2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems

978-1-4799-0083-1/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE C A T C O N 2 0 1 3

Condition Assessment of Transformer by Parks
Vector and Symmetrical Components to detect
Inter Turn Fault

P. A. Venikar M. S. Ballal B. S. Umre H. M. Suryawanshi
Research Scholar Associate Professor Associate Professor Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology
Nagpur, India

AbstractPower transformer is a strategically important
component of power system due to its location and size.
Sudden failure of power transformer has both technical and
economical impacts. Studies indicate that inter turn fault is one
of the major cause of transformer failure. Detection of
presence of such fault at an early stage is important to avoid
further damage. Objective of this paper is to analyse the
characteristics of current during inter turn fault using Parks
vector and symmetrical components approach. Comparative
assessment of Parks vectors and symmetrical components is
also discussed. Use of percentage deviation of vectors from
healthy condition is proposed for identification of existence of
such fault.
Keywords d-q vectors; Inter turn fault; Parks
transformation, Power transformer; Symmetrical components
I. INTRODUCTION
In modern interconnected power system transformers are
required throughout the system from generation to
transmission and distribution. The size varies from few kVA
to over hundreds of MVA [1-3], with large repair and
replacement cost. In the current restructured electricity
market, unplanned outage of transformer can cause
substantial loss due to non-availability of supply and loss of
revenue. If the failure occurs in service, the impact can be far
reaching because of their critical location. Case studies [4]
and [5] indicate causes and effects in the form of loss of
revenue due to transformer failure. The reason of transformer
failure is mainly improper maintenance. The impact of
failure is extended outage, costly repairs and replacements
and it may also result in potentially serious injury or fatality
to the operating personnel [6].
A continuous on-line monitoring strategy can however
help in avoiding this loss, as it will determine the status of
transformer condition and it can indicate when the
maintenance needs to be carried out. In [7], condition
monitoring is defined as, a predictive method considering the
fact that equipments will have a useful life before
maintenance is required. Monitoring is referred as sensor
development and data acquisition and collection in [8].
Condition monitoring has advantages such as [9]:
Predicts necessity of maintenance activities to be
carried out before occurrence of any failure
Limits the probability of destructive failures, thus
improving operator safety and quality of supply
Identifies the reasons for failure and reduces
maintenance costs
Provides information on the plant operating life,
allowing decisions to be made on either plant
refurbishment or plant replacement.

Fig. 1. CIGRE report analysis indicating causes of transformer failure and
their relative percentage.
Statistics of CIGRE report in Fig. 1 indicate load tap
changer and winding are the most probable locations of
transformer failure [10]. If load tap changer is considered as
a separate unit then winding failure is the most prominent
reason for transformer failure. Inter turn fault is the more
probable reason for winding failure. It is extremely important
to detect and locate the inter turn fault at an early stage to
avoid further catastrophic damage. It primarily arises from
insulation deterioration [11]. The deterioration may be
caused by combination of factors such as ageing, frequent
transformer overloading, mechanical and thermal stress,
moisture, high transient voltage stresses and prolonged
hanging faults.
The primary objective of this paper is to create an inter
turn fault on a transformer and to analyse the effect on
primary and secondary voltage and currents. The fault is
created on primary side of the winding. Comparative
assessment of Parks vector approach and symmetrical
components theory is performed to analyse better
applicability of one of these two methods. Use of
symmetrical components for transformer analysis is reported
in [12], Parks vector analysis in [13, 14] for transformers
2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
164 C A T C O N 2 0 1 3
and induction motor [15-18]. Various graphs such as current
component along d-axis vs. time, current component along
q-axis vs. time, current component along q-axis vs. current
component along d-axis and real part of positive sequence
component vs. imaginary part of positive sequence
component are plotted for both normal and fault condition.
The analysis is performed only for balanced loading
conditions. Such techniques with further analysis using
wavelet, expert system, artificial intelligence (AI) can be
used for on line condition monitoring.
II. SIGNAL PROCESSING BY PARKS VECTOR AND
SYMMETRICAL COMPONENT APPROACH
To simplify the analysis, the three phase quantities are
transformed into direct and quadrature axis (d-q axis)
quantities using Parks transformation. Parks components
(I
d
, I
q
) can be obtained for the primary currents (I
r
, I
y
, I
b
) by
using following relationship

2 1 1
3 6 6
1 1
0
2 2
r
d
y
q
b
I
I
I
I
I







=








(1)
Under ideal conditions the three phase currents lead to
following Parks vectors
( )
6
* *sin
2
d m
I I t = (2)

