Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145
DOI 10.1007/s00202-012-0248-4
ORIGINAL PAPER
An experimental approach for investigating low-level interturn
winding faults in power transformers
Vahid Behjat · Abolfazl Vahedi
Received: 2 October 2011 / Accepted: 28 April 2012 / Published online: 13 May 2012
© Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Interturn faults are one of the most prevalent and
potentially destructive electrical faults in power transform-
ers. In spite of an extensive interturn fault detection literature,
the issue still constitutes an open problem. The difficulty is
mainly caused by lacking of enough information on the char-
acteristic signatures associated with interturn faults which
were not clearly brought out by the previous studies. This
contribution is aimed at obtaining a better understanding of
the physical behavior of the power transformers in the pres-
ence of interturn faults as well as extracting several features
which would be useful to specify the transformers inter-
turn faults. The approach keeps at disposal a 100 kVA distri-
bution transformer on which interturn faults were imposed
and an experimental setup consisting of an instrumentation
system and suitable transducers which enables monitoring
selected characteristics of the transformer. The paper exam-
ines the faulted transformer performance under various fault
and transformer operating conditions. Unique characteristic
fault-signatures derived from the experiments will provide
an important basis for developing more reliable and sensitive
methods to detect interturn faults on the transformer wind-
ings well before such faults lead to a catastrophic failure with
serious damage to the windings.
Keywords Power transformer · Interturn winding fault ·
Experimental approach · Fault detection
V. Behjat · A. Vahedi
Center of Excellence for Power System Automation and Operation,
Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
V. Behjat (B)
Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering Faculty,
Azarbaijan University of Tarbiat Moallem, Tabriz, Iran
e-mail: behjat@azaruniv.edu
1 Introduction
Power transformers are critical components of the energy
transmission and distribution process for electric utilities.
In view of increasing demand for reliable and high-quality
energy supply, electrical utilities are more interested in avoid-
ing transformer failures. Whatever the consequences of fail-
ures, such events are undesirable since they constitute a
decrease in overall system reliability and additional demands
on manpower, finance, and time, in order to rectify the prob-
lem. However, degradation as a result of aging under ser-
vice conditions is inevitable. Arising primarily from turn
insulation degradation, interturn winding faults are one of
the leading root causes of failures in power transformers.
Deterioration of the turn insulation, in turn, may be caused
by a combination of electromechanical forces induced by a
variety of factors, including frequent transformer overload-
ing, mechanical vibrations, high-transient voltage stresses,
high-current stresses particularly in the presence of exter-
nal short circuits, thermal overloading, and contamination
[1–3].
Early stages of winding interturn faults may often have
negligible effects on the transformer performance; however
such faults may rapidly lead to more serious permanent forms
such as phase to phase or phase to ground faults. Once the
interturn faults was occurred, a large circulating fault current
is induced in the shorted turns, leading to localized thermal
overloading in the defective region of the winding. Over some
period of time, the generated heat in the defective region will
cause the fault to increase in size, i.e., fault energy level,
until a catastrophic fault involving another phase or ground
occurs. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to detect
interturn fault in its earliest stage to prevent further damage
to the transformer, thereby reducing repair costs and trans-
former outage time. In addition to the benefits gained from
123
136
eliminating irreversible damage to the transformer windings
through timely prediction of the impending failure, signifi-
cant advantages would accrue by orderly shutting down the
transformer and doing some advanced planning for repair
or replacement of the equipment and hence enhancing the
reliability of the continuous power supply operation. Obvi-
ously, in a power system, where a transformer is playing a
key role as an energy transmission device, a sudden trans-
former failure will likely result in an overall network fail-
ure.
Due to its popularity, there have been many investigations
on interturn faults in power transformers throughout the liter-
ature, especially in the recent years [4–20]. Owing to many
technical and economic limitations in generating interturn
faults in an actual transformer, most of the investigations
are focused upon techniques developed to model a power
transformer under interturn fault conditions for the purposes
of obtaining diagnosis criteria. However, it is well known
that the utility of models for fault diagnosis is restricted
because it is even theoretically impossible to include all non-
idealities that exist in a real machine. On the other hand,
a literature review indicates that the few published contri-
butions pertinent to the present study [6,7], find it enough
to show the overall changes of the transformer behavior
due to fault occurrence. The modification of the transformer
behavior as a result of interturn fault occurrence has nei-
ther been systematically analyzed nor reasons for it ascer-
tained in the existing literature. In an attempt to overcome
the shortcomings of the existing literature, in this paper, a
detailed experimental investigation of the interturn faults in
power transformers is carried out by using an experimen-
tal setup, and the influence of a whole variety of different
system and fault conditions on the transformer characteris-
tics is clarified. The present study is of utmost importance
since as an essential pre-requisite to the successful devel-
opment of fault diagnosis techniques, it is vitally important
to be able to obtain the characteristic fault signatures, and
experimental data associated with the interturn fault phenom-
enon.
The paper first outlines the experimental setup in a
high voltage laboratory used for acquiring the experi-
mental data. This includes a brief description address-
ing the electrical characteristics of the transformer under
test on which the interturn faults were imposed and the
instrumentation system used for monitoring the electrical
characteristics of the transformer. Section 3 is on the meth-
odology used for doing the experiments. Section 4 presents
the results obtained from exhaustive tests on the studied
transformer and detail discussions to extract some features
which would be useful to specify the transformer winding
interturn faults. Finally, conclusions will be given in the
Sect. 5.
123
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145
2 Experimental setup
Experimental tests were conducted in a high voltage labo-
ratory on a three phase, two winding, 35 kV/400 V, Yzn5,
50 Hz, 100 kVA, oil immersed, ONAN, core type distribu-
tion transformer. Interturn faults were imposed on the turns
of the outermost layer of the HV discs, which was the only
accessible part of the transformer’s windings. To develop in-
terturn short circuit faults, in steps, the transformer oil was
pumped out and the front wall of the transformer tank was
removed to expose the windings. After the windings were
allowed to dry, two conductors on the farthest layer of one of
the HV discs, located at two ends of the layer, were chosen
and the insulation over them at a point on each was carefully
removed to make tapping points. The next step was extract-
ing leads from the tapping points on the chosen conductors.
Low impedance insulated wires were attached to the conduc-
tors by means of specific clamps embracing the conductors
at the tapping points. The leads were then brought out of
the transformer to allow easy access to the internal turns and
also providing possibility for externally producing interturn
faults. The leads were long enough to be closed from outside
the transformer through a switch.
Since it was difficult to quantify exactly what number
of turns were involved in the fault, after the connections
were completed, the winding was energized by a low-voltage
power supply and the open circuit voltage between the tap
conductors was recorded. This measured voltage between
the taps, divided by the line to neutral value of the measured
voltage applied to the winding, was an exact measure of the
fraction of the winding that was involved. The fault level
which could be realized by shunting the tap conductors was
equal to 0.2 % of the turns on the winding which involves a
