Use of Distributed Temperature Measurements

to Explain a Generator Winding Failure

C. Hudon, M. Chaaban, J. Leduc, and D.N. Nguyen

Institut de Recherche dHydro-Qubec IREQ, Canada

Unit Appareillage de Production Hydro-Qubec, Canada

1. EXTENSIVE SUMMARY
An optic fiber with a distributed temperature sensing (DTS) apparatus was used for the first time to
monitor an air cooled hydro-generator. This technology uses Raman backscattering to measure the local
temperature along the entire length of a fiber. In September 2002, an eight hundred meter length of fiber
was installed through the vent ducts of a 141 MVA, 13.8 kV hydro-generator at three levels of the stator
core [1]. This installation is part of a larger research project aimed at better understanding the thermal
behavior of generators. This distributed temperature measurement was intended to provide validation for
the thermal numerical model recently developed at Hydro-Quebecs Research Institute (IREQ). In the
current study, the optical fiber was used to measure the temperature automatically over the whole
perimeter of the stator. A temperature difference of the fiber of more than 20C was detected between
mid-height and the extremities of the core. In order to explain such an abnormal spread, an axial profile
of the airflow through the stator was also measured from the back of the core. Such axial non-uniformity
of temperature, combined with the fact that there is no provision on this generator for radial expansion of
its frame under high load, had caused severe buckling of the core. In addition, because this generator was
subjected to frequent thermal cycles, mechanical fatigue of the laminations caused vibration of the teeth
and eventually led to the rupture of individual laminations, which in turn perforated the coil insulation
and resulted in a phase-to-ground failure. In the case reported herein, the novel use of a single optic fiber,
with its DTS diagnostic provided valuable information that allowed the authors to identified the root
cause of the windings failure and explain the degradation mechanism.
Keyword: Stator temperature Optical fiber distributed measurement Failure mode analysis generator
diagnostic
2. INTRODUCTION
Over the past decade, power generation patterns have dramatically changed due to the deregulation of the
electricity market in Americas northeast. Generators have moved from the traditional base loading, to a
more stringent load cycling. Sometimes during winter peak demand, generators are cycled twice a day
for duration of 3 to 8 hours at maximum rating. The typical load pattern for the winter of 2004, for the
generator under investigation (141 MVA, 13,8 kV), is shown in Figure 1.

hudon.claude@ireq.ca

160.00

MW
MVar

140.00

Power (MW or MVAr)

120.00

100.00

80.00

60.00

40.00

20.00

0.00
2004-01-01 2004-01-11 2004-01-21 2004-01-31 2004-02-10 2004-02-20 2004-03-01 2004-03-11

date

Figure 1: Actual load cycles of the generator under test for the winter of 2004.
It should be pointed out that this generator commissioned in 1965, along with the seven other units of the
same plant have shown early degradation signs. In the first few years after commissioning, the main
problem identified was associated with the fact that there is no provision in the soleplate to allow radial
thermal expansion of the core. When operated at rated power, even though the temperature measured by
the RTDs was much lower than the limit of the insulation class, the core suffered significant buckling.
This deformation eventually led to loosening and vibration of laminations. Some failures occurred within
the first few years of operation. As a result, Hydro-Quebec has stabilized both extremities of the core
with weeping epoxy, permanently fixing the pressure fingers and retightening the core of the generators
affected. Such correction became more frequent in the early 1980. This seemed to stabilized the core
buckling problem for the next two decades. Since then, stator failure started again, with successive
winding short-circuits in 2001, 2004 and 2005. Pronounced signs of degradation were observed at the
core exit of the coils asphalt-mica insulation. This situation made these generators perfect specimens for
our research project. In the current paper, we will mainly focus on the measurement aspect, which is
based on DTS and on airflow measurements used to explain the active degradation mechanism.
3. EXPERIMENTAL DESCRIPTION
The installation made on the selected generator consisted in airflow measurements performed at the back
of the stator core and in weaving eight hundred meters of optical fiber through the vent ducts of the stator
core. The airflow measurements were made using ten hot wire anemometers to determine a relative axial
airflow profile through the stator core. These sensors were fixed directly on the core, as shown in
Figure 2 (left). The air speed measured this way is only relative because the airflow is not
preconditioned. In order to get an absolute speed, a conditioned measurement was also performed in
three locations where the fiber was installed. The conditioning of the airflow was made using diffusion
cones as depicted in the right part of Figure 2.

