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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 17, NO. 2, APRIL 2002

Modeling Transformers With Internal Incipient Faults

Hang Wang, Student Member, IEEE, and Karen L. Butler, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractIncipient fault detection in transformers can provide early warning of electrical failure and could prevent catastrophic losses. To develop transformer incipient fault detection technique, a transformer model to simulate internal incipient faults is required. This paper presents a methodology to model internal incipient winding faults in distribution transformers. These models were implemented by combining deteriorating insulation models with an internal short circuit fault model. The internal short circuit fault model was developed using finite element analysis. The deteriorating insulation model, including an aging model and an arcing model connected in parallel, was developed based on the physical behavior of aging insulation and the arcing phenomena occurring when the insulation was severely damaged. The characteristics of the incipient faults from the simulation were compared with those from some potential experimental incipient fault cases. The comparison showed the experimentally obtained characteristics of terminal behaviors of the faulted transformer were similar to the simulation results from the incipient fault models. Index TermsAging, arcing, distribution transformer, finiteelement analysis, internal incipient winding fault, modeling.

I. INTRODUCTION NTERNAL winding faults resulting from the degradation of transformer winding insulation can be catastrophic and hence expensive. In the new environment of deregulation, utilities therefore are needing inexpensive methods employed to detect such faults in the incipient stage. However, the implementations of the existing monitoring methods [1][4] tend to cost too much to be applied to distribution transformers. Therefore, an ongoing project in the Power Systems Automation Laboratory (PSAL) of Texas A&M University is to develop an on-line incipient fault detection method for single-phase distribution transformers that utilizes the terminal parameters of voltages and currents. The development of an accurate internal fault diagnostic technique for transformers must be based on the analysis of quantities from fault scenarios. Considering the safety of personnel, the damage that will occur in the transformer, the consumed time, and related cost, simulation involving the modeling of transformers at various incipient fault stages is the best way to generate these fault cases. Several transformer models have been developed for the study of transformers with internal short circuit winding faults [5][9] and some research work on the representation of insulation material was done in the past [10][12]. However, none of them discussed how to simulate an internal incipient
Manuscript received May 7, 2001. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through Grant ECS-9522208. The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Power Systems Automation Laboratory,Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3128 USA. Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8977(02)02742-5.

fault in transformers. This paper presents a new methodology developed to model internal incipient winding faults in distribution transformers based on the authors earlier work involving the development of a two-dimensional (2-D) nonlinear finite element analysis internal short circuit fault model [9]. This method contains a degrading insulation model and a transformer internal short circuit fault model. Since deteriorating insulation involves two stages aging and arcing, the degrading insulation model is composed of an aging model and an arcing model connected in parallel. The degrading insulation model was combined with the internal short circuit model, developed in our earlier work, to simulate internal winding incipient faults. The transformer internal incipient fault model was implemented using commercially available finite element analysis software. Various incipient fault scenarios at different degrading levels of the transformer winding insulation were simulated. In these fault scenarios, the terminal voltages and currents of the transformer were analyzed in both time domain and frequency domain. The characteristics obtained from the simulation were compared with the characteristics obtained from some experimental fault cases that conveyed incipient-like behavior. In this paper, the transformer model to simulate internal short circuit winding faults is briefly introduced in Section II. Then the method to simulate an incipient internal winding fault is discussed in more detail in Section III. In Section IV, some simulation results are discussed and compared with experimental results. The conclusions are given in Section V. II. INTERNAL SHORT CIRCUIT FAULT MODEL A method was developed to apply finite element analysis to calculate the parameters for an equivalent circuit of the transformer with an internal short circuit fault using ANSOFTs Maxwell Software [9]. The 2-D Magnetostatic solver in the package was used to compute the model of the transformer and export an equivalent circuit in the format of SPICE subcircuits. Using finite element analysis to solve problems involves three stages. The first step consists of meshing the problem space into contiguous elements of suitable geometry and assigning appropriate values of the material parametersconductivity, permeability, and permittivityto each element. Since an object with permeability equal to 1 in a magnetic model does not need to be modeled, the insulation between the turns and layers were ignored completely. The core was represented by a rectangle with two windows. The nonlinear characteristics of the core were input manually into the solver and assigned to the core. To model an internal fault on the primary or secondary winding, the faulted winding is divided into two subcoils a and b (turn-to-earth fault) or three subcoils a, b, and c

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(a) Fig. 1. Transformer model to simulate an internal fault.