very small percentage of the winding. Before reassembling
the transformer, an insulation resistance test was performed
to verify that the resistance of the tap conductors to ground
was greater than 1 M. The front wall of the transformer
tank was replaced with a glass wall fixed to the tank by screw
bolts and then the transformer was refilled with oil. Thereaf-
ter, interturn faults could be staged by connecting two taps
to each other through a low-impedance knife switch to be
able to handle the extremely high circulating fault currents
flowing through the shorted turns. To adjust the fault sever-
ity in the shorted turns, a variable resistor was used in series
with the switch in the conductive path between the terminals
of the fault region. Various levels of fault severity could then
be attained by changing the value of the fault resistance in
this leakage path.
The sketch in Fig. 1, illustrates an exaggerated presenta-
tion of the corresponding geometrical and circuit domain of
the transformer coils, assuming that an interturn fault exists
on phase “U” of the transformer HV winding. In the figure,
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145
HV Winding
Phase U
Rf
S supplying transformers, two sets of resistive load banks, a
Shorted Turns
HV Winding
LV Winding
Core
Phase V
Shorted Turns
Phase W
(a) Geometrical Domain (b) Circuit Domain
Fig. 1 Geometrical and circuit domain of the transformer coils, assum-
ing that an interturn fault exists on phase “U” of the HV winding
the external limiting fault resistance and the time-controlled
switch for initiating the fault are denoted by “s” and “Rf ”
symbols, respectively. A close view of the considered trans-
former’s HV winding and tap positions of the introduced
fault, before and after refilling the oil to the transformer tank,
is given in Fig. 2.
The above artificially imposed interturn fault on HV wind-
ing of the transformer belongs to a class of turn-to-turn
faults which would be created by direct contact between
the winding conductors, normally mentioned as galvanic
short-circuits. Faults of this kind develop as a very poor ini-
tial point contact, immediately heated to the melting tempera-
ture, open at one point and finally permit contact between the
conductors of different potentials without arc ignition [19]. It
should be pointed out that, as stated in [21], probably just only
in transformers above 10 MVA which are characterized by
voltages per turn exceeding 50 and small values of turn con-
ductor’s resistance, occurrence of the interturn fault is accom-
panied by maintaining an electric arc across the shorted turns
in normal frequency voltage, which can burn in either a stable
or intermittent way. Obviously, for the 100 kVA transformer
considered here, the circuit conduction and turn voltage are
adequate small to avoid arc ignition in the shorted turns.
Fig. 2 HV winding of the
transformer and tap positions on
the winding, before and after
refilling the oil
137
LV Winding
To provide a platform for testing the transformer under
varying conditions of load and fault level, a test setup was
Phase u
constructed which consisted of the transformer under test,
400 V distribution lateral and protective devices, i.e., fuses
and over-current protection relays. Three single-phase high-
Phase v voltage transformers and a LV voltage-regulated autotrans-
former were used to supply power to the tested transformer
from HV and LV sides, respectively. Since, it was neces-
sary to conduct the tests at different levels of supply volt-
Phase w
age, both sets of the supplying transformers were modified
to allow the voltage to be controlled to the required level up
to the nameplate value for the tested transformer by convert-
ing the three-phase voltage in the 400 V distribution lateral
of the laboratory.
Two sets of three-phase resistive load banks consisted
of 100 kV and 400 V paralleled single-phase resistors in
each phase that could be individually controlled to provide
a wide range of loads for the transformer were used for
loading the HV and LV sides of the transformer, respec-
tively. An instrumentation and measurement system was
developed to sense the terminal signals as well as the cir-
culating current in the shorted turns and also to store and
process the data. A set of seven current transformers in
conjunction with resistors were used for capturing each of
the three-phase current signals’ waveforms, six for the line
currents in both primary and secondary side of the trans-
former and one, embracing the shorted turns. The resis-
tors were used to convert each CT output to an appropriate
voltage signal. Terminal voltage signals were acquired by
using voltage dividers connected between transformer ter-
minals and ground. A set of resistive voltage dividers were
used to obtain the voltage signals on the LV side of the
transformer. In the case of HV side, due to the relatively
high level of the voltage signals even after passing through
the voltage dividers, first, shunt capacitors of large values
(100 kV) were added across the HV terminals to reduce
the terminal voltages to measurable levels of the record-
ing apparatus. After that a capacitor divider was utilized
123
138
Fig. 3 Experimental setup used
for performing the tests. a Three
single phase transformers for
supplying HV side of the
transformer and HV shunt
capacitors, b resistive load for
loading the HV side of the
transformer
Fig. 4 Data acquisition setup for conducting the experiments
to further lower the signals to levels that could be directly
recorded.
The results from tests were recorded through a data acqui-
sition system, with a sampling frequency of 10 kHz. The
obtained signals were stored on data files in the recorder and
then imported into standard packages for performing addi-
tional analyses. Other variables such as load and voltage level
as well as fault severity were also saved in each experiment
case and appended to the data files for further processing.
Figures 3 and 4 show the experimental setup and data acqui-
sition system used for conducting the tests.
3 Experiment methodology
Over the course of the experimental tests, a series of exper-
iments were conducted, in some cases with several trials of
each to verify the correctness of the measurement records.
The first step of the experimental procedure consisted of run-
ning a full-load test on the transformer with the taps open and
then comparing the recorded three-phase voltage and current
waveforms in this condition with those ones obtained prior to
123
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145
disassembly to verify that the modifications had not changed
the transformers’ normal operating characteristics. Once this
test was completed, selected fault scenarios were staged in
the laboratory using the setup discussed in the previous sec-
tion.
The first series of tests was designed to characterize the
electrical behavior of the transformer during interturn faults
on the primary and secondary sides while the transformer was
supplied with the rated nameplate values of the supplying
voltage. In the next step of the experimental tests, additional
runs were conducted with the transformer operating under
various levels of supplying voltage and load as well as fault
severity to determine the effects of theses parameters on the
electrical behavior of the faulty transformer. This stage was
accomplished by repeating the first series of tests but with dif-
ferent values of the mentioned parameters; however a same
procedure was followed for both series of the tests, that is,
after the desired values for the load and fault resistance were
adjusted, the transformer was then energized and the volt-
age on the supplying transformer was varied slowly till the
requested value for the tested transformer was reached. The
transformer allowed stabilizing over about a minute before
the fault was initiated to take the measurements correspond-
ing with the failure-free operation, so called normal state
of the transformer. Then the switch was closed to stage the
short circuit fault and make the faulty state measurements.
The transformer under test was allowed to experience not
more than a few cycles of short circuit time in order to avoid
evolving the fault into a probable transformer failure.
Since, depending on the introduced interturn fault located
on the primary or secondary side of the transformer, dif-
ferent characteristic pattern appears in the physical behav-
ior of the faulty transformer, it was necessary to cover the
fault locations on both sides of the transformer. Keeping
this in view that the considered interturn fault was imposed
on the outermost turns of the HV winding discs, which
was the only accessible part of the tested transformer’s wind-
ings, the transformer must be supplied from HV and LV
windings, respectively, for locating the staged fault on the
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145 139

