Frequency Domain Spectroscopy Measurements Research Articles

DC-biased dielectric measurements using an existing frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) instrument and series battery

We present a simple method for adding DC bias to frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) measurements by inserting a battery in series in the ‘high’ lead to the device under test. An instrument designed for FDS measurements with pure AC can be used in this way without modification, even for DC voltages above the instrument’s AC range. Issues and limitations of the method are discussed, along with some alternative methods. Experimental results from FDS measurements on well defined linear objects are compared with/without the DC bias, to check that the measurement is not disturbed by the DC source. The only detected difference was the expected effect of including the battery impedance in series with the specimen in the measurement. This effect was negligible for typical lab-specimen capacitances, around and below power frequency. The nature of battery impedance is further described, as multiple small batteries in series can strongly affect the results for large specimens and at high frequencies.

Research on broadband equivalent modeling for the dielectric response of transformer bushings based on the improved artificial bee colony algorithm

As a new nondestructive diagnosis method of insulation state, frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) has been widely used in the field detection of power equipment. However, the quantitative correlation between FDS measurement results and insulation state is not clear for transformer bushing, which seriously affects its detection effect. In order to solve this problem, the FDS modeling and parameter identification of transformer bushing has been studied in this paper. Firstly, the transformer bushing model was built in the laboratory, and the FDS measurement data of transformer bushings with different water content were collected. Then, a fusion algorithm of improved artificial bee colony algorithm and sequential quadratic programming algorithm was used to identify the parameters of transformer bushing model. After modeling and analyzing the FDS measured data, it is found that there is a good consistency between the measured spectrum of complex capacitance and the reconstructed spectrum of the model, and the goodness of fit of the model to the measured FDS exceeds 0.95. In addition, the identified values of resistance and capacitance in the equivalent model are within the reasonable range of 109Ω and 10−9F respectively. These results show that the extended Debye model and parameter identification algorithm can accurately model the frequency domain dielectric response of transformer bushing in a wide frequency range, and can provide an effective tool for more accurate analysis of transformer bushings insulation state.

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.

Frequency-Domain Spectroscopy of Oil and Oil-impregnated Pressboard with DC Bias

Dielectric response measurement is widely used to characterize oil/oil-impregnated pressboards in order to evaluate the condition of transformer insulation. Insulation systems with oil can exhibit voltage dependence at low frequencies. This is due to the limited number of mobile charges in the liquid, rather than to the dielectric relaxation processes that may, in some cases, be of more interest to study. This work investigates the voltage-dependent properties of oil/oil-impregnated pressboards under ac voltages with regard to the complex permittivities. Frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) measurements are made with a dc voltage added to the ac voltage stimulus. Considered influences are the voltage amplitudes and polarity as well as the dependence on temperature. Properties of the space-charge polarization in the oil and oil-impregnated pressboard are calculated and discussed based on the dc-biased measurements. It is seen that using the dc bias in the FDS measurements of oil/oil-impregnated pressboard can significantly decrease the voltage dependence of the results that are caused by ion drift and consequent depletion of ions from the bulk liquid. Based on the dc-biased measurements, the complex permittivity due to the linear and nonlinear polarization can be separated.

A Novel Approach to Estimate the Quantity of Ingressed Moisture Content Inside Metal Oxide Surge Arrester Using Dielectric Modulus Technique

In this article, a novel technique is proposed for the estimation of ingressed moisture content inside metal oxide surge arrester (MOSA) in service. For the estimation of ingressed moisture content inside a dielectric precisely, knowledge of frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) characteristics can be useful. However, in traditional FDS measurement, dielectric relaxation characteristics cannot be properly understood due to electrode polarization effect. Therefore, to overcome this problem, dielectric modulus technique is applied in this work. Dielectric modulus can uncover the relaxation characteristics in a dielectric, which is obscured by electrode polarization effect. Therefore, frequency variation of complex dielectric modulus characteristics of MOSA at different ingressed moisture content is analysed using Havriliak-Negami (H-N) relaxation model to investigate the changes in dielectric relaxation behavior with moisture ingression. The findings of the paper reveal that empirically obtained relationship between ingressed moisture content and H-N model parameters can estimate the ingressed moisture content inside a MOSA with an acceptable accuracy.

