0.

Noise in FRA Measurements: Sources, Effects and Suppression Methods

a

Juan L. Velsquez , Michael Krger , Sebastian kntter , Alexander Kraetge , Samuel Galceran ,
a

OMICRON electronics GmbH, Oberes Ried 1 , A-6833 Klaus, Austria

Center of Technological Innovation and Drives, Polytechnical University of Catalonia, Av. Diagonal 647, 08034
Barcelona, Spain
b

Abstract

1. Introduction to the FRA method

CMC

RMC

RLC Network

50
Rref=50

U1

U2

Rm=50

Figure 1: Measurement setup

1.000e+002

Magnitude (dB)

The application of the FRA method in the last years as

detection and diagnostic tool of mechanical
deformations and electrical failures in the active part of
power transformers has demonstrated its capabilities
and its potential. The advances in this technique allow
an excellent repeatability of results, however, similar to
other on-site diagnostic methods performed, FRA
measurements are also vulnerable to the harmful
effects of noise. Due to noise important information for
the assessment of FRA results can be lost. For this
reason, a good understanding of the sources of noise,
their effects as well as the suppression methods is
imperative. In this contribution, these noise relatedtopics are theoretically explained and exemplified by
real measurements performed in power transformers.

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

f/Hz

-20
-30
-40

H( f ) =

-50
-60
-70
-80
-90

k = 20 log10 (U 2 / U1 ) (2)

-100

When talking about FRA it is important to distinguish

between Impulse Frequency Response Analysis (IFRA)
and Sweep Frequency Response Analysis (SFRA).
This work focuses the attention on the SFRA method.
As illustrated in Fig.1, the SFRA consists in applying a
frequency variable low-level sinusoidal signal "U" at one
end of a winding and from this point a reference signal
"U1"is measured. Simultaneously the output or
response signal at the other end of the winding "U2" is
measured. Subsequently, the transfer function H(f) is
computed. It can be easily demonstrated that H(f)
corresponds to the expression (1). This means that the
H(f) is only dependant on the measurement resistance
of the FRA instrument (Rm) and on the impedance of
the transformer (Ztra).
The most common way of representing the results is as
bode diagrams as shown in Fig. 2. In the majority of the
cases only the plot of the magnitude is used for
interpretation purposes. Nevertheless, the plot of the
phase also provides valuable information. The
magnitude and the phase are computed according to
the equations (2) and (3).

dB

Phase ()

The Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) has been

proven to be a powerful tool for the detection and
diagnosis of the active part of power transformers [1]. In
contrast to traditional diagnostic methods, the FRA
method is able to detect geometrical deformations in
the windings before the occurrence of a major or
catastrophic failure.

U2( f )
Rm
(1)
=
U1 ( f ) Rm + Z tra

150
100

1.000e+002

= tan
1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

H0 H1

H0 H2

( U 2 / U 1 ) (3)

f/Hz

H0 H3

Figure 2: Graphical representation of FRA results

2. Introduction to noise in FRA results

Noise can be defined as unwanted disturbances that
may be superimposed upon a useful (desired) signal.
Noise tends to obscure the information content of the
useful signal and for this reason its detection and
mitigation is necessary. As in any other electrical
diagnostic method, the FRA results can also be affected
by noise.
An understanding of the sources of noise, their effects
and suppression methods is very important especially
when FRA instruments of different manufacturers are
compared. In this work, the relationship between the
technical specifications of the FRA instrument and
noise suppression capabilities is explained and
exemplified by means of real FRA measurements in
power transformers.
Unfortunately, at present there are not international
standards available in which the minimal acceptable
specifications of the FRA instruments are stated. Only
in China there is one standard [1] that was published in
2004. In Europe the only available document is the
CIGR Report 342 that was published in April 2008 [2]
and at the present the elaboration of the IEC standard
60076-18 in under elaboration. In America, the

OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"

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preparation of recommended practices is also under

elaboration and at present there is only a draft that is no
yet officially available [3]. Moreover, the literature on
FRA has been more focused on case studies and
interpretation of results and little importance has been
given to the effects of noise in FRA results.

4. Effects of noise in FRA results

Due to the lack of information on the subject noise in

FRA results, this work consisting on the effects of noise
in FRA results and suppression methods was
formulated.

4.1 Effect of power frequency noise in FRA results

Power frequency noise is only present when
measurements on-site in substations with high
electromagnetic fields (typically in substations with live
busbars with rated voltages above 380 kV) are carried
out. The presence of this kind of noise is also
dependant on the size of the windings. In Fig. 4 the
frequency response of the windings of a 315 MVA
transformer is illustrated. As can be seen, the plot of
400 kV windings presents some noise in the band
between 30 Hz and 100 Hz, while in the plots of the 220
kV and 22 kV windings the effect of the narrowband
noise is minimal. This is due to the high attenuation of
the frequency response of the 400 kV winding. Around
50 Hz the attenuation is approximately -60 dB what
makes the signal more sensitive to noise when
compared to the 220 kV and 22 kV windings. It is also
interesting to appreciate that the first resonance points
of the 400 kV winding (in the range from 130 Hz till 180
Hz) are near to -90 dB and there is no noise at all.