Tested Transformer 60

Primary Line Currents (A)

Iu
LV AutoTransformer U V W 40 Iv

HV Resistive Load
Iw
u v w 20

Shorted -20
Turns
-40
LV Winding HV Winding
-60
(a) 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s)
Tested Transformer (a)

Secondary Phase Voltages (kV)

U VW 40

LV Resistive Load
volU volV volW
u v w 30
HV Supplying
Transformers

20
10
Shorted
Turns 0
-10
HV Winding LV Winding -20

(b) -30
-40
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.20
Fig. 5 Test setup for locating the imposed interturn fault on a second- Time(s)
ary side, b primary side of the considered transformer (b)
Secondary Line Currents (A)
0.45
IU IV IW
0.3
primary and secondary sides. Figure 5 describes a schematic
0.15
representation of the test setup including the tested trans-
former, supplying transformers and resistive loads for load- 0

ing the transformer, in two conditions where the fault is -0.15

located on the primary and secondary sides of the trans- -0.3

former. -0.45
The tests were repeated until the entire desired fault sce- 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s)
narios had been carried out. After each experiment case, the
(c)
condition of the transformer was assessed by visual inspec- 150
If
Circulating Current (A)

tion and performing a full load test to ensure that the staged 100
fault had not damaged the transformer or in any other way
50
changed its characteristics. In all of the experiments con-
0
ducted for this research, the primary and secondary voltages
and currents as well as the circulating current were recorded. -50

The remainder of this paper will describe the results of this -100
experimental study and their analysis. -150
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s)
(d)
4 Findings and results
Fig. 6 Terminal waveforms of the transformer for an interturn fault
As mentioned earlier, the experimental tests were carried out located on secondary side of the transformer. a Three phase primary
line currents, b three phase secondary phase voltages, c three phase
in two stages. The first stage of the experiments was related
secondary line currents, d circulating current in shorted turns
to investigation the characteristics of the transformer in rated
voltage conditions and in presence of interturn fault located turns is denoted by the index f. Three phase resistive load
on the primary and secondary sides. Figures 6 and 7 present equal to 83 and 17  was connected to the HV and LV sides,
the results, including recorded waveform of the terminal val- respectively, in each experiment case. As well, the value of
ues as well as circulating current in the shorted turns, when the external fault resistance was chosen to zero to account
the transformer was supplied from the LV and HV sides and for a metal-to-metal contact and dispose of an extreme value
hence the fault was located on secondary and primary sides to help evaluate trends. However, it should be remarked that
of the transformer respectively. In the figures, the three phase the short circuit loop itself had a resistance equal to 690 m,
HV and LV side currents are denoted by the index U, V, W including the resistance of the connection point, connecting
and u, v, w, respectively. The circulating current in the shorted clamps and leads brought out of the transformer.

123
140 Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145

Primary Line Currents (A) 0.8

IU law states that the electromotive force (emf), induced in a
0.6 IV
0.4 IW turn equals the rate of variation of the electromagnetic flux
0.2 inside it. As a well-known conclusion from this law, at a fixed
0 frequency, the amount of flux entering the turn is fixed by the
-0.2 emf at its terminals. From this assumption, when a short cir-
-0.4
cuit occurs at a given turn, the voltage is forced to drop in
-0.6
-0.8
it and consequently a circulating current flows in the short
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
circuited part, so that it produces opposite mmf to the phase
Time(s)
(a) currents’ mmf to limit the entering flux into the turns. It is
Secondary Phase Voltages (V)

450 obvious that when an interturn fault involves a low fraction of

volu volv volw
300 the winding, the circulating current must be high enough to
150
be able to oppose the mmf of the phase winding in the short
circuited region in order to force the flux to surround the
0
damaged turns. The higher the turn ratio between the whole
-150
winding and short circuited turns, the larger is the circulat-
-300
ing current to be flowed in the shorted turns. The amount of
-450 circulating current in the shorted turns is also related to the
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s) fault severity which will be discussed in more detail in the
(b) following section.
Secondary Line Currents (A)

30
Iu Iv Iw The results of the experiments demonstrate that for an
20
interturn fault on the transformer windings, either on the pri-
10 mary or secondary side, the primary current will rise, Figs. 6a
0 and 7a. The increased primary current is due to the reduced
-10 value of the mmf needed for establishing the linkage flux in
-20 the transformer as a result of fault occurrence. It is worth
-30
pointing out that, according to Faraday’s law, with the pri-
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 mary voltage held constant, the linkage flux passing through
Time(s)
the primary and secondary winding is constant. The effect of
(c)
150
the interturn fault is to remove a turn from the transformer
If
winding. Therefore, when a short circuit occurs, the phase
Circulating Current (A)

100
50
0
-50
-100
-150
0 0.02 0.04
Fig. 7 Terminal waveforms of the transformer for an interturn fault
located on primary side of the transformer. a Three phase primary line
currents, b three phase secondary phase voltages, c three phase second-
ary line currents, d circulating current in shorted turns
As can be clearly understood from observation of the
Figs. 6 and 7d, the interturn fault on the transformer wind-
ings, either on the primary or on the secondary side, causes a
large circulating current, in this case of the order of 45 of the
transformer rated current, to flow in the shorted turns. Such
a great circulating current is a result of high ratio of transfor-
mation between the whole winding and the short-circuited
turns. The key to understand this behavior can be found in
explanation of Faraday’s law in the shorted turns. Faraday’s
winding has less turns and, therefore, less MMF. In addition,
as stated earlier, the circulating current due to the shorted
turn is the source of an opposite mmf. Thus, interturn short
circuits have a cumulative effect in decreasing the mmf near
the short-circuited turns. Larger current must, therefore, be
drawn from the primary to bring the mmf and so linkage flux
0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s) to the value proportional to the constant supply voltage. Com-
(d) parison the given results in Figs. 7a with 6a indicates when
the star-connected HV winding was used as the primary side
of the transformer, just the faulty phase current increases after
the fault occurrence; while for the case of zigzag-connected
LV winding, tow line currents increase as a result of fault.
Obviously, different connection type of the windings con-
tributes to the observed difference in the primary currents
behavior.
Observation of the Fig. 7b indicates that in the case of
interturn fault on the primary winding, the secondary volt-
age does not change remains fairly constant. This is due to
constant supply voltage and hence constant linkage flux pass-
ing through the secondary winding. Since the current flow-
ing through the load is in direct proportion to the secondary
voltage in all cases, so it has the characteristics of the sec-
ondary voltage, Fig. 7c. For the fault on the secondary side,

