Non–Invasive Free Gas Detection Method for Buchholz Relay to Determine the Occurrence of Arcing Events

The fault cause of transformer gas relay action can be determined by analyzing the component of the accumulated free gases, yet non–invasive detection method remains a huge challenge. This letter introduces a novel in–situ non–invasive free gas detection method utilizing Light–Induced Thermoelastic Spectroscopy (LITES) with an acetylene (C<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub>H<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub>) detection limit of 89.7 μL/L. By incorporating sensors into the gas relay structure, a simulated experiment verified that the peak–to–peak value of sensor response can reflect the concentration of C<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub>H<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> in free gases, thus the proposed method achieves non–invasive in–situ determination of arcing faults.