157

Institution of Engineers, Australia 2004

Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Vol 1, No.3
conference paper
* Paper presented at the Australasian Universities
Power Engineering Conference, 2003
1 INTRODUCTION
Return Voltage Measurement (RVM)
1-3
and
Polarisation and Depolarisation Current (PDC)
4-6

measurement techniques are believed to provide
indication of the general ageing status and moisture
content of the oil-paper insulation of transformer.
However, the results of these tests are severely
influenced by several environmental factors,
predominantly the temperature.
7-11
This temperature
effect is more prominent in open substations where
the external environmental conditions are hardly
predictable and controllable.
For both RVM and PDC, the transformer needs to
be disconnected from supply. Before starting the
test, it is essential to allow sufcient time for the
transformer to cool down to ambient temperature
from its higher operational temperature. Any
tests performed during the temperature transition
will corrupt the test results. Another source of
temperature variation during RVM and PDC tests
is the variation of ambient temperature during the
day of measurement. As it takes about 6 hours to
complete a PDC measurement, temperature could
vary signicantly during this time.
In order to interpret the results more accurately in
such cases, it is essential to understand the variations
of the RVM and PDC measurement results with
temperature. This paper reports laboratory test
results of RVM and PDC measurement performed
on a transformer with controlled variations of
temperature. A temperature control cabinet with
t1

C accuracy was used to vary the temperature of

the transformer at discrete steps over a pre-dened
range. Each time the temperature was set to a
different value, RVM and PDC tests were performed
after allowing sufcient time (around 10 days) for the
oil-paper insulation inside the transformer tank to
attain stable temperature and moisture equilibrium.
The transformer tank was completely sealed from
outside ambient thereby ensuring that the test results
are solely affected by the variations of temperature.
2 DIELCTRIC RESPONSE MEASUREMENTS
2.1 PDC and RVM
For dielectric response (RV and PDC) measurement, a
DC step voltage U(t) with the following characteristics,
is applied to the initially relaxed insulation system:

= 0 0 ! t
U(t) = U
0
0 ! t ! t
"
= 0 t # t
"
(")
During the initial charging period, the step voltage
is applied for time 0 ! t ! t
"
. In this time the charging
current (polarisation current) given by (2) will ow.
i
pol
(t) C
0
U
0

0
+ f (t)



1
]
1
(2)
Where C
0
is the geometric capacitance (measured
capacitance at or near power frequency, divided
by the relative permittivity _r, of the composite
insulation at power frequency), 0 is the vacuum
permittivity 8.85410
-12
F/m, and f(t) is the dielectric
Effects of temperature on time-domain dielectric
diagnostics of transformers *
TK Saha and P Purkait
School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
SUMMARY: Time-domain dielectric testing techniques, namely the Return Voltage
Measurement (RVM) and Polarisation and Depolarisation Current (PDC) measurement are being
used by the power utilities for assessment of the condition of transformers oil-paper insulation.
However, it has been found that the results of these tests are highly inuenced by operating
temperature. It requires adequate experience and extreme care to interpret the RVM and PDC
results in the presence of temperature variations and thermal instability. This paper reports a
detailed study on the effects of temperature on RVM and PDC measurements on a transformer
under controled laboratory conditions.
158
Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering Vol 1, No.3
Effects of temperature on time-domain dielectric diagnostics of transformers - Saha & Purkait
response function of the composite insulation. The
response function f(t) describes the fundamental
memory property of the dielectric system and can
provide signicant information about the insulating
material.
12
Where,
r
is the average conductivity of
the composite insulation system.
The insulation is then grounded (short circuited) for
a subsequent time period t
1
! t ! t
2
; the magnitude of
the depolarisation current is given by eq (3)
i
depol
(t) C
0
U
0
f (t) f (t + t
1
)
[ ]
(3)

At t=t
2
ground (short circuit) is removed from
the insulation and a voltmeter is connected
across it. Depending on how long the test object
is grounded, t
2
, some of the previously polarised
molecules get totally relaxed, but some are not.
The polarisation processes which were not totally
relaxed during the grounding period will relax
and give rise to a recovery voltage across the
electrodes of the insulation. Figure 1 shows the
nature of the polarization, depolarization current
and the recovery voltage. The test object is charged
from 0!t!t
1
, grounded from t
1
!t!t
2
and for t>t
2
the
recovery voltage is measured during open circuit
conditions.
Figure 1: Dielectric response measurements
2.2 Estimation of conductivity
From the measurements of polarisation and
depolarisation currents, it is possible to estimate the
DC conductivity
r
, of the test object .
12-13
If the test
object is charged for sufciently long time so that f(t
+ t
c
) 0, (2) and (3) can be combined to express the
DC conductivity of the composite system as:

