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A Software Implementation of the Duval Triangle

Method

Conference Paper in Electrical Insulation, 1988., Conference Record of the 1988 IEEE International Symposium on
July 2008
DOI: 10.1109/ELINSL.2008.4570294 Source: IEEE Xplore

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 A Software Implementation of the Duval Triangle
Method
A. Akbari*, A. Setayeshmehr, H. Borsi, E. Gockenbach
Institute of Electric Power Systems, High Voltage Engineering Section (Schering-Institut)
Leibniz Universitt Hannover, Callinstr. 25 A, 30167 Hannover, Germany
*
E-mail: Alireza.Akbari@si.uni-hannover.de

Abstract- Monitoring and diagnosis of electrical equipment, in PD

particular power transformers, has attracted considerable T1
attention for many years. It is of great importance for the utilities 20
to find the incipient faults in these transformers as early as 80
T2
possible. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA) is one of the most useful
techniques to detect incipient faults in oil-filled power 60 40 %C2H4
%CH4
transformers. Various methods have been developed to interpret
DGA results such as IEC ratio code, Rogers method and Duval 60
40 D1
triangle method. One of the most frequently used DGA methods
is Duval triangular. It is a graphical method that allows one to
follow the faults more easily and more precisely. In this paper a 20 D2 DT T3 80
detailed implementation of Duval triangle method was presented
for researchers and utilities interested in visualizing their own
DGA results using a software program. The Java language is 80 60 40 20
used for this software because of its growing importance in %C2H2
modern application development.
Fig. 1. Duval Triangle method

I. INTRODUCTION These three gases in ppm, CH4 = g1, C2H4 = g2 and C2H2 = g3,
must be transformed into triangular coordinates before being
A. The Duval Triangle DGA method
plotted onto the triangle. First the sum of these three values,
The Duval Triangle diagnostic method for oil-insulated
g1+g2+g3, should be calculated and then the relative proportion
high-voltage equipment, mainly transformers, was developed
of the three gases: P1 = %CH4 = 100 g1/(g1+g2+g3), P2 =
by Michel Duval in 1974 [1]. It is based on the use of 3
%C2H4 = 100 g2/(g1+g2+g3), P3 = %C2H2 = 100
hydrocarbon gases (CH4, C2H4 and C2H2) corresponding to the
g3/(g1+g2+g3).
increasing energy levels of gas formation in transformers in
service. This method has proven to be accurate and
dependable over many years and is now gaining in popularity. TABLE I
One advantage of this method is that it always provides a Examples of faults detectable by DGA
diagnosis, with a low percentage of wrong result. Duval Symbol Fault Examples
method is special since fault diagnosis is performed based on
Discharges of the cold plasma (corona)
visualisation of the location of dissolved gases in the PD Partial discharges type in gas bubbles or voids, with the
triangular map. The Triangle method is indicated in Fig. 1. possible formation of X-wax in paper.
Generally, three types of faults are detectable, i.e. partial Partial discharges of the sparking type,
discharge, high and low energy arcing (electrical fault) and hot Discharges of low inducing pinholes, carbonized punctures in
D1 energy paper. Low energy arcing inducing
spots of various temperature ranges (thermal fault) [2]. These carbonized perforation or surface tracking
fault types will be determined in 6 zones of individual faults of paper, or the formation of carbon
mentioned in Table I (PD, D1, D2, T1, T2 or T3), an particles in oil.
intermediate zone DT has been attributed to mixtures of Discharges in paper or oil, with power
electrical and thermal faults in the transformer. Since no Discharges of follow-through, resulting in extensive
D2 high energy damage to paper or large formation of
region is designated for normal ageing condition, careless carbon particles in oil, metal fusion,
implementation of Duval triangle will result in the diagnosis tripping of the equipment and gas alarms.
of either one of the mentioned faults. To avoid this problem, T1 Thermal fault, T Evidenced by paper turning brownish (>
dissolved gases should be assessed for their normality before <300 C 200 C) or carbonized (> 300 C).
being interpreted using Duval triangle. The three sides of the T2 Thermal fault, Carbonization of paper, formation of
300 <T<700 C carbon particles in oil.
Triangle are expressed in triangular coordinates (P1, P2, P3) T3 Thermal fault, T Extensive formation of carbon particles in
representing the relative proportions of CH4, C2H4 and C2H2, >700 C oil, metal coloration (800 C) or metal
from 0 to 100 for each gas. fusion (> 1000 C).