6
* *sin
2 2
d m
I I t

=


(3)
Where I
m
is the maximum value of supply phase
current (A) and is angular frequency (rad/sec). In this
paper Parks vectors are computed using (1).
Symmetrical components have the advantage that any set
of unbalanced vectors can be transformed into set of
balanced vectors. The transformation equations in matrix
form are as follows

0
2
1
2
2
1 1 1
1
1
3
1
r r
r y
r
b
I I
I a a I
I
I a a




=






(4)
Where a=1120
o

I
y1
=a
2
*I
r1
(5)
I
b1
=a*I
r1
(6)
I
y2
=a*I
r2
(7)
I
b2
=a
2
*I
r2
(8)
Parks vectors and symmetrical components for faults on
different phases with different loading and fault severity are
plotted for both practical and simulation waveforms. Then
percentage error between ideal signal and actual signal for
given loading condition is calculated. Thus, for given
percentage of loading if error is more than certain limit then
it can be said that there exists some fault in the transformer.
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Experimentation is carried out on a 400/110 volt, 2.5
kVA, AN cooled transformer. Three such units are
connected in star-star (Y-Y). Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show actual
single unit and connection diagram representation of single
unit.

Fig. 2. Single unit of transformer with tappings taken out for creating inter
turn fault.

Fig. 3. Winding interconnection of a single unit.
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show schematic diagram and laboratory
setup. Arrangement for experimentation is as follows
Three phase autotransformer to apply balanced three
phase supply.
A variable rheostat (400, 4 A) connected between
A
1
and A
2
to create a fault condition on R-phase (13
turns are shorted). The rheostat serves two purposes,
creates a fault and limits fault current to safe value. It
can also represent initial stage of inter turn fault.
Arcing occurs at a later stage which is beyond the
scope of this paper.
Load banks to provide different levels of loading.
Current probe (Tektronix AM 503 amplifier,
Tektronix A6312 100 MHz) and voltage probes
(LeCroy AP 031 differential probe) are used to
observe the waveforms in digital storage oscilloscope
(DSO-Tektronix TDS 2014C). Waveforms are stored
on a memory chip and used for further analysis in
MATLAB

.
2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
165 C A T C O N 2 0 1 3
Focus of this paper is to study the effect of inter turn fault
on primary side and hence, further analysis is carried out
based on fault on primary side only. Different number of tap
positions, fault resistance and loading conditions are used to
study the behaviour of primary current. In all cases it is
observed that as compared to no fault primary current the
primary current in case of fault is always on a higher side.
Thus, primary side fault reflects in primary side current and
does not affect secondary quantities. Fault on primary side
can be seen as an auto-transformer action. This observation
is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 4. Connection diagram.

Fig. 5. Experimentation setup.
IV. PARKS VECTOR AND SYMMETRICAL COMPONENTS
ANALYSIS
To distinguish between a normal and a fault case
Parks vector analysis and symmetrical components is used.
For fault on R-phase transformer is loaded to 70 percent, for
Y-phase it is loaded to 80 percent and for B-phase it is
loaded to 85 percent. In all the cases load is balanced and
fault is created on primary side by shorting 13 number of
turns (less than 4%). Increase in Y-phase primary current due
to fault current can be seen in Fig. 7. Simulation is
performed in MATLAB

using multi-winding transformer

block. It offers flexibility of providing different number of
turns to create inter-turn fault.

Fig. 6. Increase in primary current due to inter turn fault on R phase
of primary winding (experimentation waveform).

Fig. 7. Increase in Y-phase primary current due to inter turn fault whereas
current in other phases is unchanged.
Symmetrical components and Parks vectors are plotted
in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 for waveforms shown in Fig.7.

Fig. 8. Symmetrical component analysis for fault on Y-phase
(experimental)
The Parks transformation and symmetrical components
are obtained in MATLAB

. Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 clearly shows

the difference between no fault and fault case waveforms of
positive sequence components, d-axis and q-axis components
for both cases.

