Copyright © IFAC Power Plants and Power Systems Control, ELSEVIER

Seoul, Korea, 2003

IFAC
PUBLICATIONS
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EXPERT SYSTEM FOR DIAGNOSING SILICONE OIL-FILLED TRANSFORMERS

Jong-Fil Moon Jae-Chul Kim Tae-Hoon Im

Department ofElectrical Engineering in Soongsil University
Seoul 156-743, Korea

Abstract: In this. paper, expert system for diagnosing silicone oil-filled

transformer was developed using dissolved gas analysis (DGA). DGA was
used to the proposed expert system since it has been verified that it is very
efficient diagnostic method for oil transformer. In addition, it is reasonable
that fuzzy rule, degree of inclusion and fuzzy measure must be considered
to handle the uncertainty of gas boundary and rules. The proposed expert
system consists of knowledge based module, inference engine module and
human-machine interface (HMI) module. The knowledge base consists of
the knowledge using the rule. The inference engine module is used to the
fuzzy rule. The history of the transformer gas data is managed by the
database. The effect of the proposed expert system is verified by case
studies. Copyright © 2003 IFAC

Keyword: silicone oil-filled transformer, expert system, dissolved gas

analysis, fuzzy rule, database

1. INTRODUCTION easy. Also diagnosis ca9 be performed more

Since its introduction in 1974, silicone oil has
become widely accepted for power transformers and
distribution transformers and used in the
transformers of railway vehicles, etc in Korea. As it
is used about 30 years, the number of in-service
transformers grows and their average age increases,
the need for early detection of incipient fault
conditions becomes more important (Chatterton and
Goudie, 2000; IEEE Std, 1999).
The transformers are faulted because of electrical
and mechanical performance decline resulted from
aging under operation. It is necessary to detect the
symptom of the matter at the fust stage, grasp the
matter exactly and work out the countermeasures for
preventing this fault. previously (Chatterton and
Goudie, 2000; IEEE Std.,1999; Toskey, et al.,1995).
In this paper, thus, expert system for diagnosing
silicone oil-filled transformer was developed using
DGA. First, the dissolved gas characteristics and
threshold level of silicone oil were compared to it of
the mineral oil. By applying DGA to silicone oil, we
made the fault of transformers detected effectively.
The proposed expert system consisted of knowledge
base module, inference engine module and
human-machine interface (HMI) module. The
knowledge based module consisted of the knowledge
using the rule. The fuzzy rule was used to the
inference engine module for solving the uncertainty
of the boundary of danger level and rules, and it was
gotten the belief measure and plausibility measure by
using Dempster- Shafer theory. The HMI module is
programmed to GUI environment by using the
BASIC language for the field engineer can use it
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effectively by the history of each gas data of
transformers was managed by the database.
For verifying this expert system, we performed the
case studies using the data that IEEE proposed. By
analyzing the relationship of the real data and the
data inferred from the expert system, the usefulness
of the expert system is verified.
2. THE METHOD OF DGA
2.1 The Method ofDGA
If the transformers are used during the long time, the
partial temperature rise and the aging of insulation
oil is occurred in transformers by the increase of
moisture, combustive gas and solid impurities. If the
matter inside of transformers, that is the partial
discharges, corona and partial overheat, is occurred,
the heat follows and the insulation materials,
insulation oil, insulation paper and pressboard etc,
attached to this heat source is reduced and generate
hydrogen (H 2), methane (CH4 ), ethane (C 2H6 ),
ethylene (C 2H4), acetylene (C 2H2), carbon monoxide
(CO) and carbon dioxide (C0 2), These gases are
mostly dissolved in insulation oil (Jeon, 1996; Kim,
et al., 1998).
Thus, by analyzing the dissolved gas in insulation oil
of transformers, we can recognize existence and
degree of the matter according to gas type and gas
amount. Up to date, it has been the many studies
about DGA of mineral oil. But it has not about the
silicone oil, it is the merely IEEE guide and study
that the Dow coming co. and Doble co. did.