978-1-4244-2092-6/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE 124

 For example, if the DGA results are g1 = 70, g2 = 110, g3 = For example if point R is located on vertex B, it means that
20 ppm, P1 = 35%, P2 = 55%, P3 = 10%, which corresponds to P1 and P2 are zero and P3 is 100.
only one point called R in the right side of the Triangle, as A. Cartesian coordinates and triangular coordinates
indicated in Fig. 2 and determined as a T3 fault. To plot Duval triangle, the triangle coordinate should be
100 converted to Cartesian coordinate using simple trigonometry.
Consider the triangle ABC in Fig. 4. The triangle is equilateral,
20 therefore: AB = BC = AC = L.
First we consider vertex B at Cartesian coordinate (Bx , By),
which can be a point anywhere in our coordination system.
P1 = %CH4 P2 = %C2H4 The coordinates of point A (Ax , Ay) can be considered as
follow:
40 Ax = Bx + 0.5L,
R Ay = By + AH = By + Lcos 30

The coordinates of point C (Cx , Cy) can be considered as

100 follow:
100 60 P3 = %C2H2 Cx = Bx + L,
Cy = B y

Fig. 2. Example of a point displayed in triangle

A
II. TRIANGULAR COORDINATES
90
P2
As shown in Fig. 3 the system consists of an equilateral
triangle ABC with three vertices A, B and C and three
components namely P1, P2 and P3 that are determined with
points D, E and F respectively. These three fractions are
between 0 and 100, and (P1 + P2 + P3) should always have the E R (Rx,Ry)
value of 100.
Plotting P1, P2 and P3 in the Triangle provide only one point P1
inside the Triangle. To obtain this point that is determined as
90
R in Fig. 3, three parallel lines should be drawn from D, E and
) 60 ) 60 60 (
F. For point D a line should be drawn parallel to BC, for point
90 D H F G
E a line should be drawn parallel to AB and for point F a line
should be drawn parallel to AC. The intersection of these three
Fig. 4. Cartesian coordination of a point inside the triangle
lines will be the point R that is somewhere inside the triangle.
To calculate the Cartesian coordinates of a point R (Rx , Ry)
which are obtained from three fractions P1, P2 and P3 , the
90 following calculations should be done.
P2 In triangle EBD: ED = BEcos 30 = P1Lcos 30 = RG
In triangle ABC: AH = ABcos 30 = Lcos 30
From these follow that
ED = P1AH , ED = RG
E and
D R RG = P1AH
Hence
P1
Ry = By + RG = By + P1Lcos 30 (1)
90
Calculation of Rx needs consideration using two similar
90 F triangles ABH and RFG in ABC. From the similarity of
P3 triangles ABH and RFG it can be concluded that:
Fig. 3. Example of a point displayed in triangle
FR/AB = RG/AH = P1AH/AH = P1
The point R at edges AB, BC or AC represents one of the
components P1, P2 and P3 is zero. For example if point R is and therefore FR = P1AB = P1L
located on point D in Fig. 3, it means that P2 is zero. Also
Point R at vertices A, B or C means that two of the In triangle RFG: FG = FRcos 60 = P1Lcos 60
components P1, P2 and P3 are zero and one of them is 100. BG = BF + FG = P2L + P1Lcos 60 = L(P2 + P10.5)

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consequently and CartesianX() was used to calculate (1) and (2)
Rx = Bx + BG = Bx + L(P2 + P10.5) (2) respectively.

We consider the mentioned example in section I again and TABLE II

Triangular coordinates for Duval triangle zones
calculate the point R inside the triangle. The fractions are
Area Points P1 P2 P3
calculated according to input DGA gases as P1 = 35%, P2 = D11 0 0 1
55%, P3 = 10%, or P1 = 0.35, P2 = 0.55, P3 = 0.1. D1 D12 0 0.23 0.77
The Point B(Bx , By) consider to be placed at origin (0,0) and D13 0.64 0.23 0.13
the length of triangle side L is 200 . For this example, (1) and D14 0.87 0 0.13
(2) can be calculated as below: D21 0 0.23 0.77
D22 0 0.71 0.29
D2 D23 0.31 0.40 0.29
Ry = By + RG = By + P1Lcos 30 = 0 + 0.35 200 0.866
D24 0.47 0.4 0.13
= 60.62
D25 0.64 0.23 0.13
Rx = Bx + L (P2 + P10.5)= 0 + 200 (0.55 + 0.35 0.5) DT1 0 0.71 0.29
= 145 DT2 0 0.85 0.15
DT3 0.35 0.5 0.15
B. Duval triangular fault zones coordinates DT DT4 0.46 0.5 0.04
To determine different zones of Duval triangular method, we DT5 0.96 0.0 0.04
need to define a polygon for each zone. As depicted in Fig. 5, DT6 0.87 0.0 0.13
we need seven polygons to define different fault zones. DT7 0.47 0.4 0.13
DT8 0.31 0.4 0.29
The four points of zone D1 is specified as D11, D12, D13,
T11 0.76 0.2 0.04
D14. Each point such as D11 is defined by its fraction values T12 0.8 0.2 0.0
P1, P2 and P3 that can be determined according to Fig. 5. T1 T13 0.98 0.02 0.0
Table I shows all points of each polygon of Duval triangle. T14 0.98 0.0 0.02
T15 0.96 0.0 0.04
PD T21 0.46 0.5 0.04
T1 T2 T22 0.5 0.5 0.0
20 T23 0.8 0.2 0.0
80 D14 T24 0.76 0.2 0.04
T2 T31 0.0 0.85 0.15
D13 40 P2 = %C2H4 T32 0.0 1 0.0
P1 = %CH4 60
T3 T33 0.5 0.5 0.0
T34 0.35 0.5 0.15
40 D1 60
PD1 0.98 0.02 0.0
PD PD2 1 0.0 0.0
20 D2 DT T3 80 PD3 0.98 0.0 0.02

