Fault diagnosis of power transformers: application of fuzzy set theory, expert systems and artificial neural networks

w.x u
D.Wang Z.Zhou H.Chen

Indexing terms: Artificial neural network, Fuzzy set, Expert system, Fault diagnosis, Transformer

Abstract: The application of fuzzy set theory, expert systems and artificial neural networks to fault diagnosis of power transformers is introduced, and uncertain reasoning and the combination between ES and ANN are studied. Uncertain reasoning is the main diagnostic method. The ES/ANN combination, called the consultative mechanism, can help to improve the correctness of the diagnosis and ensure the accuracy of the knowledge base. Experimental results are given which verify the proposed method.

tion into quantitative data [6, 71. In this way, the problems of ES knowledge acquisition and ANN inputoutput data have been settled.

Introduction

The power transformer is the major electrical component in a power system, and its correct functioning is vital to system operation. Methods for the diagnosis of potential faults concealed inside power transformers have attracted much research interest. Dissolved-gas analysis (DGA), which the IEEE and IEC have always proposed, is an effective way of identifying incipient or potential faults in power transformers [l, 21. Based on the interpretation of DGA, there are some successful precedents for applying ES to fault diagnosis [3]. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), expert systems (ES) and artificial neural networks (ANN) will be more and more widely used, and open up broad prospects for fault diagnosis [4]; but there are many problems present in diagnostic systems based on

1.2 Expert system The fault diagnosis ES of transformers is a knowledgebased system. Obviously, there are two notable characteristics in it: (i) the knowledge stems from expert experience (ii) the knowledge needs to be translated into the respective rules which are collected in the knowledge base. However, there are two limitations in the process of ES development, which are listed below: (i) the difficulty of knowledge acquisition. Because of the insufficiency of expert knowledge, and the difficulty of rule translation, the ES knowledge base is usually imperfect. The imperfection shows that the diagnostic system no longer has any effect when none of the rules correspond to the fault phenomena (ii) the problem of uncertain inference. By reason of the complexity of fault diagnosis, ensuring the correctness of inference results is a rather difficult problem.

AI.

I. 1 Uncertain factors It is very difficult to exactly describe the relationship between the phenomena and the reasons for the power transformer faults. This means that the faults often show fuzziness. As suggested by Zadeh [5], fuzzy set theory can be utilised to deal with the uncertainties. In fuzzy set theory, the membership grade function is proposed to translate uncertain or qualitative informa0IEE, 1997 IEE Proceedings online no. 19970856 Paper first received 6th March and in revised form 12th August 1996 The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Southeastern University, Nanjing 210096, Peoples Republic of China
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I. 3 Artificial neural network The mechanism of fault diagnosis using the ANN approach is different from that of ES. ANN knowledge is discreetly distributed all over the network, based on the sample learning, and not stored in a knowledge base like ES. Obviously, ANN has a great capacity for obtaining knowledge; nevertheless, it has many problems. While the difference between the training samples and the fault samples is very great, the ANN reasoning conclusion is questionable. From this analysis, ES and ANN both have some weaknesses. The best way to overcome the shortcomings is by connecting ES and ANN as a whole. The connection can be called the consultative mechanism. In this way, ES and ANN can complement each other to increase the perfection of the knowledge base and the reliability of fault diagnosis.
2
Application of fuzzy set theory

The acquisition of ES knowledge is the key to the development of an expert system, and the acquisition of uncertain knowledge is very important.
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In the process of designing a transformer fault diagnostic system, the uncertainly shows the following two characteristics: (i) A great number of test data (including the preventive test and other tests), some expert experience and some criteria which can be directly numerated should be translated into fuzzy numbers. This process is called numerical uncertainty translation. (ii) Some expert experience and some criteria which are expressed in linguistic language cannot be numerated directly. They also need to be changed into fuzzy numbers. The process is called linguistic uncertainty translation.

The membership grade functions may be regarded as exponential functions, except for the constant function. If exponent A > 1, this denotes a strengthening of the manner of expression. Conversely, if exponent A < 1, this means a weakening of the mode of expression. When U < 0.5, the fuzzy language belongs to the negative range; when U > 0.5, it falls in the positive region; finally, when U = 0.5, it becomes the fuzzy point.