Hot wire

Figure 2: Hot wire anemometers fixed on the back of the core (left) and diffusion cone to condition the
airflow and hot wire (right).
2

The single length of fiber was pushed through the vent ducts of the core at three levels of the core as
depicted in Figure 3. This installation was done in 2002. At that time, the DTS results were compared in
details to temperatures measured by RTDs [1]. The temperature can be measured along the entire length
of the fiber at the top, the center and the bottom of the stator core. The weaving pattern made it possible
to measure the temperature around every coil compared with the 6 or 12 slots monitored by the RTDs.
This fiber connects back to the acquisition equipment, which can measure the temperature at any location
in less than a minute. The fiber is only 1.3 mm in diameter so that it does not interfere with the cooling
process of the stator. The fiber of the lower level can be seen in the second to last duct in Figure 2.
10 cm
Fiber

35 cm

Figure 3: Schematic of the three levels of optical fiber loop (left) and installation path through the stator
vent ducts (right).
4. RESULTS
The temperature of the cooling air measured by the fiber for the three levels are shown in Figure 4, for
two operating conditions (114 MVA and 129 MVA). It can be seen that, regardless of the operating
conditions, there was a significant difference in temperature between the different levels. However, the
bottom level was always the warmest, and the center one the coldest. The temperatures are presented
with reference to the angular position in the machine as viewed from the top. In the right part of the
figure, the difference between the center and the bottom level reached 20C. The top portion of the stator
is also warmer than the center, but less than the bottom. The temperatures of the RTDs are superimposed
on the curves and are marked by red crosses in Figure 4. Their temperatures are of the same magnitude
than that of the cooling air measured by the bottom fiber. In some case, the air temperature is even
warmer than that of the RTD, which is unusual because the RTDs are installed much closer to the copper,
between coil legs in a slot. The explanation for this, is that the RTDs are only 50 cm long and are located
in the colder central portion of the slot. Thus, when the RTDs are compared with the center fiber, they
are in fact always warmer, but because of their length and location, they are insensitive to the higher
temperature in the extremities.
upstream
upstream
75

75

70

70

65

65

60

60

55

55
50

50

45

45

40

40

35

35

Fusion of
a broken
fiber

downstream

bottom
top
center
RTD

Top
Center
Bottom
RTD

downstream

Figure 4 : Temperatures measured by the fiber at P= 114 MVA (left) and at P= 129 MVA (right).
3

The explanation for the tempereature difference comes from the combination of the results from the ten
hot wires and the conditioned air speed measured, which gives the axial ventilation profile illustrated in
Figure 5. In the central portion of the core, the airflow was ten times faster than in the extrimities.
16
14

air speed (m/s)

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

31

33

35

37

# vent duct

Figure 5: Axial cooling profile through the stator core (1 = top of the core and 38 = bottom).
When using this profile as input to our numerical model, it was found that the calculated copper
temperature was about 20C above the measurede temperature from the RTDs. This is illustrated in
Figure 6. This figure shows the results of the numerical simulation of the calculated copper temperature
corresponding to 114 MVA. The temperature of each turn of the coils for the two legs in one slot are
illustrated. The turns of the top leg are identified form 1 to 4, while those of the bottom leg are marked 5
to 8. It can be seen that in this condition, the actual calculated hotspot was in the lower portion of the
stator in turn #7 at 93C, which is more than 35C above the average RTD temperature. When the
generator was operating at 140 MVA, the average RTD temperature was of 77.2C and the calculated
copper temperature in the center portion of the slot was of 91.7C, for a corresponding hotspot of 109C.
95

turn 1

Below
core

Core portion

above
core

90

turn 2
turn 3

85

turn 4
temperature (C)

80

turn 5
75

turn 6
turn 7

70

turn 8

65

Average
RTD

60

RTD+20C
55
2.5

1.5

0.5

position

Figure 6: Simulation of the temperature along the 8 turns of the two coil legs within one slot with the
average temperature of the RTD measured at 114 MVA.
5. DISCUSSION
From what was presented above, the RTD readings only represent the generator thermal behavior when
temperatures are uniform, otherwise this assumption is no longer valid. The advantages of our distributed
temperature measurements is that it monitors large portion of the generator and can be retrofitted without
removing coils (bars) or wedges. The main disadvantage is that the fiber measures the air temperature
and thus it is essential to combine the measurements with numerical simulation to evaluate the actual
hotspot temperature. In the current study, the hotspot temperature was more than 30C above the average
RTD temperature. Other type of optical sensors embedded inside the insulation, directly in contact with
4

