Electrical Insulation Conference, EIC/EMCW99, October 26-28, 1999, Cincinnati, USA

PD Diagnostics on Rotating Machines

Possibilities and Limitations
Martin Hoof and Stefan Lanz
ABB Industrie AG
Insulation Systems for Rotating Machines
CH-5242 Birr, Switzerland
Abstract: A short overview is given of typical PD sources
within large rotating machines. Characteristic pros and cons of
on- and off-line measurements are presented and their significance with regard to condition based machine maintenance is
discussed. The possibilities as well as the limitations of PD
measurements as a tool to assess the insulation conditions of
rotating machines are outlined. Examples are given for on-line
PD measurements on generators that allow a clear diagnostic
decision and therefore a reliable condition assessment to be
obtained. However, it is additionally shown that PD measurements have some intrinsic limitations and therefore can not
detect virtually all insulation related problems.

condition [2]. Even if these tests provide a lot of useful diagnostic information, that in several cases can not be obtained by
PD measurements, they are usually not sensitive to a few local
insulation deficiencies. Consequently, in order to get reliable
information on the performance of the entire stator winding
insulation, due to the complexity of rotating machines, it is
highly recommended to apply a combination of PD measurements (ABB-PAMOS) and additional, well defined diagnostic tests and inspections (ABB-WIDIPRO) at regular intervals.

Introduction

The stator winding insulation of high voltage machines is

subjected to several stresses during operation that may significantly influence the performance of the insulation system and
especially its long-term properties due to various aging phenomena [2]. Modern insulation systems for high voltage machines are inherently resistant to partial discharges due to their
inorganic mica components. However, the occurrence of PD in
high voltage machines can be efficiently used to detect insulation aging caused by thermal, electrical, ambient and mechanical stress factors (TEAM-factors). In contrast to other high
voltage equipment, like polyethylene insulated power cables, a
certain amount of PD activity in high voltage machines can be
tolerated without having significant influence on the insulation
properties. Nevertheless, depending on the individual process,
PD in machines may also directly attack the insulation possibly resulting in an insulation fault. The main sources of PD
activity in high voltage machines are shown in Fig. 1.

A sudden unexpected in-service failure of the stator winding

insulation of large rotating machines would cause considerable
expenses for non-availability and unplanned repair work.
Therefore, modern diagnostic methods are applied to assess
the condition of the insulation system. Diagnostic tests are
usually performed in regular intervals either on- or off-line.
Off-line tests and inspections of a machine are mainly conducted as routine tests at scheduled outages according to a
time-based maintenance strategy. However, on-line tests are
carried out during normal operation of the machine on either
continuous or periodic basis. These on-line monitoring methods can be efficiently used for trend analysis and especially for
optimizing the timing of routine outages for off-line diagnostic
tests and thus allow condition based maintenance work to be
performed. When applying a condition based maintenance
program the availability can be increased and down times as
well as life-cycle costs of the equipment can be significantly
reduced.
One of the most important tools used today for diagnosis of
large rotating machines like generators and high voltage motors is the partial discharge (PD) measurement and analysis
[1]. PD diagnosis can be applied both on-line and off-line and
is (apart from visual machine inspection) the only method that
allows locally confined insulation defects to be reliably detected. The results, however, strongly depend on the individual
machine design. Other non-destructive methods like loss factor measurements, insulation resistance / leakage current or
charging / discharging current measurements are typical offline tests that give an integral information on the insulation

PD Sources in Rotating Machines

Voids / Delaminations: Voids within the main insulation are

usually present in modern synthetic resin impregnated mica
tape insulation systems. Depending on the quality of the impregnation process both the void content and the void size may
vary slightly, but in principle a certain amount of PD activity
from small voids embedded in the main insulation is acceptable. Delaminations at the interface of the copper conductor
and the main insulation, that primarily result from thermal
overstressing are more dangerous, since the turn or strand insulation of the conductors may be severely damaged. In addition delaminations within the main insulation or at the interface to the conductor will reduce the thermal conductivity of
the insulation which may lead to accelerated aging or even a
thermal runaway.

