Stator winding monitoring

Partial discharge tests can determine which motor and generator stator windings are experiencing insulation problems. A deteriorated winding has a PD activity which can be 30 times or more higher than a winding in good condition. This great difference in PD activity enables even nonspecialized maintenance personnel to identify the few motors or generators in a company which need further investigation and/or maintenance. There are several advantages to on-line partial discharge tests. Machines in good condition require less attention. The overall effect is lower maintenance costs. After implementing on-line partial discharge tests, as well as other monitoring such as flux probing or current harmonic analysis and improved temperature sensing, companies can often confidently extend the outage between major machine inspections. This saves on outage costs and reduces the risk of a stator fault due to human error during maintenance. Finally, on older machines, if there has been no increase in partial discharge activity over time, then the life of the stator winding can be confidently extended, saving a considerable capital expenditure     

Assessing Test Data

Online partial discharge (PD) testing has been used for more than half a century to provide useful information for diagnosing and monitoring the integrity of stator winding insulation of large generators and motors. Interest in online PD detection and monitoring has as the technology, which was originally used on machines rated higher than 10,000 V, has expanded its application to the smaller, lower-voltage (e.g., 4,160 or 6,900 V) machines. However, questions remain on how to assess stator insulation problems using PD test data. This article documents the most recent developments in research and applicable guides and standards related to online PD monitoring on rotating machines.     

Investigations into the effect of humidity on stator winding partial discharges

Online partial discharge (PD) testing has become a powerful tool to plan the maintenance of stator windings of high voltage motors and generators. Interpretation of PD data is best done by monitoring the trend in PD over time. Unfortunately the trend in PD is sometimes difficult to ascertain, especially if the humidity within the stator is variable over time. This paper shows several examples of how PD is affected by humidity in operating machines. Laboratory experiments were also performed to duplicate this phenomenon. In most practical situations, it appears that the PD activity decreases as the humidity increases.     

变频牵引电机定子绕组绝缘老化特性研究

对比测量了不同运行年限的变频牵引电机的定子绕组绝缘诊断参数,包括绝缘电阻、介质损耗因数、局部放电起始电压(PDIV)、剩余击穿电压等特征参数,以及沿绕组不同部位的绝缘材料取样进行了热失重分析(TGA)来研究绝缘老化特征。介电性能测量结果表明,与新电机相比,运行后定子绕组的绝缘介电性能有不同程度的下降,出槽口附近绝缘的老化程度高于槽内。TGA分析结果表明,使用了长达10年的牵引电机定子绕组绝缘性能略有下降,且线圈下层边的绝缘老化比上层边明显。     

Analogs and characteristics of compensated asynchronous machines with different numbers of phases

The disadvantages of three-phase asynchronous motors with short-circuited rotors, which are widely used in practice, are discussed. It is determined that the most significant disadvantage is consumption of two types of electric energy from a network: active energy for conversion into mechanical energy accompanied by inevitable heat losses and reactive energy that is not converted into other types of energy, but is expended on generation of the magnetic field required for electromechanical conversion of energy in an electrical machine. It is suggested to use internal capacitive compensation of reactive power to improve the technical and economic indices of asynchronous machines of both motors and generators. In addition, each phase winding of the asynchronous machine stator is divided into two parts equal in number of turns spatially shifted between each other in the core slots by an angle of 30°. These parts are connected according to the scheme of the rotary autotransformer to the electrical capacity at its output. The change of the spatial position of the stator windings leads to a change in time of the action of the phase angles of their electromotive force and, therefore, of currents and voltages without changing the introduced reactive impedances. Thus, the spatial coordinate of the electrical value is converted into the time coordinate in the electromagnetic circuit with a rotating magnetic field. The combination of this property of the stator windings in accordance with the rotary autotransformer with the action of the electrical capacity at its output creates the effect of internal capacitive compensation of reactive power in an asynchronous machine. The ability to use internal capacitive compensation of reactive power in single-phase asynchronous machines is considered. A method of calculation of the characteristics of compensated asynchronous machines taking into account the change of the magnetizing contour resistance is presented. The advantages of compensated asynchronous motors and compensated asynchronous generators are determined. Recommendations as to their effective practical use are given.     