2.1 Introduction of fuzzy set theory Elements in the ordinary set can be assigned to 1, and the remains of the universe are 0. According to fuzzy set theory [5, 81, a membership grade which belongs to a specified range is used to decide the value which represents the element within the set.
2. I. I Fuzzy set. Let X be a universal set and x be elements of the universal set. Then, a fuzzy set A is an ordered pair:

A = {(x,uA(x))Ix E (1) where uA is the membership function, and obviously falls within [0, 11.

x}

2.1.2 Max-min operations: Let A and B be two fuzzy sets with membership functions uA(x) and uB(x), respectively. The membership functions of C = A A B and D = A v B are defined by
U C ( ~ = min(uA(x),ug(x)),xE )

Fig. 1 Membership gvadefwzction of fuzzy languages

(2)
(3)

uD(x)

= max(uA(z),u B ( x ) ) , E 2

2.2 Numerical uncertainty translation The aim of numerical uncertainty translation is to satisfy the demand for the knowledge acquisition of ES and the numerated input-output of ANN. The method of numerical uncertainty translation is the establishment of many suitable membership grade functions. On the premise that the function is not given by the ES, the designer can also propose the common membership grade function on the basis of fuzzy set theory.
2.3 Linguistic uncertainty translation It is impossible for experts to strictly give the membership grade function to describe their experience and the criteria. In the acquisition of uncertain knowledge, the relationship between true and false and its degree, which reflects the fuzziness, needs to be expressed clearly. In daily life, some typical fuzzy languages are shown as follows: completely false (cf), very false (vf), false (f), rather false (rf), unknown (uk), rather true (rt), true (t), very true (vt), completely true (ct). Each of the fuzzy languages has a respective membership grade function which is used to describe the fuzziness. These functions are as follows: l,x = 1 1,x = 0 )f .c (. = 0,J: E (0,1] uct(Z) = 0 , x E [O, 1)

As shown in Fig. 1, the simple and valid value region can be calculated: c j = 0, vf= (0, 0.275), f = r0.275, 0.3851, r f = (0.385, 0.5), uk = 0.5, rt = (0.5, 0.615), t = [0.615, 0.7251, vt = (0.725, 1), ct = 1. Through the methods mentioned above, the uncertain and the qualitative information can be converted into fuzzy quantitative data. Then it provides a sound basis for the application of ES and ANN.
knowledge acquisition

database

knowledge base

hg.2 Structure offault diagnosis ES

Fault diagnosis ES [91

u v f ( x ) = (1 - 2)2,z E [O, 1 1 uut(2)= x 2 , 2 E [O, 1 1 Uf(2)= 1 - z, X E [O, I] ut(.) = 2 , z E [O, 1 1 urp(z)= (1- ) 1 / 2 , z E [O, 1 u,t(x) = 21/2,x E [O, 1 1 1 ~,k(z) = 0 . 5 , ~ [0,1] E
40

The fault diagnosis ES consists of four parts. As shown in Fig. 2, the following introduces each part in detail: (i) Database The function of the database is to realise the storage and management of a lot of test data. The ES adopts an ORACLE relational database system, C language, and a combination of both, to build and control the database. (ii) Knowledge base Each ES needs an effective knowledge base to save the expert knowledge. The knowledge base mentioned in the paper is made up of many rules, which are obtained through uncertain knowledge acquisition based on numerical uncertainty translation and linguistic uncertainty translation. (iii) Reasoning engine The system adopts forward reasoning to control the inference process. Two points should be noted. The
IEE Prm-Sei. Meas. Technol., Vol. 144, No. I , January 1997

first one is not to consider the result corresponding to the negative premise; the second is not to inquire of the identical premise more than once. The inference form is the uncertain reasoning. (iv) User interface The user interface helps us to exchange information between the operator and the machine. The program of the user interface is compiled in C. It has the advantages of flexibility and directness. We take the standard characteristic gas method as an example to illustrate the uncertain reasoning process of ES. Table 1 shows the meaning of the characteristic gas method.
Table 1: Standard Characteristicgas method
No. Fault nature
ordinary overheating fault serious overheating fault Feature of characteristic gas CI+C2 is rather high: C2H2c 5PPm CI+C2 is high; CH > 5ppm ,, but it does not count main composition of CI+C2; H2 is rather high CI+C2 is not high; H > , 10ppm; CH, counts main composition of CI+C2 CI+C2 is not high; CZH2 > 10ppm; H is rather high , CI+C2 is high; C2H2is high and occupies main composition of CI+C2; H, is
hinh. ' "'~

" It
1

. . . -... . .