the copper [2], can directly gives the hotspot temperature, but it is only convenient to monitor temperature
of one or a few bars.
Before this investigation took place, the mechanical deterioration at the extremities of the core were
attributed to the lack of a radial expansion of the core and a weak pressure system at the top of the core.
What was revealed in the present study is that the low ventilation flow at both ends of the core caused
overheating in these regions and accelerated thermally the degradation. The overheating increased the
buckling at the bottom of the core, but also affected the top portion of the stator. In addition, the core
expansion caused increased pressure in the extremities of the coils soft asphalt insulation system. With
the additional load cycling imposed to these generators, the thermal expansion of the core has become a
thermo-mechanical problem. This mixed degradation mode accelerated the aging of both the insulation
and the lamination. A partial failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is depicted in Figure 7. This
FMEA splits into two sub-mechanisms. One of them is dominated by mechanical degradation and does
not necessarily needs high electrical field to cause a failure: this sub-mechanism leads to broken
lamination by mechanical fatigue, which can either fly around the machine or just get pushed through the
insulation. This migration through the insulation will continue until the remaining insulation of the coil
can no longer support the local electrical field. This failure mode is the one that occurred on the generator
under investigation, which failed just at the bottom exit of the core on a coil normally operating at 1.7 kV.
Thus, the failure could not have been caused by electrical stress alone. Moreover, during the visual
inspection, there were several locations showing signs of lamination vibrations and accumulation of red
oxide powder. On one of the other generators, a broken lamination was found to be already about half
way through the insulation, as illustrated in Figure 8.
Non uniform
axial airflow

Overheating of the
stator core extrmities

Thermomechanical
cycling

Erosion of the
lamination insulation
Core over
heating

Expansion and
dilation cycles

Mechanical fatigue
of the lamination

Broken lamination
puncturing insulation
Line-to-ground
short cicuit

Expansion of the coil insulation

and migration of asphalt

Internal delamination
of the insulation

PD and mechanical
erosion

Figure 7: FMEA leading to the failure of the generator under investigation.

Figure 8: Broken lamination migrating through the insulation.

The two other failures that occurred in this plant were on higher voltage coils and in the top portion of the
stator. In this location, the core is more free to move and less affected by undulation. However, the
pressure on the insulation resulting from the overheating can cause a migration of the asphalt, leaving in
place a delaminated insulation less resistant to the electrical stress.
In addition to the non-uniform axial cooling, the load cycling, which is common to both sub-mechanism,
imposes large periodic mechanical stresses to the core and coils. During our investigation of the airflow,
5

we had the opportunity to observe the core buckling in different conditions. Undulation was hardly
detectable at room temperature (see Fig. 2 left), whereas it was pronounced in a hot condition just after
stopping the generator. The undulation in this hot condition and 12 hours later are illustrated in Figure 9.
It should be remembered that the magnitude of the buckling at room temperature is not necessarily
representative of the cores condition during operation.

Figure 9: Deformation of the bottom of the core few minutes after the generator had stopped (left) and 12
hours later (right).
Generators using asphalt insulation typically can live for 60 years or more. Here, failures have started
after only 36 years and the three latest failures occurred in less than 40 years. From the visual inspection,
it can be said that the same problem of non-uniform axial ventilation affects all generators. One generator
has already been rewound and its laminations have been reinsulated and restacked. At the time, the poor
ventilation problem was unknown and no modification of soleplates had been done. After three years of
operation, the core is already showing signs of undulation. Facing such evidence, it is now planned to
modify all generators and replace the soleplates with ones allowing for radial expansion of the core. In
addition, change should be made in the rotor spider to ensure better distribution of cooling air. If no
change is made, the axial ventilation profile will remain the same.
6. CONCLUSION
Since its commissioning and for many years, a thermal expansion problem affecting the generator studied
and all the others of the same plant was thought to be mainly of mechanical nature. The distributed
temperature and airflow measurements performed, revealed that the unusual expansion was dominated by
the lack of cooling in the extremities of the core. It was found by numerical simulation that such a
condition can cause a hotspot temperature, at the copper, of 30C or more above the RTD temperature.
Before our investigation, it was impossible to come up with this diagnostic only based on the RTD
readings. Severe deformation of the extremities was visually observed, but they were solely attributed to
mechanical causes. It was demonstrated that Distributed Temperature Sensing can provide valuable
information to assess the condition of generators and identify the root cause of thermal problems.
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] C. Hudon, M. Chaaban, S. Blanger, J. Leduc and D.N. Nguyen, New Approach to Assess Thermal
Behavior of Generator Stators, HydroVision 2004 conference, Montral August 16-20 2004.
[2] N.M. Theune, M.Muller, H. Hertsch, J. Kaiser, M. Willsch, P. Krammer and T. Bosselmann,
Investigation of stator coil and lead temperatures on high voltage inside Large Power Generators via use
of Fiber Bragg Gratings, Sensors, 2002. Proceedings of IEEE, Volume 2, 12-14 June 2002 Page(s):1603
1607.