INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITY OF ARC DETECTION IN POWER TRANSFORMERS

authored by

Aref Sharifi, Moritz Kuhnke, Peter Werle, Asghar Akbari

Abstract

Arc is known as one of the most dangerous faults in transformers and quickly increases pressure inside the transformer tank. In some cases, the usual protection systems do not operate fast enough, thus the arc can cause serious damage to the transformer tank as well as explosion. Therefore, fast and reliable arc detection can prevent life-threatening hazards and financial losses. In this paper, the arc detection with different semiconductors is explained and investigated. An arc emits electromagnetic waves into the environment in the form of visible and ultraviolet (UV) light. Moreover, an arc is accompanied by electromagnetic interference (EMI), which causes a significant electrostatic effect on its adjacent electric circuits. Both phenomena have to be considered in order to develop a reliable arc detection system. Based on the investigation of different semiconductor sensors a new method is proposed to detect arcs. This method is investigated within different liquids with different ageing conditions, thus the colors of the insulating liquids change from white transparent to dark brown in order to verify if the new method is able to detect arcs in different environments. Results demonstrated that by using the presented new method, the arc signal is recognizable from within the oil at different distances. Furthermore, the applied mechanism is caused to eliminate the magnetic interferences as a noise factor. Based on the results, the method which is introduced has the potential for a reliable and sustainable arc detection.

Organisation(s)

High Voltage Engineering and Asset Management Section (Schering Institute)
Institute of Electric Power Systems

External Organisation(s)

K.N. Toosi University of Technology

Type

Conference article

Journal

IET Conference Proceedings

Volume

2023

Pages

79-84

No. of pages

6

Publication date

2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Engineering

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1049/icp.2024.0431 (Access: Closed)