x=C2H2, w m Fig.4 Membership grade function o C2H2 f

10

According to the method introduced above, when 0.5 denotes 'UP,Table 1 can be translated into a fuzzy expression as shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Fuzzy expression of characteristic gas method
No. Fault nature 1 2 ordinary overheating fault serious overheating fault partial discharge fault Sparking discharge fault arcing discharge fault Feature of characteristic gas A(0.5,0.615); BE[0,0.5) AE[0.615,11; BE(0.5.11; CE(0.5.0.615); DE[0,0.2) A[0,0.5); C(0.5,11; EE[0.2,11 and E > D AE[0,0.5); B=I; CE(0.5,0.615) AE[0.615,11; BE[0.615,11; DE[0.2,1] and D > E; CE[0.615,11

partial discharge fault

3
4 5

Sparking discharge fault arcing discharge fault

C1+C2(CH,+C,H,+C,H,+C2H2)-al C,H,-ethane; CH,-methane;

kene; C,H,-ethylene; C2H2-acetylene; H,-hydrogen

A, B and C represent the converted membership grade function of CI+C2, C , and H respectively; D and E, respectively, , H , indicate the ratio in CI+C2 which C,H2 and CH, cover, and are calculated by C,Hz/(C1+C2) and CHJ(CI+C2)

Because Table 1 reflects heuristic knowledge, it should be changed to the fuzzy expression which can form the ES rules. According to the stipulation for many kinds of criteria and expert experience, the acceptable limits of some dissolved gas are [lo] Cl+C2 5 100 ppm; C2H2s 5 ppm; H2 s 100 ppm Based on these, the membership grade functions shown in Figs. 3 and 4 can be determined by fuzzy set theory.

u={ 0.01 * II: - 0.5,

1

0.005 * x,

II: E
2

[loo, 150)

[o, 100)

x 2 150

(4)

(5)

100

150

The following shows the uncertain reasoning steps using the characteristic gas method: (i) translating the actual test data of the dissolved gasin-oil into a fuzzy number. Based on eqns. 4 and 5, C2H2/(C1 +C2) and CH4/(C1+C2), the converted value A', B', C', D' and E' can be obtained which are subject to [O, I]. (ii) respectively comparing the converted values A', B', C', D' and E' of Table 2 with the standard values A, B, C, D and E. The respective membership grade is calculated as follows: (a) when the converted value and the standard value are completely matched, the membership grade U' = 1 (b) when they are not completely matched and the converted value is less than the lower limit of the standard value, the membership grade U' = x'/x (c) when they are not completely matched and the converted value is greater than the upper limit of the standard value, the membership grade U' = xn/xr where x' is A', B', C', D', E', x is the lower limit of A, B, C, D, E and X" is the upper limit of A, B, C, D, E. Finally, the general membership grade U = uI' A u2' ... (iii) the reasoning form IF...THEN ...WHEN CF > w, of which w is the threshold value = 0.5 and CF = U is the possibility, can carry on the uncertain inference.
Example I : The test data of the dissolved gas-in-oil (ppm): CH4 = 36.5, H2 = 33.9, C1+C2 = 107.3, C2H2=
41

Fig.3

x=CI+C2,H2, ppm Membershipfunction o C1+C2 and H, f

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0. After calculation by the method mentioned above, we have: A' = 0.575; B' = 0; C' = 0.16595; D' = 0; E' = 0.3402. Then, using the uncertain inference, for the ordinary overheating fault: U = 1 A 1 = I for the serious overheating fault: U = 0.935 A 0 A 0.3319 A 1 = 0 for the partial discharge fault: U = 0.87 A 0.3319 A 1 = 0.3319 for the sparking discharge fault: U = 0.87 A 0 A 0.3319 = 0 for the arcing discharge fault: U = 0.935 A 0 A 0.288 /\OXO. The inference conclusion is: IF the test value of the dissolved gas is (ppm): CH4 = 36.5, H2 = 33.9, Cl+C2 = 107.3 and C2H2= 0, THEN the ordinary overheating fault has happened WHEN U > 0.5 From the analyses, if there is more than one membership grade greater than w = 0.5, it means that the forms of fault are many and varied; conversely, if none of the membership grades is greater than w = 0.5, it means that the rules are not corresponding to the test data, and the knowledge base is imperfect. Finally, the inference is failure. Above all, for fault diagnosis ES, first, Table 2 should be changed into the rules stored in the ES knowledge base; secondly, the user interface is utilised to receive test data which are collected in the database. Then, the diagnosis conclusions are obtained by uncertain reasoning.
4

wheref(ui) = 1/(1 + e-.]), (7)

n

E = C(tl- d 2
i= 1

where tl denotes the standard output value calculated by training samples

n
p
i=l

where p represents p training samples, and E' is the overall error. According to eqn. 8, E' is the function of wq, 9 qjl, and al. After translation, we have the following iteration formulas:

