Research on on-line DGA using FTIR

Liu Xianyong, Zhou Fangjie, and Huang Fenglei

Abstract-Electrochemical sensors and gas chmmatography are widely used in on-line monitors for dissolved gas-in-oil of power transformers, but some fatal defects exist. In view of the many advantages of FTIR, the basics of applying it on such monitors are studied and results are prcsented. Investigation shows that ail the characteristic Deal\s needed to be analwed can be covered if the measurable wavenumber rcgion of the spectrometer is 720cm.'- 3400cm.', and the optimum optical

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these two kinds of detectors are still in its infancy and have encountered many problems that optical detecting methods could avoid naturally. The most outstanding advantages of an optical detector are their non.destruct,ve and no characteristics; and with FTIR spectroscopy, it is reported'"' that the amount of all the diagnostic gases as well as water content except hydrogen could be measured slmultanwusly m a satisfactory precision

that such B monitor'can. be consiructed using FTIR that can Dreciselv detect all the diamostic eases excent hvdrocen " ~. and are free of consuming gases as well as in situ calibration.
0

Index Term-DGA, dissolved gas-in-oil, FTIR, gas cell, infrared spectra, on-line monitoring, optical length, power transformer.

FTIR spectroscopy are investigated recently'"', no rePo* on FTIR suectra used in DGA has been made in China. Justifiably, this paper set out to explore its basics and some initial results are presented.
11.. BASICS

1. INTRODUCTION

important with our life and work more and more built on electricityi1'. The concept of conditionhased-repairing has been proposed for years"], yet its pi-actice completely depends on the development' of on-line monitoring techno1ogy''l. Various on-line dissolved gas-in-oil monitors have hcen developed in the past twenty years and have long been Table I Measurementrange l o br acquired for Dissolved gas-in-oil recognized as the most effective for incipient fault diagnosis"]. Widely used on-line monitors are mainly hydrogen mouitorsl5I or total amount gas monitors. These kinds of monitors can not take the place of conventional laboratorial gas chromatographic instruments as they can not monitor all the diagnostic gases and its measurement range and resolutiont6] is not comparable to the latter too. What a cundition-basedrepairing needs is an on-line multi-gas m~uitor''~, with all the diagnostic gases measured in a precision that a labratory gas chromatographic instrument could provideis1. The key part of a gas monitor is its gas detector. On-line A. ,SpecIra Region detectors include chemical sensor^^^', theiiiial conductivity By using Nicolet 670 FTIR spectrometer, the FTIR spectra detectors (TCD), and optical detectors. Although grcat of C B , C2H2, CO, CO2, C&, and CzH6 in different endeavors have k e n made to solve the problems of electroconcentration are collected. The device sketched in Fig. 1 is chemical sensorsiIoI and TCDs, multi-gas monitors using designed, made, and used to dilute high pure gas to get different samples. Where high-pressure nitrogen is used to This work was supported in part by Ihc innovation funds far middle and purge all the parts of the dilution system, and a I ml syringe small s i l d e n t q r i n a by hlinislry of Finsncc, and Ministry of Scicnce and is used to inject pure sample into the 25 ml dilution cell, and Technology ofthe Pcoplc'r Repubiia ofChina. Conlracl No. 01C26213310365. the sample is diluted fii-stly, then an appropriate syringe is xinnyang Liu is wilh Ningha Online Monilorlng S y s l m Co. Lid. (c-maik uscd to convey certain amount of the diluted gas into the gas li~~i.~y~.s~hamail.cam)

T.

HE reliability of power transformers is more and more

Majpr diagnostic gases have been identified as hydrogen (1-12), methane (CB), ethane (C&), acetylene (C2H2), ethylene (C2B), carban monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO,), and their wncentrations in oil may range from 1 ppm to 2000 ppm or even higher. The concentration rangc required to measure is shown in Table I and the following work is to realize an on-line quantitative analysis of these gases using FTIR that can satisfy all the requirements.

0-7803-7459-21021$17.00 0 2002 IEEE

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cell of the FTIK spectrometer. The readout of the pressure gauge, the volume of the dilution cell, the amount of sample injected into the dilution cell and mixed into the gas cell, and the volume of the gas cell can estimate the gas concentration in the order'of magnitude, it is about 200ppm to 20ppm.