2.2 The Dissolved Gas Characteristics of Each Fault 2.4 The Problems and Countermeasures ofDGA
Type
Although the exact diagnosis of transformers is
The major gases of the DGA of silicone oil-filled performed more exactly using the DGA relative to
transformers are the following: H 2 , CH 4 , C 2 H 6 , C 2H4 , the others, some problems exist for doing the real
C 2H 2 , CO and CO 2 , The elements for judging the application. That is, the DGA is affected easily by
transformer the matter among these gases are H 2, establishment time, construction, capacity and oil
C2H 6 , C 2H4 and C 2H 2 , and the elements for judging quantity of transformers. In addition, the measured
the insulation oil the aging are CO, CO 2 and CH 4 • value has the different value according to the
The CO and CO 2 is related to the overheat of measured methods. Also when it is constructed to the
insulation oil, additionally, the existence of C 2H 6 and expert system using main gas analysis, the collision
C2 H4 divides the fault between the overheat of of rules is occurred (Jeon, 1996; Kim, et aI., 1998).
insulation oil and solid insulation material. And H 2 For example, if C 2 H 2 exceeds the 30 [ppm], it is
and CH4 is related to arc fault, additionally, the danger condition. At this time, 29 [ppm] is judged to
quantity of C 2 H 2 and CO divides the fault between normality and 31 [ppm] is judged to danger. It is
the arc in insulation oil and solid insulation material. classified to normality and danger because of the
These contents are presented at the Table 1 by the difference of only 2 [ppm]. But it is conflict on
comparison of mineral and silicone oil. classifying to normality and danger according to this
very small difference like it because the error of
Table 1 Dissolved gas characteristics of mineral and measure exists always.
silicone oil Also, because the uncertainty always exists at the
knowledge, the uncertainty always exists at the rules
Insulation
Solid AT d' I' Arc dissolving of the expert system. For solving these problems, the
insulation .c . ISSO vmg in solid
oil m msulatlOn . I f fuzzy set was used at the uncertainty of the data and
Gas material oil msu a IOn
overheat
overheat matenal
the boundary, the fuzzy measure was used at the
MO SO MO SO MO SO MO SO uncertainty of the rules.
H2 0 0 0 (2) (2) (2) (2)
3. EXPERT SYSTEM
CH 4 (2) (2) 0 (2) 0 (2)
C2H6 0 0 0 0 3. J The Definition ofExpert System
C2H4 (2) (2) (2) 0 0
C2H2 (2) 0 (2) 0 The specialist is the man that can memorize the
CO (2) 0 (2) 0 (2) (2)
expert knowledge, infer the conclusion according to
CO2 (2) (2) (2) (2)
the logical inference ability and explain something
NOTES. persuasively. The expert system is the software that
MO : Mineral Oil, SO : Silicone Oil has these abilities. That is, as a field of artificial
o :generated gas, (2) : major generated gas intelligence, the expert system is the computer
by IEEE Std. C57.104 & IEEE Trial Use Guide PI258
system that imitates and embodies the ability of the
thought of expert and the required knowledge for it
2.3 Dissolved Gas Threshold Level
that can settle the complicated problems of the
special field, ultimately that the many general man
Now, IEEE Std. expresses the dissolved gas
can substitute to the a small number of expert
threshold level by the ppm and classifies into the
(Giarratano, 1989; Lee, et al., 1998).
danger when the specified level is exceeded. The
Unlike the general software, expert system can apply
level for the mineral oil is divided into danger,
the knowledge consistently because of the division of
warning and normality at the international standard,
the knowledge base and the inference engine. Also
but the silicone oil is divided into danger, normality.
the expert system has the infinite life and can copy
Thus, for effective comparison, only the danger level
and move the knowledge easily.
for mineral and silicone oil was compared.
The expert system is mainly divided to knowledge
Generally, the H 2 and CH 4 level for mineral oil is
based module, inference engine module and HMI
higher to silicone oil, but the CO and CO 2 level is
module but the whole expert system includes
lower. Also, C2 H6 , C 2 H4 and C2H 2 level is low in
working memory, knowledge acquisition assistance
both sides. The dissolved gas threshold level of
system and explanation assistance system like Fig. 1.
mineral and silicone oil is presented at the Table 2.