Sensing the Thermal Aging of Epoxy Alumina Nano-Composites Using Electric Modulus

In this contribution, a novel technique to accurately sense the thermal aging of the epoxy alumina nano-composites employing complex electric modulus is proposed. To sense the thermal ageing of epoxy nano-composites accurately, knowledge of relaxation behavior is necessary. However, relaxation behavior cannot be understood completely due to electrode polarization and charge transport effects at high temperatures and at low frequencies. To overcome this problem, electric modulus which is defined as the inverse of the complex permittivity, is being proposed in this study to analyze the aging behavior of the epoxy alumina nano-composites quantitatively. For this purpose, three epoxy resin samples mixed with alumina (Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> ) nano-fillers with different filler concentrations were prepared and thermal aging of the same samples was done for 100 hours, 200 hours, 300 hours and 400 hours, respectively. For each sample, the complex dielectric modulus (M*( ω)) was computed using frequency domain spectroscopy measurement to observe their frequency dependent relaxation behaviors. The variation of the real (M <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">'</sup> ( ω)) and imaginary (M <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">''</sup> ( ω)) part of ( M*( ω)) over the frequency range from 1 mHz to 10 kHz was further fitted using Cole-Cole (C-C) model. From the nature of variation of M <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">''</sup> ( ω) spectrum and the fitting parameters of the C-C model, two characteristic parameters were extracted to quantitatively describe the thermal aging of the epoxy nano-composite samples. Investigations revealed that the extracted parameters can be accurately used to sense the aging condition of the epoxy nano-composites.

Estimation of Conductivity at Reduced Time for Sensing Moisture Content of Oil-Paper Insulation

Conductivity is an important parameter which has definite correlation with the amount of moisture present within the transformer insulation. However, in existing methods conductivity is usually estimated from time domain (PDC) measurement, which is inadvertently noise prone and time consuming. Considering this issue, in this article presents a novel technique for conductivity estimation for moisture sensing of oil-paper insulation using frequency domain spectroscopy measurement (FDS). To this end, FDS measurement of oil-paper insulation was performed from 50mHz to 1kHz to obtain the imaginary complex permittivity $\varepsilon ''$ ( $\omega$ ), which is a function of conductivity ( $\sigma$ ) as well as imaginary complex susceptibility $\chi ''$ ( $\omega$ ). From the knowledge of frequency variation of both $\sigma $ and $\chi ''$ ( $\omega$ ), we developed an electrical equivalent model of the insulation. The equivalent model parameters were optimized until $\varepsilon ''$ ( $\omega$ ) computed from the proposed model and that obtained from original FDS measurement were almost identical. The conductivity values obtained from the equivalent model showed good agreement when compared with PDC measurement. To validate the practicability of the proposed method, experiments were conducted on various test samples and also on a few real life transformers. Most importantly, the measurement time was found to be reduced by 78.5%, enabling diagnosis of transformer insulation at a significantly reduced time.

Method for identifying ageing in epoxy‐mica composite insulation used in rotational machines through modelling of dielectric relaxation

Dielectric response analysis, performed in time domain and frequency domain is one of the interesting methods used for condition assessment of high voltage equipment. In this article, the degradation of epoxy-mica composite insulation which is widely used in rotating machines has been investigated through frequency domain spectroscopy measurements. Artificial ageing of the carefully prepared stator bar insulation sample was performed through simultaneous application of high temperature and electric field in a designated environmental chamber for specific durations. To study the effect of temperature, the measurements were performed at temperatures ranging from 20 to 60°C at different ageing status. Following experimental work, the measurement results were modelled using Havriliak–Negami model and ageing sensitive parameters were extracted. To study the effect of temperature, the measurements were performed at temperatures ranging from 20 to 60°C. The modelled results matched well with the experimental measurements and certain model parameters sensitive to the ageing condition were identified. The numerical relationships between the insulation status of the stator bar and the aforementioned parameters were identified. It was observed that the nature of the numerical relationship remains identical in the investigated temperature range, although the coefficients vary to some extent.