C2Hi at high frequency is very weak, the wavenumber range can be safely fixed in 720m.'- 3400cm.' An on-line monitor I s supposed to be used under atmospheric environment, i.e., optical materials to be used as windows and splitters should'be insoluble in water, otherwise it will not be long term stable. In this point, spectra region is of primary importance in choosing optical materials. In addition, spectra region also decides the digital sampling frequency of the upcoming FTIR spectrometer.

Fig. 1 Simple gas dilution system

The main parameters of the spectrometer are: 70mm-long gas cell using KBr windows (its volume is about 50-70 ml), DTGS detector. The average spectra of 32 times scanning of each diagnostic gas and water are shown in Fig. 2, their resolution are all l.Ocm.'. The concentration used to collect spectra as in Fig. 2 has been adjusted such that the weakest absorption regions are sufficient to measure, yet the strongest absorption peaks are not severely saturated.
CO CO2 CH4 C2H6

B. Gas Cel/ I ) Gas Ce/l Method: When making quantitative analyses of gases with FTIR in a laboratory, a gas cell method"2' is usually used. 1R radiation is passed through a gas cell. The background spectrum is recorded first when the cell is fulfilled with nitrogen (N2). Then the gas sample is sent into the cell. Some of the infrared radiation is absorbed by thc sample and some is passed through. In data processing course, the background spectrum is subtracted from the sample spectrum and the absorption spectrum of the sample is thus given.
2) Restriction9 to Gas Cell: In constructing a gas cell, its length and volume are the primary parameters to make certain. Longer optical path has a smaller minimum detection limit, yet it lowers the maximum detection limit: when the light energy at a specific wavelength is completely absorbed passing through the gas cell, any highcr concentration will have the same absorption, hence it is impossible to measure any higher concentration. Furthermore, in on-line monitoring of power transformers, it's veiy difficult to separate a large amount of gases to be detected by usual FTIR spectrometers. A current 2.4-meter long optical path gas cell has a volume o f 100 ml a t least, but with the current vacuum separation method, only 5 ml diagnostic gases can be separated a time, and a 10 ml gas cell using peimeablc membrane nccds 45 hours to reach eq~iiibrium'"~. Obviously, what we need is a gas cell with a length as short as possible so that its volume is as small as possible and its construction is as simple as possible to decrease' the costs and to applicably measure the small amount of gases.
3) Optinrzmi Optical Lengtlr:
a) Theow: According to Absorbance Law, absorbency A is proportional to the concentration c of the sample, the optical path length 1 of the gas cell, and the absorptivity a of the sample: A = ncl (1) According lo (I), to the same kind of gas ( a is the same), if cl = const., then the absorbency is the same, i.e., to the same spectrometer, if its lowest measurable concentration to a specific gas is Cl when the optical length is L,, to measure a

3000

2000
Wavenumbers (cm-1)

1000

Fig 2 FTIR Spectra of Diagnallo gases and Wafer

The corresponding signature absorption regions are summarized and listed in Table 11. Data in Table I1 shows that the signature regions covered is 610-4000cm~'. In vicw and CO2 at low frequency and the region of of regions of H?O COi at high frequency may not be necessaiy and the region of

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concentration of C, of the very gas, the shortest optical length shall be.

Generally speaking, it is very difficult to get the lowest measurable concentration C , of a specific spectrometer, but it is possible to deduce it from the spectra of a measured concentration C. Suppose that under the same set of instrument parameters, the signal-to-noise ratio (S")near to the lowest detection limit C,,,, (when all the parameters are adjusted to the most sensitive status) is a constant, then we have:

C,,

=-

speed while measuring. Parameters of the instruments are adjusted as the same scanning speed, 0.3154cm/s, and the same resolution, 4.0cm-l. Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 are clipped from the typical spectra collected. Since data in Fig. .4. shows a 5mm-high absorption peak with a 0.8mm-high noise nearby for 4 . 2 5 ~ 1 0 .Cl-L ~ when using a 7Omm-long gas cell, i 48mm-long gas cell is needed to measure 1x10-6 C a . Since Fig. 5 shows Smm- and l0mm-high absorption peaks with the nearby noise about 2mm-high for 6 . 6 7 ~ 1 0 "C ~ H I and 1.69~10 C,H2 ~ ~ respectively when using a 100mm-long gas cell, the shortest optical length of the gas cell should be 89mm and 34mm to measure 3 ~ 1 0 C2H, . ~ and 1 ~ 1 0 . C,H, ~ respectively. These results are appended lo Table 111.