Table 2 Dissolved gas threshold level of mineral and Working Memory

silicone oil Use r

Threshold level [ppm]

Gas MMI
Mineral Oil Silicone Oil
H2 1,800 200
CH 4 1,000 100
Inference engine
C2 H6 150 30
C2H4 200 30
C2H2 80 I Speclalisl
K now ledge Engineer
CO 1,400 3,000
CO 2 10,000 30,000 Fig. 1. Configuration of expert system
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3.2 Knowledge Based Module changing the value of coefficients (LEE, et al.,
1998).
The knowledge is the required information for
computer to be able to settle some problem
intellectually. The information is the form of fact or (1)
rule. The expert system is the whole of this
f-l(X) = (1 -V )A-l ( x-a )A +v A-I (b -x )A
knowledge.
The fact is the information that the specialist where the a is the value of the lowest limit, b is the
acknowledges and many people own jointly. The rule value of the highest limit, A is change rate and u is
is something for the reasonable decision for the bending point.
private and little-discussed problems for the decision The membership degree was obtained using the
of the level of the specialist does and it is said to Eq.(l) between a and b. The membership degree
heuristic. became 0.01 under a and 0.99 over b for removing
The knowledge based module is the database of the the error of computation. The table 3 represents
knowledge for the special subject used in the expert parameters(a, b, A, u) of key gas components.
system and this database consists of the facts needed
in solving the problems and the rules used for the Table 3 Parameters of key gas components
data of the some object in these facts (Giarratano,
1989; Lee, et aI., 1998). Parameter H 2 CH 4 C 2 H6 C 2H 4 C 2 H 2 CO CO2
The rule, semantic net, frame and logic are the a 160 80 24 24 0.8 2,400 24,000
methods for representing the knowledge base. In this b 240 120 36 36 1.2 3,600 36,000
paper, The rules was used for it. This method is A 4 for all
expressed the condition and the performed action 11 0.6 for all
when the condition is satisfied, generally 'If
<condition> Then <result>'. The form of the used
Based on Table 3, the membership degree Il(x) of
rules is equal to the following.
key gas components is drawn like Fig. 3.
Rule . rule (Ri)
If condition (Aj ) Membership degree
Then result (Bk) 1.2
1
Required belief (m) /'
~0.8
:!' 0.6 /
3.3 Inference engine module 0.4
/
0.2
/
./
The inference engine has the knowledge for the o
0 0> co "- CD ID "'f' (') N ~ 0 0>
settling overall problem and it is the most important ID ID CD "- co 0> 0 N (') "'f' "'f'
~ ~ N N N N N N
part that supervises overall expert system. And the Gas [ppm]
object of the expert system is that it gets the results
like specialist. But because the knowledge of (a) H 2
specialist is abstract, thus expert system has the Membership degree
defect of inaccuracy, uncertainty and imperfection 1.2
(Giarratano, 1989; Lee, et aI., 1998). Also there is 1
uncertainty in the dissolved gas threshold level and 0.8 /'
~0.6 - /
inference rules. Thus, for transforming the abstract
0.4 --~_.
/
knowledge of specialist to a numerical formula
properly, based on the dissolved gas data of the 0.2
o
-/--
knowledge base, the fuzzy rules were applied to the
inference engine module and the belief measure of '),,<:J ')"'),, ~ '),,~ ~ ":J<:J ":J'f., ":JI>< ":J~ ":Jee I><<:J

normality and fault was gotten. The block diagram of Gas [ppm]