(9)
P

where q is the iteration step,

Fault diagnosis ANN

r:? =
P

<;I

* %1 * h; * (1 - q

(14)

ANN can learn and adapt to statistical distributions, extract essential characteristics from input data, and require no physical models. Since fault diagnosis is basically a process of associating an input data pattern to one or more fault conditions, ANN is an ideal tool for such a task. We use a 3-layer BP (backpropagation) network to diagnose faults through p (p > 1) training samples learning. As shown in Fig. 5, the first layer is an input layer , including II input units xl, x2,..., x; the second layer is the hidden layer, which contains the connected weight between the first and the second layer wii (i = 1, 2, ..., n, j = 1, 2, ..., nl) and n l middle units including the nl threshold value el, 02, ..., On,; the third layer, the output layer, is made up of m output units including m threshold value al, a ...,,, and the connected weight , a qjl (j = 1, 2, ..., nl, 1 = 1, 2, ..., m).

Supposing E > 0, the iteration calculation will stop until E < E by learning of the training samples. At the same time, the connected weights and the threshold value can be determined. In this way, the knowledge is distributed over the structure of ANN. After the structure is decided, then diagnosis can be reached for newly occurring faults. For the characteristic gas method, let n = m = 5, p = 13 and n l = 12. x , ( A ' ) , x2(B'),x3(Cr),x4(D') and x5(E') respectively represent the numerated input data; yl, y2, y3, y4 and y5 respectively denote an ordinary overheating fault, a serious overheating fault, a partial discharge fault, a sparking discharge fault and an arcing discharge fault. Table 3 shows 13 sets of numerical data of the training samples. x,and y t (i = j = 1, 2 ..., 5) are obtained by the fuzzy set theory mentioned above.
Table 3: 13 set training samples
Xl

x z

x 3

x4

x5

Yl 0.7 0 0
0

Yz

Y3

Y4

Y5

0.295 0.21 0.075

1

XI

x2

. - . Wnl

x,

Fig.5 Structure of BP netwovk

The following equations are given:

0.285 0.435 1 0.1 0.4 0.425 0.05 0.075 0.09

1 0.53 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.58

0 0.8 0.7 1
0
0.9 1

0 0.0777 0.0224 0.0042

0

1 1 1

0.0086 0.5568 0.7903 0.6615 0.4444 0.6093 0.0183 0

0.5125 0.5728 0.0479 0.4176 0.3 0.4766 0.2673 0.1021 0.0856 0.2407 0.0488 0.1053 0.3404

0.8
0 0

0 0 0 0 0 1

i=l
42

0.082 1 1 1 1 0

0 0.2 0.5 0.8 0.3 0 1 0 0.3 0 0.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.9 0 0 0

0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.8 0 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 0

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0.2106

0.9241 -0.6715 2.2069 5.4645

0.8288 0.9811 0.9550 0.0087

1.4991 -3.7594 1.2264 0.9836

0.2817 ...

-0.4869

0.9633 -1.9144 0.0528 2.4671

... ...

[w] =
-

1.4678 -0.6278

1,4486 -0,4329

7.1956 ...

... -0.8345
... -1.6787
...

0.5480 -2.7023 -1.9452 -1.1353 -2.4557 -3.3944 ... 1.1326 2.7304 -0.2297 -0.5556 0.9207 1.9114 0.1892 -0.2697 2.6779 0.2232 -1.3866 2.9951 3.9880 -3.5804 1.8314 2.9791 0.8485 1.0566

ANN the drawback is that there is a great difference between the input data and training samples, causing the error in the diagnosis. To solve the problem, the paper proposes a consultative mechanism between ES and ANN to combine them as a whole. Fig. 6 shows the structure of consultative mechanism between ES and ANN. In detail: (i) When ANN is started, the first step is comparing the difference between the training samples of ANN and the test input. The distances dl and d2 can reflect the difference:
d l = . - .i)2 (

d2 = 111: - lcil

1.1614

... -0.4178

where xi is a set of training samples and x is a set of test numerated data.

6.7005 -1.6670 -1.9863

...

