2013 International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems, Oct.

26-29, 2013, Busan, Korea

Rotor Winding Inter-turn Fault Analysis of

Doubly-fed Induction Generator Based on
Negative Sequence Component
Li Junqing, He Long, Wang Dong
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract Inter-turn short circuit fault is the main fault type

of doubly-fed induction generator (DFIG), so online monitor and
fault diagnose are particularly necessary for DFIG. However, due
to the presence of the generator external imbalances, winding
inter-turn fault diagnosis is difficult. Based on the finite element
model, we analyzed the negative sequence current and harmonic
components generated by the rotor winding inter-turn fault of
DFIG. We get the features of rotor inter-turn fault in DFIG, and
the fault characteristics in the case of grid imbalance.
Index TermsDoubly fed induction generators (DFIG), interturn fault of rotor winding, finite element
method (FEM), negative sequence component
I.

development trends of these quantities with the fault, the fault

can be diagnosed effectively. Current and voltage are easy to
collect and contain rich feature information, so current and
voltage signals are often as carriers in the online monitor and
fault diagnose for the DFIG. It can be gotten from the method
of symmetrical components that the asymmetric circuit system
can generate negative sequence components in the winding
current. Both generator winding fault and grid imbalance can
lead to unbalanced three-phase circuit. In this paper, we
analyze the negative sequence currents and their harmonic
components in these two cases.
II. WORKING PRINCIPLE AND HARMONIC ANALYSIS OF DFIG

INTRODUCTION

DFIG is electromechanical integration equipment which

integrates high power frequency conversion device, rotating
generators and modern control systems. DFIG has many
advantages, such as, it has a wide range of variable-speed
operation, the capacity of the inverter device requires only
one-third of the whole volume, it is cost-effective, etc.
Currently, the wind turbine generators which inputted
commercial operation mainly included doubly fed induction
generator, squirrel cage induction generator and permanent
magnet synchronous generator. And, DFIG obtained the
majority market share by virtue of its dominants [1]. DFIG has
become the main generator of wind turbines [2-3]. Because of
the work environment and structural reasons, DFIG is also the
model which often fails. The fault of DFIG mainly includes
three aspects, such as abnormal vibration caused by turbine
rotating system [4-5], fault of converter [6-7], and generator
winding faults. And generator winding fault is the multiple
faults.
All faults of generator are produced and developed with
certain failure mechanisms. As long as we analyze the fault
mechanism carefully and sum the law of the fault, we can
accurately and timely realize generator winding fault diagnosis.
The generators electrical and non-electrical quantities, for
example, voltage, current, impedance, inductance, temperature,
vibration, noise, etc, will show its standard value early
designed when generator is on normal operation state. If
generator winding fault, it is bound to change these electrical
or non-electrical quantities. Therefore, once we know the
This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province in
China (E2010001705)

A. Working principle of DFIG

DFIG is asynchronous generators which excited by AC. In
order to equalize the angular frequency of rotating magnetic
field which generated by the stator and the grid angular
frequency 1 , the angular frequency of rotor current is
2 = 1 when the rotating angular frequency of rotor
varied with the different wind speed. The slip of induction
generator should be

s= 1
(1)

So, the rotor current frequency is f 2 = sf1 . f1 is stator

current frequency.
The relative speed to rotor of circular rotating field, which
generated by the rotor AC excitation, n2 is
f
n2 = 60 2
(2)
p
Where, p is the number of pole pairs.
As stator is stationary, the relative speed to stator of the
magnetic field generated by the rotor n1 is
n1 = n n2
(3)
Where, n is the speed of rotor, the sign + is taken when the
direction of rotor and the magnetic field direction generated by
the rotor is the same; the sign - is taken when the direction
of rotor and the magnetic field direction generated by the rotor
is the opposite.
At this time, the rotating magnetic field generated by the
rotor cut the stator by the speed of n1 . The frequency of

978-1-4799-1447-0/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

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induced electromotive force on the stator is

n
(n n2 )
f1 =p 1 = p
60
60

(4)