123
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145 141

Primary Line Current (A)

Table 1 Relative change of the terminal values after fault occurrence 60 IuNL
on secondary side of the transformer IuL1
40 IuL2

Terminal parameter Relative 20

change (%) 0
-20
Primary line currents
-40
Iu 78.27
-60
Iv 00.07 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s)
Iw 77.05
(a)

Secondary Phase Voltage (kV)

Secondary phase voltages 45
volU −00.48 30
volUNL volUL1 volUL2

volV −00.18 15
volW 00.06 0
Secondary line currents -15
IU −00.48 -30
IV −00.18 -45
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
IW 00.07
Time(s)
(b)

Circulating Current (A)

150
Table 2 Relative change of the terminal values after fault occurrence IfNL
100 IfL1
on primary side of the transformer IfL2
50
Terminal parameter Relative 0
change (%)
-50

Primary line currents -100

IU 218.06 -150
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
IV 005.88 Time(s)
IW 009.88 (c)
Secondary phase voltages
Fig. 8 Terminal waveforms of the transformer for three different load
volu −0.002
levels. a Primary line currents, b secondary phase voltages, c circulating
volv 0.009 current in shorted turns
volw −0.006
Secondary line currents transformer and the supplying voltage was kept constant at its
Iu −0.002 nominal value. Figure 8 presents the recorded waveforms of
Iv 0.009 the transformer in no-load and two-load conditions when the
Iw −0.006 transformer was supplying 83 and 125 k resistive loads at its
HV side. In the figures, NL stands for the no-load condition
and L2, L1 for the 125 and 83 k loads. As one can see
Fig. 6b and c, the secondary voltage and current will decrease. from the comparison of waveforms in Fig. 8c, the circulat-
The shorted turns on the secondary winding will cause the ing current in the shorted turns remains same for all levels
effective number of the turns to be reduced which results of the transformer loading. This would be expected since
in decreasing the secondary voltage and current. Since the the circulating current in the shorted turns is mainly deter-
staged fault involves just very low fraction of the HV winding mined by the linkage flux established in the magnetic core,
turns, so the fault effect on the secondary voltage and current so with a constant supply voltage and hence constant link-
is too small to identify clearly. To better observe the modi- age flux in the core, the circulating current remains constant
fications of the terminal values as a result of fault, Tables 1 regardless of the load current. Although, owing to the con-
and 2 summarizes relative change of the terminal values after stant circulating current in the shorted turns, the effect of
the fault occurrence on the secondary and primary windings, the fault on the primary current is the same at different load
respectively. conditions, but with the transformer unloaded, the relative
The second stage of the testing was related to the deter- change remains significant, Fig. 8a. As the transformer load-
mination of the effects of the load and supply level as well as ing was increased, the relative change of the primary current
fault severity on the electrical characteristics of the faulty for the shorted versus normal condition was reduced because
transformer. In all of the experiment cases performed in the fault effect is too small when compared to the transformer
this section, the fault was located on secondary side of the higher load currents. This would seem to present a problem

123
142 Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145

60

Primary Line Current (A)

Table 3 Relative change of the terminal values for three different load Iu100
Iu150
levels 40 Iu200
Iu230

Terminal parameter Relative 20

change (%) 0

Primary line currents -20

IuNL 787.33 -40

IuL2 119.03 -60

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
IuL1 078.27 Time(s)
Secondary phase voltages (a)

Secondary Phase Voltages (kV)

volUNL −00.48 45
volU100 volU150 volU200 volU230
volUL2 −00.48 30

volUL1 −00.50 15

-15

for fault detection in full-load conditions where it would be -30

very difficult to detect a change in the terminal current caused -45

0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
by the interturn fault in spite of the drastic circulating current Time(s)
in the shorted turns. Owing to the constant linkage flux pass- (b)
ing through the secondary winding, before and after the fault 150
Circulating Current (A)
If100
occurrence, the relative change of the secondary voltage is 100 If150
If200
the same for all the load levels, Fig. 8b. As it was mentioned 50 If230

