GENERATION

Stray ux testing
by David Tarrant, DTEC and Michael Price, Sebenzana Consulting This article describes the problem of shorted turns in generator rotors, listing the more common causes of these as well as the the traditional off-line test methods. The main industry accepted and proven method of testing for shorted turns on-line used today, is the stray flux test. The paper finishes with several case studies. With the aging of installed generators, the requirement to introduce generator condition monitoring increases. There are a number of different potential off-line and on-line condition monitoring tests currently available on the market. One such test is that of generator stray flux monitoring. This is considered to be a reliable, online system, which monitors the stray flux generated by a generator rotor and in turn provides accurate insight into the location, severity and deterioration rates of inter- turn faults. The effect of shorted turns Shorted-turns are the result of failed insulation between individual copper turns in generator rotors. This insulation is generally ver y thin (typically consisting of a single layer of 0,6 mm NOMEX or G11 glass fibre), and so is not mechanically very resistant. It can be damaged by a number of causes, including load cycling, contamination, moisture, manufacturing error and damage during installation. Overheating of the rotor (from excessive excitation operation or cooling problems) can result in damage over time. The effect of operating with shorted turns ranges from none at all to thermally related vibration problems, inability to achieve previous load settings and higher operating temperatures. Whilst it may be possible to run a rotor indefinitely with shorted turns, the presence of any of these symptoms may require an outage to address the problem. If the opportunity exists, it is always recommended to fix shorted turns rather than run any risks in service. The reason why rotors may suffer thermally related unbalance is that coils with shortedturns operate at lower temperatures than coils without shorted-turns. This is because the heating resulting from I 2R losses are lower in the effected coil because the current is effectively taking a short-cut, reducing the resistance of the coil. If there are enough shorted turns, and they are located nearer to the poles than to the quadrature axis, then there will be a thermal difference between the relevant coil and the corresponding coil on the opposite pole. This warmer coil will then expand slightly more than the coil with the shorted turns, and a bow can be introduced into the rotor which will cause it to vibrate. Shorted turns in 2-pole rotors do not generally cause an unbalanced magnetic force as the N-S poles are 180 mechanical degrees apart. However in 4-pole rotors, shorted turns can cause unbalanced magnetic forces. These unbalanced magnetic forces cause rotor vibration along the pole axis that has the turn shorts. The flux produced by the rotor is a function of Ampere-turns (the number of turns in the coil multiplied by the amount of current flowing through these turns. Reducing the number of turns through shorted turns will result in a decrease in the Ampere-turns and a decrease in flux for the same original amount of excitation current applied. Thus the operator will have to increase the amount of excitation current applied to the rotor to get the original load out of the generator. The increased current will result in an overall increase in I 2R losses, and so the rotor temperature will increase. The increase in field current and cooling requirements over what would be required to produce the same amount of energy with a rotor with no shorted turns will reduce the overall power generating efficiency of the unit. Stray flux testing to detect shorted turns The authors are mostly familiar with air-gap flux probes manufactured by GeneratorTech in the USA, and hence this discussion will focus on shorted turn detection by means of radial measurement of flux-density changes in the stator air gap. The probe, which is essentially a tuned coil mounted on a stator wedge or pushed through a vent duct so the tip of the coil is situated in the air-gap, detects all the flux in the air-gap. There are three sources of flux in the air-gap: main rotor flux, which crosses the air-gap resulting from current through the rotor windings; stator reaction flux which is due to current flowing through the stator windings; and rotor slot leakage flux that does not cross the air gap to reach the stator windings but is purely around each rotor slot and is proportional to the current flowing through the turns in the slot. As each rotor slot passes the flux probe,

Fig. 1: Rotor nomenclature and position of flux probe 8 coils per pole.

Fig. 2: Sample analysis graph with no-load data and rotor nomenclature 7 coils per pole [1].

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GENERATION

Fig. 3: Sample analysis graph showing slot peaks superimposed.

Fig. 4: 600 MW, stray flux raw data.

Fig. 6: Final shorted turn results table.

Fig. 5: Analysis graphs, showing two small shorted turns.

the slot leakage flux from that slot induces a voltage in the coil, which outputs a waveform with a series of peaks. The magnitude of each peak is related to the Ampere-turns in the slot. As discussed above, Ampere-turns are directly related to the number of active turns in the slot, so a coil with shorted turns will induce a smaller peak than a coil without shorted turns. By comparing slot peak between poles, the number of short calculated for each coil in the rotor. Fig. 1 shows the cross-section of a 2-pole rotor and defines the stationary flux probe location. Fig. 2 [1] is a digitised waveform from a flux probe recorded during 350 MW, 0 Mvar load conditions. The nomenclature of the rotor and the associated waveform are identified. Note that in Fig. 1 the rotor shown has eight slots, while in Fig. 2 the waveform shows a rotor with 7 slots. The figures are for illustration only, and the nomenclature and waveform shape will be similar for a 6 or 7 slot rotor. For analysis of the trace, it should be noted that the peak labeled 1 on pole A lagging slots is the inverse of the peak on labeled 1 on pole B lagging slots, and if there are no shorted turns the two peaks should be equal in magnitude. If there is a shorted turn in pole A, then the peak induced by the relevant coil will be smaller

