Generator Insulation

Tharuki De Silva
2014/E/051

Faculty of Engineering, University of Jaffna

Keywords

Aging, Partial Discharge, Stresses, Deterioration,

Synchronous, Windings, Stator, Test

Abstract

An electric generator is a device that produces electromotive

force by changing the number of Magnetic Flux Lines passing
through the windings. The working principle of a generator
changes according to its classification. As generator is an
appliance which is highly exposed to the external
environment, the contamination within the device is very
high due to the internal and external stresses. Thus, different
insulating materials have been tested since history, using the
trial and error method to maintain a reliable life span and
optimum working conditions for the generator windings. In
order to ensure the condition of the insulation of the
generator, several tests have been practiced which focus on
different aspects of the insulation.
 A three-phase synchronous machine consists of
Contents an inner rotating cylinder called the rotor and
an outer stationary housing called the stator as
1. INTRODUCTION……………………………02
shown in Figure 2. A shaft runs through the
2. EVALUSION OF INSULATION ……....04 rotor and it is balanced on bearings.

3. AGING STRESSES………………………….04
3.2 ELECTRICAL STRESSES………………………………..…03
3.1 THERMAL STRESSES……………………………….…….04

3.2 ELECTRICAL STRESSES………………………………..…05

3.3 AMBIENT STRESSES……………………………….…..…06

3.4 MECHANICAL STRESSES…………………………….…06

3.5 MULTIPLE STRESSES…………………………………..…06

4. TESTING ………………………………………07
Figure 2: Layout of a Synchronous Machine
4.1 INSULATION RESISTANCE TEST………..…….….07

4.2 DC RAMP TEST ………………………………………..…07 The internal periphery of a three-phase stator

4.3 EL-CID TEST ………………………………………….…...08 normally has a number of slots, the number
typically being an integer multiple of six. A
4.4 PARTIAL DISCHARGE TEST……………….…………09
three-phase machine will require three identical
coils of wire, each with many turns, and each
coil is distributed in multiple stator slots. An
1. INTRODUCTION example of one phase winding is shown in
Figure 3. These windings are normally called the
A generator is a device that armature. The angular distribution of the turns
converts mechanical energy to electrical is called the coil breadth. The angular distance
energy for use in an external circuit. The between the sides of a given turn is termed the
source of mechanical energy may vary coil pitch. The other two phase coils are
widely from a hand crank to an internal positioned similarly about the stator periphery,
combustion engine. with the centers of those coils spatially
displaced by 120°.

Figure 3: Slotted Synchronous Machine Stator

with Distributed A-Phase Winding

Figure 1:Basic structure of an electric generator

Instead of having to draw all of the slots and The DC current flowing in the field winding will
windings each time, we represent each set up a magnetic field on the rotor. The prime
distributed coil by a concentrated coil located in mover (mechanical engine) will then spin the
the center of the distribution. This is shown in rotor at what we will soon refer to as
Figure 4. The circle with a dot denotes that synchronous speed. The magnetic field
current is referenced out of the page while a sweeping past the stationary stator coils will
circle with a cross indicates that current is induce voltages. This phenomenon is described
referenced into the page. We use a, b, and c to by Faraday’s law. Since the phase coils are
reference the three stator phases represented spatially displaced, the induced voltages will be
in Figure 5.4. time displaced and will constitute a balanced
set (i.e., same frequency, equal amplitude, and
120° displaced in phase).

