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AIR-GAP SPARKING CAUSE AND CUKE

P.E. Clark, C.N. Clew, R.11. Regan

GEC ALSTEIOM Large Machines Ltd, UK

IN1'RODUCIION
In the late 1980's a number of incideuts involving high voltage cage induction motors operating in potentially explosive atmospheres caused the British Government, through the Department of Energy, to issue a safety waruiug giviug uotice to all users of such motors to employ special precautions. REMA, the U.K. electrical machinery mauufacturers represeutative body, published a report in 1990 which was able to define the areas of potential hazard. It ideutified the possible sources of iguitiou from electric motors as arcs, sparks and discharges and defiued the areas in which these phenomeua may occur as:-

b o t h e r example is of Bredthauer, McCluug et al.@

In the introduction they state:-

"..... Duriirg startup of a large 2 pole induction triotor irr 1984, arcing arid sparkiug, caused by eddy currents were observed outside the nrotor ericlosure. n e s e were later isolated iirto two sources, oiie being rotor bar sparking arid the otlrer being arcing due to high curretrt flow front oiie part of the ericlosure to the other.. .... "
"he final example occurs is that of Bonnet aud Souk11p.(~~ They discuss rotor sparkiug in Section 111of their paper dealiug with the "Cause aud Analysis of Ilotor Failures", and state:-

stray currents in euclosures aud non-active parts discharge on stator wiudiugs stray currents in active parts

The report recommeuded various actions to be taken to preveut further incidents and strougly advised that further research work was necessary to iuvestigate the causes of sparking aud the means of eradicating them. Of the three possible sources of iguition mentioned above it was generally accepted that least was known about the pheuomenou of stray currents in active parts uow often referred to as 'air-gap sparking'.

". ..The desigir arid rirariiifacturirrg processes for rotors irrcluded rrrcasures irrteiidcd to reduce sparking. However, rrraterial arid nrartufacturing tolerances together with the effects of dijfereritinl therrrial expansion arid tlrerrrral cyclirrg preclude any motor from "sparkless" operation. Even iderrtical or duplicate motors cart arid will exhibit various levels of spark iriteirsity sirrce all corirporrerrt parts have tolerarices arid are tlrerrirally cycleti during operation. ...."
In order to obtain a better understauding of the reasons why certain motors spark, a series of tests were carried out on a 3.3kV motor. These tests definitely showed the presence of sparking in the air-gap.

..

This problem is not confined to the UK iudustry as the followiug demonstrate:Merrill aud Olsen('J say the followiug iu the section dealing with detecting rotor faults.
" .....According to our experieirce, sparking occurs irr the airgap, so it is irecessary to look direct1.y into the airgap. lke sparhirig was bright arid no difficulty was experierrced iir observiirg it iii a well ligltted shop. Observatiorrs of this type nrust be rirade wliile tire tirotor is starting siirce sparking was observed ortly durirrg acceleratiorr. lliere was no observable sparkitrg after the motor had accelerated to fit11 speed, either wider loaded or rrriloaded coriditioirs. It is also irrterestirrg to note that tlie rirost severe sparking appeared i o occur, riot at zero speed, but at about the poirrt of peak itrotor No exylarratioii is offereti for this torque. pheirorrrerrorl.. ..."

As a result of these tests an iuvestigation was started to:

. . .

identify the spark debris to assist iu the location of its source in the rotor. obtain a clearer understanding of the current flow in the rotor bars, Iminations, duct spacers aud spacer plates. develop calculation techuiques to determine the current distribution in the rotor circuits. Then usiug these techuiques in a transient mode, determine if the conditious are conducive for airgap sparkiug to occur should a break occur in the rotor circuit. develop a means of preventing the sparking.