earlier, decreasing of the secondary voltage is just due to

decreasing the effective number of the turns on the winding
as a result of fault; so while the number of shorted turns and
their resistance is constant, the relative change of the sec-
ondary voltage and current remains unaltered. A summary
of the results illustrated in Fig. 8 are listed in Table 3. It
should be remarked that the small differences between the
relative changes of secondary voltage for different load lev-
els, observed in Table 3, were caused by natural variation in
the measuring process rather than by the fault effect.
Figure 9 shows the recorded waveforms of the transformer
for different levels of supplying voltage, applied on the pri-
mary while the secondary connected to the 83 k resistive
load. Four levels of voltage used for supplying the LV side
of the transformer, rated value (230 V rms) and three levels
lower than the rating (200, 150, and 100 V rms), are denoted
by 230, 200, 150, and 100 indexes in the figures. From Fig. 9c,
it can be clearly observed how for small values of the sup-
plying voltage, the circulating current in the shorted turns
tends to decrease. As can be shown, at the lowest level of
the supplying voltage, the circulating current was limited to
32 A in rms value which is far less than attained in the rated
conditions. This was predicted since the low level of the sup-
plying voltage means the low level of the linkage flux in the
magnetic core and hence low level of the circulating current
flowed in the shorted turns to oppose the mmf of the phase
winding. Since, in each experiment case with different levels
of supplying voltage, the primary current must increase in a
manner to bring the linkage flux to a value proportional to the
supplied voltage; thus, the relative change of the primary cur-
rent is the same for all the cases, Fig. 9a. The relative change
0
-50
-100
-150
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Time(s)
(c)
Fig. 9 Terminal waveforms of the transformer for four different sup-
plying voltage levels. a Primary line currents, b secondary phase volt-
ages, c circulating current in shorted turns
of the secondary voltage is the same for all the supplying
voltage levels, Fig. 9b. In fact, such a behavior is not sur-
prising, as the number of shorted turns is constant in all the
cases. The modifications of the terminal parameter values as
a result of fault for the various supplying voltage levels are
gathered in Table 4.
The tests were repeated retaining the fixed rated voltage in
the primary and the 83 k resistive load in the secondary, but
with different fault resistance values to create the desired fault
severity level in the shorted turns. Figure 10 shows the cor-
responding terminal values and circulating current recorded
during interturn faults with four different fault-resistance val-
ues, denoted by Rf1–Rf4 in the figures. Observing Fig. 10c,
it becomes evident that during the exercise of increasing the
value of the fault resistance, i.e. decreasing the fault severity
level, a decreasing is visible in the value of the circulating
current flowed in the shorted turns. The magnitude of the
primary current increases as much as 78 % in the worst con-
dition where the fault-resistance is equal to 690 m to 12 %

123
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145 143

Table 4 Relative change of the terminal values for four different Table 5 Relative change of the terminal values for four different fault
supplying voltage levels severity levels (Rf1 = 0.69 , Rf2 = 1 , Rf3 = 2.1 , Rf4 = 7.4 )
Terminal parameter Relative Terminal parameter Relative
change (%) change (%)

Primary line currents Primary line currents

Iu100 78.22 IuRf1 78.27
Iu150 78.24 IuRf2 62.84
Iu200 78.26 IuRf3 36.78
Iu230 78.27 IuRf4 16.84
Secondary phase voltages IuRf5 12.15
volU100 −0.48 Secondary phase voltages
volU150 −0.48 volURf1 −0.48
volU200 −0.48 volURf2 −0.38
volU230 −0.48 volURf3 −0.22
volURf4 −0.10
60 volURf5 −0.07
Primary Line Current (A)

IuRf1 IuRf2
40 IuRf3 IuRf4

20

0 tion of largest value of the fault resistance representing the

-20 lowest degree of the fault severity. Indeed, the fault resis-
-40
tance represents the resistive component of the turn dielec-
-60
tric material in the dielectric equivalent parallel circuit model
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 [22]. When the transformer is in good condition (large val-
Time(s)
ues of the fault resistance), the dielectric is almost perfect,
(a)
the terminal current is very close to the rated values and the
Secondary Phase Voltage (kV)

45
volURf1 volURf2 volURf3 volURf4 fault circulating current is nearly zero. As the severity pro-
30
gresses and the fault becomes more severe (low values of fault
15
resistance), the terminal and fault currents increase more sig-
0 nificantly. Obviously, maximum values for the terminal and
-15 circulating currents are obtained when the dielectric material
-30 completely breakdowns and a metal-to-metal contact occurs
-45 between the turns. A summary of the results obtained in the
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
performed tests with different fault severity levels are tabu-
Time(s)
(b) lated in Table 5.
150 While on this point it is worth investigating how con-
Circulating Current (A)