SIN

(3)

If a known concentration C Is measured with an optical length L, and the height of the specific absorption peak is Hs with an average noise height HN. then .the shortest optical length L, to detect the lowest measurable concentration CO is given by:

b) Experiments: Mixed diagnostic gases with appropriate concentrations were measured on Perkin Elmer Spectrum GX. A glass enclosed gas cell with a 2.4m optical length was used. It was an 11.5cm long cylinder with a volume of 100m1, and its optical length was given after 24 times reflection. Ultra high pure nitrogen was used as balancx gas to guarantce the precision. When the scanning speed was O.OScm/s, and the resolution was 4.0cm-', an average of 16times scanning gave a typical spectra shown in Fig. 3, there ppm represents its data of main characteristic absorption peaks is summarized and calculated in Table 111. Where CO has already 'taken the minimum detection limit for each diagnostic gas.

Fig. 4 DeteEtion limit on Nicolet 560 with B 70 mm-long gar cell

Fig. 5 Deledon limit on WQF-410 with B LOU mm-irmg gm oell

Gar

I
72Y.h CZH2.1.6Yppm

CiHa

CH, C>H,
C,H,
'CO CO2

charvoteristic WBVPnumbedcm.' (HdHn) 729.97(7511) 3014.00(45/0.5) 949.64(5511) 2959(1813) 2168.06(9613) . . 2360(>118/1)

CilO.6
(CO 110') 1.69( 1) 4.25( 1 ) 6.67( 3) 6.41(20) 5.6% 5) 63700)

Lsimm for Ca 54 113

97 128 84

34
48 89'

'

13

Fig. 3. Spmm of m i x 4 diagnostio gass

Then the Same mixed gases are Nicokt 560 with a 70mm gas "I1 and On WQF-41@FTIR spectrometer with a IOOmm gas cell. TO be precise, the mixed gas is continuously flowing through the gas cell with a steady

Results from spectra of diagnostic gases on Nicolet 560, WQF-410, and Perkin Elmer Spectrum GX in Table 111 show clearly that the shortest optical length of a gas cell to satisfy the,minimum requirements on detecting dissolved gas-in-oil of power shall be less than 128mm, Analyses of

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the spectra collected show that the precise quantitative measurements mainly depend on resolution, sensitivity and base line comeclion. For FTIR spectrometers, it is well known that the length of the scanning path decides resolution, the, scanning speed decides sensitivity, and a high quality base line adds precisions to the measurements. Usually slower scanning speed is more sensitive, but it is up to the frequencyresponse properties of the detector, the amplification characteristic of the pre-amplifier and its successor. For the minimum detection limit is mainly decided by sensitivity, and spectra collected in our experiments show that the sensitivity of the 3 different laboratory FTIR spectrometers are almost the same in the order of magnitude, the upcoming on-line monitors using current laboratory FTIR technology can safely take the average manufacturing level, i.e., the optimum optical length can be suggested as 150mm. In this length, the lowest measurable concentrations corresponding to CR, C&, CZH2, C z R , CO, and CO2 can ~.,9 ~ 1 02 ~. ~ 8~ , 10beestimatedas0.6x10-6, 17x104, 0 . 3 ~ 1 0 -1 and 0 . 9 ~ 1 0 respectively. .~ This suggestion has considered the fact that data from spectra in Fig. 3 are not measured in the most sensitive set of parameters of the spectrometers, data from spectra in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 are very close to their most sensitive status, and the sensitivity of on-line monitors may decrease with the severe on-line conditions such as electromagnetic interference and etc.
4) Design ofthe gas cell:

Permeable materials coated on the inner wall made by powder metallurgy can continuously separate dissolved gases from the oil. Temperature of the gas cell can be adjusted by a long tubule exposed in the air by appropriate oil flowing speed. As a sophisticated expensive multi-pass gas cell is avoided, such a sttucture should be economic and practical, thus crucial in promoting the use of FTIR for on-line monitoring of dissolved gas-in-oil of power transformers.

