2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
Detecting Turn Insulation Failures in Motor Coils
Using Ground Current Signals
Ayman H. El-Hag1 Ahmed Gaouda2
1. Electrical Engineering Department, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirate
2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Emirates University, Al-Ain, UAE
3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Waterloo University, Waterloo, Canada
4. GE Energy, Peterborough, Canada
Abstract — This paper proposes a procedure for monitoring
the status of the turn-to-turn insulation subjected to steep front
impulse voltage using the line-to-ground leakage current as a
signature. Medium voltage motor coils with rated voltage of 4kV
are tested using steep front impulse voltages with rise time of
100ns. It has been found that the signature of the ground current
is unique for a specific coil and it is voltage independent.
Moreover, it has been observed that the recorded turn-to-ground
current is more sensitive to turn-to-turn insulation damage than
the applied impulse voltage waveform. Hence, by analyzing the
line-to-ground leakage current the turn-to-turn insulation
failures can be assessed.
Keywords— turn-turn insulation, steep front transients
I. INTRODUCTION
The stator winding of an ac machine is subject to stresses
induced by a variety of factors, which include thermal
overload, mechanical vibrations, and voltage spikes caused by
lightening or adjustable-speed drives (ASDs). Surges
produced by ASDs can create voltage transients with a rise
time of 50-100 ns resulting in a high inter-turn voltage.
Moreover, experience has shown that turn insulation failures
can be triggered by abnormal steep-front surges caused by
factors such as lightning strokes, faulty breaker closures, or
the malfunction of various types of switching devices.
Accordingly, it is now a requirement to test the turn-turn
insulation of form-wound stator coils under impulse voltages
with a rise time of 0.1 to 0.2 μs [1].
A high inter-turn voltage can give rise to partial discharge
(PD) if there is an air pocket in the vicinity of the copper
turns. In the presence of PD, degradation of magnet wire
insulation will occur. The exposure of insulation to excessive
number of surges can cause enough damage that turn-to-turn
failure results, rapidly progressing into catastrophic copper-
ground faults [2-3]. Stator insulation failures involve about
one third of the total number of ac machines outages in
industrial environment [3]. It has been reported that about
80% of all electrical failures in the stator originate from a
weak turn-to-turn insulation [4]. Therefore, it is important to
test the turn-to-turn insulation of each coil during the
manufacturing using impulse testing and also to monitor the
status of turn-to-turn insulation of rotating machines when
exposed to steep front voltage pulses in the field.
978-1-4799-0083-1/$31.00 ©2013 Crown
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Shesha Jayaram3 Saeed Ul-Haq4
Different off-line and on-line methods have been
developed to monitor the status of the motor turn-to-turn
insulation system. PD measured on-line or off-line is widely
used to detect turn-to-turn insulation damage for relatively
large motors [5-6]. Recently, a new method based on the
indirect measurement of the turn-to-turn capacitance of stator
windings was proposed [7]. It was found that winding turn-to-
turn capacitance increases with insulation aging. This
variation is correlated with the reduction of the specimen
breakdown voltage and the cumulative probability of failure at
rated voltage. The proposed system was tested for online
detection but on a low voltage machine. Application for on-
line detection techniques suffer from a major problem in
industrial environment which is the noise.
Several studies have been conducted to monitor the status
of turn-to-turn insulation using both the signature of the
applied voltage and the measured current waveforms during
impulse testing. It has been found that failure of turn-to-turn
insulation of a single coil can be detected by the reduction of
the oscillatory component of the voltage waveform [8].
Moreover, the breakdown is indicated with a significant
increase in the peak value of the current waveform, significant
decrease in the time to the peak value and reduction in the
oscillatory component [8]. When multiple coils are connected
in parallel only the current signature can be used to detect
turn-to-turn failure as the change in the voltage waveform
oscillatory becomes insignificant [9]. Zero crossing time
(ZCT) of the stator current has been proposed to detect short
circuit in the stator winding. Frequency analysis of the ZCT
enhances the ability to detect short circuited stator windings
[10]. The proposed methods are capable of only to detect the
breakdown at its final stage; early detection of turn-to-turn
failure was not reported. Moreover, during turn-turn impulse
testing, surface discharges may alter the shape of the applied
voltage waveform which may be misjudged as a turn-turn
failure; hence, there is a need to improve the test diagnostic
capabilities.
In this paper a technique to detect an early turn-to-turn
insulation failure in medium voltage form-wound ac stator
coils is proposed. The proposed technique is based on
measuring the turn-to-ground leakage current as a signature to
the status of the turn-to-turn insulation. The technique can be
used off-line during either impulse testing of motor coils or as
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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
a potential preventive maintenance of rotating machines apparent that each coil has its own distinct line-to-ground
during their shut-down time. current signature.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The experimental setup to test inter-turn and mainwall
insulation is shown in Figure 1. The first stage of a standard
600kV, 30kJ, six-stage impulse generator is modified to
produce fast impulses of rise time of 100ns. Form-wound
machine stator coils rated for 4kV are used as test coils. Two
different designs are selected; one with and one without
additional turn-turn insulation. The voltage waveform is
measured using a mixed divider and the current waveform is
measured using a high frequency current transformer (HFCT).
Both the measured voltage and current waveforms are
connected to a digital oscilloscope with a 2GS/s sampling rate
and a 200MHz bandwidth.