B. Harmonic analysis of DFIG on imbalanced grid voltage

When the grid voltage is imbalance, the stator windings can
induce in oval rotating magnetic field. It can be obtained from
the symmetrical component method that the rotating magnetic
field generated by the stator current can be decomposed into
two circular rotating magnetic fields with the same speed
n1 and the opposite direction. Setting the counterclockwise
direction as the positive one, rotor rotating speed is n with
positive direction, the relative speed to rotor of clockwise
rotating magnetic field is ( n1 + n ). This reverse rotating
magnetic field can induce the harmonic e.m.f in the rotor
winding whose frequency is
( n + n)
f' = p 1
(5)
60
Based on the conclusion of (1), (2), (3) and (5), (6) can be
obtained.
f ' = (2 s ) f1
(6)
Where, the sign - is taken when the direction of rotor and
the magnetic field direction generated by the rotor is the same;
the sign + is taken when the direction of rotor and the
magnetic field direction generated by the rotor is the opposite.
It can be drawn from the above analysis that the harmonic
component which frequency is f ' = (2 s ) f1 will be obtained
from the rotor current when the grid voltage is imbalanced.

This model is based on the ANSOFT analysis software and

winding failure is set by the method of field-circuit coupled.
The short-circuit fault is set in NO.1 coil of rotor A-phase
winding. The external circuit is shown in Fig.2.

Fig.2 The external circuit of rotor

IV. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS

A. Simulation of DFIG on balanced grid voltage
Set the generator speed to 1200r/min. First, we analyze the
line current of the rotor under the normal winding condition,
the result is shown in Fig.3. Then, the rotor line current and its
negative sequence component are respectively analyzed under
different fault degrees, which specifically is set short-circuit 1
turn, 5 turns and 10 turns, shown in Fig.4 to Fig.6. From the
figures we can get the following information. The three-phase
line current of the rotor is symmetrical on normal operation.
When inter-turn short fault occurs, the magnitude and phase of
three-phase line current are no longer symmetrical. And with
the deepening of the fault, asymmetry is further deepened.

stator slots is Z1 = 36 the number of rotor slots is Z 2 = 24

the number of pole pairs is p=2 and rotor speed is 1560r/min.
Stator winding is connected in a triangle, there are two
branches in parallel in per phase and six coils in every branch.
Rotor winding structure applies star connection, and there is
one branch in a phase and eight coils in every branch. The
simulation model of the machine is established by ANSOFT
MAXWELL, shown as Fig.1.

I(A)

III. MODEL OF THE GENERATORS

In this paper, take YR132M-4 winding induction generator
for model, the parameters are as below: rated power is
PN = 5.5kW , rated frequency is f N = 50 Hz , the number of

Fig.3 The rotor current under normal rotor

Fig.4 The rotor current under one turn short-circuit

Fig.1 Finite element model of the generator

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IA
IB
IC

I(A)

20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

small. With the deepening of the fault, the amplitudes of the

three-phase fundamental current are significantly imbalance.
There has been significant third harmonic on fault operation
which increases with the deepening of the fault. Moreover,
there will be the fifth harmonic when the fault is serious(10turns short).

0.5

Time(s)

I(A)

Fig.5 The rotor current under five turns short-circuit

Fig.7 Rotor current spectrum when rotor is normal

Fig.6 The rotor current under ten turns short-circuit

The rotor effective value currents in different failure degrees

are shown in TABLE I. AS TABLE I showing, the threephase effective value line currents of the rotor are symmetrical
on normal operation. When A-phase of the rotor occur interturn short current fault, A-phase and B-phase currents increase
significantly, C-phase current is essentially constant.

Fig.8 Rotor current spectrum when rotor is one turn fault

TABLE I
The current effective value under different degrees of the rotor fault
Ia(A)
Ib(A)
Ic(A)
Shorted turns
0

10.5501

10.4012

10.7323

10.7140

10.8357

10.6377

11.2971

11.8757

10.6992

10

13.0223

13.7529

10.9986

The rotor current phase difference in different failure

degrees are shown in TABLE . AS TABLE showing,
when inter-turn short fault occurs, the phase difference of ABphase and CA-phase angle increased. Conversely, the phase
difference of BC-phase reduced.
With the deepening of the fault, the angle of the fault phase
is further increased, the phase difference between non-fault
phases significantly reduced.