Artificial neural network based method for temperature correction in FDS measurement of transformer insulation

Frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) measurement has become an important method for the assessment of the condition of the insulation of oil transformers. In recent years, numerous researchers have found that temperature variation affect FDS results. The master curve technique is commonly used to correct the effect of temperature on FDS results. In this paper, an FDS experiment is carried out on a sample transformer. Then, for this transformer, insulation model parameters are determined by using a genetic algorithm based on the FDS results. Then, by using the insulation model parameters, tanδ curves are simulated and compared to real results. Finally, an FDS experiment is conducted on two other transformers at 22 °C, 30 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C, 60 °C, and 70 °C (in order to give sufficient information for a training neural network) and insulation model parameters are calculated via the genetic algorithm. In one of the transformers, the effect of temperature on the FDS curves is corrected by using the master curve technique and the FDS curves are transmitted over the reference curve. It is also shown that the transformer insulation is an Arrhenius-type dielectric. The error of this method is calculated by using a mean square error technique. In the two other transformers, the insulation model parameters related to 22 °C are considered as the target parameters. The insulation model parameters of the other temperatures are fed into an artificial neural network as input, to train it to transfer insulation model parameters related to other temperatures to the reference parameters. Finally, the errors of both methods are compared, and it is shown that this latter method for correcting the temperature effects in the FDS method is the more effective.

Frequency Domain Spectroscopy for Non-Uniformly Distributed Moisture Detection in Transformer Bushings

Frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) has been widely used to evaluate the moisture fault of oil-impregnated paper (OIP) bushings. However, there is no reliable method for the location detection of moisture faults in bushings, which frequently initiate its insulation failure. In this study, we developed a distributed FDS measurement method for OIP bushings with two taps. Three times FDS will be measured to acquire the FDS parameters from 0.001 Hz to 10 kHz between the rod (a) and end foil (c), rod and second end foil (b), and second end foil and end foil at room temperature over time. The results show that the $C_{1mHz} /C_{10kHz}$ ratio of $C_{ab}$ is more sensitive for detection of the inner damp layer. The rate of $C_{1mHz} /C_{10kHz}$ of $C_{bc}$ is more sensitive to the outer layer damp bushings. The layer ratios of complex capacitance ( $V_{12}/V_{1}$ and $V_{2}/V_{1}$ ) are key features for the detection of non-uniformly distributed moisture for a capacitance bushing.

Studies on the effects of moisture and ageing on charge de‐trapping properties of oil‐impregnated pressboard based on IRC measurement

The dielectric properties of oil-paper insulation degrade due to moisture ingression and ageing. This degradation significantly impacts the space charge accumulation and charge trapping behaviour in the insulation, which are vital parameters for insulation health under the high-voltage direct current environment. In this work, an improved model based on the isothermal relaxation current (IRC) has been developed to study the charge trapping behaviour of an oil pressboard under the influence of moisture and ageing. The conventional IRC model considers the total relaxation current because of charge de-trapping only. However, in the case of a composite dielectric like oil pressboard, dipolar relaxation also affects the relaxation current. In this work, a methodology has been proposed to investigate charge de-trapping behaviour of oil-pressboard insulation considering the dipole relaxation process from IRC measurements. For this purpose, frequency domain spectroscopy measurements and IRC measurements have been performed on oil-impregnated pressboard specimens carefully prepared in the laboratory having different ageing conditions and moisture contents. Results presented in this work depict that charge trapping parameters, i.e. the trap depth and trapped charge distribution are highly affected both by ageing and moisture. It was observed that ageing leads to the generation of deeper traps, while moisture mainly enhances the density of shallow traps.

High‐voltage switch‐mode assisted linear amplifier based voltage source for dielectric low frequency‐domain spectroscopy measurements

This study presents a switch-mode assisted linear amplifier (SMALA) designed for use as a frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) excitation voltage source for the diagnostic testing of oil/paper insulation systems in large power transformers. The developed voltage source has a low output voltage noise level and low harmonic content and is capable of driving highly capacitive loads with a maximum output voltage of 800 Vp-p in the frequency range of DC to 100 Hz and current limited to 20 mA. Disturbances in the output voltage associated with switching of the main switching amplifier are minimised through the control of the switching time, taking the slew rate of the correction amplifier into account. The switching time of the main switching amplifier can be effectively controlled using a combination of a simple RC filter on the output of the main switching amplifier and controlling the rise-time and fall-time of the MOSFET gate drive voltage. Using the developed SMALA unit, it was possible to perform FDS measurement on an oil/paper-insulated transformer at an elevated excitation voltage. This resulted in a non-linear response current, manifesting as odd harmonics in the measured current.