(b)

(turn-to-turn fault). The primary winding and the secondary windings are represented by polygons of corresponding materials. For instance, to simulate a turn-to-earth fault on the primary winding, the transformer is modeled as shown in the Fig. 1(a). The primary winding is divided into two subcoils a and b. The transformer model to simulate a turn-to-turn fault between two turns on the primary winding is represented as shown in Fig. 1(b). The primary winding is divided into three coils, a, b, and c. Second, the model has to be excited to set up the initial conditions. Since the subcoil with the maximum number of turns contributes more in the magnetic field, the current source is input into that subcoil and all the other coils are open-circuit. In the above example, since subcoil b in Fig. 1(a) and subcoil c in Fig. 1(b) represent more turns, respectively, they are energized by the current source. Finally, the boundary conditions for the problem have to be specified. Balloon boundary is adopted in the simulation. Balloon boundaries model the region outside the drawing space as being nearly infinitely large; thus, it can effectively isolate the model from other voltage sources. In post-processing, the calculated parameters can be exported into a SPICE subcircuit based on field solutions created in the Maxwell 2-D field solver. The equivalent circuit derived from the finite element analysis is displayed as a black box with a set of interface terminals. The internal faults are simulated by shorting the two terminals or connecting one terminal to the ground. To simulate an incipient internal winding fault, a model of degraded insulation before breakdown replaced the switch between two turns to model an incipient internal winding fault. III. DETERIORATING INSULATION MODEL The deteriorating insulation between the turns is a major cause of incipient internal winding faults in transformers. During the operation of the transformer, a strong electric field is applied to the dielectric material. It can result in the aging and deterioration of the insulation. The relevant factors generally recognized as causing the aging and deterioration of an insulation include thermal stresses, electrical stresses, mechanical stresses, moisture, and so on [13]. Thermal stresses are caused by the internal heating due to current overloads plus ambient temperatures. Electrical stresses are caused by the voltage gradient in the insulation. Under normal operating conditions, high voltage gradients below the breakdown voltage do not cause detectable aging. However at elevated tempera-

tures, electrical stresses may act to further accelerate material degradation. Mechanical stresses are caused by assembly configurations, manufacturing techniques, centrifugal forces and vibration. Moisture is another major cause of lowered dielectric properties. It can form a conductive path on the surfaces of material or react with the material to cause chemical reversion. The structure of a dielectric may be altered significantly during the aging process, and these changes will affect the electrical properties of the dielectric even before insulation failure occurs [13], [14]. The relaxation processes a dielectric undergoes, and hence the characteristics of dielectric loss, depend on the structure. As the structure of the dielectric molecules alter during aging, the dielectric characteristics and electrical properties change. Normal aging of the insulation may be manifested by the gradual reduction in its withstand capability over a long period of time. In addtion, discharges would like to take place on the surface of the solid insulation or within enclosed voids. The gas ions driven by the electric field would hit on the wall of the insulation and react chemically with some of its surface layer molecules. Thus chemical and thermal degradation of the insulating material occurs at these microscopic sites. When a persistent discharge continues, it is called an arc discharge. This can result in the failure of the dielectric and a sudden breakdown under operating voltage. To simulate the incipient internal winding faults completely, both the aging phase and the arcing phase have to be taken into account. Therefore, a combination of an insulation aging model and an arcing model was developed to model an incipient internal winding fault. A. Aging Model In considering the electrical behavior of dielectric material, it has been traditional to approach the subject in terms of an equivalent parallel circuit as shown in Fig. 2 [14]. is the applied voltage and is the current through the insulation. is the capacitive component of current and the resistive component of represents the lossy part the current is . The resistance of the dielectric, taking account of the losses that may result from electronic and ionic conductivity, dipole orientation and of the dielectric space charge polarization. The capacitance is the equivalent capacitance in the is given by (1), where is the relative permittivity or vacuum of the insulation and dielectric constant (1) In Fig. 2(b), is defined as the loss angle, which represents is commonly the dielectric energy losses in the insulation. is the power known as loss tangent or dissipation factor. factor of the dielectric. For a perfect dielectric, the loss is very small ( 0); the current leads the applied voltage by 90 degrees. During aging of the dielectric, the loss increases; therefore the angle between the current vector and the applied voltage is less than 90 degrees. The dissipation factor may also be expressed as (2) (2)

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of a dielectric material. (a) Parallel equivalent circuit. (b) Corresponding phasor diagram.

