents of oil-paper insulation

In the last decades, dielectric testing techniques are being used and investigated as potential tools for condition assessment of oil-paper insulation. From fields and laboratory investigations these techniques were found to be highly operating conditions (moisture, ageing, temperature, etc.) dependant. Because field measurements (generally performed after de-energizing the transformer), last hours after de-energizing the transformer, the ambient temperature may affect the results. Especially in cold regions of the world, extreme care is required to interpret the results when performing tests at surrounding low temperatures. A better understanding and analysis of the dielectric test results are therefore only possible with a clear understanding of the physical behaviour of the insulation system in response to the ambient conditions. In the current research project, a series of experiments have been performed under controlled laboratory conditions with preset moisture content inside the insulation. This paper reports the effects of low temperature on the time domain dielectric response of oil impregnated paper insulation.