IfRf1
100 IfRf2 ventional power transformer protection devices often fail in
IfRf3
IfRf4
detecting low-level interturn winding faults. The problem of
50
the traditional differential protection which recognized as the
0
basic protection of the power transformers against internal
-50
faults is that the low-level interturn faults cannot be detected
-100 with the overall sensitivity represented by the restrained dif-
-150
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
ferential protection until they developed into high-level faults
Time(s)
with more severe damage to the power transformer. In order
(c) to explain this issue in greater detail, reconsideration of the
results obtained in this section and a review of operating
Fig. 10 Terminal waveforms of the transformer for four different fault characteristics of the differential relay system will be useful.
severity levels (Rf1 = 0.69 , Rf2 = 1 , Rf3 = 2.1 , Rf4 = 7.4 ).
a Primary line currents, b secondary phase voltages, c circulating cur-
The current approach for differential protection of regulating
rent in shorted turns transformers is as follows: by selecting the minimum bias to
be greater than sum of the possible CT measurement errors
in the condition where the fault resistance has a value of and other factors introducing noise into the measurement
7.4 . The relative change of the secondary voltage decreases signals, maloperation due to this cause is avoided. Commonly,
from 0.48 % in the worst condition to 0.07 % in the condi- a general set to operate for a current imbalance of 10–50 %