Fig. 3. turn.

Concentrated insulation model between the th turn and (

r + m)th

Fig. 4. Arcing voltage and current.

The dissipation factor is generally used for describing macroscopic properties of dielectric material. The energy dissipated . The variation as heat in the dielectric is proportional to with the applied voltage is an important relation which of gives useful information about the quality of the insulation and whether an imperfection exists in the insulation [15], [16]. Therefore, in the work reported in this paper, we investigated the modeling of the deterioration of the insulation by varying the dissipation factors to represent the different degradation levels of the insulation. Then the equivalent resistance and capacitance corresponding to the selected dissipation factor were computed. These values represent the insulation at a specific degradation level. The equivalent resistance and capacitance of the insulation between the adjacent turns can be calculated based on the geometry information and the material properties of the insulation. which represents the Then a reasonable dissipation factor, degrading degree of the insulation, is selected. Since the equivalent capacitance, , changes little, the resistance in the equivalent circuit of the insulation between two adjacent turns can be computed by (3) (3) After the equivalent circuit of the insulation between the adjacent turns is obtained, the aging model of the insulation between )th turn can be illustrated as shown in the th turn and ( , . Fig. 3, where B. Arcing Model An arc is defined as a continuous luminous discharge of electricity across an insulating medium, usually accompanied by the partial volatilization of the electrodes [17]. Arcs may develop from a spark when arc tracking occurs across a partially conductive surface, such as damaged insulation. Once extinguished, an arc requires a potential, known as the restrike voltage, to reignite the arc. After an AC current becomes zero, the restrike voltage establishes the potential needed to restrike the arc with the opposite polarity. From experimental results and analysis, Schurig reported that the arc voltage is usually flap-topped and that the magnitude of arcing fault currents ranged from 57% to 100% of the available short-circuit current [18].

(a)

(b)

Fig. 5. Equivalent circuits of the arc (a) during the burning period (b) during the extinction period.

The arcing characteristics are illustrated in Fig. 4. The figure shows the simple case of arcing current and arcing voltage in a resistive load circuit. The dotted line is the arcing current; the solid line is the arcing voltage; the dash-dot line is the system voltage. The arc ignites only after sufficient voltage is across the gap. It extinguishes when voltage drops below that needed to sustain the arc. Arcing voltage is almost a square wave, except for the transient near current zero. In the figure, the magniis the voltage needed to sustain the tude of the square wave, arc. The choppiness of the voltage trace indicates another distinct characteristic of the arc, that of a high-frequency voltage source. In addition, arcing is random. Once it starts, it may be interspersed with segments of normal current. The rms value of arc current and energy is less than that of a bolted fault. For arcs of very small length, such as the arcing between two turns of a transformer winding, a fixed back voltage opposing the source is commonly used to represent the arc as shown in Fig. 5 [19]. The equivalent circuit comprises a resistance and an inductance that are functions of the arc length , its current , and the currents rate of change with time . The above parameters can be experimentally obtained. Fig. 5(a) would apply for both dc and ac circuits during periods when the arc is burning. During periods of effective current zero, however, the arc can , that increases with be represented by a high resistance, represents the stray capacitance. time. In Fig. 5(b), Since the insulation between the two layers or the two turns in the windings is very thin, the resistance , inductance and the in the equivalent circuit are small enough stray capacitance to be ignored. Thus, the arcing model can be represented by the is a equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 6. The voltage source random square wave representing the equivalent arcing voltage. S1 and S2 are time-controlled switches. If there is no arcing in the circuit, S1 is closed and S2 is open, and the value of is

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TABLE II PARAMETERS IN AGING MODEL FOR PRIMARY FAULT P15_55

Fig. 6. Arcing model for incipient internal winding faults.