Partial discharge, dissipation factor, and corona aspects for high voltage electric generator stator bars and windings

High voltage stator windings in modern electric generators are subject to high electrical, mechanical, and thermal stress. Operation of these machines in both air and high pressure hydrogen results in different considerations. Operation in the air environment does not offer the dielectric advantages of operating in high-pressure hydrogen. The two major design factors that are significant for the design of high voltage stator bars to be operated in air, are corona activity and PD activity. These of course are closely related. With the movement to increasing the power density of generators, which means operation at higher voltages and higher insulation stress levels, it has become more critical to be sure the design constraints are met in the stator bar design to minimize both partial discharge activity and corona activity involving the stator bars. The stator bar insulation system must be designed for minimum partial discharge activity and ideally is corona free at the stator winding operating stress levels, and at the operating conditions (temperature and pressure) the generator is subject to. This paper will present the findings associated with the development work in designing, testing and implementing a PD reduced and corona free design.     

On‐line partial discharge detection of turbine generator using gigahertz‐band spatial phase difference method

Partial discharge (PD) within voids in solid insulating systems is a symptom and/or a direct cause of a deterioration of stator windings of a turbine generator. The bandwidth of the electromagnetic waves emitted from PD is very broad and ranges to the gigahertz. We developed a new system based on the spatial phase difference method for detecting microwaves (GHz) emitted from PD. In this paper we applied this system to two off‐line turbine generators in the overhaul and an on‐line turbine generator which has two built‐in antennas. On‐line PD detection of the turbine generator is very useful for recognizing abnormal and/or deteriorated stator winding insulation without a machine outage. It was found that the detection system was able to detect microwaves emitted from PD in an operating turbine generator. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 131(4): 38‐43, 2000     

人工神经网络用于发电机定子绝缘局部放电模式识别

讨论了反向传播算法的人工神经网络在局部放电模型类型识别中的应用,设计了反映大型发电机定子绝缘局部放电的5类不同物理仿真绝缘模型。仿真模型包括的局部放电类型有端部放电、槽间放电、在绝缘不同位置的三种内部放电。研究了人工神经网络的识别能力。针对大型发电机定子绝缘局部放电的类型,得到了较好的识别率。     

Identification of stator insulation deterioration using on-linepartial discharge testing

This article analyzes why one cannot rely on an absolute partial discharge (PD) magnitude to assess the insulation condition of rotating machines. How to identify stator insulation deterioration effectively and reliably is discussed and demonstrated by case studies. The paper concludes that trending of PD activity is the reliable way to identify severe insulation deterioration in rotating machines     

Diagnosis of Short‐Circuit Faults in Stator Winding Inside Low‐Voltage Induction Motor Using Impulse Voltage Test

Short‐circuit faults in windings due to the deterioration of insulation is among the most common faults in motor drive systems. An easy and effective fault diagnosis method is urgently required to ensure highly reliable operation. This paper proposes a novel method for the diagnosis of short‐circuit faults in stator winding inside a low‐voltage induction motor without removing the rotor, by performing an impulse voltage test. As the rotor does not need to be removed from the motor in this novel diagnosis method, the method can be put to practical use. In this study, first, several impulse voltage tests are carried out on the stator windings of motors. Second, the values of two features that represent the characteristics corresponding to the condition of the motor are calculated, and it is found that the shape of the feature distribution does not depend on the rotor position but on the condition of the winding. Third, the distance between the feature distribution for the healthy motor and features obtained from a target motor is calculated. On the basis of this distance, the condition of the stator winding inside the induction motor is determined. The effectiveness of the proposed diagnosis method is verified by performing experiments that involve several motors with healthy and faulty windings.     

