2013 Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena

The Nonlinear Behavior of the Transformer

Insulation System
J. Cheng P. Werelius D. Robalino D. Wang
Megger China Megger Sweden AB Megger USA Suzhou Power Supply Company
567 Langao Road 19 Rinkebyvagen 4271 Bronze Way 599 Laodong Road
200000 Shanghai, China 182 36 Danderyd, Sweden TX 75237 Dallas, U.S. 215004, Suzhou, China

Power factor/dissipation factor testing of transmission

Abstract- Dielectric Response Analysis of power transformer is transformers is usually performed at 10 kV and at line
widely used in a number of field tests and research projects. Both frequency, while the voltage of IR testing depends on the
Dielectric Frequency Response (DFR) and Polarization and rating of power transformers. DFR and PDC methods are
Depolarization Current (PDC) combined with proper paper-oil
usually performed at low voltages, typically below 2 kVpp.
modeling are able to give more reliable condition assessment of
power transformers. Power factor/dissipation factor test at power The voltage dependence of the oil - paper insulation system is
frequency (50/60 Hz) usually exhibits a flat response as a function investigated and analyzed in this paper. The thorough research
of test voltage if the insulation is in good condition. However, the is done on a medium size transformer located in Sweden. For
voltage dependent behavior starts to appear if the existence of the other components, the voltage dependent feature is presented
polarization voltage is prolonged. The mineral oil and cellulose of and discussed briefly
the transformer/bushing insulation system form the interface
where electric charges accumulate and thus the nonlinear II. DFR TESTING AND PDC TESTING
property shows. The nonlinear property depends on the electric
field strength as well as the geometry of the insulation system. The insulation PF (DF or tan δ ) testing of power
Several transformers with different power ratings and a transformers is carried out at line frequency. The DFR method
condenser bushing are tested by the Dielectric Response method is similar to the power factor test except that it measures the
from 20 V to 1.4 kVrms. The measurements show that the
capacitance and loss of transformers in a wide-frequency
nonlinear behavior may exist at low frequencies while the high
frequency parameters are voltage independent. Furthermore, range, typically from 1 kHz down to 1 mHz. The advantage of
lager power transformers are less sensitive to the test voltages. the DFR method is that with the mathematic model [2] and a
The high voltage distortion of the PDC method could be more reference database, it can easily distinguish the properties of
than the DFR method because of its longer polarization period. cellulose and of oil respectively. The moisture content in the
The test voltage and frequency need to be carefully chosen before cellulose and the conductivity of the oil are obtained.
carrying out any insulation test. The IR testing measures resistance of the insulation in
power transformers over time. It applies a DC voltage to the
Keywords: Power transformer, bushing, Dielectric Frequency test object and records the test current. The PDC method is an
Response, Polarization and Depolarization, cellulose, mineral oil, extension of IR testing except that the test time is longer,
insulation, moisture determination, nonlinear behavior, voltage typically 10,000 (ten thousand) seconds. Fig. 1 is an example
dependent, distortion. of the DFR response and the polarization current of the inter-
winding insulation of a transformer.
I. INTRODUCTION

Moisture is one of the factors deteriorating the insulation

of the power components. The presence of moisture in power
transformers decreases both electrical and mechanical
strength.
Various methods are available to evaluate the moisture
condition in power transformers. Some of these methods such
as power factor (PF), dissipation factor (DF), loss tangent
(tanδ) testing and insulation resistance (IR) testing have been
used by industry for decades to evaluate the insulation system
of large power transformers. Advanced diagnostic
technologies [1] such as Dielectric Frequency Response
(DFR) method, and Polarization-Depolarization Current
(PDC) method have been recently developed as a more
effective diagnostic tool because they could distinguish
properties of both cellulose and oil insulation.
(a)

978-1-4799-2597-1/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

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 (b)
Fig.1. Typical (a) DFR test results and (b) polarization current test result (b)
Fig. 2. DFR results at various test voltages. (a)/ (b) represents the
real/imaginary part of the complex permittivity.

III. VOLTAGE DEPENDENCE OF THE INSULATION

PROPERTY

A power transformer rated at 2 MVA is tested by the

frequency domain method, DFR and the time domain method,
PDC respectively. The test voltages are between 20 V and 1.4
kVrms.