.Electrical Safety in Hazardous Environments, 1S21 April 1994, Conference Publication No. 390, @ /E, 1994

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EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION A 15OOkW &pole 3.3kV machine was used for the majority of tests. Repetitive starting in almost total darkness revealed the presence of sparks occasionally but differeut observers gave different descriptions aud mauy theories were put forward as to the cause. A compreheusive progratu of tests was started in an attempt to identify the fuudameutal cause. The theories divided iuto two major groups:-

Faster film was obtaiued aud developed to 10,000ASA. Duriug repeated tests it was found that increasiug the opeu circuit supply voltage to limit the voltage dip duriug startiug increased the frequency of sparkiug. Plugging the machine i.e. re-switching the supply to reverse the rotatiou, was guarauteed to cause a spark. The better quality photographs showed distiuct lines of light which appear to travel taugentially from rotor to stator iu both directions. Spatial Position There was still a major problem in knowiug where the events took place axially. A matrix of 96 fibre optic light guides was made aud fitted iu pairs iuto each stator duct and betweeu the eud windings covering approximately a quarter of the circumfereuce of the core. The remote ends were photographed during each start aud showed a very distiuct mucentration of activity at the ends of the rotor. b o w i n g that the major area of activity occurred at or around the end rotor lamination packet aud duct, the rotor and stator were axially offset in au attempt to examine the end regiou more closely. This gave a surprising result in that the sparking was far more inteuse aud when photographed revealed that the tangential light tracks seeu in earlier photographs were particulate material being throwu from the rotor and bouncing off the stator, in many iustauces the white hot material breaking up iuto a shower of smaller particles. Colour photography was used for the first time aud this gave au indication of particle temperature. Stator o r Rotor

1) Capacitively coupled discharge between stator and rotor 2) Iuterruption of inter-bar curreut withiu the rotor
In each of these groups there are many possible causes and each was tested.

Inipulse tests on stator. Attempts were made to measure the voltage at various points along the rotor bars aud rotor core whilst impulsing the stator winding with a staudard 8.5 - 9kV peak impulse applied between line and neutral on one phase. All combiuatious of earth point of stator, rotor aud baseplate were tried but no sparking was observed aud a maximum differential voltage across the air-gap of a few huudred volts was detected.

Terminal voltage during starting Measurements of the motor terminal voltage during starting were made with sparking being detected by observation. Some correlation between peak voltage and sparking was fouud, aud also soue correlatiou between having the stator core earthed and it not sparking. The reliability of observation was not good as the event is extremely short lived, the noise of starling is distracting and it is not easy to keep one's eyes aligued with a small air-gap in total darkuess. Ouly about 180" of the air-gap was visible doe to the construction of the machine.

Confirmation that there was no direct contributiou to the sparking from the stator was required aud to ascertain this the rotor ducts were covered with trauslucent adhesive glass tape. No sparkiug was now seen in the air-gap, thus confirming that the sparking activity is limited to the rotor. After repeated tests the tapes were removed aud the debris collected and analyzed. The analysis was carried out using a scauniug electron microscope (SEM) with an attached x-ray energy dispersive analyzer (EDS) in order to establish the constituents of the debris by percentage weight. I<esults frou such au analysis showed that most of the molten material was mild steel or mild steel with copper, indicating that the source of sparking originated in the region between the copper rotor bar aud adjacent spacer plate. Further evideuce supporting this as the source of sparking was obtained from viewiug the rotor with an endoscope which showed erosion iu this regiou.

Photographic Recording The test enclosure for the machine was dramatically improved to eliminate all extraneous light and as much as possible of the bearing housing was machined away to improve the access to the end of the rotor. Cameras loaded with high speed film were mounted and aligned with the air-gap. Some very blurred black and white photographs were obtained and the incidence of sparking varied between 1 start in 10 and 1 start in 4.

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Detailed eudoscopic examiuatiou of the rotor showed sites iu the eud veutilatiou ducts where arciug had takeu place.

uuluber of uodes aud the limited modelliug ability of present 3-dimeusioual solvers, it was decided to use a circuit approach usiug parameters derived from fiuite elemeut studies to eusure a high degree of accuracy. This paper does uol cover the details of the theoretical work, which was a major coutributiou to the project, but is restricted to ootliniug the correlatiou of the theory aud the experimental results.

It was evident from the aualysis that the sparkiug activity was iu the duct region aud iuitiated by the rotor bars separating away from the spacer plates. This is the most likely sceuario siuce the rotor bars cau uever be expected to be in permanent contact with the plates cousideriug the forces they have to accept due to centrifugal aud electromaguetic effects.