Permanent magnet synchronous machines with concentrated coil armature windings: analysis and test validation of Single Stator–Double Rotor,axial flux machines

Some design and operation aspects of axial flux permanent magnet synchronous machines, employing armature windings with concentrated coils wound around the stator teeth, are presented. The e.m.f. control is based on the variation of the windings flux linkage, obtained by modifying the stator (or rotor) configuration. Thanks to the high number of poles and the excellent waveform quality, even with deep field weakening, these machines exhibit a satisfactory operation at low speed, both as generators and motors. In the paper, the main constructive machine features are discussed, together with some design and FEM results. A test on a prototype has also been carried out.     

A Failure Mode for PWM Inverter-Fed AC Motors Due to the Antiresonance Phenomenon

A failure mode for pulsewidth-modulation inverter-fed ac motors due to the antiresonance phenomenon is introduced and investigated in this paper. At high frequencies, an ac motor behaves as a series RLC circuit with a resonance point, so-called antiresonance, typically above 1.0 MHz. If the voltage oscillation frequency caused by the reflected-wave phenomenon matches the motor antiresonance frequency, an amplified voltage will appear internally between the turns of the stator windings. This externally unobservable state can cause winding insulation failure in the ac motor. This phenomenon is experimentally verified using a rewound permanent-magnet motor with accessible taps along the stator windings, and the results are presented in this paper.     

Use of spatial phase difference method to detect microwaves associated with stator coil partial discharge in a generator

This paper presents a new system for detecting electromagnetic waves emitted from partial discharges (PD) due to material defects in high-voltage electric machinery and apparatus. PD is a symptom and/or a direct cause of the deterioration of insulation systems used in high-voltage stator coils. This system can detect PD by using the spatial phase information of the microwaves emitted from PD, which are voltage pulses of very short duration. We describe the properties of this system which is composed of two double-ridge-guide-horn antennas, two preamplifiers, a gigahertz interference receiver (GHz-2ch-down-converter) of original design, two A/D (analog to digital) converters, and a personal computer. We experimentally show that this system can be used for detection of the microwaves emitted by PD occurring in the stator coil. The result of this work is the development of a new noncontact PD detection system for generators, which can be operated by station personnel. © 1997 Scripta Technica, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 121(2): 16–26, 1997     

基于脉冲注入法的无刷直流电动机转子位置检测研究

提出了一种采用脉冲注入来检测无刷直流电机在静止状态时转子位置的方法。基于此方法依次向定子绕组注入一系列的脉冲,通过脉冲电流的变化对转子位置进行估算。实验结果表明：该方法不但具有较高的位置检测准确性,同时对电机的参数依赖性小,可以省去电机内部的检测元件,又可以应用到其它电机。     

Effect of manufacturer, winding age and insulation type on stator winding partial discharge levels

With thousands of machines monitored for as long as 25 years with the same method, on-line partial discharge (PD) testing has become a recognized, proven tool to help maintenance engineers identify which stator windings need off-line testing, inspections and/or repairs. With over 63,000 test results acquired with the same test method, what constitutes a winding with low, moderate or high PD has been identified. This paper presents tables that enable test users to easily identify with some certainty which stators are likely to suffer from groundwall insulation deterioration, with only a single measurement on a machine. The practical importance of these tables is that if one applies PD sensors to a machine and, in the first measurement, one obtains a Qm that exceeds the 90 percentile of the relevant Qm distribution, then one should be concerned enough at the PD level to take action, such as more frequent testing and/or off-line tests and inspections at the next convenient machine shutdown. Within the statistical accuracy possible with several thousands of independent results, it seems that critical PD levels only depend on operating voltage, hydrogen pressure, manufacturer, and the specific type of PD sensor and instrumentation used.     

