Impact of axial displacement on power transformer FRA signature

Frequency response analysis (FRA) is gaining global popularity in detecting power transformer winding movement and core deformation due to the development of FRA test equipment. However, because FRA relies on graphical analysis, interpretation of its signatures is still a very specialized area that calls for skillful personnel to detect the sort and likely place of the fault as so far, there is no reliable standard code for FRA signature classification and quantification. This paper investigates the impact of transformer winding axial displacement on its FRA signature as a step toward the establishment of reliable codes for FRA interpretation. In this context a detailed model for a single-phase transformer is simulated using 3D finite element analysis to emulate a close to real transformer. The impact of axial displacement on the electrical distributed parameters model that are calculated based on the transformer physical dimension is examined to investigate how model's parameters including inductance and capacitance matrices change when axial displacement takes place within a power transformer.