Modeling of high voltage power transformer winding for partial discharge test

Abstract

In the power system network, power transformer is plays an important role for maintaining the constant system operating voltage throughout its long service life. Most of the high voltages transformers are manufacture with different kind of solid insulation (i.e., paper, mica, ceramic insulator, and spacer etc.) to withstand such high voltage stress. Therefore, insulation condition monitoring of such transformers are the utmost important routine work for every power engineers to increase its reliability. It is studied that, partial discharge (PD) is one of the causes of insulation failure in high voltage power transformer winding as it is suffers high voltage stress throughout the service period. Therefore, it is very important to early detection of PD inside the transformers for reliable operation of the high voltage equipment and avoids massive failure in the power system network. In this study, a simulation model is developed for disc type power transformer winding to simulate the PD activity inside the transformer using the MATLAB simulink environment. In addition, the PD activity inside a prototype transformer has been observed in the high voltage laboratory using acoustic emission technique.