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Root Cause Analysis of 450 MVA generator stator core fault

CHRISTIAN BOUWMEESTER JEAN-MICHEL MEUNIER

ENGIE Energie Nederland N.V. Laborelec
The Netherlands Belgium
christian.bouwmeester@engie.com jean-michel.meunier@laborelec.com

SUMMARY

In November 2012 a sudden temperature increase was detected on the stator driven end of a
450 MVA generator. After confirmation of the stator abnormal temperature, the generator was
tripped by the operation people. The ensuing inspection revealed significant damages of the
stator core:
• solidified molten core iron in the cooling channels at the driven end;
• large traces of extreme heat at the core back at the driven end;
• hundreds of mechanical impact in the stator bore and rotor due to solidified iron
particles which were smashed around during operation.

A root cause analysis was performed consisting of operating data analysis, stator design
review, core inspection and partial destacking and material investigation.
Most of the possible causes have been proven being a non-cause. Finally two possible causes
remained:
1. imperfections during construction: During partial de-stacking of a core section cut
from the driven end, several small particles were found trapped between the core
laminations. At some locations, where these small particles were present, the
insulation of the core plates was locally burnt.
2. overfluxing due to rotor peak current at excitation start-up: when the generator is
energized during start-up, the excitation system produces a high peak excitation
current in order to speed-up the energization. This peak current causes transient axial
overflux causing higher interlaminar voltages, which ages the interlaminar insulation.
Finally, the repetitive overflux (at every unit start-up) can have caused breakdowns
between the laminations with pre-damaged insulation.

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The combinations of both issues could have lead to the first shorts between laminations at the
core drive end. From there it depends on the operation of the generator whether and how fast
the fault will grow into a larger fault. The major contributing factors for core fault growth
were
• leading power factor operation: before the core failure occurred, the generator was
operated with leading power factor operation for three consecutive nights.
• continuation of the rotor peak current at excitation start-up.

During the repair, the generator got a complete new core and the undamaged stator bars were
re-used. The excitation system was equipped with a so-called soft start system, which
eliminates the peak-current at excitation start-up. The OEM issued a bulletin to all owners of
the same type of generator, stating that a soft start system was recommended when the
generator has reached a certain number of start.

The repaired generator was commissioned in 2013. It is operated successfully within the full
original power chart. Also the other (same brand/type) generators at this specific site are
operated successfully. So far, it seems that the real root-cause was found.

KEYWORDS

Stator core failure, overflux, laminations, generator

1 Introduction
A generator stator core fault resulting on melted core iron is a very rare event, but in
November 2012 such an event happened to a 450 MVA generator. A sudden temperature
increase was detected on one of the stator thermocouples located at the generator driven end.
The unit was shut down and a boroscopic inspection of the back the core revealed a serious
heating problem. After rotor extraction the full extent of the damage became visible.

2 Damage overview
In figure 1 to figure 4, the external damage to the core at the driven end is shown. The heat
has been so intensive, that the laminations were deformed (figure 3). Also, some minor heat
traces were found at the intersection of the key bars and the press finger closing strip. These
heat traces were found at several intersections of both driven and non-driven end.

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figure 1: Heat trace in de stator bore between figure 2: Heat trace on the back of core at the
slot 22 and 23 fourth lamination packet (slot 22/23 area)

figure 3: Deformed core laminations at the back figure 4: Traces of heat at intersection of key bar
of core and press finger closing strip

Due to the extreme heat levels, the core iron in the area of slot 22/23 area was molten. Up to
the fifth cooling channel (counted from driven end) were found (partly) blocked by solidified
molten core iron. Also the bottom of the generator casing was dotted with pieces of solidified
molten iron. Through boroscopic inspection, a start of melting was observed also at the non-
driven end at the slot bottom exit of slot 9.

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figure 5: Solidified molten code iron on key bar figure 6: Solidified molten core iron in cooling
channels

figure 7: Solidified molten core iron at the figure 8: start of core melting at the non-driven
bottom of the generator casing end at the slot bottom exit

Based on measurement of the free length of the cooling channels in the area of the fault (slot
22, 23), it was expected that the damage covered the area indicated in figure 9.

figure 9: the faulty area of the generator core is assumed to have a shape like indicated in red

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3 Theory on core failure mechanisms

3.1 Initiation and growth of core faults

Core faults generally start with a short circuit between two or more laminations of the core
iron which can result from:
• high interlaminar voltage due to overflux and/or
• weakened interlaminar insulation properties due to thermal, mechanical or electrical
ageing in normal and abnormal operation

figure 10: Eddy current resulting from lamination short-circuit [5]

In case of welded key bars at the core back, a short circuit of a few laminations leads to an
increased eddy current level, which leads to increased temperature in the core (figure 10).
That temperature increase enables accelerated ageing of the lamination insulation. Over time
other laminations adjacent to the initial fault can become short-circuited. This is an
exponential process which can take months to years. Once there are many laminations short-
circuited together, the current in the fault can rise to thousands of amps.