1.3204 -2.6811 -3.4169

1.8108 -1.8196

start

v
1.9151 1.0182 1.0056 -0.1058 -0.9448 -2.2673 2.3474 -0.6915 0.0058 2.0531 0.0263 0.8871 2.0968 -2.6255 1.0471 1.6834 1.7685

iEsik-l
I

I Y l A N N
difference Large

1.1716 -2.0725 0.2877 2.1526

1
I

1.1114 -0.9166 -1.8292 2.3999 2.8207

-2.5373 -3.0759 3.7989 3.1848

[&I

2.0880 -3.7308

Fig.6

Consultative mechanism between ES and ANN

1.5555 0.6716 1.6222

0.4340 1.4812

0.6128 -1.8643 1.5537 -1.7258 -3.5920 0.1675 1.5019 -4.6733 1.4181 0.3634

2.9196 -4.3389 -0.0850

5.3703 -2.9420 1.3570 -4.6439 1.1694 2.5886

-3.1071 -5.4819 1.6872 0.2350

Example 2: The new test data of the dissolved gas-inoil (ppm) are: CH, = 201.8, H2 = 76, C1+C2 = 3708.8, C2H2 = 16. Through eqns. 6 and 7 , the output Y = [0.0008, 0.9468, 0.0006, 0.0088, 0.02801 can be obtained from the numerated input data. When w = 0.5, y 2 > 0.5 and the reasoning conclusion is the serious overheating fault. The real fault occurring is the overheating fault for temperatures > 700C. This verifies our reasoning. Example 3: Another set of test data of the dissolved gas-in-oil (ppm) are: CH, = 5, H2 = 5.8, Cl+C2 = 20.8, C2Hz = 5.8. After the input is numerated, Y = [0.7549, 0.8189, 0.4861, 0.3127, 0.45241 is obtained. The conclusion may be the overheating fault (ordinary or serious), but the real fault occurring is the partial discharge of high energy density. The reasoning result is wrong because the difference between the input samples and the training samples is very large. 5 Consultative mechanism between ES and ANN From above introduction, ES and ANN have effective application in the fields of transformer fault diagnosis. However, each of them has some weakness. ES has the disadvantage of an imperfect knowledge base, and for
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(ii) Let el > 0 and c2 > 0; when dl < el and d2 < E ~ it , means that the difference is not great and the correct conclusion can be obtained; conversely, if dl > or d2 > e2, it means that the difference is large and the reasoning conclusion is questionable. (iii) When the difference is large, ES needs to be started. There are two points which need attention: (a) If the inference is success, let us compare the ES reasoning conclusion with ANN results. If they are similar, it means that the ANN reasoning conclusion is right; if they are inconsistent, it means that the ANN reasoning is wrong. In the latter case, the ANN structure should be modified by adding the new training samples on the basis of the ES reasoning conclusion. (b) If the ES inference is failure, it means that the knowledge base is short of the corresponding rules. The only way to settle the problem is by way of new knowledge acquisition, obtaining some suitable rules. After using these methods we can correct the ANN structure. In this way, ANN obtains knowledge continuously and can diagnose almost all kinds of transformer faults step by step. Example 4: In example 3, the correct conclusion cannot be obtained by ANN, but using ES, the reasoning also fails. Through knowledge acquisition from experts, the output matrix Y = [0, 0, 0.65, 0, 01 is gained. Taking Y and the converted test data as a new set training sample, the ANN stucture is corrected. From now on, ANN can diagnose the kind of fault similar to example 3.
6
Conclusions

The paper introduces the application of fuzzy set theory, ES, ANN and the combination between ES and
43

ANN for fault diagnosis of power transformers. From the analyses in the paper, ES and ANN are effective diagnosis tools, but they have some disadvantages. For the consultative mechanism, ANN plays the leading role, and ES takes an additional role. ES is used to obtain new knowledge and make up for the deficiency of ANN. ANN is the main means of fault diagnosis. Another consultative mechanism with ES as the leading part can also be proposed. In this mechanism, the ES knowledge base will be enlarged continuously. The function of ANN is knowledge acquisition. In this way, ANN needs a great number of training samples which reflect many kinds of faults. On the one hand, the ES knowledge base contains Table 2; on the other hand, it is added to by some independent rules through ANN learning. Obviously, this mechanism has problems of contradictory inference and knowledge explosion of the knowledge base. The paper determines = 0.2 and = 0.1. After examination by 45 sets of test data, the conclusion of the consultative mechanism is believable.

References

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10 GRIFFIN, P.J.: Criteria for the interpretation of data for dissolved gases in oil from transformers (a review) in ERDMAN, H.G. (Ed.): Electrical insulating oils, STP998 (American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, 1988), pp. 89-106

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