C O W L A T I O N OPTIIEOKYAND EXPERIMENT

Timing
Observation No. 1 Early attempts at measuriug the time betweeu switch-on aud the ousel of sparkiug used highly sensitive photodetectors. Recordiugs of the detector output, the curreut aud the voltage were used to correlate sparkiug and the point-ou-wave at euergisatiou. No appareut correlatiou was fouud but it was uoted that the light detector "saw" several isolated eveuts after the iustaut of euergisatiou. To obtaiu more detailed iuformatiou it was uecessary to take high speed films of a uumber of starts. Films were takeu at 150, 300 aud 500 frames per secoud aud it was possible to see arciug betweeu the bar aud rotor core aud sparkiug as particles were throwu from the rotor. From these films it was confirmed that there are several separate iucideuts duriug a siugle start aud that they are highly variable in iuteusity. Confirmation

"When sparks occur, they are usually emitted shortly after the instance of switch-on ".
Experilueuts to monitor simultaueously the machiue line voltage aud air-gap light emissiou were carried out. In two example starts light emissiou occurred about 0.0055 sec aud 0.0045 sec &er switch-on. It has beeu postulated that the spark produciug mechauism is due to breakiug coutact betweeu a portiou of a rotor bar aud its adjaceut laminations. The frequeucy of vibratiou is double slip frequeucy; l00Hz for 50Hz machiues at the iustauce of switch-on aud the justificatiou of the sparkiug eveut commeuciug withiu the first half cycle of the l00Hz rotor bar forcing frequency is readily coucluded. This "delay" in the observation of the air-gap spark was also recorded by Merrill aud Olsou. For the purpose of comparison of the theory with the other observatious, an average contact breakiug time of 0.003 sec is assumed.

A staudard 770kW 2-pole G.6kV motor was also tested aud the results from the earlier machine were confirmed. Ouly part of the rotor was visible aud there cau be uo doubt that further sparkiug must also occur iu the parts that could uot be seeu. It must be borue in miud that the bars were a tight fit iu the slots wheu the motor was built aud yet, with the aid of the best photographic techniques, sparkiug was readily observed.

Observation No. 2

CALCULATION MEI'IIODS ADOI'I'ED The objective of the aualysis is to calculate the bar-tobar curreut deusities iu the rotor which will theu form the basis of loss evaluatiou in the coutact region. 'The loss aud curreut densities are calculated throughout the rotor circuits for steady state aud trausieut operation. Ideally, calculation of ciirreut, aud hence loss in the rotor circuits requires a 3-dimeusional formulation. Ncrmally, geometric irregularities, maguetic saturation aud eddy curreuts would be cousidered in a 3dimeusioual numerical solver such as one based ou fiuite elemeuts. However, this would ueed to be solved trausiently. Due to the loug computing times, the large

"The supply inryedance has a noticeable effect on the level of activity

'I.

During two separate test set-up arrangements, the 3300 volt supply to the motor was provided by two different trausformers. The effect of the trausformers was to preseut a differeut supply impedauce to the motor and it was observed that the maximum sparkiug activity was markedly reduced when supplied from the trausformer with the higher impedauce.

In order to represent this effect, the theoretical model was supplied with stator curreuts correspoudiug to 150, 500, 1000 aud 1570 amps at the locked rotor slip of 1.0 resiiltiug in a quadratic iucrease in the energy.

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The higher volt drop at starting resulting from the higher line impedance will apply a lower initial voltage to the machine aud correspondingly produce a smaller line current and spark energy density.

The unexpected shape of the axial distribution of linear curreut deusity from the theoretical model exactly matched the observatious. It was obvious that the relative position of ventilation ducts had a marked effect on the magnitude of the activity. In order to explore the effect three more studies were carried out:

A similar effect is produced when a machine is soft started by any of the usual methods. Although only limited test iuformatiou is available, no air-gap sparking has been observed on machines that were soft started.
Observation No. 3

Air gap sparking only occurs during starting.

During this development project many hundreds of observations of machines have been made and sparking activity has only been seen at starting. In order to simulate the condition of the machine starting and ruuuing-up to full load, the theoretical model was supplied with the machine parameters for values of slip from 1.0 to the fill1 load value of 0.0068 PU. The maximum energy density, and hence sparking, always occurs close to a slip of 1.0 pu aud the model supports the observation that sparking at smaller values of slip is unlikely. This conclusion is supported by refs (I), (2) and (3). Observation No. 4

. . .

the effect of a non-ducted rotor the effect of ducts offset relative to the stator duct, as is commou on two pole machines to reduce siren noise. the effect of displaciug the whole rotor axially by a siguificaut amouut (190 mm).