At a certain moment, the core iron (as a result of the large current) can reach its melting
temperature. From there, the fault axial propagation rate increases dramatically, due to the
fact that the molten core laminations can grab the next laminations very easily. That thermal
runaway finally result in a narrow cylinder of molten core iron which can drill the core from
end to end if the generator is not tripped either by the operation people or by the protection as
a result of a stator winding ground fault.

3.2 The influence of axial flux

The rotor main flux crossing the air gap penetrates the stator radially at the core teeth and
flows tangentially in the core yoke (see figure 11).

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figure 11: radial and tangential flux direction in the stator [4]

The core laminations limit the amount of eddy current produced by the flux flowing in those
directions. At both axial ends of the core, there is also an axial flux component (see figure 12)
which is created by the current in the end windings of the stator and the rotor and by the end-
core fringe effect.

figure 12: side view cross section showing the axial flux at the core end (red circle) [4]

The laminations do not limit eddy currents resulting from that axial flux, but the core ends are
still designed to limit the axial flux influence by, amongst others, extra cooling channels,
trapped zone and teeth splittings.
Despite those design tricks, the axial core ends are still the most stressed areas of the core. By
consequence, the core faults generally start at the axial core end at the slot bottom where the
eddy current density is the highest (see figure 13).

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figure 13: General starting point of core fault resulting from high axial flux

The magnitude of the axial flux can increase with:

• leading power factor operation. In this operation mode, the axial flux from the stator
end winding and from the rotor end winding tend to sum up. In lagging operation they
are in opposition which reduces the axial flux.;
• overflux conditions: In overfluxing conditions like for example pole slipping or a too
high generator voltage while off grid, the axial flux component also increases due to
the end-core fringe effect;
• axial rotor displacement during cold start. The Eems generators rotors are facing a 33
mm axial displacement in cold condition. The higher axial flux component is shown in
figure 14b.

Stator

Rotor

(a)

Stator

Rotor

(b)
figure 14: difference in magnitude of axial flux resulting from axial rotor displacement. a) rotor in
hot position, b) rotor in cold position

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4 Root Cause Analysis
A cause & effect diagram (fault tree diagram) was created including about fourty possible sub
causes and root causes.

Through an extensive proving process including the operating data analysis, stator design
review, core inspection and partial destacking and material investigation, most possible
causes were proven not to be the root cause, and two of them appeared very likely to be main
contributors to the core fault initiation:

• The presence of insulation weak points during core manufacturing process;

• The occurrence of overfluxing events due to rotor peak current at excitation start-up
during every synchronisation

4.1 Insulation weak points

The stator was shipped to a workshop where the core press plates were removed at both core
ends. Except the main core failure, four other melt holes were observed deeper in the yoke at
the driven end while only one hot spot was observed in the yoke at the collector end. All those
extra holes had limited diameter and axial length going from up to maximum a ten of
millimeters (Figure 15).

figure 15: driven end of the stator core after press plate disassembly (left) and close view of a hot
spot found in the yoke (right)

A 120 degree pie piece with an axial depth of five packets was cut out from the driven end of
the core in order to be destacked. That piece included the main core failure on slot 23 and a
hot spot located deeper in the yoke (Figure 16).

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figure 16: pie piece extracted from the stator core

In the glued end packets, one observes several round spots where the paint was still smooth
(as if the adjacent laminations had not been in contact on these locations) and of which the
centre generally contained a small particle (Figure 17 and Figure 18). According to the
material analysis the particles at the centre of the round spots may be deposits from the
normal lamination insulation which could have been captured by the “glue” resin during the
manufacturing of the core. Even if not conductive, such particle could have acted as a high
pressure point on the adjacent laminations creating shorts between laminations.
At least one of the particles at the centre of a round spot let the place to a hot spots.

Round spots of
smooth paint

Dull paint

figure 17: general aspect of removed stator core lamination of Eems 4 generator.