A. Testing in the Frequency Domain

Fig. 2 shows the (a) capacitance and (b) loss factor of a

power transformer located in Sweden measured at various
frequencies from 1 kHz to 1 mHz. It could be seen from the
figure that low frequency property of the insulation material
shows the voltage dependent phenomenon.
To be able to know which voltage curve gives more reliable
insulation property, the test current curves at some low
frequency points are recorded and shown in Fig. 3. The y-axis
is the p.u. current value which is calculated as the measured
current divided by the RMS value of the test voltage.

Fig.3 Test currents of the transformer at some low frequency points

The current curves indicate that as the frequency goes lower

and the test voltage increases, the distortion of the test current
starts to appear. The distortion of the current curve reflects
that the insulation system is not linear anymore. The total
harmonic distortion (THD) is defined as the ratio of the sum of
the all harmonic currents to the current of the fundamental
frequency. In this case it is given by:

¦I 2
n
THD = n=2 (1)
I1

At 20 V, the harmonics at all testing frequencies are very

close to zero. Each harmonic content and THDs at 1.4 kVrms
(a) are listed in the table. It shows that at high voltages, with the
decrease of the test frequency, the 3rd harmonic starts to

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appear and becomes more significant. This is the main reason speed is proportional to the field strength that is perpendicular
for the current curve distortion. The harmonics of the test to the interface and the ion accelerating time. In frequency
current are recorded in Table I. domain, applied voltage changes its polarity regularly and
therefore even if the field strength is high, as long as the
TABLE I charging period is not long, the charge accumulation at the
THDI at various test frequencies and voltages interface could be neglected. But if the frequency goes lower,
which means that the charging period is increased, the
Harmonic Test Frequency (mHz) accumulation will occur so the nonlinear phenomenon
Components 1 2.1 4.6 10 appears. In the time domain measurement, the applied voltage
is usually high DC voltage. If the field strength becomes
n = 2 @ 1400V 0.0006 0.0011 0.0023 0.0020 strong enough to make ions in oil move, the test object would
n = 3 @ 1400V 0.0489 0.0306 0.0246 0.0178 always show non-linear behavior.
n = 4 @ 1400V <0.001 <0.0010 <0.0010 <0.0010
n = 5 @ 1400V 0.0165 0.0088 0.0028 0.0029 IV. CASE STUDY
n = 6 @ 1400V <0.001 <0.0010 <0.0010 <0.0010
Few transformers and bushings with different power ratings
n = 7 @ 1400V 0.0060 0.0033 0.0009 0.0005 are also investigated with various test voltages. These
n = 8 @ 1400V <0.001 <0.0010 <0.0010 <0.0010 transformers and bushings represent different structure of the
insulation system, i.e. the size of the oil-paper interface,
THD @ 1400V 0.0520 0.0320 0.0249 0.0181
relative ratio of cellulose and oil.
THD @ 20V 0.0042 0.0034 0.0016 0.0010

A. HVDC Transformer
B. Time domain testing A single phase 800 kV HVDC Transformer made by ABB
is tested by the DFR method. The results in Fig. 5 show that
The PDC measurements with different test voltages also the HVDC transformer is voltage independent at voltages
show different results. The x-axis of Fig. 4 is the time in below 1.4 kVrms. The reason could be that in big
second. The y-axis is the p.u. current. transformers, the field strength is not strong enough to make
The results suggest that the insulation resistance as well as ions in oil move.
the PI/DAR is voltage dependent. As discussed in the above
section, the existence of high polarization voltage and long
period at the same time makes the insulation system not linear
any more.

Fig. 5 DFR results of the HVDC transformer at 140V and 1.4 kV

Fig. 4 Current over time curves (PDC measurement) at various test voltages B. Shell Type Transformer

A three-winding shell type transformer rated at 233/44 kV,

The voltage dependence of the insulation system is known 125 MVA was tested by the DFR method using different
as the Garton effect [3]. When oil and paper are in contact voltages. The results show slight voltage dependence at low
and form the interface, charge (conductive ions in oil) frequencies. Very small differences are observed on the
accumulation process could occur at the interface due to the dielectric response at different voltages; thus, the Garton
differences of their electrical properties. The accumulation

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Effect is observed with very low influence on the dielectric
response.

(b)
Fig. 7 DFR results of a distribution transformer. (a) – 20 V DFR result ; (b)
– 1.4 kV DFR result. The red curve is the database curve while the green
curve is the test result.
(a)
There is obvious deviation in this case and it is interesting
to see the post analysis by the software which gives the
moisture content information. The moisture contents given by
the software are 2.1% at 20 V and 2.5% at 1.4 kV. The
absolute moisture content error at 1.4 kV is about 0.4%. The
auto-matched geometries of the 1.4 kV curve are quite
different from the other one, from 22/25 at 20 V to 41/15 at
1.4 kV.

D. Bushing

A 126 kV condenser bushing manufactured in China is also

investigated by the DFR method at different voltages. The
results are shown in Fig.8. There is no obvious voltage
(b) dependent phenomenon at low frequencies although the field
Fig. 6 DFR results of a shell type transformer. (a) – entire frequency band; strength in bushing should be no less than that in power
(b) – zoomed in band from 1mHz to 0.1 Hz.
transformers.
The reason why bushing doesn’t show the nonlinear
property is because of its insulation structure. The insulation
C. Small Distribution Transformer
between the central conductor and the bushing tap is the Kraft
Paper bulk. The main part of the oil-paper interface is
Distribution transformers are not typically tested by the
perpendicular to the central conductor rather than parallel with
DFR method because of the great number existing in the
the conductor or metal foils.
power grid. However a small distribution transformer is tested
by the DFR method for research purposes under 20Vrms and
1.4kVrms as well.

(a)
(a)

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 For the oil-paper nonlinear insulation system at very low
frequencies, AC method is preferred because the total
polarization effect is much smaller than the one observed in
the DC method. The dielectric response of cellulose at low
frequency is more sensitive to water. However, for nonlinear
systems, the idea of running a DFR test down to 0.1 mHz in
order to obtain more accurate moisture estimation instead of
only down to 1 mHz is questionable. The reason for going to
very low frequencies should be related to the effect of
temperature [5] on the dielectric response and not the accuracy
of moisture estimation. In cases where it is necessary to use
higher test voltages, such as in HV substations, once the 3rd
harmonic starts to influence the dielectric response, it is
recommended to limit the lowest frequency value of the sweep
(b) which is usually determined by the temperature of the
Fig. 8 (a) -DFR results of the bushing at 20 V and 140 V respectively. (b) - insulation system.
DFR results of the bushing at 140 V and 1.4 kV respectively.

A simple 2-D condenser bushing model is simulated in REFERENCES

FEM analysis software and the result is shown in Fig. 9. The
majority of the stress is distributed within the insulation [1] S. M. Gubanski, et al., “Dielectric Response Diagnoses for Transformer
Windings,” CIGRE 2010
between the central conductor and the first layer of the metal [2] U. Gafvert, L. Adeen, M. Tapper, P. Ghasemi, and B. Jonsson,
foil, which is also supported by [4]. This means that the “Dielectric Spectroscopy in Time and Frequency Domain Applied to
effective oil-paper interface is relatively short compared with Diagnostics of Power Transformers,” International Conference on
the dimension of the insulation system. In addition to that, the Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials, Xi'an, China, 2000,
pp. 825-830
nonlinear behavior depends on the axial (y-direction) field [3] C. G. Garton, “Dielectric Loss in Thin Films of Insulating Liquids,”
strength because it has to be perpendicular to the interface. But Proceeding Institution Electrical Engineering, Vol.88 (1941) p.103-120
the axial field strength is very small compared with radial (x- [4] D.J. Smith, S.G. McMeekin, B.G. Stewart, P.A.Wallace, “The modelling
direction) field strength. of electric field, capacitance and dissipation factor of a high voltage
bushing over varying frequency,” Universities Power Engineering 47th
International Conference (UPEC), 2012
[5] P. Werelius, J. Cheng, D. Robalino, M. Ohlen, “Dielectric Frequency
Response Measurements and Dissipation Factor Temperature
Dependence,” Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on
Electrical insulation, ISEI, Puerto Rico, 2012

Fig. 9 Simulated potential and field distribution inside the

condenser bushing model.

V. CONCLUSION

The insulation condition of power components could be

investigated by DC method (IR, DAR, PI, and PDC) and/or
AC method (tan δ and DFR).The insulation system is a
nonlinear system in case that the field strength caused by the
test voltage is strong enough to make ions in oil move towards
the oil-paper interface and the polarization voltage exists for a
certain period.

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