The reason the latter was included is interesting. Prior to the fibre optic experiment described earlier it was thought that the major activity w a s at the bar-to-core interface at the core end. In order to be able to see the effect, the stator was displaced axially by 190 mm aud the machiue switched-on. The sparking activity was many times more vigorous than had been in the in-line case. The resulting theoretical studies produced the following values of energy density at the end of 0.003 secs interruption:i) Nou-ducted rotor ii) In line ducted rotor iii) In line rotor with offset ducts iv) Rotor offset axially by 190 m m -

Sparksdo not occur on every start and the incidence and magnitude appear to be random and a function of the point-of-wave switching position .
If the model is programmed to produce the energy density at the end of the 0.003 secs interruption time as a function of the phase angle of the bar-to-bar cross current at the instant, then the resultiug variation is cyclic. It follows that there will be conditions during random switching where the energy density (or cross current) is insufficient to create air-gap sparking. Observation No. 5

4.1pJ/mmZ 8.5pJ/mmZ
15.2.pJ/mmZ 2 15pJ/mmz

Once again the order of difference in the activity with the rotor offset confirmed the confidence in the theorectical model. This exercise also demonstrated that the propensity for sparking is much less with non-ducted rotors and much greater with offset ducted rotors which are very comtuonly used in 2 pole machiues.

On machines with radially ducted rotors the sparking activity is greatest in the region of the first in-board duct and decreases in intensity toward the axial centre of the machine.
The experiment using the fibre optic array clearly indicated that the activity was at its maximum in the first axial duct, with the intensity decreasing towards the centre of the machine.

ROTOR INSULATION
It was decided at an early stage that insulating the rotor bars would be the best way of preventing rotor sparks. The alternative of ensuring permanent contact between the bars aud the core is considered to be unreliable because of the differential thermal expausion of the copper bars and the steel core and the natural oxidation of the copper increases the contact resistauce.

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The requirements of any iusulating coatiug suitable for use on the bars of au induction rotor are very different from most iusulatiou fouud in electrical machines. During startiug the bar surface temperature cau rise at rates in excess of 100C per secoud, large cyclic electro-maguetic forces push the bar radially inward, aud as the rotor speeds up ceutrifiigal forces take charge aud push the bars radially outward. The insolation must also be capable of withstanding the abrasiou during iusertiou into the rotor lamiuations, a temperature of up to 700C duriug the brazing of the bars to the short circuit rings aud the subsequeut bending stresses aud plastic deformatiou during the cooling period. The coatiug must also be resistant to attack from the very aggressive flux uecessary for brazing. The requirement for close dimeusional control of the fit between bar and slot is necessary otherwise balance, vibratiou and noise performauce is affected. To achieve equivalent output coefficients of modern compact machiues with uu-iusulated rotors the thermal conductivity of the coating must uot impair perfomauce. With all these striugeut requiremeuts a new material had to be found and tested and the obvious choice would be some form of refractory material, probably inorgauic. Mauy differeut types of material and application processes have beeu considered aud discarded for some failure to meet the requirements. Three coatiug processes have been exteusively tested :-

Plated and converted nietal oxide coatings

A bar coating of a few huudred ohms per square would give sufficient control of the sparks. A number of metal oxides are semi-couducting and of these, chromium dioxide has good mechanical properties. The bar is chromium plated and then the plated layer is converted to the oxide by firiug at high temperature in au atmosphere of wet hydrogeu. Experimeutal bars have been made but the coating thickness is uot sufficient to guarantee long term reliability of coatiug resistauce aud the high temperatures required leave the bars in the fully auuealed state, again making them difficult to haudle.