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 Dull paint
Smooth paint
Particle Hot spot

figure 18: round spots on different locations, one with a particle on the centre (left) and the other
with a hot spot on the centre (right)

4.2 Overfluxing due to rotor peak current

During start-up of the unit, the generator is originally brought to its nominal voltage (21 kV)
in a very specific way. One would expect that the excitation current is gradually ramped up to
900 A (no load value) to reach 21 kV at the generator terminals. However figure 19 shows
clearly that the excitation current peaks to a value of 2500 A for about 2-3 seconds after
which it is reduced rapidly to 900 A.

figure 19: rotor peak current (dark green line) at excitation start-up before installation of soft start
system

The purposes of this design is to bring the generator to its nominal voltage in a very fast (2-3
seconds) manner. Due to this transient peak current, a transient flux event is assumed.

The general thought of the rotor peak current being a possible root cause of the core failure is
the following: every time the generator is excited with the transient rotor peak current, the
transient axial flux causes a higher interlaminar voltage between the first laminations at the
core end. During a cold start the axial flux at the driven end is higher than at the non-driven
end (due to axial rotor displacement, see paragraph 3.2), which means that the interlaminar
voltage on the DE is higher than on the NDE.

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This higher interlaminar voltage stresses and therefore ages the lamination insulation. After
several starts, finally the interlaminar insulation can break down initiating the first short-
circuit(s) between core laminations, which can further grow and finally lead to a major core
failure as described in chapter 3.

The assumption of the rotor peak current being a root cause of the core failure is substantiated
by the following: in 2010, it was decided to equip the all generators (same brand/type) of the
power plant with a so called “soft-start system” to eliminate the rotor peak current. The
gradually ramping up rotor current with the soft-start system is shown in figure 20.

900A

figure 20: rotor current (dark green line) at excitation start-up after installation of soft start system

The basis for the decision was the changed operating regime of the generators (more starts).
In consultation with the OEM, the soft-start system proposed, although the assumed negative
effect of the rotor peak current was not proven by that time.
The generators of the power plant were sequentially upgraded with the soft-start system, and
the generator which failed had not been upgraded when the failure happened. Looking back in
the history of the generators revealed that the failed generator had by far the most number of
starts without soft-start.

An important aspect, not assumed as a root cause, is the fact that the generator was operated
with leading power factor for three consecutive days before the core failure revealed itself. As
described before, the axial flux resulting from leading power factor operation can accelerate
the growth of core faults and consequently contribute to a core failure.

5 Conclusion
No any generator core has perfect and homogenous insulation and, in presence of axial fluxes,
the core ends are extremely vulnerable to the slightest imperfection in interlaminar insulation.
By consequence, in the case of the core failure of the generator, even if the material analysis
did not clearly indicated the formal proof of a core insulation issue, there is still good chance
that a first short circuit could have been initiated at the location of an existing insulation

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damage/weakness, perhaps due to particles in the insulation varnish/paint such as found in the
end packets. The momentary heat due to the transient axial overflux from the start excitation
peak current could then have damaged adjacent lamination insulation and spread the fault a
little further on each overflux leading to a certain dimension sufficient for the thermal
runaway to start. The operation in leading power factor during three days before the core
failure probably generated sufficient high axial flux during a long period to start the thermal
runaway.

6 Repair of the generator

The complete core of the generator was replaced by a new one. Most of the stator bars were
reused, only the heavily damaged ones needed to be replaced. Because it was assumed that
the core failure was not caused by the a design mistake, no major changes were performed on
the core itself. The excitation system was upgraded with the soft-start system.
The repaired generator was commissioned in 2013. It is operated successfully within the full
original power chart. Also the other generators at this specific site are operated successfully.
So far, it seems that the real root-cause was found.
The OEM issued a bulletin to all owners of the same type of generator, stating that a soft start
system was recommended when the generator has reached a certain number of start.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] J.M. Meunier, “ Contribution to the RCA on the stator core failure from the core
detailed visual inspection and material investigations”, 2014
[2] C. Bouwmeester, “Generator core failure - preliminary RCA report, 2013
[3] S. J. Murray, J. S. Edmonds, J. R. Foulds, R. A. Sire, W-M. Chi, “Modeling fault
propagation in an electric generator stator core”, 2003
[4] G. Klempner, I.Kersenbaum, “Handbook of large turbo-generator operation and
maintenance”, 2008
[5] D.R.Bertenshaw, G.K.Ridley, “A deeper insight into EL CID”, 2005

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