0
C
0
U
0
i
p
ol
t ( ) i
depol
t ( )
( )
(4)
The average conductivity for a given insulation system
thus, is found to be dependent upon the difference
between the polarisation and depolarisation current
values. This composite conductivity, in practice, is
the convolution of the conductivities of the oil and
the paper that make up the insulation structure.
For estimation of the oil and paper conductivities
separately it is required to consider the insulation
system to be composed of a simple series arrangement
of oil duct and paper insulation
13,14
as shown in Figure
2. Each material is characterised by its conductivity
and permittivity along with the composite dielectric
response function f(t).
Figure 2: Series arrangement structure of oil
and paper
X is the relative amount of paper in the composite
system. The range of X is typically 20% to 50%
14

for a transformer. The value of X can be calculated
more precisely only when the exact structure of the
insulation system and all its design parameters are
available.
According to
13,14
the effective conductivity
may be written in terms of paper and oil
conductivities (
paper
and
oil
respectively) as:

paper
.
oil

paper
.(1 X) +
oil
. X
(5)
The effective permittivity r can also similarly be
estimated as:

p
.
d

p
.(1 X ) +
d
. X
(6)
Where p is the relative permittivity of paper and d
is the relative permittivity of oil duct.
Once the values of the effective permittivity r and
hence C
0
is estimated, effective conductivity
r
can
be determined using (4) from the difference between
the polarisation and depolarisation currents. The
initial polarisation current (after the rst transient
that is normally not recorded) can be written as:
i
pol
+0 ( ) C
0
U
0

oil

0
.

d
(7)
such that

oil

0
.
d

r
.C
0
.U
0
.i
pol
(+0)
(8)
On the other hand, the long-time
polarisation current (steady DC value i
dc
)
159 Effects of temperature on time-domain dielectric diagnostics of transformers - Saha & Purkait
Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering Vol 1, No.3
can be related to the paper conductivity as:
i
dc
C
0
.U
0

0
(9)
If
oil
>>
paper
, then from eq (5) we get

paper
X
("0)

Combining (9) and (10) we get,

paper

0
. X
C
0
.U
0
.i
dc
(11)
3 EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
The insulation system of the transformer model under
study consists of oil and cellulose, as it is in a real
power transformer. The structure of the insulation
system, the ratio of oil/paper, etc. are similar as in a
real transformer. A temperature sensor of type 100
Ohm Pt 385 was inserted into the tank to measure the
actual temperature inside the transformer tank.
The amount of solid insulation in the model is
approximately 1445g and the oil is 8400g; the ratio
of oil/solid insulation is 5.8. The ratio of oil/cellulose
material is about 10/1 to 6/1 in a real transformer.
The whole model was kept inside a temperature
control cabinet. The temperature of the control
cabinet (and hence the model transformer) was set
at discrete values of 25C (ambient), 30C, 40C, 45C,
65C and 75C. The temperature sensor placed inside
the transformer tank was used to make sure that the
temperature inside the tank is equal to that of the
control cabinet. After the temperature inside the
transformer tank was found to reach the temperature
set in the control cabinet, it was allowed to remain like
that for 10 days. This ensured that the oil and paper
could achieve a new state of moisture equilibrium
at the elevated temperature. RVM and PDC tests
were performed at all the different temperatures.
The PDC and RV measuring equipment
2
developed
at the School of ITEE, University of Queensland was
used for all the measurements.
4 ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
4.1 RVM results
Figure 3 shows the RV spectra obtained at different
temperatures. It can be seen that the temperature
inuence cause signicant displacements of the RV
spectra peaks. At high temperatures, the spectrum
peak shift to smaller times. The variation of the
dominant time constants with the corresponding
temperature is summarised in Table 1.
Figure 3: RV spectra at different temperatures
Table 1
Dominant time constant vs. temperature
Temperature
(
o
C)
Dominant Time Constant
(sec)
25 82
30 47
40 22
45 13
65 7
75 2
It was reported by Kozlovskis et al
7
that the RV
spectrum follows an exponential response depending
temperature and the movement in shape can be
described by the following equation:
t
d at T
2
t
d at T
1
.e
( aT)
(12)
Where t
d at T1
is the dominant time constant at a
reference measurement temperature of T
1
, t
d at T2

