CONDITION MONITORING

OF ROTATING
ELECTRICAL MACHINES
Insulation Failure modes
(Stator)
STATOR WINDINGS

A form winding uses square or When the arrangement between

rectangular magnet wire. The wire turns is not definite during coil
insulation is designed to handle skeining or insertion, the windings
operating turn to turn voltages as well are called “random.” That is, for
as maximum surge or impulse voltages example, turn one can be touching
turn four.
STATOR WINDING INSULATION
 Four major manufacturing processes have been and still
are widely used to form and consolidate insulation systems
for form-wound stators:
1) Vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) of individual coils
and bars
2) VPI of complete stators, global VPI (GVPI)
3) Hydraulic molding of individual coils and bars using
resin-rich (B stage) tapes. The term B stage means that
the polyester or epoxy are partially cured in the mica
paper tapes
4) Press curing of individual coils and bars, also using resin-
rich tapes
 There are also some combinations of these methods in use.
The binder resins (usually epoxy or polyester) can be
categorized as high or low solvent-containing and solvent-
less, as well as by their chemical nature.
V.P.I. PROCESS EXPLAINED*
 Place stator or rotor inside impregnation vessel.
 Securely lock tank and initiate vacuum process.
 Once pressure is developed to 50mbar the vacuum
pump allows resin to enter impregnation vessel.
 Once the unit is submerged in resin, a wet vacuum is
created.
 Upon completion of wet vacuum, the electrical
apparatus is pressurized at 6bar/84psi.
 V.P.I. Process duration is relative to the unit
rotor/stator/coils size.
 Once the V.P.I. Process has been completed, a reverse
vacuum is created in the resin tank to empty the
impregnation vessel.
 The impregnated unit is then left to drip, pre-curing.
 A full print out of the process is generated including
time, date, duration of process, pressure applied, etc.
STATOR WINDING INSULATION CONTD..
 There are four principal drivers that govern the selection of
the insulation systems currently being manufactured:
1) Good service experience with earlier versions of the same
basic system
2) Commercial availability of the materials to be used
3) Relative costs of the raw materials and processes in the
competitive machine-sales environment
4) Design advantages or limitations each insulation system
and process brings to the final generator or motor for its
expected service life and economy of operation.
The extent to which the stresses in normal operation will cause
problems in the short- or long-term will depend on factors such as
the operating mode and type of ambient cooling conditions. For
example, air-cooled machines tend to be subject to higher rates of
thermal ageing compared to generators with direct liquid cooling of
the stator winding. Further, generators with this type of cooling
usually operate in a compressed hydrogen atmosphere thus
eliminating oxidation
STATOR WINDING INSULATION FAILURES
 Delamination and voids
 Slot discharge
 Stator end windings
 End-winding stress grading
 Stator winding inter-turn faults
 Repetitive transients
STATOR WINDING INSULATION SYSTEM
• The basic stator insulation system
comprises strand insulation, turn
insulation and ground-wall insulation.
Additionally, high-voltage stress-relief
coatings and end-winding support are
provided.
• The coil-side is made from strands of
copper (insulated from one another)
not only to reduce the skin effect but
also because it is easier to bend to form
the required coil shape. A layer of
conductive tape is then applied in
order to establish an equipotential
surface.
• Insulation between the energised
copper bar and grounded stator core is
provided by applying a mica-based tape
to the bar surface. This is known as
ground-wall insulation and it would be
subjected to high electrical stresses
during normal operation.
DELAMINATION AND VOIDS
 Voids or delaminations in the ground-wall insulation of stator
windings may result from the manufacturing process and/or
operating stresses. The presence of voids in new stator windings,
although not desirable and should be minimised, does not
necessarily imply that the winding be rejected or that it is not fit
for the design life intended.
 The probability that a void will be subject to partial discharge is
governed by a number of factors such as void dimensions, electrical
stress, pressure, temperature and the presence of initial electrons
to cause discharge inception.
 Application of various diagnostic tests, such as partial discharge
and dielectric loss, as well as potentially destructive overvoltage
tests, aid in the production of stator windings with minimal void
content.
 Depending on the energy of the discharge, erosion of the void walls
will result causing growth of the delamination and potentially
failure in the long term
DELAMINATION AND VOIDS
 Two principle reasons that void
discharge does not lead to rotating
machine failure:
1) The presence of mica, a material that
is extremely resistant to electrical
discharge attack, results in the
partial discharge erosion occurring
only in the organic binding resin
component. Consequently, the
electrical breakdown path must
follow a very circuitous route from
the initiation site to the grounded
core iron before failure can result.
2) The widespread application of on-line
partial discharge monitoring
equipment as well as advances in the
interpretation of the data produced by
these tools. Use of partial discharge
monitoring equipment has enabled
machine users to better determine the
condition of stator winding insulation
in operating machines and to take
corrective action at early stages.
PD PATTERNS: A DISCHARGE IN A DELAMINATION AND A SURFACE
DISCHARGE IN AN END-WINDING