in magnitude than the corresponding peak on pole B. Comparison is carried out between each peak in the pole A lagging slots and the corresponding peak in the pole B lagging slots, and the same for the leading slots. Fig. 3 is a screenshot of one of the analysis graphs available in the superimposition of the A and B pole slot peaks, and shorted turns in coil 4 A-pole and coil 6 B-pole can clearly be seen. An issue that needs understanding in the analysis of shorted turns is that the slot peak magnitudes in the flux probe waveform are not a simple function of the magnitude of the slot leakage flux. The air density, which is the sum of the three fluxes found in the air gap, is affected by the higher reluctance found in the rotor slots as well as by the fact that the rotor iron flux can saturate at higher flux densities, which will reduce the rotor slot flux signal. The effects of these two factors vary with the magnitude of the flux density and are minimum where the flux density is zero. This means that the stray flux test is most sensitive where the flux density curve (in Fig. 2 ) passes through zero (known as the flux density curve zero crossing FDZC). The flux density curve is obtained by integrating the flux probe waveform. The FDZC varies with the load placed on the generator energize - October 2010 - Page 21

and moves from around the quadrature axis to around the #1 lead coil slot at full load. The reactive load also affects the FDZC position. Exporting MVARS will move the FDZC towards the quadrature axis, while importing MVARS will move the FDZC towards the #1 lead coil slot. Ideally when carrying out a test, the readings should be taken at a range of active or reactive load conditions, so that the FDZC moves through as many of the slots as possible. Case studies 600 MW rotor Fig. 4 shows the raw data from the flux probe. Fig. 5 contains the four analysis graphs; and Fig. 6 contains the final shorted turn table, which shows the number of shorted turns in each coil. This software makes it very easy to analyse stray flux tests the trick is in the conditions under which the raw data is measured. 60 MW rotor with magnetic wedges in the balance plant The purpose of this case study is twofold to state that stray flux testing can be carried out in a balance plant (as long as a means of exciting the rotor is available), and to illustrate the effect of magnetic wedges. This particular rotor had magnetic main wedges as well as magnetic wedges closing the vent ducts (located between each slot). In Fig. 7, the small peaks in the pole face region are from the magnetic vent duct wedges in the pole face. As can be seen it is extremely difficult to identify the peaks from the actual slots. The middle four slots are easily identified,

GENERATION
In some instances the magnetic wedge locations vary according to the slot and axial position. In these cases, it is advised that the stray flux probe be located in an axial position where the wedges are non magnetic. Certain rotor designs allow for magnetic wedges to be removed and replaced with a non magnetic wedge, however this will change the rotor flux pattern and is only recommended where a small percentage of the total wedge length per slot is modified. Acknowledgement This article was presented at the ABB Predictive Maintenance Conference South Africa 2010, and is reprinted with permission. References
[1] D R Albright, D J Albright and J D Albright,. 1999 Generator field winding shorted turn detection technology. New York, GENERATORTECH, [2] D R Albright, Inter-turn short-circuit detector for turbine-generator rotor windings, IEEE transactions on power apparatus and systems, Volume PAS-90 Number 2, March/April 1971. [3] S A Higgins,. Guideline on stray flux testing. ESKOM. Generation Standard. [4] D C H Tarrant,.. Condition monitoring basics. ROTEK. Engineering Standard.

Fig. 7: 60 MW stray flux results screen shot.

but the first and sixth slots are not (the rotor has six coils per pole). The magnetic wedges tend to reduce the rotor slot leakage flux amplitude and hence reduce the flux probe sensitivity. The magnetic wedges in essence distort the generated rotor slot leakage flux away from the stray flux probe and in turn reduces the flux amplitude for the slot with the magnetic wedges. It can be seen that the spacing between what looks like the relevant peaks is not even. This does not make sense, as geographically on the rotor the slots are evenly distributed around the rotor body.

However, even a confusing trace like this can be analysed by simply superimposing the entire second half of the trace (after inverting it) on top of the first half. The distortion should be equal on both poles, so if there are no shorted turns, the two should superimpose perfectly. Unfortunately this could not be done by the software in this case. The software relies on peak identification algorithms which were confused by the data obtained. Hence the superimposition had to be done by printing the traces, and manually inverting the one and putting it on top of the other.

Contact David Tarrant, DTEC, Cell 082 301-2380, davidt@sebenzana.com

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