similar to those from the field tests, this paper focuses on discussing the implementation of the parallel combination model and the corresponding simulation results. IV. IMPLEMENTATION AND SIMULATION RESULTS A. Transformer Parameters Simulations were carried out based on a custom-built 25 kVA, 60 Hz, single-phase, shell-form transformer used for field experiments. The design data were as follows. The rated voltage ratio was 7200 V/240 V/120 V. The normal impedance was 1.75%, and normal reactance was 1.62%. The turns ratio was 780/26. The primary winding was made of copper; the secondary subwindings were made of aluminum. The insulation between the layers in the custom-built transformer was made of Aramid paper. The custom-built transformer was equipped with various taps placed on both windings so that internal faults could be performed by connecting two taps or connecting a tap to ground [21]. B. Incipient Faults With Aging Model Only zero. When equals to , the model represents arcing. When S1 is closed and S2 is open, the arcing model is in the burning period. Otherwise, when S1 is open and S2 is closed, the arcing model is in the extinction period. C. Combination Models Fig. 7 represents the parallel combination model. Table I shows the values of various parameters in the different periods of this model. The parallel model represents a perfect insulation is zero and when S1 and S2 are open; the value of is a very large resistance so that the current in the insulation is is almost zero. To represent deteriorating insulation, decreased to a small value. When the random square wave is zero, S1 and S2 are open. The model represents the nonarcing , the model deteriorating insulation. When the value of is represents the degrading insulation with arcing. In this case, when S1 is closed and S2 is open, the model simulates the burning period. If S1 is open and S2 is closed, it models the extinction period. The aging model and the arcing model can also be connected in series into a series combination insulation model. In [20] the simulation using the series combination insulation model was discussed in more detail. Since the comparison between the simulation and the field test results showed the terminal characteristics obtained from the parallel combination model were more Based on the transformer information listed above and the modeling principles discussed in Section II, the parameters of the equivalent circuit for the perfect insulation between two adjacent turns of the transformer were calculated. According to the literatures and previous experimental results, the equivalent , changes little. Therefore, we fix the equivacapacitance, , the different values lent capacitance. Then, by changing for the various fault scenarios were computed using (3) of to represent the insulation in different degraded levels. For instance, to simulate an incipient winding fault between the 15th turn and the 55th turn on the primary winding, the parameters in the insulation model for different deteriorated insulation levels are shown in Table II. The equivalent capacitance for the insulation between 15th and 55th turns was 89 nF. For the perfect insulation of Aramid paper as shown in Case 1, the dissipation , was 0.006. Thus the calculated result for the equivfactor, alent resistance was 49.0 M using (3). With the deterioration of the insulation, the dissipation factor increased. When the dissipation factor increased to 3 10 as shown in Case 11, the insulation was broken down completely. Thus, according to the similar method, the equivalent resistances for all of the cases listed in Table II were calculated. After the aging model was obtained, it was combined with the FEA internal short circuit fault model to investigate the terminal behaviors of the transformer when the insulation is degrading. When the incipient fault occurred between the 15th

Fig. 7.

Parallel combination model for the insulation.

TABLE I SUMMARY OF VALUES OF VARIABLES DURING DIFFERENT PERIODS

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(a) (a)

(b) Fig. 9. Terminal voltage and currents with the aging model to simulate secondary incipient fault. (a) Relationship between primary current and R . (b) Relationship between secondary current and R . (b) Fig. 8. Terminal currents with the aging model to simulate primary incipient fault. (a) Relationship between primary current and R . (b) Relationship between secondary current and R .

and the 55th turns on the primary winding, the relationships between the RMS values of primary current and secondary curare illustrated in rent in one power cycle and the resistance Fig. 8(a) and (b). From the plots, some conclusions were obwas larger than 10 , the primary curtained. First, when rent was very close to the transformer rated values. In other was words, the transformer was in good condition. When less than 0.01 , the primary current was approximately equal to the internal short circuit current. Namely, an internal short-circuit fault occurred in the transformer. When the value of was in the range of [0.01, 10], the primary current changed between the rated current and the short circuit current value. That shows an incipient fault occurred in the transformer. Second, the secondary voltage and current were almost at the rated values when an incipient internal winding fault existed in the transformer. Fig. 9(a) and (b) show the relationships between the RMS values of primary current and secondary current in one power when the incipient fault occurred cycle and the resistance between the tenth and the 13th turns on the secondary winding. was larger than 1 , the primary current was Similarly, when very close to the rated values and the transformer was in good was less than 0.0001 , the primary current condition. When was approximately equal to the internal short circuit current and an internal short-circuit fault occurred in the transformer. When increased from 0.0001 to 1 , the primary the value of current decreased from the short circuit current to the rated current. That shows an incipient fault occurred in the transformer. decreased, i.e., the insulation was Also, when the resistance deteriorating, the secondary voltage and current decreased from their normal values. C. Incipient Fault With Aging and Arcing Models After the aging model and arcing model were implemented, they were combined into a combination model for the insulation