123
144
of rated current is recommended for the minimum pickup
differential current. The differential relay normally has a
dual slope bias characteristic. The initial percentage slope
from zero to rated current should be high enough to accom-
modate the full range of voltage change as the on-load tap
changer moves over its tapping range. At currents above the
rated current, extra errors may be gradually introduced as a
result of CT saturation. The second bias slope is, therefore,
increased to high levels to compensate for this [23]. It was
found from the experiments that an interturn fault involv-
ing 0.2 % of the turn on the HV winding of the considered
transformer only causes a differential current of 12 % rated
current for the lowest level of the fault severity in the shorted
turns. Now, if the minimum pickup current of the restraint
differential protection, be set to 30 %, this low-level interturn
fault, cannot be detected until it evolves into a more severe
fault with higher differential currents.
The present work described the first experience of the
authors in developing an online monitoring system for detec-
tion of interturn winding faults in power transformers. It is
believed that, based on the present findings, the terminal
values of the transformer including the current and voltage
signals of the primary and secondary windings and also cir-
culating current flowed in the shorted turns convey useful
information regarding the fault occurrence on the transformer
windings. The standpoint extracted from the results of the
entire tests, Tables 1–5, is the fact that there is a clear trend
in the terminal values of the faulted transformer. Increasing
the primary current of the transformer for the faults on the
windings, either the primary or secondary winding, decreas-
ing the secondary voltage and current for the faults on the
secondary side and unchanged secondary voltage and current
for the faults on the primary side are discernible trends in all
of the experiment cases performed in this study. The com-
parison between the results of the second series (Tables 3–5)
and first series of the tests (Tables 1, 2), demonstrates that the
pattern in the trend of terminal voltages and currents is the
same at different fault scenarios and operating conditions.
The only remarkable difference is the reduced or increased
effect of the fault in different operating and fault conditions.
Using the information in the Tables 3–5, it can be concluded
that the worst case in view of the fault-detection ability is
when a low-level interturn fault at its incipient stage is applied
on the transformers’ winding, while the primary side of the
transformer is supplied by a reduced voltage and the second-
ary side connected to the rated load. Under this condition,
the fault had no perceptible affect on the transformer oper-
ation and so there was no detectable change in the perfor-
mance of the transformer. Of course, in practice, the decision
on whether or not a fault is underway depends on whether
the difference between the two conditions, before and after
fault, is statistically significant. The information provided
is of great importance as a complete monitoring and fault-
123
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145
detection system relies on this understanding of the physical
phenomena linked to the fault. Based on the analysis of the
faulty transformer behavior in this paper, the future work will
be development of an online, reliable, and sensitive interturn
fault detection method.
5 Conclusion
Experimental investigation of interturn faults in power trans-
formers was studied in this work. The results obtained with
a 100 kVA distribution transformer are provided to show that
terminal values of the transformer convey information which
would be useful in detecting interturn faults. The transformer
has been tested in several fault and operating conditions
aiming to account for the different device characteristics.
Exhaustive experiments on different fault scenarios revealed
that although the interturn short circuit fault was being of
little consequence on the terminal value of the transformer
as a whole, but there was a clear pattern in the trend of termi-
nal behavior under all of the operating and fault conditions.
The primary current increased during an interturn fault on
the transformer winding either on the primary or secondary
side. The secondary voltage and current did not change for
the fault on the primary winding and decreased when the fault
was on the secondary winding. These variations were corre-
lated with the load and supplying voltage level as well as the
fault severity in the shorted turns. In all of the fault cases,
a large circulating current flowed in the shorted turn which
was of the magnitude of 145 times larger than the transformer
rated current under the worst condition created. The circu-
lating current was found to be dependent critically to some
variables including the supplying voltage of the transformer,
or clearly the linkage flux established in the core and the fault
severity. The larger supplying voltage applied on the faulty
transformer, the larger the linkage flux and hence circulating
current flowed in the shorted turns. As the fault became more
severe, the circulating current in the shorted turns tended to