Fig 1. Experimental setup.

A 4kV form-wound coil was subjected to steep front

impulse voltages with rise time of 100ns. Tests were done by
Fig 2. Measured line-to-ground leakage currents for 4kV coil with additional
applying voltages to both turn-to-turn and turn-to-ground; and turn insulation at two different voltage levels (a) at 6kV (peak) and (b) at
the leakage current was recorded. The turn-to-turn test was 10kV (peak).
conducted as a destructive test to gradually damage the inter-
turn insulation. On the other hand, the turn-to-ground test was
conducted to observe the change in the recorded leakage
current, in both the time and frequency domains, due to any
turn-to-turn insulation damage.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Different impulse voltages ranging from 6 -12 kV in 2kV step
were applied on a new coil with additional turn insulation. The
voltage and the current waveforms are captured at a sampling
interval of 2ns. The data size is 2500 samples that represent a
window of 5μs. Examples of the measured currents are shown
in Figure 2 at two different voltage levels. Similar to what has
been observed in the previous work [11], the shape of the line-
to-ground current is identical at both voltage levels with
different magnitudes. For comparison, a typical line-to-ground
current for a coil with no additional turn insulation is shown in
Figure 3. As seen from Figures 2 and 3, the shape of the pulse
for coils with additional turn insulation is different from those Fig 3. Measured line-to-ground leakage currents at 6kV (peak) for 4kV coil
coils that have no additional turn insulation. It is therefore without additional turn-turn insulation [11].

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
A. Turn-to-turn test for motor insulation degradation:
A typical applied turn-to-turn impulse voltage waveform is
shown in Figure 4. The shape of the waveform shows no sign
of any internal insulation failures in the tested coil. The
voltage was raised in steps of 2kV, and the shape of the turn-
to-turn impulse voltage was examined carefully. Since the
tested coil has extra turn-to-turn insulation; it required higher
peak voltage to cause any damage to the insulation system.
For several test cases a change in the voltage waveform was
noticed; however, it was only temporary. One of those
waveforms is depicted in Figure 5. Moreover, after reapplying
the impulse voltage the signal returned back to its original
shape shown in Figure 4. However, the corresponding line-to-
ground current waveforms were similar to the current
waveform shown in Figure 2 for such cases. The temporary
deformation in the turn-to-turn impulse voltage waveform
could be due to some surface discharges and may not be a Fig 5: Measured line-to-line deformed voltage impulse waveform.
failure in the coil insulation.

B. Turn-to-ground test on a faulty coil:

In order to cause an internal insulation failure, repeated turn-
to-turn impulse voltage was applied at a significantly higher
stress (100kV); and a deformation in the voltage waveform
was observed. The line-to-ground current was measured and a
clear difference in the current waveform compared to those
shown in Figure 2 was observed, Figure 6. Further analysis
shows that the frequency content of the line-to-ground current
for the failed sample is different compared to the un-failed
sample, Figure 7. Such permanent change in both the time and
frequency domain in the leakage current can only be attributed
to a change in the coil impedance (capacitance) and hence to
the development of an internal turn-turn fault.

Fig 6: Measured line-to-ground leakage current after turn-to-turn damage

occurred in the coil insulation.

Fig 4: Measured a non-deformed line-to-line voltage impulse waveform.

Fig 7: The frequency content of the line-to-ground leakage currents during
different frequency bands.

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 2013 IEEE 1st International Conference on Condition Assessment Techniques in Electrical Systems
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The leakage current measured during line-to-ground
impulse test has been used to detect the turn-to-turn motor coil
insulation failure. It was noticed that significant change in the
high frequency oscillation of the leakage current has occurred
after the turn-to-turn insulation failure. Such change in the
oscillation was also observed in the frequency content of the
leakage current. Hence the signature of the line-to-ground
leakage current could be used to detect turn-to-turn insulation
damage to motor coils during impulse testing. To detect minor
changes in the machine’s complex impedance system that
corresponds to turn insulation degradation needs to be further
investigated.
REFERENCES
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Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE MINAS GERAIS. Downloaded on December 28,2022 at 20:27:22 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
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