Kenya Medical Training College

DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

[CAMPUS]

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

(MACHINES & UTILIZATION II)

ASSIGNMENT

NAME: KARIUKI RONALD WANJOHI

REG NO. D/MET/19001/030

COURSE LECTURER: MR. ISOE

 MAINTENANCE OF ELECTRICAL MACHINES:

Introduction.

Devices which directly utilize electrical energy to provide desired or expected output or result are
known as Electrical devices.

In any electrical system, there may be losses based on the material (Losses α Degraded Output).
Thus, losses should be maintained less. In order to protect these electrical systems from losses,
there are certain parameters that are to be maintained and also certain instruments are used to
keep track of the electrical systems to safeguard them.

This entails operation and care of test equipment.

 Megger.

A megger is used to measure insulation resistance. It is also known as meg-ohm-meter. It is used for
testing various electrical devices which can measure greater than 1000meg-ohms.

Insulation resistance is resistance in ohms of wires, cables, and electrical equipment, which is used
to safeguard the electrical systems like electrical motors from any accidental damages like electrical
shocks or sudden discharges of current leakages in wires.

Types of Megger

1. Electronic Type (Battery Operated) -It’s also known as electrical ohmmeter, is compact of all
types and uses a battery for operation
2. Manual Type (Hand Operated)- It provides service without the need for battery and external
power source. A hand crank is provided which can be rotated to generate the required
voltage, which runs through the electrical system for an insulation resistance test.

Construction of Megger

Working Principle

 Voltage for testing produced by hand operated megger by rotation of crank in case of hand
operated type, a battery is used for electronic tester.
 500 Volt DC is sufficient for performing test on equipment range up to 440 Volts.
 1000 V to 5000 V is used for testing for high voltage electrical systems.
 Deflecting coil or current coil connected in series and allows flowing the electric current
taken by the circuit being tested. The control coil also known as pressure coil is connected
across the circuit.
 Current limiting resistor (CCR and PCR) connected in series with control and deflecting coil to
protect damage in case of very low resistance in external circuit.
 In hand operated megger electromagnetic induction effect is used to produce the test
voltage i.e., armature arranges to move in permanent magnetic field or vice versa.
 Where as in electronic type megger battery are used to produce the testing voltage.
 As the voltage increases in external circuit the deflection of pointer increases and deflection
of pointer decreases with an increase of current.
 Hence, resultant torque is directly proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to
current.
 When electrical circuit being tested is open, torque due to voltage coil will be maximum and
pointer shows ‘infinity’ means no shorting throughout the circuit and has maximum
resistance within the circuit under test.
 If there is short circuit pointer shows ‘zero’, which means ‘NO’ resistance within circuit being
tested.

Care and Maintenance of a Megger.

General Inspection of Ohmmeter

 Check for loose connections, defective insulation, and cleanliness

 Check meter stop and pointer for damage
 Check the carrying case for corrosion, foam fungus etc.
 Check for easy cranking arrangement for mechanical ohmmeter
 Check the foam rubber lining if fitted
 Check the battery level for digital ohmmeter
 Check all indicators are working fine

General Maintenance of Ohmmeter:

 Digital multimeter is provided with a fuse. Replace it if the ohmmeter is not working
 Clean the surface from dust, dirt, grease fungus etc.
 Remove dust or dirt from terminals with a soft brush
 Clean the display using a soft cloth
 Clean the cables, meter glass, and the exterior surface with a clean, soft cloth. Dampen
the cloth with water if required

 Multimeter
A multimeter is the most commonly used instrument by technicians and engineers in the
laboratory, as well as other repair works. It can make many (multi) measurements with
reasonable accuracies such as AC and DC voltages, currents, and resistances.
 Care and Maintenance.
 Do not drop any meter. When handling a multimeter it is wise to be sure the meter
is held securely.
 Do not overload any meter. When in doubt, use a high range that you know will not
be overloaded. You can always switch to a lower range if necessary.
 Do not tamper with precision instruments.
 Before you connect a meter to a circuit, ensure that the range switch is set to an
appropriate position.
 Carefully check circuit connections before applying power to meters.
 Be careful not to touch any other electronic components within the equipment.
 Be careful not to touch the probe tips to each other while connected to anything
else.
 Never switch settings (voltage to current for example) while the probes are
connected to circuit
 They should be stored in a dry place where they will not be subject to physical
damage.