Plasnia sprayed coatings

Plasma sprayed coatiugs give a micro-porous structure aud this allows a high degree of flexibility whilst retaiuiug good boud strength at the coatinglbar interface. The boud is a purely mechauical phenomena and bend tests on thin material demoustrate this. The process does not auueal the base material. Alumiuium oxide ceramic has beeu fouud to give the best results aud has beeu extensively tested for thermal shock, electrical breakdowu strength, high cycle low strain fatigue, beudiug aud wear resistauce. It was discovered duriug testiug that the moisture content of the micro- porous coatiug chauged the iusulatiou resistance siguificautly aud this has uow beeu overcome by impreguation of the completed rotor with a syuthetic resiu. The impreguatiou process also siguificautly improves the resilience of the coatiug aud also the heat transfer from bar to core.

1) Glass ceramic coatiugs fired directly onto the bar. 2) Plated aud converted metal oxide coatiugs. 3) Plasma sprayed ceramic aud metal oxide coatiugs.

TESTING
It was, of course, esseutial that the insulated bars were tested in situations which were truly represeutative of service couditious. New rotors were, therefore made for two standard machines. The first was a 1500kW 4pole machine with a rated voltage of 3.3kV. This was subjected to about 500 direct-ou-liue reversals. This is a very severe duty, much worse thau a normal duty, as the transieut torques on the rotor are far in excess of those experienced under normal starting.
No sparks whatsoever were observed or recorded ou film duriug the 500 reversals. The machine was theu set up with the rotor offset axially to euhauce the electrical euergy available for creating sparks, but when the machiue was started the rotor was pulled sharply towards the eudfloat limit of the beariug aud suffered a severe axial shock. This damaged the insulatiou ou the bars and showed up a potential weakness iu the type of coating which led to a siguificant chauge iu the coatiug for the secoud machine.

Glass Ceraniics
The glass ceramic selected was such that its coefficient of linear expausion was well matched to that of copper. This coatiug has good thermal conductivity and electrical breakdown streugth aud the differeutial expausiou betweeu coating aud bar was showu to withstaud a thermal shock of greater thau 800C (pluuged from bradug temperature into liquid uitrogeu) without failure, but because of the high temperatures iuvolved in the coatiug process, the copper is iu a fully aunealed state aud great care is required during handliug. After cousiderable developmeut and a large uumber of tests the process was abaudoned maiuly due to difficulties in dimensional control and that the softening of the copper bars was considered to be a disadvantage.

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The secoud machine, a 770kW 2-vole 6.6kV machine, was subjected to over 1000 starts. A selectiou of the starts were photographed. It will be appreciated that photographs which are totally black (because of the lack of sparks) are uot coucliisive - it is quite easy to create black pictores! Cousequeutly, a calibrated light source was created from a special light emittiug diode aud a power supply. By this me'aus it was possible to verify the effectiveness of the photography. The machiue was also fitted with a rotor iusulatiou mouitor to mouitor the iusulaliou resist,auce. ExN certificatiou is available for this mouitor which will iudicate if a siugle earth faiilt has occurred - a conditiou which will uot lead to auy sparkiug - aud remedial actiou cau be takeu before a secoud fault occurs - wheu sparkiug cau take place.

KEFEWNCISS
1. "Sparking of a x . motors aud its effects ou Division 2 applications" E.F. Merill & C.R. Olseu, 1959 Proc N E E E PIC Augiist 24.
2. "Risk of iguitiou due to trausitiou currents iu medium voltage motors for classified locatious". J. Bredthaoer, L.B. McCluug, D.C. Mohla aud H. Tretzack, 1991, IEEE Trausacliolls on Industry Applicatious, Vol. 27, No. 6, November/December "Explosious in gas compressor electric motor drives. A study of possible causes aud appropriate remedial measures". A.L. Bartels, ERA Techuology .

3.

4. "Cause aud analysis of stator aud rotor failures in three phase squirrel-cage iuductiou motors". A.H.
Bonnet aud G.C. Soukup, 1992, IEEE Trausactious on Iudustry Applicatious, Vol. 28, No. 4, Jill y/August

SUMMARY
The results from the applicatiou of complex parameters derived by 3D fiuite elemeut techniques to a circuit model represeutiug the rotor of au induction machiue, have demoustrated a full uuderstaudiug of the pheuomenou referred to as air-gap sparkiug. The results have beeu validated by observatiou aud by exteusive testiug of full size high voltage motors. Fully iusiilated bars have beeu used to elimiuate air-gap sparkiug aud this iusulatiou has beeu tested exteusively duriug direct ou liue starts.