increase. The transformer loaded with different load levels
exhibited a constant circulating current in the shorted turns,
regardless of the load level. Although the primary current
changes following the fault inception, it does not change
in a predictable manner under certain operating conditions.
Under full-load conditions, reduced supplying voltage and
incipient stages of low-level interturn faults, there was no
remarkable change in the primary current of the transformer
because the effect of the fault is too small when compared to
the transformer larger load currents. In fact, this situation cor-
responds with the worst case scenario to be detected. Char-
acteristic fault signatures associated with the interturn faults
derived from the experiments will provide an important basis
for developing reliable and sensitive fault detection methods
which constitutes one of the future directions of this research.
Electr Eng (2013) 95:135–145
Acknowledgments The authors are highly grateful to the Schering
Institute of Leibniz University of Hanover for the provision of test
facilities and great support for experimental tests.
References
1. Bartley W (2003) Analysis of transformer failures. In: Interna-
tional Association of Engineering Insurers 36th annual conference,
Stockholm, Sweden
2. Wang M, Vandermaar AJ, Srivastava KD (2002) Review of con-
dition assessment of power transformers in service. IEEE Electr
Insul Mag 18(6):12–25
3. Stigant SA, Franlin AC (1973) The J&P transformer book: a prac-
tical technology of the power transformer, 10th edn. Wiley, New
York
4. Bastard P, Bertrand P, Meunier M (1994) A transformer model for
winding fault studies. IEEE Trans Power Deliv 9(2):690–699
5. Aggarwal RK, Mao P (1998) Digital simulation of the transient
phenomena in high voltage power transformers with particular ref-
erence to accurate fault detection. In: Proceedings of the Institute
of Electrical Engineering international conference on simulation,
pp 390–397
6. Palmer-Buckle P, Butler KL, Sarma NDR (1999) Characteristics of
a transformer parameters during internal winding faults based on
experimental measurements. In: Proceedings of IEEE transmission
distribution conference, New Orleans, LA, pp 882–887
7. Butler KL, Kuforiji A (2001) Experimental results from short
circuit faults on distribution transformers. In: Proceedings of
2001 IEEE transmission and distribution conference, Atlanta, GA,
pp 299–306
8. Wang H, Butler KL (1999) Modeling transformer with internal
winding faults by calculating leakage factors. In: Proceeding of
the 31th North American power symposium, October, San Luis
Obispo, CA, USA, pp 176–182
9. Wang H, Palmer-Buckle P, Butler KL (1998) Transformer models
for detection of incipient internal winding faults. In: Proceedings of
the 30th North American power symposium, October, Cleveland,
OH, pp 90–98
10. Wang H, Butler KL (2001) Finite element analysis of internal
winding faults in distribution transformers. IEEE Trans Power
Deliv 16(3):422–427
145
11. Wang H, Butler KL (2002) Modeling transformers with internal
incipient faults. IEEE Trans Power Deliv 17(2):500–509
12. Butler-Purry KL, Bagriyanik M, Mousavi MJ, Palmer-Buckle P
(2004) Experimental investigation of internal short circuit faults
leading to advanced incipient behavior and failure of a distribution
transformer. Proc Power Syst Conf Expo 3:1407–1416
13. Kezunovic M, Guo Y (2000) Modeling and simulation of the power
transformer faults and related protective relay behavior. IEEE Trans
Power Deliv 15(1):44–50
14. Abed NY, Mohammed OA (2007) Modeling and characterization
of transformers internal faults using finite element and discrete
wavelet transforms. IEEE Trans Magn 43(4):1425–1428
15. Liu Z, Mohammed OA, Liu S (2007) A practical method for build-
ing the FE-based phase variable model of single phase transformers
for dynamic simulations. IEEE Trans Magn 43(4):1769–1772
16. Liu S, Liu Z, Mohammed OA (2007) FE-based modeling of single-
phase distribution transformers with winding short circuit faults.
IEEE Trans Magn 43(4):1841–1844
17. Díaz G, Arboleya P, Gómez-Aleixandre J (2006) Analytical
approach to internal fault simulation in power transformers based
on fault- related incremental currents. IEEE Trans Power Deliv
21(1):142–149
18. Díaz G, Gómez-Aleixandre J, Arboleya P (2004) Electromagnetic
model of turn-to-turn short circuits in transformers. COMPEL Int
J Comput Math Electr Electron Eng 23(2):562–575
19. Díaz G, Gómez-Aleixandre J, Arboleya P (2004) Diagnosis of a
turn-to-turn short circuit in power transformers by means of zero
sequence current analysis. Electr Power Syst Res 69(2–3):321–329
20. Perez-Rojas C, Garcia-Martinez S (2005) Internal winding faults in
three phase five limb transformer. In: 2nd International conference
on electrical and electronic engineering (ICEEE) and XI confer-
ence on electrical engineering (CIE2005), Mexico City, Mexico,
pp 314–317
21. Bean RL, Chackan N, Moore HR, Wentz EC (1959) Transformers
for the electric power industry. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 217
22. Malik NH, Al-Arainy AA, Qureshi MI (1997) Electrical insulation
in power system. Marcel Dekker, New York
23. IEEE Guide for Protective Relay Applications to Power
Transformers, Std. C37.91-2000, Inst Elect Electron Eng
123