Feasibility of a universal approach for temperature correction in frequency domain spectroscopy of transformer insulation

Over the past few years, frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) has been widely utilized to assess transformer insulation. Many investigations have revealed that the FDS measurement has been observed to be dependent on service conditions (aging, moisture, geometry, and temperature). During the onsite FDS measurement, the inner insulation temperature of the de-energized transformer gradually decreases, which affects the FDS results due to moisture migration from oil to the cellulose insulation. This process gives rise to misinterpreting of the condition of the transformer insulation. Presently, the master curve technique reported by several researchers is utilized for temperature correction in FDS measurements. In fact, various researchers have obtained different master curves, so making a universal approach to temperature correction has become an important topic. In the present investigations, a series of experiments was performed on oil-impregnated pressboard insulation under laboratory conditions which was followed by FDS measurements at lower than operating temperature and a universal master curve for temperature correction was studied. Activation energies from oil-impregnated pressboard tests support the effectiveness of the proposed universal approach for temperature correction.

Use of chirp excitations for frequency domain spectroscopy measurement of oil-paper insulation

Frequency domain spectroscopy is a non-invasive, offline test performed to estimate moisture content, conductivity and aging status of the composite oil-paper insulation of a transformer. In conventional frequency domain spectroscopy test, sinusoidal excitation voltage is applied on the insulation under test for two cycles starting from 0.1 mHz to 1 kHz. One important aspect of conventional dielectric response measurement is the choice of excitation voltage. The insulation in real life operation is often stressed by voltage waveforms, which are non-stationary in nature. Therefore, modification of excitation voltage waveform is required for reliable assessment of insulation condition. Another important factor is the measurement time. Conventional frequency sweep from 0.1 mHz to 1 kHz, makes frequency domain spectroscopy measurement inadvertently lengthy, hence development of new measuring technique is necessary to reduce measurement duration for diagnosis of insulation condition. Considering these two facts, this contribution reports the feasibility of conducting dielectric response measurement in frequency domain using chirp excitation voltage waveforms. Instead of applying sinusoidal excitation at discrete measurement frequencies, chirp signals (band limited from 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz) were used to conduct frequency domain spectroscopy measurement on three laboratory prepared test samples and on two transformers. The dielectric dissipation factors evaluated using chirp waveforms showed a very good agreement when compared to that obtained by using sinusoidal excitation. Besides, investigations also revealed that the proposed method offered least amount of measurement time in comparison with conventional measurement as well as with some existing state of the art methods.

A Parameterization Approach for the Dielectric Response Model of Oil Paper Insulation Using FDS Measurements

To facilitate better interpretation of dielectric response measurements—thereby directing numerical evidence for condition assessments of oil-paper-insulated equipment in high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) transmission systems—a novel approach is presented to estimate the parameters in the extended Debye model (EDM) using wideband frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS). A syncretic algorithm that integrates a genetic algorithm (GA) and the Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) algorithm is introduced in the present study to parameterize EDM using the FDS measurements of a real-life 126 kV oil-impregnated paper (OIP) bushing under different controlled temperatures. As for the uncertainty of the EDM structure due to variable branch quantity, Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) is employed to determine the model orders. For verification, comparative analysis of FDS reconstruction and results of FDS transformation to polarization–depolarization current (PDC)/return voltage measurement (RVM) are presented. The comparison demonstrates good agreement between the measured and reconstructed spectroscopies of complex capacitance and tan δ over the full tested frequency band (10−4 Hz–103 Hz) with goodness of fit over 0.99. Deviations between the tested and modelled PDC/RVM from FDS are then discussed. Compared with the previous studies to parameterize the model using time domain dielectric responses, the proposed method solves the problematic matching between EDM and FDS especially in a wide frequency band, and therefore assures a basis for quantitative insulation condition assessment of OIP-insulated apparatus in energy systems.

Frequency domain spectroscopy measurements of oil-paper insulation for energized transformers

Frequency Domain Spectroscopy (FDS) is proposed as a suitable diagnostic method in this paper for implementation on energized oil-paper insulation systems. In present FDS tests, the measurement method is only designed for offline applications. To overcome the deficiencies with the offline testing, this work investigates the feasibility of performing FDS measurements on energized transformers with the view to developing an online diagnostic tool using neutral connections as injection and measurement paths. In the proposed technique, a low-pass filter system is designed to remove the high frequency noise as well as the power frequency signals present in the measured neutral currents. The technique has been successfully applied in a laboratory environment on transformers with oil-paper insulation systems with different operational ages and is feasible for single-phase as well as 3-phase transformers with the accessible neutral points. Compared with the conventional FDS results, a nonlinear dielectric phenomenon is observed from the energized insulation systems as higher dissipation factor Tan5 values primarily due to the increased losses under power frequency voltage excitation. The degree of the nonlinearity is found to correlate well with the degradation status of insulation systems under test.