The voltage produced by each phase coil is

shown in Figure 5. If we imagine that the rotor
magnetic field moves past the “a” stator phase
first, we would expect a strong induced voltage
for the a-phase. As the rotor turns and moves
its magnetic field past the b and c coils, those
coils would also show a surge in voltage
respectively. The sequence of voltages shown in
the figure is termed the abc-phase sequence
since the a-phase takes its peak first, then the
Figure 4: Synchronous Machine Represented by b-phase and finally the c-phase. Note that the
Concentrated Stator Windings voltages all have the same frequency and equal
amplitude but are displaced from each other by
The rotor of a synchronous machine contains a
120°. (As the rotor turns and moves past the a’,
winding called the field winding, which
b’ and c’, the negative voltage peaks occur.)
generates the magnetic field needed to
generate a voltage (Faraday’s Law). The field
winding will be supplied with a DC current by
using slip rings and brushes. Note that the end
connections of the field winding are tied to two
copper rings mounted on the rotor shaft.
Stationary carbon brushes are then made to
ride upon the rings. A stationary DC voltage
source is then applied to the brushes allowing
DC current to flow through the field winding.
Since the brushes are not commutating (i.e.,
reversing the current) coils as in a DC machine, Figure 5: ABC – phase sequence
the wear and maintenance requirements are
not as intensive.
 2. EVOLUSION OF INSULATING In 1950, insulation engineers started to
MATERIALS investigate the proliferation of new
materials made with synthetic plastic films
The selection of electrical insulation and later, polymer-fiber-based nonwovens,
systems for rotating machines has always being offered by suppliers as slot, turn, and
been dependent on the materials available, phase insulations for random-wound
their cost, the technical needs of the motor induction motors.
or generator application, and the relative Epoxides were not commercially available
costs of the several manufacturing until 1947. When General Electric (GE)
processes available at the time. In the early began looking for an improved
years of the industry, there was a near total thermosetting resin system in the late
reliance on naturally occurring materials 1940s, several new polymer chemistries,
and much trial-and-error experimentation including polyesters, were evaluated. To
to find systems that met minimum design achieve the superior stator coil insulation
criteria. system desired, epoxy chemistry was
chosen GE used variations of this chemistry
in making their Mica pal I epoxy-bonded-
The first stator winding insulation systems mica high voltage ground insulation system.
used materials that were then common in GE produced this system into the 1990s.
industry for other uses. These included This is even used in the present.
natural fibers of cellulose, silk, flax, cotton,
wool, and, later, asbestos. . Natural resins
derived from trees, plants, and insects, and 3. AGING STRESSES
petroleum deposits, were used in
combination with the fiber forms to make
There are many different stresses that
insulating materials. These included refined
can affect the rate of insulation
petroleum oils. Waxes, asphalts
deterioration in stator and rotor
(bitumen),andnaturalresinssuchaspitch,shel
windings. They are Thermal, Electrical,
lac,rosin,andlinseed oil. Solids such as sand,
Ambient, and Mechanical stresses, the
mica, asbestos, quartz, and other minerals
so-called TEAM stresses. Each of these is
were often used as fillers in ground or
described in the following sections.
powdered form. Among the earliest
materials used as stator ground wall
insulation was varnished cambric, which is Thermal Stresses
still manufactured and used today in some
electrical applications. Thermal stresses are the most identified
cause for insulation failure. The operating
temperature of a winding causes thermal ground wall insulation and copper will
stresses which results from the, breaks due to shear stresses. These stresses
occur due to the difference in thermal
expansion coefficients in ground wall
insulation and copper which will cause
 Power – I2R
different rates of expansions under sudden
 Eddy currents
temperature changes.
 Stray load losses
 Additional heating core
losses High temperature on the windings can
 Windage cause several advantages such as low
moisture on windings which results in low
electrical tracking failures and it also
The high operating temperature will
reduces delamination as the swelled
support the oxidation of the windings and it
insulators(due to high temperature) reduce
will cause all types of insulation to brittle
the size of the air pockets. Amidst of these
and also will result in delamination. If the
advantages the increase in abrasion due to
operating temperature is below the
high temperature in windings can be a
threshold temperature no thermal aging
disadvantage as well.
will occur. This is well explained by the
given equation.
Electrical Stress

It has a little impact on aging of the

electrical insulation of stator windings rated
 L- Life of insulation at less than about 1000V.
 T- Temperature
 A, B- constant
Partial Discharge:

This represents the negative relationship

between life of insulation and temperature. Partial Discharge is the Small electrical
In variation of thermal stress (Thermo sparks that occurs within an air pocket in
mechanical stress: which is caused by the the insulator on the coil insulation surface.
change of the load that results the It contains electrons and ions that bombard
temperature of the windings to change.) insulation. Films, Polyesters, Asphalts and
the temperature of the windings will Epoxies degrade due to this because of
change from operating temperature to breakage of chemical bonds.
room temperature. When this scenario
happens quickly the bond between the
Electrical stress has a very powerful 1. Centrifugal force on the rotor: This is
influence on Life of insulation when PD is the non vibrating force that tends to
occurring. crush or distort the insulation. This can
be evaluated by short term mechanical
tests. This involves little aging and
Ambient stress
eventually led to a fault.
2. Magnetic force: The magnetic force
This is the stress due to external factors generated by the power frequency
from the environment surrounding the current which oscillates at twice the
generator. Such as, power frequency generated also causes
mechanical stress. If the coils are loose
 Moisture on windings in stator slot, the force causes the coils
 High humidity to vibrate and the ground wall
insulation is abraded.
 Aggregated chemicals
3. Transients: Switching on of motors or
 Abrasive particles
out of phase synchronization of
 Oil from bearings
synchronous machines may lead to a
 Dirt and debris
large transient power frequency current
that may be five times or more to the
These factors may not influence aging normal operating current to the stator.
individually but with combination to This results in magnetically induced
another stress it may result in aging. mechanical stresses.

As examples, When dirt, moisture and Multiple stresses

debris gets accumulated on the insulator in
the presence of an electrical stress it may
Many of the failure processes do not
cause electrical tracking failures. The high
depend on a single stress causing gradual
humidity which causes low break down
deterioration of the winding insulation. Two
voltage will result in greater partial
or more stresses often need to interact to
discharge in stator and rotor windings,
result in deterioration. As examples;
which is another application of ambient
• Thermal deterioration in form-wound
stress.
stators that creates delamination, allowing
PDs that ultimately erode a hole through
Mechanical stress the insulation.
• Form-wound coil semi conductive
There are 3 main types of mechanical coating deterioration caused by poor
stress. manufacture and high temperature
operation, which leads to PD, creating
ozone that chemically attacks the
insulation.
The key feature is that if two or more of
these stresses are present, the failure
process is much faster than if only a single
stress was present.

4. TESTING

Insulation Resistance test

The Insulation Resistance test must be

The Insulation Resistance Test measures the performed by a well trained and
integrity of the generator's winding experienced technician. It is best practice to
insulation, and therefore the likelihood of test at the main and neutral leads of the
developing a ground. A test voltage is stator, as close to the windings as possible.
applied to the generator and the current
flow required to maintain that voltage is Stator slot RTD’s should be disconnected
measured over a period of time (typically from the terminal board and grounded.
one minute). In simplest terms, the less Surge capacitors should be disconnected.
current flow, the higher the resistance The water or oil should be drained and
value, and the better the insulation. completely evacuated from liquid inner-
cooled windings, typically by vacuum-
An IR test should be performed processing. Stator windings should be
immediately following any type of event tested one phase at a time, with the other
that is suspected of over-stressing an two phases grounded. In this manner, the
insulation system, prior to the generator windings are stressed both phase-to-ground
being placed back into service. This is the and phase-to-phase.
first test that should be performed. The
results will indicate the ability of the DC ramp test
insulation system to withstand any more In DC Ramp test, ramped dc voltage is applied in
searching and/or strenuous testing. The IR between copper conductor and the ground wall
test also measures the effect of insulation of the generator stator windings.
contamination from water, oil, carbon, and Then current through the insulation vs. applied
other such undesirables. If a separate high voltage is recorded. However in CEB DC Ramp
voltage proof test is performed, an IR test test is used for condition monitoring purposes,
should be performed both before and after so it is necessary to avoid overstressing and
the proof test. This in order to assure that breakdown of the insulation during the test.
the proof test itself has not compromised Thus for almost all the generators with rated
the insulation(Ir & Swain 2000). voltage more than 11 kV to 13.8kV, test voltage
is selected as 15 kV. In this test, a dc voltage is evidence related to abnormal condition of the
increased from 0 to 15kV at a rate of 1kV/min. insulation.
The leakage current variation with respect to
the applied voltage is measured(Paper & Wales
2013).
Electromagnetic Core Imperfection
Detection (EL-CID)

