Gener o RS By DONALD R, ALUKIGaTY, DAVID J, Aust AND Tames De Avie, srorrven, FLUX PRoBES PROVIDE ON-LINE | DETECTION OF GENERATOR SHORTED TURNS THE Use oF AIR-GAP MAGNETIC FLUX PROBES HA PROVEN EFFECTIVE IN THE rotor winding shorted turns and has helped to improve the yy of predictive maintenance decisions concerning thn arf entar round: chauld ho pornemedl. Analysis of sap flux probe data can pinpoint the number ancl loc (pole and coil) of shorted tums without having to take the ge Shorted tums can have significant effects on a pen erator and its performance. If the percentage of total tums shorted out is small, the generator may be able to run at rated foad for years without further problems, Larger shorted turn pereent- ages, however, can cause operating conditions that may limit unit loads. If the problems become severe, forced outages may occur. Conditions that may result in run- ning a rotor with shorted turns include: crator off-line. + Rovor unbalance shat varies with field current changes (der ‘mal sensitivity), + RoerAtaton vibration le 19 unbalanced magnetic force, * Higher field current than previously experienced at a specific. Joad, anc * Higher operating temperatures duc to higher field currents. FAILED INSULATION Shorted tims are usually the result of failed insulation between individual windings in a rotor Insulation failure Typical airgap flax probe insualtsion DETECTION OF GENERATOR can be a result of tur ings. Relat ing insu 1m movement of the rotor wind= at of tums can degrade the interven- ion Layer or cause misalignment that ean result in mover fuima-ta-imn eantact Faihires in any af the subsystems designed to contain the thermal and mechanieal forves that develop in the rotor at speed can also give rise lo lurm-to-turn move ment. Sonne of dese failure mechanisms include evil foreshortening, end-strap elongation or inadequate cend-tum blocking. Metallic contamination ean result in shorted tums by forming conductive bridges between tums. In addition to the turn-to-turn contact within a single col, turn-to- tum contact between coils in the end-turn region ean oceur that will remove one or two entire coils from the field circuit. Coil foreshortening refers to a phenomenon where rotor tum copper decreases in length within a rotor slot afler a also rhumber of slopestat eyeles ‘The copper in the rotor slats tends to expand more than the rotor body as the unit heats up during operation. Frictional fore that develop when the rotor is at speed typically coun the thermal expansion of the copper, ercating @ compressive fore that exceeds the. yield stents, When the rota is stopped and allowed to cool down, however, the fvietional farees holding, the: copper in place are reduced and, as the copper cools, the shortenedGENERATORS slot copper will pull the end-tumns toward the rotor bods: This will act to cause misalignment of the rotor end tums, In many cases, coil foreshorten- ing, has beens nespansible for exachinng several turns int the endewinding, End-strap elongation is a result of excessive friction between the end- straps and the retaining ning insula- tion, H the coellicient of trretion becomes too great as a rotor is brought up to normal running speed and tem- perature, the top tums will move with the retaining ring. Ifthe eopper yield slrenglh is exceeded, the turn will be permanently lengthened. This process can be repeated with every start-stop eyele to produce a ratcheting action that_can produce gross elongation of the ad turns. Underlying tums longated, but not to the same extent. Thio relative movon reault in shorted tum development Adequate end-turn blocking is sequited to maintain the positions of the rotor winding eu tur, hu cases whe the end-tum blocking is insufficient or thas shifted during operation, movement of the end tums ean cause misalignment and give rive to ehorted tums, Air-Gap FLUX PRoBE On ‘monitoring using an air gap flay prohe can detect tum shorts that are established only when the rotor is al normal operating speed and teme perature. The flux probe is censitive to the time rate of change of the radial flux in the air gap. As each rotor slot passes the flux prob flux from dat slox slot leakage flux refers to flux thar does nol eross the air gap to reach the stator windings. Since the leakage flux does Uwe slut leakage dewered, Rowr nol induce stator current, the leakage {lus cloes not contribute to power gener ation. However itis local to each rotor sot and its magnitude is proportional to the current flowing through the tums found in the slot: itis diagnostic, there- fore, of active tus in each slot The flux probe waveform displays «peak for each rotor slot. The magni- tule of that peak is lato! tothe amp: tans in the slot. Since amp-tums are directly related to the number of active FIGURE 1 EFFECT OF FDZC POSITION ON DETECTION SENSITIVITY ond #2254 183 MW 1M ond #4 705 508 60s : 2 2 ax dey ere suring inc dyome esi 4 ah ‘ eel aed, es | et — oe Ne t oo ‘aul toe Seige ‘tel shendn soe son sen pt vr in bett Bel fait Too tyra af No.7 cn shared to toy tur af Na Seal tums in the slot, a coil with shorted tums will display a smaller peak than aa coil without shorted turns. By com paring slot peak magnitudes