Electrical Insulation Conference, EIC/EMCW99, October 26-28, 1999, Cincinnati, USA

iron core

main insulation

bar / coil

slot corona protection

field grading
slot discharges

copper conductor

voids / delaminations
damaged end-corona
protection
iron core

spacer
slot-exit discharges
(damage due to vibration)

overhang part / phase separation

endwinding discharges
overhang support system

Fig. 1: Typical partial discharge sources in large rotating machines

Slot / Slot Exit Discharges: In high voltage machines the

straight part of the coils or bars will have a semi-conductive
surface coating. The slot corona protection is intended to
minimize the electric field at the interface between the main
insulation and the stator core. Potentially damaging surface
discharges are therefore reliably suppressed due to a good
electrical and mechanical contact between the grounded iron
core and the surface of the winding element. The semiconductive coating is usually extended beyond the slot exit to
provide a connection to the electric stress grading paint/tape in
the endwinding area (Fig. 1). However, if this semi-conductive
coating is damaged due to bar/coil movement in the slot or slot
exit area (e.g. loss of wedging pressure due to settling effects,
material erosion, abrasion) high energy discharges will occur
that will additionally damage the main insulation finally resulting in an insulation fault.

Fig. 2: Discharges in the slot / slot exit area

Endwinding Discharges: Partial discharges in the endwinding area may occur at several locations with high local electric
fields. Usually these discharges occur at interfaces between
different components of the stator winding overhang part. If
the end-corona protection becomes ineffective because of
poorly designed interfaces, contamination, porosity, thermal or
other effects, i.e. reliable field grading is no longer ensured,
surface discharge will develop gradually eroding the materials.
In addition PD may occur in the area of the phase separations,
e.g. due to inadequate interphase clearance, or at components
of the overhang support system.
Fig. 3: Discharges in the endwinding area

Electrical Insulation Conference, EIC/EMCW99, October 26-28, 1999, Cincinnati, USA

capacitive
couplers

Motor / Generator

Amplifier / Filter
ABB PAMOS II

Off-Line

On-Line

Data Base
Expert System

High speed
A/D converter

Fig. 4: Arrangement for the measurement of PD on rotating machines (off-line / on-line)

Measurement of Partial Discharges

The measurement of PD on rotating machines can be performed either on- or off-line according to Fig. 4. With each of
these methods there are several advantages and disadvantages
that must be considered when performing diagnostic testing
and especially when analyzing PD measurement results [3].
Off-line PD testing: The stator winding is energized with an
external power source while the machine is out of service.
When performing off-line measurements the interference level
resulting from external noise sources is usually quite low and
due to the voltage variability a detailed analysis of the PD behavior of each phase can be carried out. The measurement of
PD inception and extinction voltages and the evaluation of the
PD behavior with both increasing and decreasing voltage can
be efficiently used to obtain information on the stator winding
insulation condition. During a short machine outage easy localization of PD sources is possible and additional dielectric
measurements or visual inspection can be performed.
However, off-line testing is more time consuming and more
expensive than on-line testing since the machine must be out
of service. In addition there are no realistic stress conditions
during the measurement (e.g. no thermal and mechanical
stresses) and in contrast to normal operation the entire winding
is at high voltage. Consequently, there will be a certain
amount of PD from additional sources that are not active during operation. This situation makes the analysis more difficult
and thus requires a considerable amount of experience in assessing the measurement results.
On-line PD testing: On-line PD testing is generally more cost
effective than off-line testing since no service-interruption is
required, once the couplers are installed, and no external
power source is needed to energize the winding. The measurement is performed during normal operation of the machine
and therefore under realistic stress conditions (thermal, me-

chanical and electrical stresses). When analyzing the PD behavior at various load conditions of the machine additional
information on the insulation condition, that can not be obtained by off-line testing, is available. Since on-line measurements on either periodic or continuous basis can easily provide
PD data for trending, an early detection of impending insulation faults is possible. Furthermore, this allows preventive
maintenance work to be planned and intervals for off-line diagnosis to be optimized.
The interference level resulting from several noise sources is
usually considerable higher than for off-line testing. Since
heavy noise may mask PD resulting from actual machine
problems, sophisticated procedures for noise elimination (e.g.
adaptive digital filters) and especially a profound experience
in PD data analysis are required for making a reliable diagnostic decision.
Regardless whether PD diagnosis is performed on- or off-line,
it is essential to examine PD results obtained at regular intervals from one machine for trends over time in order to detect
progressive aging and to determine whether or not additional
diagnostic or even maintenance activities are needed. The
main benefits of applying PD diagnosis as a tool for condition
assessment especially to generators and high voltage motors in
key functions are:
early detection of deteriorating insulation components
reduction of in-service failure rates, i.e. reduction of unscheduled and costly downtimes
planning of preventive maintenance
optimized reinvestment planning
optimized availability and reliability for operational effectiveness
Thus, the overall life-cycle costs can be significantly reduced.
Even though these benefits are quite promising, PD diagnosis
has some inherent limitations that have to be considered.