the inference engine module is presented at Fig. 2. (b) C2H 2

Fig. 3. Membership degree of each gas
Gas Data 1

··
Knowledge Base
Module ·
Gas Data N
Fuzzy Rules
~
MMI

Belide of
3.3.2 Settlement ofthe Uncertainty ofthe Rules

~
Rule I Dempster-
• Dissoh·ed cas data
- rain ··· Sbafer Tbeonm
Nomalit~· and
Faalt The knowledge contains the uncertainty inevitably.
Rule N Thus the method dealing with truth and lie only like
Fig. 2. Inference engine module mathematical logic can't represent the uncertainty
occurred practically. Early the Bayesian probability
3,3.1 Settlement ofthe Uncertainty ofthe Boarder was used for dealing with the uncertainty, but
because of the difficulty of the dealing with
For settling the uncertainty of the boarder of ignorance, Dempster suggested the new notion of the
dissolved gas threshold level, the fuzzy rules were upper and lower probability in 1967. Shafer
used. For setting up the effective membership degree, improved the Dempster's theory and changed the
th e fiormu Ia sugges ted by Domb1' was use d , an d 1't IS
. upper and lower to belief and plausibility for giving
the meaning.
Eq.( I). This method has the advantage of bei~~ ablhe The function f representing the nlzzy measure is
to set the wanted membership degree tUloug , ,
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equal to Eq.(2). database was developed (Fig. 7).

f: P(X) ---+ [0, I] (2) Table 4 Characteristics of entity and attribute

condition: Entity Attribute

m(rjJ) =0 and Im(A) = 1 Capacity(KVA), Computerized
Ae?(X)
Number(Pno),
Transformer
Made YM(Make YM), Installed
YM(Set YM)
where meA) is the evidence of set A and is said to a Transformer Identification(TR
basic probability assignment. The belief measure and Connection ID),
plausibility measure can be defined like Eq.(3) and Computerized Number(Pno)
(4) based on a basic probability assignment, the other Measured
way, meA) is obtained using Bel, PI like Eq.(5). Input Data YMDYMS(GetYMDHMS),
Gas ppm
Measured
Be/(A) = Im(B) (3) YMDYMS(GetYMDHMS),
Bc;;; A Output Data
Belief(Bel),
PI(A) Im(B) = (4) Plausibility(PI), Action(act)
Br.A",O
meA) = L(-1)'A-B1Bel(B) (5)
Bc;;; A

3.4 Human-Machine Interface Module

The HMI module has the function connecting the

user to the system. In this paper, HMI module was
constructed to GUI environment, if the amount of
each gas are given, then the belief measure of the
normality and fault is inferred and displayed.
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 are the input windows of the gas Fig. 6. DB entity-relationship model
data and the output windows of inferred results
/ /
respectively. History of TR ""\
Measured Data
- Capacity
- PPM
"~I
- Made Y, M, D
CAPACfTY 100 kVA - Measured Y, M, D
MADE I.n v [5"" f270 - Installed Y, M, D ~
1077 R"" I
~"'~D~~ ~~ 1001
NSTAUED V F.i0
I
JOO:::iiiiir
H2
Of.<
eat!
100
em '*>
_ I
I

