Automated Transformer fault diagnosis using infrared thermography imaging, GIST and machine learning technique

Abstract

Condition monitoring of electrical systems is vital in reducing maintenance costs and enhancing their reliability. By focusing on the monitoring of electrical transformers, which play a crucial role in electrical systems and are the main equipment for electrical transmission and distribution, drastic damages, undesirable loss of power and expensive curative maintenance could be avoided. In this paper, a novel noncontact and non-intrusive framework experimental method is used for the monitoring and the diagnosis of transformer faults based on an infrared thermography technique (IRT). The basic structure of this work begins with applying (IRT) to obtain a thermograph of the considered machine. Second, GIST features of the reference image and all images in the image database are extracted. At last, various faults patterns in the transformer are automatically identified using a machine learning method called Support Vector Machine (SVM). The proposed method effectiveness and capacity are evaluated based on the experimental infrared thermography (IRT) images and the diagnosis results by identifying nine sorts of electrical transformer states among which one is healthy and the remaining eight are of short circuit faults in common core winding type, and showing that it can be considered as a powerful diagnostic tool with high Classification Accuracy (CA) and stability compared to other previously used methods.