Quantitative analysis of FTIR for detecting transformer faults

Recently, Semiconductor sensor and thermal conductivity sensor are widely used for gas detection in transformer online monitors. Since the long-time stability or precision of these sensors is not satisfactory, the present researcher studied the application of FTIR in such monitors. In the wide measuring range of online monitoring, Absorbance Law is not always applicable, thus a non-linear calibration model was necessary. Experiments were done to set up the calibration model. A gas dilution system was designed. With the system, standard samples of fault gas including CK4, C2H2, C2H4 and C2H6 were diluted to different concentration. BOMEM MB104 FTIR Spectrometer was used to collect spectra of gases. Curve fitting of the output of FTIR was done, and the effect of quantitative feature and concentration range on quantitative analysis was investigated. In addition, the lowest detection limit was tested. Experiment and calculation results show: accuracy can be improved by taking strong peak height at low concentration range, taking peak area or weak peak height at high concentration range as quantitative feature, and using third order polynomial to fit the output curve of FTIR. The lowest detecting limit Of C2H2 with 2.4m gas cell is below 0.3 mu l/l and that of 10cm cell is below 3 mu l/l.