D11 D12
80 60 40 20
P3 = %C2H2
Fig. 5. Different fault zone inside the triangle
It is obvious that some points are common in neighbouring
polygons, e.g. points D12 and D21 of polygons D1 and D2 are
the same, which can also be seen in Table II. To define each
polygon, the points defined in Table II should be converted to
Cartesian coordinates using (1) and (2).
To implement the Duval triangle DGA method the java
programming language was used because of its growing
importance in modern application development and its
popularity. Java is platform independent and there are a lot of
free compilers and tools for that.
Using java Polygon() function, all the seven zones can be
defined. The function addpoint() can be used to add each
single Cartesian point to a polygon. Fig. 6 shows the source
code needed for defining polygon D1.
The four points D11, D12, D13, D14 should be added to this
polygon using addpoint() function. The methods CartesianY()
C. Recognizing DGA fault
To find out the DGA fault according to the seven defined
fault zones or polygons, the input DGA fractions P1, P2 and
P3 should be calculated as described before in section I. The
fractions will be converted to Cartesian coordinates that will
lead the point R and then the zone in which it falls, allowing
the identification of the fault corresponding to the DGA data.
To determine which one of the seven zones contains point R,
a Java built in function called contains() that is applicable for
each defined polygon can be used. But if the point is located in
the boundary of a polygon it cannot be recognized using this
function. To overcome this problem a small circle with centre
R and radius r can be considered. The radius r should be
selected carefully.
In developed program the assigned value to r was 5 and
there were about 105 points inside it. All points belonging to
this circle should be tested to see whether belong to each of
the seven polygons. Finally a percentage value can be
assigned to each polygon according to the number of points
that are inside each polygon divided by the total number of
points of this circle in our case 105.

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 converting is straight forward just by changing Y Cartesian
Polygon D1 = new Polygon(); coordinate as below:
Ynew = H - Y
P1=0; P2=0; P3=1; //Point D11 0,0 X width , 0
xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L);
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);

P1=0; P2=0.23; P3=0.77; //Point D12

xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L); Y
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);

P1=0.64;P2=0.23;P3=0.13; //Point D13

xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L);
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L);
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint); 0 , height
width , height
P1=0.87; P2=0; P3=0.13; //Point D14
xPoint = CartesianX(P1,P2,Bx,L); Fig. 8. Graphics coordinate system, circles represent coordinates, and squares
yPoint = CartesianY(P1,By,L); represent pixels.
D1.addPoint(xPoint,yPoint);
H is the windows height, the triangle should be drawn inside
it. Fig. 9 shows the program user interface and the result of the
Fig. 6. A brief Java code for defining D1 zone as a polygon
diagnosis for the example mentioned in section I.
This value shows the percentage of the circle in each of the
polygons. If the circle is out of a polygon range the percentage
value will be zero. Fig. 7 shows an example that point R
located in zones D1 and D2.
100

20

P1 = %CH4

40 D1 P2 = %C2H4 Fig. 9. Example of a diagnosis by designed program

D2

R
IV. CONCLUSION

100 In this paper an implementation of Duval Triangle DGA

100 60
P3 = %C2H2
Fig. 7. Example of a point displayed in triangle
The calculated percentage value in this case for D1 is 32%
and for D2 is 68% and for other zones zero.
III. THE GRAPHICS COORDINATE SYSTEM AND DISPLAYING
TRIANGLE
To display Duval triangle and polygons inside it, a
conversion from Cartesian coordinate to graphics coordinate is
necessary. The graphics coordinate system is anchored in the
upper left-hand corner of a component, with coordinates
increasing down and to the right, as depicted in Fig. 8. The
diagnostic method was investigated. This method is widely in
use for interpreting DGA data. The developed java program
can be used as a stand alone system or as a part of a DGA
diagnostic system that includes other DGA methods such as
Rogers or IEC. This program can also be used for
investigating on other type of insulation fluids such as Ester as
a tool for simplifying the process of finding the best zone for
each fault.
REFERENCES
[1] Michel Duval, Fault gases formed in oil-filled breathing EHV power
transformers- The interpretation of gas analysis data, IEEE PAS Conf.,
Paper No C 74 476-8, 1974.
[2] Michel Duval, James Dukarm, Improving the Reliability of Transformer
Gas-in-Oil Diagnosis, IEEE Elec. Insul. Mag., Vol.21, No.4, pp. 21-27,
2005.

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