between poles, the number of shorted ture ean be calculated for each coil in the rotor To fully characterize @ genceator rolot, a series of load points is needed whose flux density curve zerrersse ‘ngs (FDZC) align with each of the leading coil slot peaks inthe flux probe ‘waveform, With this data set, each coil ‘ean be analyzed at the ma sible sensitivity. The FDZC varies with the load placed on the generator, At zero MW load, the FDZC will be positioned at the quadrature axis (ie., between the to largest coils). As real power increases towards full load, the FDZC along the leading slots toward the No. 1 lead il slot imum pos- The reactive load also affects. the FDZC position. Positive MVARS will move the EDZC towards the quadrature axis, while negative MVARS will move the FDZC toward the No. 1 leading coil slot. ReaetiveGevereatronrs power alterations can be used to move the FDZC in the desired dircetion when lint the range of real power generator cant acount during, the testing period To calculate the shorted tums for a particular coil, the load point whose FDZC most closely aligns wit the lead slot of the desired coil is selected, The shorted tum indi- cations for that coil are then cal- culated. — Opti- mally, there would be a load point — whose FDZC aligned with the lead slot for each coil. When there is no Joad point avail able FDZC closely «aligns with the lead slot for a particukar coil, any shorted tum condition will be underestimated. Shorted tum calculations are per- Jormed by measunng the magmtude of each lead slot peak and then making a pole-o-pole comparison for each coil For example, if 10 percent ofthe tums in coil are shorted out, the poles col slot peak would be expected to decrease by approximately 10 percent. This is only teue when the FDZC is aligned with the alected coil’ lead slot peak. The oeur- rence of symmetric shorted tums, where the same coil has experienced shorted turns in each pole, will mask the detec tion of chorted tums, Comparison to a pascline set of data with no tum shorts must be used to deteet the presence of syinmietic shorted turns. Case Stupies ‘The first ease study illustrates the ‘effects of the FDZC on shorted tum detection sensitivity. Figure 1 displays two lead slot overlay graphs for a twor pple rotor wth we shorted tra in bot Pole A Coil and Pole B-Coil 6. The left graph is at 25 percent of full load und hasa FDZC position near the ead slot of vil 6. The lel graph shons a significant shored tur indication for Pole B-Coil 6, ‘while the shorted tum indication for Pole A-Coll 4 is quite small. The right graph 1s at 10 percent of fll load and has a EDZC position near the lead slot of coil 4, In this graph, the Pole B-Coil 6 indication has been reduced, while the Pole A- Coil 4 indication has been magni fied. This exam- ple emphasizes the importance of recording a series of load points from soto tofall load. thas Jeet observe! on many vevasions that shorted tun indivatious would have been missed if only one load point was used for the entre analysis. ‘The waveforms displayed in Fig- ure 1 also show the effect ofthe use of magnetic rolor wedges, (Magnetic rotor wedges can significantly reduce flux probe sensitivity by shunting the slot Teakage flux through the magnetic wedge.) The No. 1 coil slots made use cf magnetic wedges in this rotor. As can be seen in the graph, the No. 1 coil peaks are much reduced in amplitude relative to the ather cil slat peaks. ‘The second ease study presents a tworpole rotor with seven coilspole in which coils 6 and 7 of one pole were shorted out of the field circuit. This ‘occured when the top tums of coils 6 and 7 on one pole became shorted togeter, Figure 2 displays this particu larly severe case of shorted turns. The figure displays a dramatie absence of signal forthe lead slots of coils 6 and 7 cf one pole. The unit was only able to run atreduced loads due to excitation Thermal sensitive balance problems vere minimized beeauce the location of the alots for coils 6 and 7 are nearly 180 degrees apart and because the unit was ruming al ralueel fie excitation This type of shorted coil condition js not as rare as one might think. The authors have fux probe data. fom to more machines in the past two years that have lost one or two complete coils. Additionally, three other units, without lux probes, were found to have two coil shorts that were identified by inspection during disassembly. Flux probe monitoring is recor mended prior to maintenance shut- downs and at start-up if rotor work has heen performed. Monitoring should also he performed if changes in operat ing characteristics ate obsezved. GI Albneht, Short Citeuit Detector for Turbine-Generator Rotor Windings." IEEE Transac~ tions on Power Apparaius and Systame, | Valamn PAS-90. Number 2, Moore, B. Pe munieation, Electric Call Ce, ‘National Authors ‘The authors have operated Canes Scotia, NaL- since 1989. Coneratonch specializes iv shorted turn selection equipment sales and test en Albee (EF) hn 45 years experience in the design, manuacture and testing of generator. David Albright (ME) has 18 years’ experience in bioniedieal research and soltwars davelopmest- James Albright (CE) has 22" years’ experience in plant engines