Springer Nature, an international academic publishing company, has published a monograph of scientists of the Division of Power and Electrical Engineering of Tomsk Polytechnic University. The collection is dedicated to power transformer diagnostics, one of the main problems of modern power engineering.
The monograph entitled Transformers Condition Control. Advanced and Traditional Technologies presents the physical reasons for power transformers’ failures, technical and economic consequences of disruption of normal operation, standard technologies for monitoring the state of the high-voltage transformers, as well as monitors the condition of transformer windings based on the pulse method.
“Probing with nanosecond pulses is to apply a rectangular pulse to the winding of the inspected transformer, the duration of which is about 100 nanoseconds.
Alternatively to the basic method suggested in 1966 based on the pulses of microsecond duration (a microsecond is a millionth of a second ed. note) used in Russian electric power systems until the end of the twentieth century, we use a pulse lasting for hundreds of nanoseconds. The pulse is applied from a special oscillator to the input of the transformer winding, responses or signals are picked up from the adjacent windings. The analysis of these responses allows concluding a failure or absence of failure,”
Alexey Mytnikov, Associate Professor of the TPU Division of Power and Electrical Engineering, one of the monograph authors, the co-author of the article, explains the core of monitoring the condition by the pulse method.
By reducing the length of the probing pulse and penetrating in a nanosecond range, the scientists were able to improve the efficiency of the diagnostics. The sequential research on the transition to a single stage, when only the probing pulse and switching pulses of the network are used, according to the scientists, bring the diagnostics of windings to the next level. All the results mentioned in the monograph and the ways of their implementation are used for the first time.
“At the moment, the frequency response analysis is recognized the most advanced in the diagnostics. Definitely, it is a good analysis, however, possesses essential disadvantages. We have shown that probing with nanosecond pulses is not inferior and somewhere superior to the frequency response analysis. Taking into account that the frequency response analysis was created in North American countries, patents for this analysis do not belong to the domestic electric power systems, therefore there are some difficulties implementing the analysis in the Russian electric power systems. The diagnostics trajectory chosen by us is quite relevant and promising,” the scientist adds.
The book describes the stages of improving the method based on a short probing pulse of the nanosecond range, the results of experiments on identifying radial and axial displacements of the winding, studies of the effect of the duration and shape of the probing pulse on sensitivity, sequentially presents the diagnostic procedure, as well as the stages of developing a mathematical and physical model of a power transformer.
“Despite the relevance and topical nature of the problem, there are not so many such publications. In our opinion, we were able to deeply analyze a variety of methods and ways of power transformer diagnostics, find out the problems and suggest the ways of solving them. Moreover, the ways of solving the problems are simple and effective, which is essential for modern power engineering.
“Despite the relevance and topical nature of the problem, there are not so many such publications. In our opinion, we were able to deeply analyze a variety of methods and ways of power transformer diagnostics, find out the problems and suggest the ways of solving them. Moreover, the ways of solving the problems are simple and effective, which is essential for modern power engineering.
The analysis results show that there is no applicable method to control the state of active parts of transformer equipment. In our monograph, we suggested and described our approach to solve the problem, a so-called probing with nanosecond pulses,” Alexey Mytnikov explains.
The monograph volume published by Springer Nature in 2021 is 150 pages. The editing lasted for one year. Vasily Ushakov, Professor of the TPU Division of Power and Electrical Engineering, an honored worker in science and technology became an editor and leader of the research writers who compiled the book. The co-authors of the monograph are Alexey Mytnikov, a leading expert in high voltage engineering at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics (Moscow), Professor Valery Lavrinovich and Alexey Lavrinovich, a postgraduate student of Tomsk Research and Planning Institute of Oil and Gas.