Figure :Typical V-I characteristic of DC Ramp test

The I-V pattern of the dc ramp test includes the

total current which consists of polarization,
capacitive and conductive currents as well as Elevated "Eddy Currents" create hot spots
the surface leakage current; (due to lack of which in effect can cause further and
guarding terminal). However windings are well
unpredictable deterioration to the core
cleaned before conducting the tests to minimize
lamination insulation or to the actual core
the effect of surface leakage current to the
measurements. Generally the capacitance of
itself (core melting). Undetected and
the insulation leads to flow of capacitive unchecked, this can lead to stator winding
charging current which is having a constant insulation damage, forcing the machine to
value (current offset) at a uniform voltage be out of service. EL-CID is a cost effective
ramp. In addition, polarized particles of the maintenance tool for verifying stator core
dielectric material of the insulation rotate and lamination integrity. EL-CID testing is able
align according to the electric field causing to:
polarization/absorption current through the
insulation. In DC Ramp test absorption current
has a somewhat linear shape as shown in Fig. 2.  Identify existing damage and
Moving of electrons completely from copper localizing it
conductor to ground through stator insulation is  Reduce time of planned or forced
known as conductive/leakage current that gives outage
a considerably low ramp response in normal
conditions. Thus any different current response
compared to the benchmark response indicates
In the EL-CID measurement only very few spark discharges that can occur in high
magnetic flux densities are applied. The voltage insulation voids, on the surface of
fault currents can be detected by a coils as explained before.
Chattock coil, which is routed along each In these types of systems, measuring
slot of the stator core. The output signal is impedance is connected to the test object
proportional to the magnetic difference by means of one of the connection
between the two contact points on the schemes. In stator winding testing, some
stator core surface. form of impedance, e.g., an RLC network, is
connected between the low voltage
electrode of the coupling capacitor and
ground. One function of the high voltage
coupling capacitor is to present high
impedance to the high voltage power
frequency signal while passing the high
frequency PD signals. In some connection
schemes, the measuring impedance is
connected in series with the test object, i.e.
Figure – Chattok coil spanning one slot and two teeth the coupler will be at the same potential as
the test object. This method, by virtue of
Examination of each slot together with its
eliminating ground paths, offers advantages
adjacent teeth results in overlapping that
in being able to reject ground loop-induced
provides additional information about the
electrical interference. However, in order
defective points.
to ensure personnel and equipment safety,
such schemes normally employ optical
Advantages of EL CID Testing are the very isolation that increases the complexity and
small excitation power demand the cost of the method. In yet another
(approximately 4%), simple and easy setup, variant of this method, impedance is
elimination of further damage and the introduced between the low voltage
reduction in safety hazards. electrode and ground. This latter method is
often employed in laboratory-based ultra
Partial Discharge test wideband studies of PD phenomena.

Stator windings rated at 4kV or more tend

to operate with partial discharges occurring Most commercial systems as well as those
within the bars or coils near the phase end developed in-house by some utilities use
of the stator winding. In addition, PD has this variant. The basic difference between
been found to occur even on random round these various systems depends upon the
stators operating at 440V.PD’s which in the measuring impedance used. In many cases,
past have been referred to as corona ,are
the impedance consists of a RC or RLC Paper, C. & Wales, N.S., 2013. Diagnostic of
network, which can also be termed an input Generator Stator Insulation Condition by
DC Ramp Test Modelling Diagnostic of
unit. Essentially, the occurrence of a PD Generator Stator Insulation Condition by
pulse shocks the network and this response DC Ramp Test Modelling. , (October).
is fed to an amplifier. Obviously, these
networks can be considered filters;
therefore selection of the type of filter
should take into account the test object and
the frequency response of the amplifier.
Thus, careful attention should be paid to
the frequency response of the total system,
i.e., test object, coupling impedance,
amplifier and display/record device. For
example, there is little point designing
coupling impedance with a frequency
response exceeding the capability of the
display device, e.g., an oscilloscope. A
further important, and sometimes
controversial, point for the case of stator
windings is that these objects because of
their distributed inductance and
capacitance are inherently low pass filters.
Thus, if the aim of the measurement is to
detect PD from all parts of the winding, the
so-called ultra wideband systems, with
bandwidths in the hundreds of MHz range
would not be appropriate. The selection of
appropriate bandwidth will be dealt with
later. The overwhelming majority of
commercial systems employ detectors with
bandwidths in the range of a few kHz up to
1 MHz.

5. REFERENCES

Ir, T. & Swain, M., 2000. Insulation Resistance

and Polarization Index Test of Generator &
Motor.