cai4 50 PIllll. DB
<:ai2 2 Jlpm
I I

•
Faun Type OI-...c
co lOO Ililtll
, CO2 lOOO~ IBellef Meas....e ~~
COnf"", I:
Fig. 4. Input-windows Fig. 5. Result of History Management
of gas data inference
Fig. 7. Development of database
4. DATABASE
5. CASE STUDIES
Because the DGA is affected easily by the
Using the four data represented at IEEE Std. and the
establishment time, construction, capacity and oil
measured one data, the expert system was verified.
quantity of transformers and the measured value has
The first data is normal, the second is overheated
the different value according to the measured
fault of insulation oil, the third is overheated fault of
methods, the history of each transformer must be
solid insulation material, the fourth is arc fault of
managed for effective diagnosis. Also the data
insulation oil and the fifth is arc fault of solid
needed in monitoring and diagnosing transformers
insulation material. Table 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 is the case
will increase very much as time goes. Especially, the
studies of each data.
effective management of data is the difficult
circumstances because of the overlap of data. Thus
Table 5 Case study I
the construction of database is necessary for the
effective management of data and the fast query of
Gas H2 CH 4 C~H6 C~H4 C2 H2 CO
needed data (Moon, et al., 2000; Korth).
In this paper, thus, as the proposed expert system was
ppm 10 20 5 5 0 100
IEEE Normal
connected to database, the history management and
Expert Arc(Solid Insulation Material)
synthetic management of transformers became
System Belief Measure offault : 0.1115
possible.
First the characteristics of entity and attribute were
At Table 5, because the gas exceeding threshold level
sum:narized (Table 4). entity-relationship model was
doesn't exist, IEEE Std. judged this case normahty
expressed (Fig. 6) based on entity-anribute and
908
and the proposed expert system judged this case methods.
normality like that belief measure of fault was The developed expert system consisted of knowledge
inferred to 0.1115, too. based module, inference engine module and HMI
module. The knowledge base consisted of the
Table 6 Case study 2 knowledge using the rule and transformed the
descriptive knowledge to numerical value. The
Gas Hz CH 4 CZH6 CZH4 CzH z CO inference engine module infers the kind of fault
ppm 150 20 50 50 0 4500 using inputted data. Especially, for solving the
IEEE Overheat(lnsulation Oil) uncertainty of the boundary of danger level, fuzzy
Expert Overheat(lnsulation Oil) rules and Dombi's equation was used. Also, for
System Belief Measure of fault: 0.9036 solving the uncertainty of the rules,
Dempster-Shafer's theory was applied and belief
Table 7 Case study 3 measure of fault was calculated. The HMI module
was programmed to GUI environments by using the
Gas Hz CH 4 CZH6 CZH4 CzH z CO BASIC language. Also, expert system was connected
ppm 250 200 0 0 0 4500 to database, for diagnosing the transformers more
IEEE Overheat(solid insulation material) effectively by managing the history of it.
Expert Overheat(solid insulation material) In case studies, the expert system was verified, as the
System Belief Measure of fault: 0.9234 results of expert system were same to real results.
After this, for more effective diagnosis, various
At Table 6 and 7, like viewing CO, it is sure that this diagnosis methods must be added. Also if the
phenomenon is overheated fault, and the quantity of developed expert system is complemented through
CzHti and CzR. divide this fault to solid insulation accumulation of many real gas data and exact
material and insulation oil. That is, when the management of the history of transformer, the more
overheated fault is sure, if the quantity of CzHti and effective diagnosis will be possible.
C ZH 4 exists, then it is the fault for insulation oil, else
it is the fault for solid insulation material. In this case, by the Soongsil
proposed expert system divided this fault to
overheated fault of oil and solid material exactly and
gave the belief measure 0.9036 and 0.9234, REFERENCES
respectively.
Chatterton, W. J. and Goudie, J. L. (2000). An
Table 8 Case study 4 Update on Silicone Transformer Fluid:
Manufacturing, Maintenance and End of Life
Gas Hz CH 4 C2H6 C2H 4 C2H2 CO Options. Conference record of the IEEE
ppm 300 600 lOO 50 2 lOO International Simposium on Electrical Insulation.
IEEE Arc(lnsulation Oil) pp. 412-416.
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sure that this phenomenon is arc fault, and this case
of Gases Generated in Silicone-Immersed
was judged to arc fault of oil because the quantity of
Transformer Draft-9. IEEE. Std. P-1258
CO is very small. Expert system represented the
Jeon, Young-Jae (1996). A Fault Diagnostic Expert
same result and gave the belief measure 0.6500, too.
System for Transformers using Dissolved Gas
Analysis. M. S. Thesis of Soongsil University.
Table 9 Case study 5
Korea.
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Gas H2 CH 4 C2H6 CZH4 C2H2 CO
Fault Diagnosis for Power Transformers using
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No. 6.
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6. CONCLUSIONS Considerations for Silicone Fluid Filled
Transformer. Conference on Electrical
In this paper, the expert system was developed that Electronics Insulation. pp.275-279.
can diagnose the silicone oil-filled transformers
effectively, using DGA that used generally widely
because reliability is high among the state diagnosis
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