2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
166 C A T C O N 2 0 1 3

Fig. 9. Deviation of Parks vector components from no fault components
(experimental).
A comparative analysis between Parks vector
components and symmetrical components is performed. Fig.
10(a) indicates primary currents for normal case where no
fault is created on any of the phases. Corresponding d-vector
versus q-vector plot and real component of
Ir1
versus
imaginary component of
Ir1
are plotted in Fig. 10(b) and
Fig.10(c) respectively. Simulation waveforms for same case
are shown in Fig. 11(a), Fig. 11(b) and Fig.11(c).Fig. 12(a)
indicates increase in primary current of Y-phase for an inter
turn fault on that particular phase. It can be seen that fault on
Y-phase does not reflect on fault in R-phase or B-phase.
Increase in major axis diameter is common for both
approaches. It is also seen that percentage change in d-vector
versus q-vector plot and real component of I
y1
versus
imaginary component of I
y1
plot is same in this case.
However Parks vector provides an additional feature of
change in orientation of major axis (Fig. 12 (b) and Fig. 13
(b)).
For fault on R-phase (Fig. 14(a)) simulation results
shown in Fig. 14(b), Fig. 14(c) indicate increase in major
axis length for both Parks vector plot and symmetrical
components plot. For fault on B-phase, the Park vector plot
indicates change in orientation of major axis along with
increase in major axis length. This behavior is similar for
fault on Y-phase. However, in both cases the orientation is
different which is shown in Fig. 13(b) and Fig. 15(b). Fig.13
(c), Fig.14 (c), Fig.15 (c) indicates there is increase in major
axis length with same orientation. However, it can be seen
that in addition to increase in major axis length Parks vector
plot provide an additional feature of change in orientation of
major axis length.
The plots indicate that percentage deviation from normal
condition is similar for both Parks vector and symmetrical
components. This observation is confirmed for different
loading conditions and fault severity. However, the
orientation of d-component versus q-component is different
depending on the faulted phase which is not observed for
symmetrical components.This feature of deviation from
normal condition and major axis orientation can be used to
detect the presence of such a fault. For a particular loading if
the deviation exceeds certain tolerance level (considering
metering error) then presence of fault can be predicted. Use
of symmetrical components involves complex calculations
(4) whereas Parks computation deals with simple
mathematical calculations (1). This is useful from digital
signal processor (DSP) implementation point of view.
A database can be formed considering different loading
conditions, severity of fault, unbalanced load, presence of
harmonics, sag, swell, etc. and useful information regarding
presence of fault can be extracted. Modern techniques such
as cross wavelet analysis, expert system, AI based systems
can also be used for pattern recognition and classification.
Such a system can be implemented in microcontrollers for on
line condition assessment. However, this approach needs to
be modified in case of unbalanced loading conditions,
constructional differences and harmonics.

Fig.10(a). No fault primary currents
(experimental)

Fig. 10(b). No fault d-axis vs. q-axis components plot
(experimental)

Fig. 11(c). No fault real component of Ia1 vs.
imaginary component of Ia1 plot (experimental)


Fig.11(a). No fault primary currents
(simulation)

Fig. 11(b). No fault d-axis vs. q-axis components plot
(simulation)


Fig. 11(c). No fault real component of Ia1 vs.
imaginary component of Ia1 plot (simulation)
2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
167 C A T C O N 2 0 1 3


V. CONCLUSION
Comparative assessment of Parks transformation and
symmetrical components to detect inter turn fault through
experimental studies is presented in this paper. Less than 4
percent of turns are shorted to create an inter turn fault. Current
in primary winding during inter turn fault is found to be more
than that for no fault case for same loading condition. It is also


Fig. 12(a). Increase in Y-phase primary current due
to inter turn fault (experimental) Fig. 12(b). Increase in length and change in
orientation of major axis due to inter turn fault
(experimental)


Fig. 12(c). Increase in the length of major axis due to
inter turn fault (experimental)


Fig. 13(a). Increase in Y-phase primary current due
to inter turn fault (simulation)

Fig. 13(b). Increase in length and change in
orientation of major axis due to inter turn fault
(simulation)



Fig. 13(c). Increase in the length of major axis due to
inter turn fault (simulation)


Fig. 14(a). Increase in R-phase primary current due
to inter turn fault (simulation)



Fig. 14(b). Increase in the length of major axis
due to inter turn fault (simulation)


Fig. 14(c). Increase in the length of major axis due to
inter turn fault (simulation)



Fig. 15(a). Increase in B-phase primary current due
to inter turn fault (simulation)


Fig.15(b). Increase in length and change in
orientation of major axis due to inter turn fault
(simulation)


Fig.15(c). Increase in the length of major axis due to
inter turn fault (simulation)
2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
168 C A T C O N 2 0 1 3
observed that fault in primary winding has no effect on
secondary quantities. Parks vector and symmetrical
components plots indicate increase in length of major axis due
to inter turn fault. This can be used as a feature to detect inter
turn fault. For a given loading if percentage deviation is more
than a specific limit then presence of fault can be predicted.
Parks vectors provide additional information about faulted
phase based on orientation. Parks vector also simplifies the
analysis and implementation on DSP as compared to
symmetrical components. However, in this study load is
balanced in all the cases. It is also necessary to consider
different factors such as constructional errors, effect of
harmonics, metering error and unbalanced loading before
deriving final conclusion. These factors will be considered in
future experimentation and analysis.
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