Electrical Insulation Conference, EIC/EMCW99, October 26-28, 1999, Cincinnati, USA

Limitations of PD Diagnosis
Even though PD measurements are widely accepted and have
been made on stator windings for over 40 years, there are no
agreed PD specifications for rotating machines where limits
are defined, e.g. as acceptance criteria during production or
operation [3]. This is due to various reasons, but mainly because a reliable comparison of PD measurements is only possible on certain conditions.
In comparison to other high voltage equipment (e.g. power
cables, transformers, switchgears) rotating machines experience both static and dynamic stresses with quite complex interactions. In addition there are many different design features,
production and operation conditions for different machines
and various insulation systems from different manufacturers.
Consequently, the evaluation of PD measurement results on
rotating machines requires extensive knowledge of machine
design, insulation material characteristics and complex interactions of several physical and chemical processes.
Since stator windings are large inductive components, pulse
propagation phenomena that significantly influence the measurement results have to be considered [4]. The specific transfer
function from a PD source within the stator winding to the PD
couplers is in principle unknown and depends significantly on
the machine design. Therefore, the individual filter characteristics of a stator winding result in PD signals at the terminals that are characteristic of the machine under test. Furthermore, the frequency response of the PD detection system will
also considerably influence the measurement result. These
pulse propagation phenomena also lead to difficulties with
regard to a calibration of the measurement, since a calibration
at the terminals does not adequately represent PD pulses actually occurring somewhere within the stator winding [5].
Due to these difficulties, one individual PD measurement on a
particular machine gives no reliable information about the
actual condition of the insulation system. A reliable interpretation of PD data can only be obtained when examining trends
of the PD behavior over time on the same machine under
similar conditions using the same measurement equipment.
However, a direct comparison with machines of similar design
and insulation system may provide additional useful information. This requires not only appropriate experience of the engineer conducting the diagnostic tests but also a large database
of PD measurements. This database should comprise several
categories like machine design, manufacturer, insulation system and especially the complete history of PD behavior and
operational as well as maintenance data of each machine under
test.
Even though the trend of using PD diagnosis for large rotating
machines is very much increasing during the last few years, it
should be considered that PD measurement and analysis is not
a tool that allows to detect all insulation problems that may

occur within stator winding insulation systems. Commonly

used PD measurement methods are in principle not able to
detect so-called pulseless discharge phenomena or each phenomenon that involves low local electric fields but high currents, e.g. leakage currents. In the area of high voltage motors
with form-wound coils for example about 70% of all winding
failures can be attributed to turn-to-turn insulation faults that
can hardly be detected by PD measurements.

Examples for On-Line PD Measurements

In this section some examples are given for on-line PD measurements that were performed on turbogenerators and that
could unambiguously be attributed to typical insulation problems.

Fig. 5: Normal inner discharges / voids

Turbogenerator: 500 MVA / 24 kV / 60 Hz
In Fig. 5 a -q pattern from a 500 MVA turbogenerator is
shown that is typical of inner discharges resulting from voids
within the main insulation. These discharges can usually be
found for synthetic resin impregnated mica-tape insulations
since these systems can not be produced void free. If the level
of PD activity does not increase over time, these discharges
are assumed to be rather uncritical.

Fig. 6: Endwinding discharges / end corona protection

Turbogenerator: 20 MVA / 13.8 kV / 60 Hz

Electrical Insulation Conference, EIC/EMCW99, October 26-28, 1999, Cincinnati, USA

Typical endwinding discharges resulting from an ineffective
end-corona protection are shown in Fig. 6. This type of defect
can usually be fixed by reapplying special potential grading
paints in the overhang parts of the winding.

Fig. 7: Endwinding discharges / floating metallic particles

Turbogenerator: 180 MVA / 13.8 kV / 60 Hz
The -q pattern shown in Fig. 7 was measured on a 180 MVA
Turbogenerator that is operated at a steel production site. The
diagnostic expert decision indicated that there were floating
metallic particles within the endwinding area. This decision
led to a shutdown of the machine within a few hours including
a subsequent visual inspection. Indeed, there was highly conductive dust found within the overhang part. The whole machine was carefully cleaned and afterwards it was put into operation again. The further on-line PD measurement did no
longer show any critical PD behavior.
The on-line PD measurements on turbogenerators shown in
Figs. 5 to 7 unambiguously allowed a diagnostic decision to
be obtained with regard to the need of corrective activities on
the machine and therefore allowed a reliable condition assessment to be made. However, there may be also conditions
where an on-line PD measurement does not indicate any insulation problem even in the case of an impending insulation
fault as will be described in the following.
An on-line PD measurement was performed on a 448 MVA
turbogenerator in July 97. The analysis of the data did only
show normal inner discharges within an expected range. No
critical PD behavior was found and therefore it was recommended to perform a further measurement within one year to
get more data for trend analysis. The subsequent measurement
carried out in June 98 did not show critical PD either. However, one of the RTDs of the machine showed a temperature
that was about 25% higher than that of the others indicating a
local overheating within the stator winding. Before the actual
cause for this increased temperature could be determined,
shortly after the second measurement, an insulation breakdown occurred without any pre-indication by PD.