Fig.9 Rotor current spectrum when rotor is five turns fault

TABLE
The current phase difference under various degrees of the rotor fault
Shorted turns
BC-phase ()
CA-phase ()
AB-phase ()
0

120.07

120.29

119.64

120.16

119.36

120.48

Fig.10 Rotor current spectrum when rotor is ten turns fault

120.87

116.65

122.48

10

121.82

113.84

124.34

TABLE is the negative and positive sequence currents

under different degree of fault. These negative and positive
sequence currents are derived from the fundamental
component of the rotor current. As the table shown, the
negative sequence current is very small on normal operation.
As inter-turn short fault occurs, the negative sequence current
increased significantly. The ratio of negative sequence current
and positive sequence current (I2/ I1) increased with the
deepening of the fault. In the TABLE , I1 and I2 represent

The harmonic analysis of the three-phase line currents under

different degrees of the rotor faults are shown as Fig.7 to
Fig.10. As shown in the figures, when the generator is normal,
the amplitudes of the three-phase fundamental current are
substantially the same and harmonic components are very

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Fig.12 The rotor current spectrum on unbalanced grid voltage

positive sequence current and negative sequence current

respectively.
TABLE
The negative and positive sequence current under different degree of fault
I2 (A)
I1 (A)
I2/ I1
Shorted turns
0

0.0600

7.3328

0.8200%

0.1779

7.3392

2.4200%

0.5200

7.3898

7.0400%

10

1.1058

7.6904

10.9986%

B. Simulation of DFIG on unbalanced grid voltage

As we all know, the grid voltage fluctuation is allowed. And,
it also can produce negative sequence component and negative
current in the rotor. So, it is necessary to find the different
features of external imbalances and the rotor inter-turn fault to
make the diagnosis more reliable.
Set A, B, C three-phase voltage amplitude is 311, 295, 311
volts to simulate the unbalanced grid voltage. Fig.11 to Fig.13
is the harmonic analysis of rotor A-phase line current in
different cases.
Fig.11 is the rotor current spectrum on balanced grid voltage
when rotor is normal. Fig.12 is the rotor current spectrum on
unbalanced grid voltage when rotor is normal. Fig.13 is the
rotor current spectrum on unbalanced grid voltage when the
rotor winding includes 10-interturn fault. Comparing Fig.11
and Fig.12, it can be seen that there is apparent (2 s ) f1
harmonics when grid voltage is imbalance. Comparing Fig.12
and Fig.13, it can be seen that rotor current contains not only
the (2 s ) f1 harmonics but also the third harmonic and fifth
harmonic on unbalanced grid voltage when the rotor winding
is interturn fault. So, the (2 s ) f1 harmonic is the features of
unbalanced grid voltage. And the third harmonic and fifth
harmonic appear when the rotor winding is interturn fault.

Fig.13 The rotor current spectrum on unbalanced grid voltage and 10-turn
fault of rotor

V.

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, we analyzed the negative sequence current

and harmonic components generated by the rotor winding
inter-turn fault of the DFIG. We get the fault features of the
DFIG rotor inter-turn fault, and the fault characteristics in the
case of grid imbalance. The following conclusions are gotten.
(1) The inter-turn fault of rotor winding in DFIG can
generate negative sequence component in the rotor line current.
And the proportion of negative sequence current has rising
trend with the deepening of the fault degree.
(2) The effective value and the phase difference of line
current can be impacted by the fault. The effective value of the
three-phase rotor currents are significantly imbalance and the
phase angle between the non-fault phases significantly reduce
when the fault occur in rotor winding. Both of them also
increase with the deeper level of fault.
(3) The third and fifth harmonics occur when rotor failure.
Negative sequence third harmonic is obviously when grid is
imbalance.
(4) There is apparent (2 s ) f1 harmonics in the rotor line
current when grid voltage is imbalance.
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