Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Abstract: This paper compares the swept frequency 3. Swept Frequency Method (SFM)
(SFM) and low voltage impulse methods (LVI) for
making frequency response analysis measurements. As was mentioned earlier, the swept frequency
The principles of these measurements are explained. method (SFM) for making FRA measurements injects
Practical examples of the application to a 30MVA the wide range of frequencies required by making a
transformer with simulated mechanical and electrical frequency sweep using a sinusoidal signal. The
faults are presented. For mechanical faults neither sinusoidal signal is generated using a network
method is very successful, but this probably because analyser, which is also used to make the voltage
the simulated fault was not severe enough. For measurements and manipulate the results. The most
electrical faults the swept frequency method gives commonly used measurement circuit is shown in
better results because it has a finer resolution at low Figure 1.
frequencies. In a final comparison of the two methods In Figure 1 S is the injected signal and R and T are
the swept frequency method is found to be superior in the reference and test measurements, ZS is the source
most respects, but the low voltage impulse method is impedance of the network analyser and ZT is the
found to have some important advantages. impedance of the winding under test. The source
impedance of the network analyser is always 50.
1. Introduction Note that using the swept frequency method only
one set of measurements can be made at once. The
Frequency Response Analysis, generally known time taken by the analyser to sweep the required
within the industry as FRA, is a powerful diagnostic frequency range depends on how much filtering or
test technique. It consists of measuring the impedance averaging is used, but typically varies from a little
of the transformer windings over a wide range of under one minute to perhaps ten minutes.
frequencies and comparing the results of these In the case of the measurements presented in this
measurements with a reference set. Differences may paper, the resolution of the measurements varied
indicate damage to the transformer, which can be across the frequency domain, but in the useful part of
investigated further using other techniques or by an the spectrum (above 250Hz) it was 2% or better.
internal examination. The measurement results are conventionally
There are two ways of injecting the wide range of presented in modulus-argument form. The modulus is
frequencies necessary: one can either inject an impulse usually called the amplitude or gain and the argument
into the winding or make a frequency sweep using a the phase.
sinusoidal signal. The former is known as the low Using the same notation as Figure 1, the amplitude
voltage impulse method and the latter as the swept is defined by:
frequency method. Both methods are currently used k = 20 log10 (T R ) (1)
within the industry. Again using the same notation as Figure 1, the phase
This paper presents a comparison between the two is defined by:
= (T R )
methods for making FRA measurements.
(2)
1
The measurements presented in this paper were 3.5
|TF1| (1000/)
de facto industry standard for the swept frequency 2 6mm Disp.
10mm Disp.
method. 1.5
14mm Disp.
46mm Disp.
Baseline
function is calculated. 0.25
6mm Disp.
During the experiments on the 30MVA
|TF2|
10mm Disp.
0.2
14mm Disp.
transformer, the impulse generated by a 500 V 0.15 46mm Disp.
2.1 MHz, sampled at 10 MS/s with a resolution of 10 Figure 3: |TF2| with simulated mechanical fault (LVI). (Note
Bit and a storage of 15000 samples. The frequency linear frequency scale from 0Hz to 1.5MHz)
spectrum was calculated using an FFT with 4096
samples. The resulting resolution in the frequency The results of the FRA measurements made using
domain was 2.44kHz. the low voltage impulse method are shown in Figures
The results were used to deduce two different 2 and 3.
transfer functions, one between the HV current and the Some changes to TF2 seem to be apparent around
applied voltage and the other between the transferred 1MHz. It is believed that these changes are caused by
voltage and the applied voltage. Mathematically, natural variation rather than by the simulated
these are defined as follows: mechanical fault. Some changes remained even when
I (f) the winding was returned to its original position.
TF1 ( f )= N (3) The results of the FRA measurements made using
U A( f )
the swept frequency method are shown in Figure 4.
UT ( f )
TF2 ( f )= (4)
U A( f )
-10
where UA is the applied voltage, IN is the neutral 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
-30
Amplitude (dB)
Amplitude (dB)
windings, and partly by the fact that only winding
Baseline
displacement, and not winding damage was simulated. -70
Tap s/c
2
Baseline
(5)
Tap s/c
1.5 Similarly for the LVI method it is given by:
1 Z T = 1 TF1 (6)
0.5
The results of FRA measurements no fault
simulated using the two methods are shown in Figures
0
0 250000 500000 750000 1000000 1250000 1500000 8 and 9.
Frequency (Hz)
400000
0.4
350000
Impedance ()
0.35
300000
SFM
0.3 250000
LVI
0.25 200000
150000
|TF2|
Baseline
0.2
Tap s/c 100000
0.15
50000
0.1 0
10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000
0.05
Frequency (Hz)
0
0 250000 500000 750000 1000000 1250000 1500000
Figure 8: Impedance as measured using SFM and LVI.
Frequency (Hz) (Note logarithmic frequency scale from 10Hz to 1MHz).
Figure 6: |TF2| with simulated electrical fault (LVI). (Note
linear frequency scale from 0Hz to 1.5MHz).
300000
SFM typically about a minute.
250000
200000
LVI
The swept frequency method (SFM) has the following
150000
main disadvantages:
100000 - Only one measurement can be made at a time.
50000 Simultaneous determination of more than one
0 transfer function is not possible.
0 25000 50000 75000 100000 125000 150000
Frequency (Hz)
- The time taken to make each measurement is
typically several minutes.
Figure 10: Impedance as measured using SFM and LVI.
(Note linear frequency scale from 0Hz to 150kHz). The swept frequency method (SFM) has the following
main advantages:
There are some differences in the results. These + High signal to noise ratio. This comes from using
are caused both by the limitations of the test methods the filtering function of the network analyser to
and the calculations used to process the results. The remove broadband noise.
different resolutions of the frequency domain do not + A very wide range of frequencies can be scanned.
allow comparisons for frequencies lower than 10 kHz. + It is possible to use a finer frequency resolution at
For frequencies higher than 10 kHz results from the low frequencies. Alternatively, the frequency
LVI method are not similar but comparable with the resolution can be adapted to the frequency band
results of the swept frequency method. This is being measured.
encouraging for both methods.
+ Only one piece of measuring equipment is
required.
7. Conclusions Both methods are sensitive to the test set-up,
The low voltage impulse method (LVI) has the particularly the quality of the earthing. The
following main disadvantages: impedance curves determined by both methods are
- The frequency resolution is fixed, and at low similar but reveal differences due to measurement set-
frequencies is poor. This makes it difficult to up and calculation algorithms.
detect electrical faults. 8. Acknowledgement
- It is difficult to filter out broadband noise.
- The amount of power injected into the test object The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions
is different at different frequencies. This leads to of Jochen Christian (University of Stuttgart) and
differences in precision across the frequency Marina Pristchepa (Electricit de France).
range.
- Several pieces of measuring equipment are 9. References
required (function generator, digital oscilloscope, [1] Feser K., J. Christian, C. Neumann, U. Sundermann, T.
Rogowski coil). Leibfried, A. Kachler and M. Loppacher, The Transfer
Function Method for Detection of Winding Displacements on
Power Transformers after Transport, Short Circuit or 30 Years
of Service. CIGRE paper 12/33-04, 2000.