Fig. 8: Insulation breakdown without pre-indication by PD

Turbogenerator: 448 MVA / 24 kV / 60 Hz
The insulation breakdown within the overhang part of the machine is shown in Fig. 8. An extensive examination of the machine damage revealed that there had been a kind of interturn
insulation fault leading to circulating currents that finally
caused a thermal runaway and therefore an insulation breakdown. This type of insulation defect could not be detected by
PD measurements since there were no pulse-shaped local
electric discharges, i.e. PD. Instead, this breakdown of the
stator winding insulation was associated with continuous leakage currents without locally high electric fields that are required for PD inception.

Electrical Insulation Conference, EIC/EMCW99, October 26-28, 1999, Cincinnati, USA

ABB - WIDIPRO

diagnostic inspection of a machine

diagnostic database
method n
method 1

inspection i
inspection 1

ABB - PAMOS

expert system

machine m
machine 1

operating
conditions

experienced
engineer

computer
system

expert / design
knowledge

neuro / fuzzy
algorithms

data analyses / trend analyses

condition assessment

maintenance
actions

diagnostic decision
preventive maintenance
Fig. 9: Concept for stator winding insulation diagnosis on rotating machines

Conclusions and Further Developments

PD measurement and analysis is a powerful tool for a reliable
detection of locally confined insulation defects that often can
not be found by other dielectric methods. Especially the application of on-line monitoring allows condition based machine
maintenance to be performed. Consequently, the overall lifecycle costs can be significantly reduced.

References
[1]

[2]

[3]

However, PD diagnosis on rotating machines requires profound human experience in the assessment of PD results and
a large database for comparative analysis and trend investigation. In addition, it must be considered that PD diagnosis is
not a tool that allows to discover all insulation problems
within stator winding insulations, e.g. pulseless discharge phenomena. Therefore, PD diagnosis needs to be combined with
other diagnostic tools and should be integrated into a general
diagnostic concept.

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

A typical concept for the assessment of diagnostic measurements on large rotating machines is shown in Fig. 9, which
includes PD diagnosis as one of several diagnostic methods.
Especially with regard to PD diagnosis latest developments
involve the worldwide remote access to on-line measurements
in power plants in order to optimize strategies for condition
based maintenance. The application of novel discharge parameters, e.g. u, and patterns derived from the PulseSequence-Analysis [6] in combination with expert-systems
comprising modern pattern recognition algorithms [7] are currently under intense investigation. These systems are intended
to support the human expert decision. First promising results
of these new approaches that will be published soon, show that
considerable improvements of todays techniques in PD diagnosis on rotating machines can be obtained.

Hutter, W.: Partial Discharge Detection in Rotating Electrical

Machines. IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 3,
(1992), 21-32
Culbert, I.M.; Dhirani, H.; Stone, G.C.: Handbook to Assess the
Insulation Condition of Large Rotating Machines. Power Plant
Electrical Reference Series, Vol. 16, EPRI, USA, (1989)
Draft IEEE Guide to the Measurement of Partial Discharges in
Rotating Machinery. IEEE P1434, Draft 9, (1998)
Holbll, J.T.; Henriksen, M.: Frequency Dependent PD-Pulse
Distortion in Rotating Machines. IEEE Int. Symp. on Electrical
Insulation, Montral, Canada, (1996), 192-96
Zhu, H.: Analysis of Partial Discharge Calibration Difficulties
in HV Rotating Machines. Int. Symp. on High Voltage Engineering, Montral, Canada, (1997)
Hoof, M.: Pulse-Sequence-Analysis: A New Method of Partial
Discharge Diagnosis (in German). PhD-Thesis, University of
Siegen, Germany, (1997)
Hoof, M.; Patsch, R.; Freisleben, B.: GNC-Network: A New
Tool for Partial Discharge Pattern Classification. Electrical Insulation Conference, Cincinnati, USA, (1999)

author's address:
Dr.-Ing. Martin Hoof, Dipl.-Ing. Stefan Lanz
ABB Industrie AG, Dept. IME
Insulation Systems for Rotating Machines
P.O. Box 126
CH-5242 Birr
Switzerland
Fax:
+41-56-466 6902
E-mail: martin.hoof@ch.abb.com

stefan.lanz@ch.abb.com