C. Background Deduction The background deduction technique in a gas cell method results in a spectrum that has all of the instrumental characteristics removed. Theoretically, A single background measurement can be used for many sample measurements because this spectrum is characteristic of the instrument itself. This has k e n an ideal method to labratory FTIR, but will not be true to on-line FTIR, because the parameters of the equipment may vary with environment and time, and frequent on-line background collection is not easy to realize. It is feasible to find a reference through a vacuum gas cell, but the relative vacuum system is sophisticated, adds difficulties and expenses, and to fulfill the gas cell with complete fresh diagnostic gases again may be not so easy or at least time consuming. Gao J i a n k ~ [ proposed ~ a m$hod on realizing quantitative gas analysis with no background FTIR spectroscopy. In the method, transmittance spectra were successfully extracted by using wavelet transmission (WT) method[. The method is improved to acquire real absorbance spectra here. Digital WT is realized by Java .DKI .4.

i-

k 0

+ 0
7 3
0

O i l outlet
Fig. 6 Sketch ofa gar oell

I t 1

Were a 150mm-long optical length the optimum; its corresponding gas cell could be made with no reflection mirror and its volume could be smaller than 100m1, even as small as 40ml. Then the most commonly used separation gas cellusing permeable membrane on current on-line monitors might supply enough measurable gas to rcalize a continuous monitoring. As the high temperature oil in the transformer might be harmful to infi-ared optical parts and DIGS detectors, so to maintain the convention that the detector is equipped within the separation gas cell, an economic novel design is proposed in Fig. 6. The sketch shows that transformer oil is introduced into the shell of a cylinder and, pumped back to the transformer powered by oil circulating system.

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2000

1000

Fig. 7 Transmittance Spectra of Oil Vapor,

Background Spcctm and their Backgroundby W I

Fig. 7 shows a transmittance spectra and its background of gases vacuumed into the gas cell from top space of No. 45 transformer oil. It is collected on Nicolet Nexus 670 FTIK spectrometer, with a resolution of 1.Ocm. and a 2 . h - l o n g optical length gas cell. Where T means Transmittance, OilVapor means the gas source, and WT means the rcsults hy Wavelet Transmission. Note that even the background spectra possesses a WT background. The spectra data are in .csv format (a text format using

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commas as separators). They are transformed by OMNIC software supplied by Thermo Nicolet. The WT program read in data in .csv format while working, and save the slow wave (background) data in the same format after WT completed. The data is characterized in 7470 data points, its wavenumber coordinate begins at 399.1992cm.' and ends at 4000.1882cm?, with a 0.482125 cm-' data spacing.
i

A B.c*orDyld WT

II I

other except that the size of the former is bigger than the latter as the environment absorbance of the spectrometer Background deduction by WT is both efficient and effective in eliminatjng the affection of parameter variation of the spectrometers, and is really beneficial in reducing manufacturing costs and is free of consuming high pure inertia gas, yet it is two edged, the carbon dioxide, water content and so on in the air of the spectrometer must be dismissed in other ways.

i
w.*.num*rr
/Crnl)

Fig. S Absohsnce Spectra ofoil Vapor, By WT and By Real Raokgrounddivided, And That of Bwkmound bv WT

The absorbance spectra are results of transmittance spectra divided by its corresponding background and then calculated with minus logarithm in base 10. The absorbance spectra of oil vapor (A.OilVapor, with its real backgound divided), that by WT (A.OilVapoi.WT, with WT background divided), and that of its background by WT (A.HackGround.WT), are shown in Fig. 8.
IA.8ackGmund.W

Ftg. 10 ComparisonofAbnorbance Spectra By WT andBy Rcal BackgroundDivided(The Shape)