and paralleled with the internal short circuit fault model in the Maxwell Spice, as shown in Fig. 7. The aging model and the arcing model connected in parallel were used to investigate terminal voltages and currents, and the circulating current flowing through the insulation model when the insulation was degrading and the arcing phenomena appeared. , in the parFor the case where the insulation resistance, is equal allel model was 0.1 (i.e., the dissipation factor and the time sequences to 3 10 ), and the waveforms of to control S1 and S2 in Fig. 7 were as shown in Fig. 10, respectively, the waveforms of primary current ( ), secondary current ( ) and the circulating current ( ) are shown in Fig. 11. In Fig. 10, the arcing voltage is 260 V. When the time sequence is 1, the controlled switch is on; if it is 0, the switch is off. In Fig. 11, when there was no arcing, for instance, at time s, the primary current and circulating current were very large and close to the short circuit current level for this s, the case. When arcing occurred, such as at time primary current and the circulating current was less than the internal short circuit current values. During the full time frame of the case, the secondary current did not change much. To investigate more characteristics of the arcing from transformer incipient faults, the waveforms of the primary current were investigated in the frequency domain. Since the frequency domain of the secondary current was dominated by 60 Hz component, only the frequency characteristics of primary current are discussed in this section. In addition, because the fundamental component, 60 Hz, is so large that other frequency components are hardly seen, the primary current was filtered by a simulated digital 60 Hz notch filter before the FFT analysis was performed. In the simulation, the sampling rate was 3840 Hz. A 64-point FFT was performed over one power cycle. Fig. 12 shows the frequency spectrum of the primary current at time of 0.025 s when parallel combination model was used to simulate the incipient fault between the 15th and 55th turns on the primary winding. The waveforms in time domain for this case were shown in Fig. 11. In this case, the insulation resistance

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(a)

(a)

(b) (b)

(c) Fig. 10. Waveforms of E(t) and time sequences to control S1 and S2 for P15_55. (a) Waveform of E (t). (b) Time sequence to control S1. (c) Time sequence to control S2.

(c) Fig. 11. Terminal currents and circulating current for the transformer with an incipient internal fault between the 15th and the 55th turns on primary winding (R = 0.1
). (a) Primary current. (b) Secondary current. (c) Circulating current.

in the insulation model was 0.1 . The current harmonic components were concentrated in the lower frequencies below 960 Hz. Of these frequency components, the odd harmonics were the dominant frequencies accounting for 29% of the total primary current, respectively. The even harmonics comprised only 8% of the primary current. The dc component comprised 6% of the total primary current. The fundamental 60 Hz component in the filtered primary current comprised only 4% of the total primary current. Similarly, the parallel combination model of the insulation was used to model an incipient winding fault between the 10th and 13th turns on the secondary winding. Fig. 13 shows the and time sequences to control switch S1 and waveforms of S2 in this case. Fig. 14 presents waveforms of terminal currents and the cirin the aging model was culating current when the resistance is equal to 5.4 10 . At 0.1 and the dissipation factor s, the waveform shows no arcing. The insulatime tion was in the aging phase so that the primary current and secondary current were higher than the normal rated current. At the same time, a small circulating current flowed in the faulty turns. During the arcing period, for instance, at time s, the waveform shows large pulse currents flowed through the

Fig. 12. Frequency analysis of primary current for the transformer with an incipient internal fault between the 15th and 55th turns on the primary winding (R = 0.1
, t = 0:025 s).

primary winding and faulted turns. The secondary current decreased during arcing. Fig. 15 shows the spectrum of the primary current at time of 0.025 s in the case shown in Fig. 14(a). In the scenario, a secondary incipient fault was simulated between the tenth and 13th of 0.1 . The spectrum turns with the insulation resistance of the primary current shows that the third harmonic was the dominant harmonic, accounting for approximately 25% of the s. The specpeak value of the total primary current at trum shown in Fig. 15 showed 39% was concentrated in the odd