基于超声法的大电机局部放电监测系统及其仿真验证

探索了一种新的监测大电机绕组绝缘质量的局部放电方法.介绍了一种基于超声法和虚拟仪器的局部放电实时在线监测系统,分析了系统组成原理和各部分功能.通过实验分析了局部放电超声波信号在大电机定子内的传播特性,以及该超声信号在发电机正常运行时弱噪声和强机械背景噪声下的传播区别.实验证明,利用超声波对大电机绕组绝缘局部放电进行监测是可行的,为实现局部放电故障点定位提供了前期准备工作.     

Initial rotor position estimation method for PM motors

This paper presents a method to detect the rotor position of permanent-magnet motors at standstill, which is suitable to avoid temporary reverse rotation at startup or starting failure. The approach is based on the investigation of the stator inductance variation as a function of the rotor magnets position and the stator current space vector. It involves the application of a proper sequence of voltage pulses to the stator windings, and the measurement of the peak values of the resulting current in order to achieve the rotor position estimation. Actually, the current measurements show significant uncertainties which affect the rotor position detection. In order to avoid these problems, the authors propose a novel procedure which combines an iterative sequence of voltage pulses with a fuzzy logic processing of the current responses and phase currents derivation based on the DC-link current measurements. The proposed method has been implemented on a /spl mu/C digital signal processor (TMS320F240). The obtained results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed solution. It can be applied in sensorless drives, in drives equipped with nonabsolute position transducers, with a wide range of motors, and it does not require the knowledge of any of the motor parameters.     

Recent important changes in IEEE motor and generator winding insulation diagnostic testing standards

IEEE standards and test procedures are widely used by motor and generator vendors and users to commission windings in new machines, as well as evaluate the condition of the winding insulation in operating machines. Until recent revisions, the basic procedures and standards in use were written over 25 years ago. Since the 1970s, motor windings have encountered many changes in their design and manufacture. The result was that the interpretation of results in many of the standards was no longer valid for the more modern motors. Over the past five years, the IEEE Power Engineering Society has conducted a major review and updating of most of these standards. Many important changes in test procedures and interpretation guidelines have resulted. This paper reviews the main insulation standards used for stator and rotor winding diagnostic testing, and discusses the changes that have been made. Standards discussed include: IEEE 43, 56, 95, 286, 522, and 1434. For example, IEEE 43-2000 now requires a minimum insulation resistance of 100 M/spl Omega/ for new stator windings rated 2300 V or more, rather than the "kV+1" that was required in the past. Furthermore, the interpretation for polarization index has changed such that a motor with a polarization index of 1 is no longer automatically classed as bad.     

电机定子结构及其绝缘介电常数的频率特性对定子绕组电容值的影响

确定电机定子线棒的高频参数对于研究局部放电信号在电机绕组中的传播特性及研究PWM逆变器驱动的交流电机的定子绕组电压分布有重要意义。文中对大型汽轮发电机定子线棒的电容做了比较详细的研究，内容包括：对电机定子线棒复合绝缘等值介电常数的频率特性的测试研究、采用数值计算方法计算出用铝箔纸裹住的电机定子线棒的多导体传输线模型的单位长度电容、线棒股线间薄绝缘对电容的影响、对铁心硅钢片叠片间隙对电容的影响等。其数值计算结果与之前测量得到的电容值比较吻合，这也证明了通过测量开路阻抗、短路阻抗来得到电机定子线棒分布参数的试验方法是有效的。     

大电机定子槽楔松动的危害及检测方法

大型发电机在长期的运行过程中。由于定子线圈的电流与定子槽内横向磁场的作用使得槽部线棒承受相当大的电磁力。定子槽楔长期在机械应力作用下会发生松动现象。定子槽楔发生松动会导致定子线棒在电磁力的作用下产生电磁振动，从而加剧定子线棒绝缘的机械磨损及槽内放电引起的绝缘腐蚀，这直接威胁着大型发电机的安全运行。文章综述了大电机定子槽楔的作用和大电机中松动槽楔的存在可能导致的危害，介绍了国内外多种检测槽楔松动的技术和方法。并分析了它们的优缺点，最后重点介绍了本实验室在槽楔松动检测方面的最新成果。