 Continuity Tester.

A continuity tester is a device that is powered by batteries and has a probe at one end and a
cord with either an alligator clip or another probe at the other end. If you touch the two
together, you complete a circuit and light is illuminated on the body of the tester, indicating
a complete circuit.
Unlike other testers, a continuity tester is always used when a circuit is turned off or on
wiring or devices that are disconnected from the circuit.
Some electricians only use these tools to test devices that are entirely disconnected from
circuit wiring. For example, the continuity tester offers a good way to see if lamp wiring is
intact or if the inner mechanism on a disconnected switch is functioning properly.
If a circuit has been turned off, a continuity tester also provides a method for checking wire
runs to make sure that a circuit is complete. You can also use them to identify short circuits
in wiring.
 Care and Maintenance of Continuity Tester.
o If you are using a continuity on a device attached to circuit wiring, always turn off
the power to the circuit or device that you're be testing. Or, disconnect the device
entirely from the circuit wiring. It can be very dangerous to use a continuity tester
on wiring that is carrying voltage.
o Periodically wipe terminals of the device with a damp cloth and mild detergent and
not abrasive solvents.
o Check the battery level of the device and replace the low batteries with new ones.

COMMON FAULTS IN ELECTRICAL MACHINE:

In an electric power system, electrical fault or fault current is any abnormal electric current caused
by equipment failures such as transformers, generators, busbars, etc. Electrical networks, machines
and equipments are often subjected to various types of faults while they are in operation.

When a fault occurs, the characteristic values (such as impedance) of the machines may change from
existing values to different values till the fault is cleared.

There may be lot of probabilities of faults to appear in the power system network, including lighting,
wind, tree falling on lines, apparatus failure, human errors etc.

Under normal or safe operating conditions, the electric equipments in a power system network
operate at normal voltage and current ratings. Once the fault takes place in a circuit or device,
voltage and current values deviates from their nominal ranges.

The faults in power system causes over current, under voltage, unbalance of the phases, reversed
power and high voltage surges. This results in the interruption of the normal operation of the
network, failure of equipments, electrical fires, etc.

Usually, power system networks are protected with switchgear protection equipments such as
circuit breakers and relays in order to limit the loss of service due to the electrical failures.

Types of Faults

Electrical faults in three-phase power system mainly classified into two types, namely open and
short circuit faults.

 Open Circuit Faults

These faults occur due to the failure of one or more conductors.

The most common causes of these faults include joint failures of cables and overhead lines, and
failure of one or more phase of circuit breaker and also due to melting of a fuse or conductor in one
or more phases.

Open circuit faults are also called as series faults. These are unsymmetrical or unbalanced type of
faults except three phase open fault.

Consider that a transmission line is working with a balanced load before the occurrence of open
circuit fault. If one of the phase gets melted, the actual loading of the alternator is reduced and this
cause to raise the acceleration of the alternator, thereby it runs at a speed slightly greater than
synchronous speed. This over speed causes over voltages in other transmission lines.
Thus, single- and two-phase open conditions can produce the unbalance of the power system
voltages and currents that causes great damage to the equipments.

Causes of Open-circuit fault.

Broken conductor and malfunctioning of circuit breaker in one or more phases.

Effects.

1) Abnormal operation of the system

2) Danger to the personnel as well as animals
3) Exceeding the voltages beyond normal values in certain parts of the network, which further
leads to insulation failures and developing of short circuit faults.
4) Although open circuit faults can be tolerated for longer periods than short circuit faults,
these must be removed as early as possible to reduce the greater damage.

 Short Circuit Faults

This can be defined as an abnormal connection of very low impedance between two points of
different potential, whether made intentionally or accidentally.

These are the most common and severe kind of faults, resulting in the flow of abnormal high
currents through the equipment or transmission lines. If these faults are allowed to persist even for
a short period, it leads to the extensive damage to the equipment.

Short circuit faults are also called as shunt faults. They caused due to the insulation failure between
phase conductors or between earth and phase conductors or both.