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(a)

(a)

(b)

(b)

(c) Fig. 13. Waveforms of E(t) and time sequences to control S1 and S2 for S10_13. (a) Waveform of E (t). (b) Time sequence to control S1. (c) Time sequence to control S2. (c) Fig. 14. Terminal currents and circulating current for the transformer with an incipient internal fault between the tenth and 13th turn on the secondary winding (R = 0.1
).

harmonics and 11% in the even harmonics. The remaining 50% was the fundamental 60 Hz component which were filtered out before the FFT analysis. Since the dc offset of the primary current was small, the dc component in the spectrum was small. Compared with the spectrum shown in Fig. 12, the percentage of third harmonics shown in Fig. 12 is more distinct. This is because the deterioration levels of the insulation in the two cases was 0.1 W and the dissiwere different. When resistance was equal to 5.4 10 , the deterioration of pation factor the insulation between tenth and 13th turns on the secondary winding was not very severe. Thus, the primary current during arcing period is larger than that in nonarcing period. So the spectrum shows a large third harmonics. However in the case shown , was equal to 3 10 for the same . Thus the in Fig. 12, deterioration of the insulation between 15th and 55th turns on the primary winding was very severe. This leads to the result that the primary current during nonarcing period was larger than the primary current in arcing period. Therefore, the spectrum shows a large fundamental component. D. Comparison With Incipient-Like Behavior During Field Experiments Internal short circuit winding fault field experiments were performed on the custom-built transformer at Texas A&M University Downed Conductor Test Facility [20]. The development

Fig. 15. Frequency analysis of primary current for the transformer with an incipient internal fault between tenth th and 13th turns on the secondary winding (R = 0.1
, t = 0:025 s).

of the experimental methodology for staging incipient faults is still ongoing. However, it was noticed at some point during the short circuit field tests that the tests were conveying arcing phenomena. Recordings of the field experiments were analyzed for the purpose of characterizing the incipient-like behaviors of the transformers. The characteristics from the field tests were compared with the characteristics obtained from the simulations. In the experiments, the transformer was supplied by a single-phase lateral distribution line through a fuse and an oil switch. Considering the excessive and dangerous levels of the circulating current, the turns were shorted through a fuse. The

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Fig. 17. Frequency spectrum of the notch filtered primary current (t = 28:9 s). (a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 16. Terminal currents for field test internal short circuit fault between the tenth and 13th turns on the secondary winding. (a) Primary current. (b) Secondary current. (c) Circulating current.

primary voltage, secondary voltage, secondary current, primary current and circulating current were stepped down by potential transformers (PT), current transformers (CT), and an interface box for monitoring by a computer acquisition system. Using the experimental setup in [21], 109 internal short circuit fault tests were performed over a two-year period. After 20 months and 94 internal short circuit fault tests, some phenomena appearing during the experiments indicated that the transformer was in the deteriorating condition. For instance, a buzzing sound was heard in some experiments, a smell was noticeable, and arcing-like phenomena was observed in the waveforms of the recorded signals. This suggests that at some location or locations in the transformer, the insulation was severely degraded.