 Different types of insulation

defects have different PD
signatures. This enables
distinction between slot
discharge and surface
discharge. For example, Fig.
shows two different PD
patterns. It is seen that the
internal discharge dominates at
lower voltages and its level is
independent of the voltage. On
the other hand, at higher
voltages the surface discharge
becomes more dominant. By
examining these signatures,
engineers can identify different
types of possible problems in an
insulation system.
SLOT DISCHARGE
 Slot discharge or high-energy discharge is a very
damaging deterioration mechanism found generally
 Slot discharge is the term used to describe a discharge
occurring between the surface of the stator coil or bar
and the grounded core iron.
 This mechanism results from a loss of good electrical
contact between the insulated bar or coil surface and
the stator core
 Rotating machines rated above 3.3 kV employ a
resistive coating applied to the slot portion of the stator
coil or bar to promote good electrical contact with the
core.
 Deterioration of this coating or loss of contact between
bar surface and core iron can lead to conditions
favourable for slot discharge
SLOT DISCHARGE PROCESS
 When the gap is created, the potential will
rise on the inner surface of the ground wall
insulation. Then the electric field will exist
between the ground wall insulation and the
stator core which is equivalent to the
ground electrode.
 The spatial electrons in the gap gain energy
under the action of external electric field
and transfer the energy to the surrounding
atoms or molecules through collisions.
 The excitation and ionization will result in
avalanche. The air in the gap will
breakdown when the voltage is over the
discharge inception voltage.
 During the breakdown process, the current
flowing through the discharge passage is
actually the displacement current through
the organic insulation, rather than the
short circuit current.
 Therefore, in the process of slot discharge,
the current is blocked by the medium
insulation (i.e. the ground wall insulation)
and cannot grow freely. So it will not form a
spark or arc, only showing several stable
discharge filaments across the air gap
SLOT DISCHARGE CONTD..
 The partial discharge behaviour of
slot discharge tends to be
characterised by:
 large magnitude pulses with a
predominance of one polarity
depending on how the
measurement is accomplished,
 the position of the occurrence of
the partial discharge pulses, which
may vary over the power frequency
cycle since the discharge is
occurring between a capacitively
charged surface and the core iron
and these surfaces are, due to
vibration, not at well-defined Picture of the slot discharge taken at 8 kV with
positions with respect to one UV camera
another,
 rapid increase in partial discharge
magnitudes over a relatively short
period of time, such as doubling of
pulse magnitudes over six months
STATOR END WINDING FAULT
 Stator windings outside of the
stator core are referred to as the
end-winding. The end-winding
is at high-voltage and requires
support against mechanical
vibration driven by magnetic
and mechanical forces.
 The first objective is to restrain
the end winding against the
large forces on the winding
during transient loading or
faults and the second is to
cushion the conductor bars
against the smaller forces
during steady, continuous
running.
STATOR END WINDING FAULT CONTD..
 End-winding movements are larger on the older, less rigid,
bituminous mica insulation system but because of its softness,
the system was more able to withstand the steady fretting action
of normal running than the hard epoxy-mica systems.
 Faults occur in the end winding when the bracing structure
slackens, due to torsional and lateral vibration, either as a
result of a succession of unusual overloads or because of an
extended period of continuous running.
 In largest machines fatigue failure of conductors can occur when
the winding becomes slack enough to permit a significant
amount of conductor movement during normal operation or
during the much larger forces of starting or re-switching.
 Damage is caused by steel washers, nuts or small portions of
insulation, get thrown around by the rotor; usually in the stator
end-winding region, where the insulation is damaged by impact
or eroded by debris worming into the insulation under the action
of electromagnetic forces
STATOR END-WINDING VIBRATION MONITORING
SYSTEM

