Transformer inter-turn failure detection based on leakage flux and vibration analysis

Abstract

Inter-turn winding fault is one of the most critical failures of the transformers. Here, a comprehensive transformer leakage flux analysis under inter-turn winding fault is presented, and the feasibility and sensitivity of leakage flux-based fault detection methods are investigated. The leakage flux fault detection strategies are classified into vibration-based methods and search coil-based methods. Flux leakage-based methods have been studied and compared. Moreover, the effects of various important factors, such as fault severity, fault location, load power factor, and loading rate in transformer under inter-turn faults are studied. Furthermore, two new online methods based on leakage flux and vibration analysis are proposed. In the first method, search coils voltage analysis is used for fault detection. In the second one, the vibration of the transformer is measured using the Digital Accelerometer (ADXL) sensor and compared with the vibration of the normal conditions, and based on the amount of vibration, fault detection is performed. The simulation and experimentation results on 20/0.4 kV, 50 kVA distribution transformer demonstrated that the implementation of leakage flux-based methods provides valuable information on the transformer behaviour, which can be used to detect transformer winding faults.