At this point, a series of load and short circuit tests were performed on two separate days to determine where the deteriorating insulation was located. During the load tests, contrary to expectations, arcing-like phenomena appeared. Finally at some point during tests on the third day, the transformer windings burst out of the transformer casing during a turn-to-earth fault between the 15th turn on the primary winding and ground. The first fault scenario in which arcing apparently was shown was a secondary short circuit fault between the tenth and 13th turns, which represented the 95th field test. When the experiment was performed, a smell was emitted by the transformer winding, which was noticeable from the observation deck about 10 m from the transformer. The time domain waveforms of primary current, secondary current and circulating current are plotted in Fig. 16(a)(c), respectively. The transformer was energized at about 5 s and the internal short circuit fault was introduced at about 28.7 s. Fig. 16 shows the waveforms in the time frame of [28.8, 29.2] s when arcing was very active. In the normal condition, the peak value of the primary current should be around 5 A. If a solid, internal short circuit is introduced between the tenth and 13th turns, the peak value of the primary current should be about 30 A. However, in this case, the peak value of the primary current was about 10 A. The waveform of unfiltered signal indicates the arcing discharge appeared in some part of the transformer winding. Fig. 16(b) shows the secondary current; in this case, the secondary current decreased during the time when arcing occurred, which suggested the insulation on the secondary winding was degrading. The circulating current shown in Fig. 16(c) shows some characteristics similar to the simulation results obtained from the incipient fault model in Fig. 14(c). The random large current sparks indicate the insulation in the transformer winding were in a degrading condition. Thus, some arcing discharge appeared in the transformer winding and conveyed itself in the terminal currents and the circulating current. From the waveforms, it is supposed that the deterioration of the insulation was in its beginning period since the primary current, secondary current were approximately the normal values and circulating current was almost zero in the nonarcing period. Fig. 17 shows the FFT of one power cycle after the fault for the primary current through a 60 Hz notch filter when arcing phenomena appeared between the tenth and 13th turns on the secondary winding at time 28.9 s in Fig. 16. The result shows that the notch filtered primary current was composed of frequency components below 360 Hz. Of the low-frequency

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current harmonics components, the third harmonic comprised 45% of the magnitude of the notch-filtered primary current. The small dc component in the spectrum matched the small dc offset in the primary current. The frequency spectrum shows that 55% of the notch filtered primary current was concentrated in the odd harmonics and 6% in the even harmonics comprised The percentage of odd harmonics was much larger than the even harmonics. This characteristic matched the simulation result shown in Fig. 15. The analysis of the experimental results [21] shows that when the insulation was deteriorating to some point, arcing phenomena would appear and could be monitored in the primary current, secondary current and circulating current. The waveforms in time domain showed that arcing current composed of two periods, arcing burning period and arcing extinction period. During the burning period, big current sparks often occurred in the primary current and circulating current. The magnitudes of arcing currents were less than the values of current during internal short circuit faults. During the extinction period, the circulating current was close to zero and primary current was close to the normal current. In the frequency domain, the frequency components were concentrated in the low frequencies below 960 Hz. In the harmonic components, the percentage of odd harmonics was larger than that of even harmonics as shown in Fig. 15. The results from the simulations using the internal incipient fault model presented in this paper showed similar characteristics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors highly appreciate P. Palmer-Buckle for providing the experimental results and ANSOFT technical support personnel, M. Christini, for his assistance.