 Generator end-windings experience

mechanical vibration during operation.
The frequency of this vibration is twice
the electrical synchronous frequency of
the generator.
 A Fibre Optic Vibration System is used
to measure the vibration of high voltage
generator end-windings where
conventional hardwired transducers
cannot be safely mounted.
 Stator end-windings are excited by
electromagnetic forces during the
operation. The vibration amplitudes are
proportional to the square of the current
and the frequency is twice the electrical
line frequency.
 Hydro generator application of fibre- The fibre optic system consists of fibre optic
optic vibration system is more or less accelerometers and cables, power supply and
limited to generator-motors of pump a computer
storage plants because of their very
demanding operating regime
FIBRE OPTIC ACCELEROMETER
 Its unibody design consist of a small size
sensor head of non-conducting material, a
fibre optic cable, and a feed through
connector with built-in optoelectronic
circuitry.
 It is sensitive to vibration in a single axis.
The sensor head is located at the end of a
two-strand, multimode, optical fibre glass
cable.
 One fibre carries the light generated by the
conditioning electronics for illumination; the
sensor head returns an optical signal of
variable intensity through the second fibre.
 The electrical isolation of the optical circuit
allows the sensor to be mounted directly to
the stator coil ends.
 In the conditioning electronics, the optical
signal is converted to an electrical signal by
optoelectronic circuitry, processed and
amplified to an acceptable level. The
resultant measured signal is a calibrated
analogue signal of 100 mV/g proportional to
vibration acceleration which can be further
processed by a computer.
END-WINDING STRESS GRADING
 The distribution of electric
potential in the end-winding in
high voltage rotating machines is
unequal and therefore there must
be applied materials which reduce
the electric field gradient. Thus the
occurrence of surface discharges is
minimized.
 These materials are called stress
grading system, semi conductive
stress grading tape, anti corona
protection or non-linear resistance
grade.
 Excessive heat generation and
occurrence of partial discharge
have been observed in end-turn
stress grading (SG) system in form-
wound machines under PWM
voltage
END-WINDING STRESS GRADING CONTD..
 Stator coil end of high-voltage rotating machines
is equipped with stress grading system (SGS),
which consists of two dielectric materials
(conductive slot coating and stress grading
tape/paint (SGT/P))
 Because SGS consists of non-linear materials,
actual measurement of surface potential profile
along SGS is essential for discussing advanced
insulation design.
 However, there has been no suitable method to
measure transient surface potential of as high as
100 kV maximum voltage.
 In one such study surface potential measuring
method, which uses Pockels field sensor and Pockels potential sensor has many
includes calculation of surface potential from advantages such as wide-band
measured field data, is presented. frequency response, small delay
 Measurement system consists of Pockels crystal, time and small disturbance to
laser, and photodetector. The relationship subject, but can measure only as
between surface potential and field is high as 20 kV peak due to the close
numerically calculated in advance and used to distance between high potential
estimate surface potential by deconvolution subject and grounded electrode.
process.
POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION MEASURING SYSTEM WITH
POCKELS FIELD SENSOR; (A) SIDE VIEW; (B) FRONT VIEW
STATOR WINDING INTER-TURN FAULTS
 A common failure mechanism on machines employing multi-
turn stator coils is breakdown of the turn insulation. The
resultant short circuit between the copper turns causes a
significant circulating current to flow in the coil leading to
rapid deterioration and failure.
 Turn failures tend to be very destructive, and involve
burning of the insulation and localized melting of the copper
conductors.
 Often, failures resulting from breakdown of the inter-turn
insulation are inferred from the location of the puncture,
typically at or near the core exit, and the electrical position
in the winding, typically the first or second coil from the line
end.
 Inter turn stator winding fault can easily be detected by
stator differential protection or stator earth fault protection.
Hence, it is not very essential to provide special protection
scheme for inter turn faults occurred in stator winding.
 Electric Power Research Institute study (1980’s) concluded
that the principal reason for the perceived increase in turn
insulation failures was inadequate turn insulation.
INTER TURN FAULT PROTECTION OF STATOR WINDING OF GENERATOR

 Cross differential methods is most common

for providing inter turn protection to the
stator winding of generator. In this scheme
the winding for each phase is divided into
two parallel paths.
 Each of the paths is fitted with identical
current transformer. The secondary of
these current transformers are connected
in cross.
 The current transformer secondary’s are
cross connected because currents at the
primary of both CTs are entering unlike
the case of differential protection of
transformer where current entering from
one side and leaving to other side of the
transformer.
 The differential relay along with series
stabilizing resistor are connected across
the CT secondary loop.
 If any inter turn fault occurs in any path of
the stator winding, there will be an
unbalanced in the CT secondary circuits
thereby actuates 87 differential relay.
INTER TURN FAULT PROTECTION OF STATOR WINDING OF GENERATOR

 An alternative scheme provides complete

protection against internal faults of all
synchronous machines irrespective of the
type of the winding employed or the kind
of methods for connection.
 An internal fault in the stator winding
generates second harmonic current,
included in the field winding and exciter
circuits of the generator. This current can
be applied to a sensitive polarized relay via
a CT and filter circuit.
 The scheme operation is controlled by a
direction of negative phase sequence relay,
in order to prevent operation during
external unbalanced faults or
asymmetrical load conditions.
 Should there be any asymmetry external
to the generator unit zone, the negative
phase sequence relay prevents a complete
shutdown, only allowing the main circuit
breaker to be tripped, to prevent the rotor
damage due to the over rating effects of
second harmonic currents.
REPETITIVE TRANSIENTS
 Variable speed drives based on electronic inverters are widely
applied on low-voltage (600 V and below) motors. Insulation
problems have been experienced on these largely random wound
machines resulting in failures.
 The bulk of the failures have been attributed to electrical
discharges in the end windings of these machines.
 The steep-fronted surges generated by the IGBT devices
employed in these drives may cause voltage doubling resulting
in transient voltages that exceed the electric field required to
cause breakdown in the air around the end windings.
 The insulation systems employed in random wound machines,
typically polyester-based enamels have poor discharge
resistance and are thus prone to failure in the presence of such
discharges.
 Steps to mitigate this problem include: better design of the
winding, to minimise areas of high electrical stress;
consideration of the length of cables used to connect to the
motors, to reduce the probability of voltage doubling; the use of
multi-converter topologies; and the use of metal-oxide loaded
enamels to grade the winding electric stress