is the dominant time constant at some different
measurement temperature of T
2
, T is the
temperature difference (T = T
2
T
"
). The constant
a is a parameter related to the polarisation process
inside the insulation material.
Figure 4 is the plot between dominant time constant
and the corresponding temperatures. The exponential
nature predicted by eq (12) is clearly visible in the
plot of Figure 4.
4.2 PDC Results
Figure 5 and Figure 6 show the polarisation and
depolarisation currents respectively obtained at
different temperatures. In each case the transformer
was charged (polarised) with 500 volts for 10,000
seconds and then discharged (depolarised) for
10,000 seconds. It can be seen that variation in
temperature causes significant displacements of
both the polarisation and depolarisation currents. It
can be seen from Figures 5 and 6 that the magnitude
160
Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering Vol 1, No.3
Effects of temperature on time-domain dielectric diagnostics of transformers - Saha & Purkait
of the polarisation and depolarisation currents tends
to shift to higher values with rising temperature.
Figure 4: Dominant time constant vs.
temperature
Figure 5: Variation of polarisation current with
temperature
Figure 6: Variation of depolarisation current
with temperature
It is also noticeable that the shapes of currents also
change as the temperature rises - which indicates that
the insulation system looses its linearity at higher
temperatures. The change in amplitude and time
dependence nature of the currents is mainly due
to the decrease of the time constant of interfacial
polarisation, which is believed to be a consequence
of increase in operating temperature.
4
Oil and paper
conductivities at different temperatures calculated
from the corresponding polarisation currents using
eq (8) and eq (11) are presented in Table 2.
Table 2
Oil and paper conductivity vs. temperature
Temperature (
0
C)
oil
(pS/m)
paper
(pS/m)
25 0.95 0.012
30 1.4 0.025
40 3.4 0.064
45 7.2 0.12
65 14.1 0.7
75 28.0 1.4
Figure 7 and Figure 8 show the nature of variation of
oil and paper conductivity with temperature. Both
the oil and paper conductivities are found to increase
exponentially with temperature.
Figure 7: Variation of oil conductivity with
temperature
Figure 8: Variation of paper conductivity with
temperature
It was reported by
9,15
that conductivity follows an
exponential law:
T ( ) A.e

E
ac
kT



_
,

(13)
where T is the absolute temperature in Kelvin, A
is a constant related to the mobility of ions in the
insulation, k is the Boltzman constant and E
ac
is the
activation energy. Eq (13) can be re-written as:
161 Effects of temperature on time-domain dielectric diagnostics of transformers - Saha & Purkait
Australian Journal of Electrical & Electronics Engineering Vol 1, No.3
ln T ( )
( )
ln A
E
ac
kT
(14)
Equation (14) represents a linear relation between the
logarithm of conductivity and inverse of the absolute
temperature (1/T). The validity of the above eq (14)
can be demonstrated by the following two Figures 9
and 10 where the natural logarithms of oil and paper
conductivities have been plotted against the inverse
of absolute temperature.
Figure 9: Oil conductivity vs. reciprocal of
absolute temperature
Figure 10: Paper conductivity vs. reciprocal of
absolute temperature
As predicted by eq (14) the nature of the relationships
are almost linear. Similar nature of variation of
average oil-paper composite conductivity with
temperature was reported by Gjaerde, Lundsgaard
and Ildstad.
9
It is interesting to note that both oil and
paper conductivities separately demonstrate such
linear nature of variation with inverse of absolute
temperature.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Interpretation of RVM and PDC test results still
remains a difficult task as it is believed to be
inuenced by insulation ageing condition, moisture
content and also by environmental condition like
the operating temperature. Results of RVM and
PDC tests performed on a transformer under
laboratory condition with controlled variation of
operating temperature are presented in this paper.
The dominant time constant of the RVM tends to
shift towards lower values of time as the temperature
increases. The polarisation and depolarisation current
magnitudes and also the oil and paper conductivities
estimated from these currents tend to be higher at
higher temperature. The oil and paper conductivities
calculated from the measured polarization currents
are found to have a denite mathematical relationship
with the temperature. It is thus essential to take these
variations due to operating temperature into account
while interpreting the RVM and PDC results for
transformer insulation condition assessment.
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oil paper insulating systems (in Particular
Transformer Insulation) Using DC
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Paris, 1990;15:33-08.
2. Saha TK, Hill DJT, Yao ZT, Yeung G, Darveniza
M, The application of interfacial polarization
spectra for assessing insulation condition in
aged power transformers, CIGRE session, Paris,
1998.
3. Ildstad E, Gafvert U, Tharning P, Relation
between return voltage and other methods
for measurements of dielectric response.
IEEE International Symposium on Electrical
Insulation, USA, 1994:25-28.
4. Houhanessian VD, Zaengl WS. On-site diagnosis
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th
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TAPAN K SAHA
Tapan K Saha was born in Bangladesh and imigrated to Australia in 1989. Dr. Saha
is an associate professor in the school of Information Technology and Electrical
Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia. Before joining the University
of Queensland in 1996, he taught at the Bangladesh University of Engineering
and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh for three and half years and at James Cook
University, Townsville, Australia for two and half years. He is a senior member of
IEEE and Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. His research interests
include power systems, power quality and condition monitoring of electrical
plants.
PRITHWIRAJ PURKAIT
Prithwiraj Purkait was born in Kolkata, India in 1973. He obtained his BEE, MEE
and PhD degrees from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India in 1996, 1999 and 2002
respectively. He served as a post-doctoral research fellow in the University of
Queensland, Australia during 2002-2003. Presently he holds the post of assistant
professor in the department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering in
Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia, India. His current research includes
transformer insulation condition assessment techniques and advanced signal
processing applications in high voltage engineering.