REFERENCES
[1] C. E. Lin, J. M. Ling, and C. L. Huang, Expert system for transformer fault diagnosis using dissolved gas analysis, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 8, pp. 231238, Jan. 1993. [2] W. Yue, H. Zhuxiao, and Z. Jiaxiang, Expediting cellulose insulation aging evaluation and life prediction thorough degree of polymerization measurements, in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. Properties Appl. Dielectric Materials, 1988, pp. 328331. [3] A. Noro, K. Nakamura, T. Watanabe, and T. Morita, Acoustic-based real-time partial discharge location in model transformer, in Proc. ICSPAT, pp. 10771082. [4] J. Bak-Jensen, B. Bak-Jensen, and S. D. Mikkelsen, Detection of faults and aging phenomena in transformers by transfer functions, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 10, pp. 308314, Jan. 1995. [5] P. Bastard, P. Bertrand, and M. Meunier, A transformer model for winding fault studies, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 9, pp. 690699, Mar. 1994. [6] A. Guzman, D. Hou, and S. E. Zocholl, Transformer modeling as applied to differential protection, in Proc. Can. Conf. Elect. Comput. Eng., vol. 1, 1996, pp. 108114. [7] H. Wang and K. L. Butler, Modeling transformer with internal winding faults by calculating leakage factors, in Proc. 31st North Amer. Power Symp., San Luis Obispo, CA, Oct. 1999, pp. 176182. [8] H. Wang, P. Palmer-Buckle, and K. L. Butler, Transformer models for detection of incipient internal winding faults, in Proc. 30th North Amer. Power Symp., Cleveland, OH, Oct. 1998, pp. 9098. [9] H. Wang and K. L. Butler, Finite element analysis of internal winding faults in distribution transformers, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 16, pp. 422427, July 2001. [10] J. Hong, Y. Lee, K. Kim, H. Shin, and S. Kim, Dielectric characteristics on insulation oil due to the aging by electron beam irradiation, in Proc. Fifth Int. Conf. Properties Appl. Dielectric Materials, vol. 1, 1997, pp. 170173. [11] G. Yilmaz and O. Kalenderli, Dielectric properties of aged polyester films, in Annu. Rep. IEEE Conf. Elect. Insul. Dielect. Phenomena, vol. 2, 1997, pp. 444446. [12] B. Fatmi, A. Bui, C. Boisdon, and P. Vuarchex, PPS electrical properties for power transformers, IEEE Trans. Dielect. Elect. Insul., vol. 5, pp. 618621, July 1998. [13] R. Bartnikas, Engineering dielectrics volume II BElectrical properties of solid insulating materials: Measurement techniques, , Philadelphia, PA, Special Tech. Pub. 926, 1987. [14] N. H. Malik, A. A. Al-Arainy, and M. I. Qureshi, Electrical Insulation in Power Systems. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1998. [15] J. P. Bellomo, A. Baye, and T. Lebey, Ageing properties of polyimide and polyester films: Experimental results and discussion, in Conf. Rec. IEEE Int. Symp. Elect. Insul., vol. 1, 1998, pp. 177180. [16] J. P. Bellomo, T. Lebey, J. M. Oraison, and F. Peltier, Study of the ageing of different dielectrics under specific electrical constraints, in Proc. Fourth Int. Conf. Properties Appl. Dielect. Materials, vol. 2, 1994, pp. 796799. [17] R. H. Lee, The other electrical hazard: Electric arc blast burns, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. IA-18, pp. 246251, May 1982. [18] O. R. Schurig, Fault voltage drop and impedance at short-circuit currents in low-voltage circuits, AIEE Trans., vol. 60, pp. 479487, 1941. [19] T. Gammon and J. Matthews, The historical evolution of arcing-fault models for low-voltage systems, in Proc. IEEE Ind. Commercial Power Syst. Tech. Conf., 1999, pp. 16. [20] H. Wang, Models for short circuit and incipient internal faults in singlephase distribution transformers, Ph.D. dissertation, Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX, May 2001. [21] P. Palmer-Buckle, A Methodology for experimentally verifying simulation models for distribution transformer internal faults, M.S. thesis, Texas A&M Univ., College Station, Dec. 1998.

V. CONCLUSIONS This paper presented a new transformer model to simulate an internal incipient winding fault. The new transformer model was implemented by combining deteriorating insulation model with a finite element analysis internal short circuit fault model. The new deteriorating insulation model, which includes an aging model and an arcing model, was developed based on the physical behavior of aging insulation and the arcing phenomena occurring when the insulation was severely damaged. The aging model and the arcing model of the insulation were connected in parallel to produce a parallel combination insulation model. The parallel combination insulation model was combined with the internal short circuit model to predict the terminal voltages and currents of the transformer under various incipient fault conditions. The characteristics of the terminal currents and circulating current in the faulted winding were analyzed in time domain and frequency domain. Some incipient-like fault cases obtained from internal short circuit field tests were also analyzed in time domain and frequency domain. The comparisons between the incipient-like fault experimental test cases and simulation results showed that terminal behaviors of the faulted transformer obtained from the field tests show some similar characteristics to those from simulations using the parallel combination model. In future work, the incipient fault transformer model will be used to generate a database of incipient internal winding faults in distribution transformers for the development of intelligent transformer fault detection techniques.

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Hang Wang (S97) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1994 and 1997, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, in May 2001. She is currently a Research Assistant with the Power System Automation Laboratory at Texas A&M. Her research focuses on incipient fault detection in single-phase, distribution transformers. Dr. Wang is a student member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society.

Karen L. Butler (SM02) received the B.S. degree from Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, in 1985, the M.S. degree from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1987, and the Ph.D. degree from Howard University, Washington, DC, in 1994, all in electrical engineering. She is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station. From 1988 to 1989, she was a Member of Technical Staff at Hughes Aircraft Co., Culver City, CA. Her research focuses on the areas of computer and intelligent systems applications in power, power distribution automation, and modeling and simulation of power systems and vehicles. Dr. Butler received an NSF Early Career Award in 1996 and an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 1999. She is a member of the IEEE Power Engineering Society and the Louisiana Engineering Society. She is a Registered Professional Engineer in the states of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi.