Characterizing coil windings noise due to compressive fault currents : A study to determine if there is a characteristic noise from transformer windings due to fault currents

Abstract: Transformers are essential for modern power distribution system. They are efficient and enable the voltages to be transformed up for transportation of electricity and back down for consumer use. The reliability of the transformer is affected by faults and fatigue of the copper. The bigger faults a transformer is subjected to, the shorter life time it will have due to damage to the winding and other parts of the transformer. This thesis investigates if it is possible to characterise the noise made from the windings during a short circuit fault or lightning strike, to see if it can be replicated and if transformers can be diagnosed with the help from the noise. Faults creates forces on the windings, these forces can be so great that the windings collide with each other and in worst case breaks. The sound sources that are interesting are the thermal expansion due to the current, the radial forces and the axial forces acting on the coil. Simulations were made in Comsol multiphysics to see how the currents and forces behaved in a winding. A simplified microphone circuit was built and tested to see if it could detect the noise made from the collisions in the coil. Two microphone types and amplifier circuits were tested to see which ones was most suited for the experiments. The microphone circuit was used to record the sound made from the coils when being compressed. An experiment with a capacitor bank sending a large current pulse through different coils and the noise made from the coil was recorded with a microphone circuit connected to an oscilloscope. The currents are recorded by a computer using the program Picoscope. The capacitor bank was charged to different voltages to get different current amplitudes. A microphone circuit was built and tested so it could detect the sound from the collision. Sound occured with a current pulse with an amplitude of 2 kA, and permanent deformation occured when the amplitude of the current pulse was 4.5 kA. The frequency content of the impact was within the audible spectrum. Possibly even higher frequencies than 20 kHz was present during the fault. The microphone had a bandwidth between 20-20000 Hz, which limits the frequencies that is picked up by the microphone.