D. Independence oJA bsorbance Spectra

I
Fig. 9 Comparison of Ahorbance Spectra By WT and By Rcal Background divided (In Detail)

A VaporGaini.OMii

,2085. 94

120a"

' 3 0

Fig. 9 compared those absorbance spectra obtained in different ways in detail. It shows that the relationships between their peak hcights can be expressed as: 60+2=62 at 2180cm-', 45+1=46 at 2124cm-', and 61+72;=132 at 2041 c i d Detailed investigation shows that the relationship "A.RackGround.WT + A.OilVapor = A.OilVapor.WT" is true at any specific frequency. It means that the absorbance spectra obtained by W T contains both the absorbance of the sample geses and that of thc background gases in the spectrometer. Fig. I O compared the shape of the peaks by WT and by real background divided: they are exactly consistent with each

I
2150
2100 Wavenumbers (cm~l)

,2065,94 ,2041,131

2050

Fig. 12 Absorbanoe Spffitra of Different Gains

Fig. 1 I and Fig. 12 are comparisons of spectra of different gains. Different gains have changed the s i g a l level of the

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transmittance (as shown in Fig. I I ) , hut their absorbance spectra are almost exactly the same (as shown in Fig. 12). Different infrared throughput has the same effect['61. These results confirmed that the absorbance spectra is independent on the specific spectrometer. Hence that FTIR spectronieter is free of quantitative calibration. One set of standard quantitative absorbance spectra can be used by any spectrometer. Although the standard spectra library are not established yet, the principle is already there.
111. CONCLUSIONS

Investigation shows that all the characteristic peaks needed to be analyzed can be covered if the measurable wavcnumber region of the spectrometcr is 720cm.'- 3400cm-', and the Optimum Optical length Of the gas is around 150mm. Comparative results denionstrates that absoiption spectra obtained hy wavelet transmission are consistent to those with their real back ground divided and are independent on spectrometer. It is concluded that such a monitor can be constructed using FTIR that can precisely detect all the diagnostic gases except hydrogen and are free of consuming gases as well as in situ calibration. These researches and the maturing of FTIR technology in many fields make. it promising to realize on-line simultaneous measurements of dissolved gas-in-oil both efficiently and economically. And this will contribute a lot to the promotion of on-line monitoring and fault diaguosis of powcr transformers.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Qiplng Yang, Wude Xuc, and Zhi& Lao: "Application o f Gas Sensor in Tramformer, Vol. 38(2), pp36-38, Feb. ?OOi. (In Chinese). I101 Haoyang Wu, Bingguo Chang, Chnngchun Zhu: "Gas Sensor Array System for Analping Fault in Transformer," J. of Xz'm JiaolOng U m w s i ~Vol. , 32(4), pp2;-25, Apr. 2000. (In Chinese.) 1111 Brian Sparling, "Managing the life of trannformors", "RCM for Substation, Transmission and Dis~hution Conference", [Online] Febl7-I 9, 1999. Available: h n p : / / ~ . g e p o w e r , c m l S y ~ ~ t ~ ~ i ~ ~ l ~ r t i ~ i ~ . h ~ l 1121 Hui Wang, Xiuge Zhao, and Wendei Xiao: "Quantitative Analysis of Muitikomponent with F T I R and i t s Application", Jorirnal of Earl Chino Univemny of Science and Technology, Vol. 27(1), ppl-5, Feb. 2001. (In Chinese.) 1131 Jie Zhao, Yongbing Pan, Honglei Li, and Dsngming Xiao, "The Study of NPW Transformer Online Monitoring System", High Voltage Engineering, Val. 26(6),pp20-2l&p70,?002. (In Chinese.) 1141 Jianbo Can, Dongcheng Hu, "Detection of Exhaust Gas Using Non Backwound Fowiw Transform Irafrared S ~ e c t r a " , ComPulers B ApplredChemrsiry, Vol. 17(5), pp251-?56,2000.~(h Chinese.) 1151 Jianbo Gao, Dongoheng Hu: "Qunntitative analysis of the infnred [9]
Transformer On -Line Monitoring:' ~prtrumusing wavelet transforms and artificial neural n e t w o r w , L

TsingHuo UniversrgiSci&Tech),Vol. 41(3),pplZI-l24,Mar. 2001. (In

Chinese.) [I61 Xianyong Liu, "Research on constnxting on-line monitors for dissolved gas-in-oi~ ofpwer transformers with FTIR: Ph.D. d i d a t i o n , School of Meohano-Electronics Engineering, Beijing Institute of Tcchnology, Beijing. China, 2002. (In Chinese.)

