Implementation of Remaining Useful Lifetime Transformer Models in the Fleet-Wide Prognostic and Health Management Suite

Conference · Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1179373

Agarwal, Vivek ^[1]; Lybeck, Nancy J. ^[1]; Pham, Binh ^[1]; Rusaw, Richard ^[2]; Bickford, Randall ^[3]

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1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
2. Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA (United States)
3. Expert Microsystems, Orangevale, CA (United States)

Research and development efforts are required to address aging and reliability concerns of the existing fleet of nuclear power plants. As most plants continue to operate beyond the license life (i.e., towards 60 or 80 years), plant components are more likely to incur age-related degradation mechanisms. To assess and manage the health of aging plant assets across the nuclear industry, the Electric Power Research Institute has developed a web-based Fleet-Wide Prognostic and Health Management (FW-PHM) Suite for diagnosis and prognosis. FW-PHM is a set of web-based diagnostic and prognostic tools and databases, comprised of the Diagnostic Advisor, the Asset Fault Signature Database, the Remaining Useful Life Advisor, and the Remaining Useful Life Database, that serves as an integrated health monitoring architecture. The main focus of this paper is the implementation of prognostic models for generator step-up transformers in the FW-PHM Suite. One prognostic model discussed is based on the functional relationship between degree of polymerization, (the most commonly used metrics to assess the health of the winding insulation in a transformer) and furfural concentration in the insulating oil. The other model is based on thermal-induced degradation of the transformer insulation. By utilizing transformer loading information, established thermal models are used to estimate the hot spot temperature inside the transformer winding. Both models are implemented in the Remaining Useful Life Database of the FW-PHM Suite. The Remaining Useful Life Advisor utilizes the implemented prognostic models to estimate the remaining useful life of the paper winding insulation in the transformer based on actual oil testing and operational data.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1179373
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-14-32590; TRN: US1500160
• Resource Relation: Conference: 9. International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies, Charlotte, NC (United States), 23-26 Feb 2015
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
INSULATING OILS
TRANSFORMERS
SERVICE LIFE
FURFURAL
IMPLEMENTATION
POLYMERIZATION
HOT SPOTS
ABUNDANCE
MONITORING
RELIABILITY
TESTING
FORECASTING
THERMAL DEGRADATION
ELECTRICAL INSULATION
Degree of Polymerization
fleet-wide prognostic and health management suite
generator step-up transformer
prognostic models
Thermal Model