Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Authors
Fabian Öttl Fabian.Oettl@omicronenergy.com
Date
23.03.2016
Application Area
Rotating Machines
Version
v1.1
Document ID
ANP_16002_ENU
Abstract
This application note shows how to perform a pole impedance measurement also known as pole drop test on
salient poles of rotating machines using the CPC 100.
© OMICRON Page 1 of 12
Content
1 Safety instructions .......................................................................................................................... 3
2 Using this document ....................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Operator qualifications and safety standards ............................................................................. 4
2.2 Safety measures ....................................................................................................................... 4
2.3 Related documents ................................................................................................................... 4
3 Impedance measurement on salient poles .................................................................................... 5
3.1 Purpose .................................................................................................................................... 5
3.2 Measurement method ............................................................................................................... 5
4 Preparing the pole impedance test................................................................................................. 6
4.1 CPC Editor and Test Card preparation ...................................................................................... 6
4.2 Choosing the right parameter in the Quick Card ........................................................................ 7
5 Measurement Setup ........................................................................................................................ 8
6 Assessment of the measurement ..................................................................................................10
6.1 Practical example ....................................................................................................................11
6.2 Limitation of the measurement .................................................................................................11
Please use this note only in combination with the related product manual which contains several important safety
instructions. The user is responsible for every application that makes use of an OMICRON product.
OMICRON electronics GmbH including all international branch offices is henceforth referred to as OMICRON.
© OMICRON 2016. All rights reserved. This application note is a publication of OMICRON.
All rights including translation reserved. Reproduction of any kind, for example, photocopying, microfilming, optical character
recognition and/or storage in electronic data processing systems, requires the explicit consent of OMICRON. Reprinting,
wholly or in part, is not permitted.
The product information, specifications, and technical data embodied in this application note represent the technical status
at the time of writing and are subject to change without prior notice.
We have done our best to ensure that the information given in this application note is useful, accurate and entirely reliable.
However, OMICRON does not assume responsibility for any inaccuracies which may be present.
OMICRON translates this application note from the source language English into a number of other languages. Any
translation of this document is done for local requirements, and in the event of a dispute between the English and a non-
English version, the English version of this note shall govern.
DANGER
Death or severe injury caused by high voltage or current if the respective
protective measures are not complied.
Carefully read the content of this instruction as well as the manuals of the
involved devices before taking them in operation.
Contact OMICRON Support if you have any questions or doubts regarding
the safety or operating instructions.
Follow the instructions listed in the manuals, especially the safety
instructions, since this is the only way to avoid danger that can occur when
working on high voltage or high current systems.
Only use the involved equipment according to its intended purpose to
guarantee a safe operation.
Existing national safety standards for accident prevention and
environmental protection may supplement the equipment’s manual.
Only experienced and competent professionals that are trained for working in high voltage or high
current environments may perform this application note. Additional the following qualifications are
required:
• Authorized to work in environments of energy generation, transmission or distribution and
familiar with the approved operating practices in such environments.
• Familiar with the five safety rules.
• Good knowledge of the CPC 100, CP TD1 and CP CR500.
IEEE 510 "Recommended Practices for Safety in High-Voltage and High-Power Testing"
Moreover, additional relevant laws and internal safety standards have to be followed.
Title Description
Contains information on how to use the CPC 100 test system and
CPC 100 Reference Manual
relevant safety instructions.
Impedance measurement on salient poles is a common offline investigation to check possible inter
turn short circuits of the pole windings. The terms impedance measurement and pole drop test are
redundant as long as the source of the impedance measurement is delivering a stable current.
As this is not always the case (grid disturbances, external noises, slight variation of the source...),
the impedance is measured to eliminate the mentioned noise sources.
Nevertheless, the CPC 100 is able to perform both the pole drop test as well as the pole impedance
measurement.
For reasons of simplicity, only the pole impedance measurement is described in this document. The
connection and measurement method are the same for both approaches.
3.1 Purpose
The winding insulation of a salient pole winding is exposed to high thermal and mechanical stresses.
When using static excitation equipment, additional electrical stresses can appear due to voltage pulses
with higher frequencies.
An inter turn short circuit can lead to a magnetic imbalance, resulting in higher shaft vibrations, higher
stress and damage to the bearings.
It is recommended to check the rotor windings on a regular base with the below described method as
it is easy and quick to perform.
By opening the CPC editor, a blank test list appears where several Quick Test Cards can be added.
In Figure 3 a ten-pole rotor is tested by adding ten Quick Test Cards to the test card list. Every test
card is representing an impedance measurement at one pole.
The number of poles determines the output source. Assuming that a certain voltage is to be injected
into the entire winding, the voltage drop on each pole winding should be equal or close to equal.
To guarantee a proper test resolution, the voltage drop should be in the range of 2 V to 10 V or
higher. In the example in Figure 3, a suitable output voltage for a rotor with 10 poles would be in the
range from 20 V to 50 V. This can be performed with both options – the 6A/130V output on the front
panel (Figure 4, left picture) or the 2 kV output (Figure 4, right picture).
Figure 4: Example of parameter selection when measuring a 10-pole rotor. Left: Measurement with 6A/130V output;
Right: Measurement with the 2 kV output.
To energize a higher number of poles, the 2 kV output could be the better solution to guarantee a
higher voltage drop at each pole winding.
The test is usually performed at grid frequency. Other frequencies are possible as well.
Additionally, different internal company standards might also define the voltage of the pole drop test.
The measurement parameters are the injected current and the voltage drop at each pole winding.
The calculated parameter Z is the resulting pole impedance.
While the measurement of the output current of the 2 kV output is internal, the current measurement
of the 6A/130V has to be looped through the ampere-meter (see chapter 5 ).
DANGER
Death or severe injury caused by high voltage or current possible.
When reconnecting the measurement be sure that the power is safely off
and the winding is grounded
Do not reconnect during output is live and injecting to the rotor winding.
DANGER
For your own Safety:
Depending on the selection of the parameters in chapter 4.2 , two test setups are possible. One with
the 6A/130V output in Figure 5 and the other one with the 2 kV output in Figure 6.
In both test setups, the connection of voltage input moves after every measurement to the next pole
until all the pole impedances are measured. The arrows in both pictures indicate this.
The results are strongly dependent on the physical position of the rotor. Due to stray flux they are
different if the rotor is in the machine or pulled out, or if i.e. the upper part of a horizontal machine is
not mounted during a commissioning test.
If the rotor is removed, adjacent parts can have also an influence on the measurement results.
Figure 7 shows an example of a test arrangement, where the measurement of the lower poles of the
rotor are influenced by the metallic construction on the floor. The rotor was turned when measuring
these poles to ensure a reproducible measurement.
Figure 7: Example how adjacent parts are influencing the measurement results
As there are no standard limits, OMICRON recommends that you investigate poles, which differ from
the mean value by ± 2.5 %.
Figure 8: Measurement results, where the red line indicates the average value. The grey lines indicate the limits of ± 2.5%.
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