VI. BIOCRWHIES

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of Yuan Hongfu, Wu Huizhong, Wang Baihua, Ren Wei and Wu Kens for their assistant on exoeriments in this document.

and worked as en IT nptwork engheer'in Legend Group. His special field of intercst inolude on-line monitoring, fault diagnosis, anificial intelligence, and roffwsrc programming.

V. REFERENCES
Ill
Zhcnyuan Wang: "Artificial Intolligcnre Applications in the Diagnosis o f P o m r Tramformer Incipient Fnults," ph.D. dissertstion, Virginia Polytechilio Institute and Slate Univcrsity, Blacksburg Virginia in U.S.A.,
2000.

Li Yang, Yong Shmg, Zhang Yan, 'Trend of Condition-bascdMonitoring of Paner Transformer Abrond, High Voilaga Engineering, Val. 25(3), pp37-39, Sep. 1999, (In Chinas). Ruijun Jia, "Review about gas dissolved in transformer oil on-line detection", Power System Technology, Vol. 2?(5), pp49-55, May 1998. (In Chinese). Guanjun Zhang, Zheng Qim, and Zhang Yan: "Applirntion and Development of DGA Teehnaiogr for Insulation Fault Diagnosis of Pomr Transformers", Transformer, Vol. 36(1), .. ~ ~ 3 0 - 3Ian. 4 , 1999. (In Chinese). Gesyprotec: "Managing transformers by Key fault Gases On-Line I51 Monitoring; 2000, [online]. Available: h l t p : / l \ w .g e p o w ~ . E o m / S y p r o t e c / i ~ ~ l ~ ~ ~ l e s . h ~ l I61 Douglas Ritohie, "The Opportunities Presented by On-line Tramformer Gas Monitoring," [online]. Available: hnp:Iluuw.sprveron.com 171 Thomas, Waters, Kristin Williamson, Dr. Douglas Ritchie, "Online Measurements o f Trnnsformcr Fault Gases As Measured Dirertiy in the H e d s p s r e and in the Oil; [online]. Available: http:liul\w.serveron . a m . Jacques Aubin, Brian Sprlhg, AhmedGlodjo, "Field Erprimre With Multigas On-Line Monitoring O f Power Transformers," [onlincl. Available: http:l/uuzv.gepowPr.raniSyprotcdinfoiartl~

Zhou Fan& was bom in Zhejiang, China, on Oct. 1964. He graduated from University of Scieocc & Technology Beijlng and acquired his master degreethere h 1988. His employmmt experience included lhc Robotios Center in Beijing I n d b t c of Technology, Beijhg Samiong Electric Co. Limited. Beijing Ligong Madm Elccttio Equipment Co. Lkited and Ningbo Online Monitoring Systems Co. Ltd.. Ningbo, Zheiiana. His special ficldr of interat indude ..I.'.,.'. . . ' . h p -7. . automated test, st&s monitoring and fault diagnosis. , - . ,. . H i s studies arc mainly Eoncerned \Mth the fault slnulalion, m-line monitoring and fault diagnosis of power @ansformen.
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Mechanics Deprtment of &ijing Institute of Technology (BIT) and becamc a PbD there in 1993. His employment experience inoluded the special professorship fm dcstorial students in BIT, Ihe president of Mechano-Eleolronic Schml of BIT. Ule director of the National Key Lab on Revcntion and Control of Explosion Disasters. He awarded the spcoial professaship of "Enwuragement Plan for Changiiang Soholars" of Chinese govmmenl in 2001.. His s p e d &I&of infcrcst inolude the dynamic characteristics of matPriaIS, explosion damages and the prevmlion and mntml of wplosion disasters.

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