Reducing frequency domain spectroscopy measurement time for condition monitoring of transformer oil‐paper insulation using non‐sinusoidal excitations

In conventional frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) measurement, sinusoidal excitation is applied to a composite oil-paper insulation under test, for a minimum of two cycles over a wide range of frequencies typically starting from 1 kHz to 1 mHz or even upto 0.1 mHz. The frequency sweep down to 1 mHz, is inevitably time consuming especially in lower frequency ranges. Considering the aforesaid fact, the main aim of the present study is to reduce overall FDS measurement time. The insulation under test is subjected to some fraction of one full cycle of excitation, and the corresponding dielectric response current is measured for each fraction. Using least square curve-fitting technique, response current over two cycles is predicted from which dielectric dissipation factor (tanδ) is calculated. For this contribution, sinusoidal and non-sinusoidal excitations in form of triangular waveform with five different initial slopes are used as excitation voltage. The technique is experimentally validated on three samples with different preset moisture contents prepared in the laboratory. The dielectric dissipation factor obtained by using the proposed technique is compared with the conventional method using two cycles, which show negligible differences. Most important of all is the overall test time, which can be brought down significantly when compared with conventional FDS measurement.

Influence of thermal aging on the breakdown characteristics of transformer oil impregnated paper

For a long time, thermal effect, as a major factor for insulation aging, is a great challenge to the safe operation of power transformers. During the decades-long operation, cellulose fibers contained in the oil-paper insulation, break and deform, accompanied by the generation of new chemical products and variation of mechanical/electrical properties. Therefore, in this work, the influence of thermal aging on the electrical performance of the transformer oil paper insulation was investigated. 50% breakdown voltage and average AC breakdown voltage of oil impregnated paper were experimentally determined, and the water content measurement, surface morphology observation and frequency domain spectroscopy measurement were carried out on the oil impregnated paper samples with different aging degrees. The test results indicate that the electrical performances of aged oil impregnated paper improved during the aging process, which could be attributed to the forming of micro globules caused by the effect of thermal aging.

Effect of moisture and thermal degradation on the activation energy of oil–paper insulation in frequency domain spectroscopy measurement

Frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS) is widely used to diagnose the condition of transformer oil–paper insulation. However, FDS measurements are highly temperature dependent. The master curve technique is the most common method to remove the temperature effect on FDS, but the reliability of this method is largely dependent on the value of the activation energy, which can be affected by moisture content and thermal degradation degree. To understand the effects of these two factors on the activation energy, FDS measurements at different temperatures were performed on oil-impregnated pressboards with different thermal degradation degrees and moisture contents. The activation energies of the pressboards were calculated using the Arrhenius equation. Results show that they vary between 0.88 and 1.06 eV along with thermal degradation degree and moisture. The two-way ANOVA indicates that the effects of these two factors on activation energy are not significant at 95% confidence level when the degree of polymerisation (DP) changes from 415 to 1300 and when the moisture does not exceed 4%. The average activation energy (0.95 eV) can be utilised to generalise the Arrhenius equation to better eliminate the temperature effects. Finally, FDS measurements on a model transformer are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique.

Condition diagnosis of transformer oil-paper insulation using dielectric response fingerprint characteristics

The life expectancy of a transformer is closely related to the condition of its oil-paper insulation. In the present study, oil impregnated pressboard samples with different aging states and water contents were prepared under controlled laboratory conditions to analyze the oil-paper insulation condition of the power transformer by the dielectric response method. Dielectric response measurements, i.e., polarization and depolarization currents (PDC) and frequency domain spectroscopy (FDS), were conducted on the pressboard samples at different temperatures. Results show that the dielectric responses of oil impregnated pressboards are highly sensitive to aging, water, and temperature, but the influence of the temperature on FDS can be effectively eliminated by using the master curve technique. Meanwhile, dielectric characteristic parameters, which are sensitive to aging state and water content, were extracted to form a fingerprint database to indicate the various states of the oil impregnated pressboard. A grey correlation diagnosis model was first introduced to assess the aging state and water content of oil-paper insulation. Finally, FDS measurements were performed on a field transformer to verify the effectiveness of the new evaluation technique proposed in this paper for the condition assessment of the transformer oil-paper insulation.