The various possible short circuit fault conditions include three phase to earth, three phase clear of
earth, phase to phase, single phase to earth, two phase to earth and phase to phase plus single
phase to earth.

The three-phase fault clear of earth and three phase faults to earth are balanced or symmetrical
short circuit faults while other remaining faults are unsymmetrical faults.

Causes of Short Circuit Faults.

These may be due to internal or external effects.

Internal effects include breakdown of transmission lines or equipment, aging of insulation,

deterioration of insulation in generator, transformer and other electrical equipments, improper
installations and inadequate design.

External effects include overloading of equipments, insulation failure due to lighting surges and
mechanical damage by public.

Effects of Short Circuit Faults.

1) Arcing faults can lead to fire and explosion in equipments such as transformers and circuit
breakers.
2) Abnormal currents cause the equipments to get overheated, which further leads to
reduction of life span of their insulation.
3) The operating voltages of the system can go below or above their acceptance values that
creates harmful effect to the service rendered by the power system.
 4) The power flow is severely restricted or even completely blocked as long as the short circuit
fault persists.
5) Symmetrical and Unsymmetrical Faults
6) As discussed above that faults are mainly classified into open and short circuit faults and
again these can be symmetrical or unsymmetrical faults.

 Symmetrical Faults
A symmetrical fault gives rise to symmetrical fault currents that are displaced with 1200 each
other.It is also called as balanced fault. This fault occurs when all the three phases are
simultaneously short circuited.

These faults rarely occur in practice as compared with unsymmetrical faults. Two kinds of
symmetrical faults include line to line to line (L-L-L) and line to line to line to ground (L-L-L-G).

If these faults occur, they cause a very severe damage to the equipments even though the system
remains in balanced condition.

The analysis of these faults is required for selecting the rupturing capacity of the circuit breakers,
choosing set-phase relays and other protective switchgear.

 Unsymmetrical Faults
The most common faults that occur in the power system network are unsymmetrical faults. This kind
of fault gives rise to unsymmetrical fault currents (having different magnitudes with unequal phase
displacement). These faults are also called as unbalanced faults as it causes unbalanced currents in
the system.

Unsymmetrical faults include both open circuit faults (single- and two-phase open condition) and
short circuit faults (excluding L-L-L-G and L-L-L).

Protection Devices against Faults

When the fault occurs in any part of the system, it must be cleared in a very short period in order to
avoid greater damage to equipments and personnel and also to avoid interruption of power to the
customers.

The fault clearing system uses various protection devices such as relays and circuit breakers to
detect and clear the fault.

Some of these faults clearing or faults limiting devices are given below.

 Fuse

It opens the circuit whenever a fault exists in the system. It consists of a thin copper wire enclosed in
a glass or a casing with two metallic contacts. The high fault current rises the temperature of the
wire and hence it melts. A fuse necessitates the manual replacement of wire each time when it
blows.

 Circuit Breaker

It is the most common protection device that can make or break the circuit either manually or
through remote control under normal operating conditions.
There are several types of circuit breakers available depending on the operating voltage, including
air brake, oil, vacuum and SF6 circuit breakers.

 Protective Relays

These are the fault detecting devices. These devices detect the fault and initiate the operation of the
circuit breaker so as to isolate the faulty circuit. A relay consists of a magnetic coil and contacts (NC
and NO). The fault current energizes the coil and this causes to produce the field, thereby the
contacts get operated.

Some of the types of protective relays include

i. Magnitude relays
ii. Impedance relays
iii. Directional relays
iv. Pilot relays
v. Differential relays

 Lighting Arrestor

Surges in the power system network caused when lightning strikes on transmission lines and
equipments. This causes high voltage and currents in the system. These lighting faults are reduced
by placing lighting arrestors at transmission equipments.

Procedure for fault diagnosis in Machines

i. Check the continuity for the winding using a continuity tester.

ii. Check the insulation (using megger) resistance.
iii. Check for open circuit
iv. Check the belts alignments
v. Check bearings
vi. Check mountings

References
 An adaptation of Trades Access Common Core Line E: Electrical Fundamentals
Competency E-4: Use of Multi-Meters, Brent Pfifer
 Care Labs
 Electronicshub.org