3. Sources of noise in FRA measurements

In a substation environment the noise can be found
basically in two forms, i.e., as a wideband or as
narrowband noise.
A typical narrowband noise is the power frequency
noise (50 or 60 Hz noise). This kind of noise is called
narrowband because its effect can be seen in the FRA
plots normally in the frequency range from 30Hz till 100
Hz. At frequencies higher than 300 Hz is it very unusual
to find narrowband noise. In substations with high
harmonic pollution some narrowband noise at
frequencies multiple of the power frequency could also
be present. Other possible source of narrowband noise
could be some communication signals in the substation,
or noise generated by corona discharges, but these
sources take place are higher frequencies and are very
hardly found in the FRA plots.
With respect to wideband noise, there will be always a
noise floor that will affect the FRA plots. This presence
of this noise is very close related to the dynamic range
of the FRA instrument. For example, in FRA
instruments with a dynamic range of 80 dB (+20 dB60dB), below -60 dB the noise will be present.
In this work the attention is focused on the two most
important sources of noise, that is, power frequency
noise and noise floor. In this sense, the noise can be
characterized in the FRA plots in two regions as shown
in Fig. 3.

1. 000e+002

1. 000e+003

1. 000e+004

1. 000e+005

-30

-40

Power frequency
noise band
30Hz100Hz

-50

-60

-70

1.000e+002

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

f/Hz

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50

-60

-70

22 kV Winding

-80

220 kV Winding

dB

400 kV Winding

Figure 4: Frequency response of a 315 MVA, 400/220/22 kV

Transformer

f/Hz

-10

-20

Both power frequency noise and noise floor can be

present in FRA plots.

Dynamic range of the

FRA instrument

-80

dB

Noise floor

Figure 3: Characterisation of noise sources in a typical FRA

plot

The effects of the power frequency noise take place

fortunately in the frequency range in which the linear
behavior of the magnetizing inductance domains the
response. From the interpretation of the results point of
view, this noise is not so harmful since the useful
information for the diagnosis remains intact. The first
resonance points which take normally place above 130
Hz are not affected by the noise which allows a reliable
assessment even when some 50 Hz noise is present.
Nevertheless it is worth to mention that some winding's
failure modes are visible at low frequencies, such as
short-circuits between turns and opened-circuits, what
makes the suppression of the power frequency noise
very advisable.
Noise at harmonic frequencies are not so usual but can
also be present in the FRA plot. In substations with
rated voltages higher than 400 kV the likelihood of
finding this noise is higher. As example, in Fig. 5 the
FRA plots measured in the 500 kV windings of a power

OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"

0.3

transformer are illustrated. From 30 Hz till 100 Hz the

effects of the noise are significant while at harmonic
frequencies (250Hz and 350Hz) the effects smaller but
can still be appreciated.

1.000e+002

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

-20

f/Hz

-30
-40
-50

30

50

70

100

200

300

500

700

-60

f/Hz

-70
-80

250 Hz
5th

-50

-60

350 Hz
7th

-90
-100
-110

dB

-70

Noise floor
effect

AB phase
BC phase
CA phase

Figure 7: Example of the effect of noise floor in FRA

measurements in delta connected windings

-80

-90

5. Noise suppression methods in FRA results

dB
H0 H3

H0 H1

There are different methods that can be used for

suppressing the effects of noise in FRA results. These
methods can be structured in three groups: hardware
based methods, software based methods and
connection technique.

H0 H2

Figure 5: Frequency response of a 500 kV windings

4.2 Effects of
the noise
floor
in FRA
measurements
In signal theory, the noise floor is the measure of the
signal created from the sum of all the noise sources and
unwanted signals within a measurement system.
This noise is normally present in the FRA response
measured in transformers with high magnetizing
inductance, in windings connected in delta and in
capacitive inter-winding FRA measurements. Some
examples of the effect of the noise floor in the
frequency response in delta windings measured with an
FRA instrument with a dynamic range of -80 dB are
illustrated in Figures 6 and 7. In both cases it can be
appreciated that below -80dB the frequency response is
highly affected by the noise floor. This is due to the
limited dynamic range of the FRA instrument with which
the measurements were carried out. This indicates that
the dynamic range of the FRA instrument used (80 dB)
is not enough in many cases.
In Figures 6 and 7 it can be also appreciated that in
contrast to the power frequency noise, the effect of the
noise floor is very harmful. The presence of this noise
makes the assessment of the results difficult since
several resonance points which contain very important
information for the diagnosis are obscured by the noise.
1.000e+002

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

-20
-30
-40

Power frequency
noise

f/Hz

5.1 Hardware based methods

Hardware based methods consists in the capacity of the
FRA instrument of minimizing the presence of noise
during the performance of the FRA measurements.
There are two key factors that are defined in the
technical specifications of the FRA instruments that are
close related to its capabilities of suppressing noise,
these are the output voltage of the instrument and the
input filters. Next an explanation of the effect of these
two important specifications is presented. Other typical
specification that is also here discussed is the
integration time in instruments that use the sine
correlation as noise suppression tool.
5.1.1
Output voltage
It is well known that transfer function measurements (as
the case of FRA) are not voltage dependant since a
power transformer winding is considered as a linear
system. Nevertheless, the output voltage is also related
to the signal to noise ratio, especially around 50/60 Hz
since as lower the output voltage, weaker the signal,
which could make the FRA measurements more
sensitive to noise.
For illustrating the effect of the output voltage in the
frequency response, let's consider the equivalent circuit
of typical SFRA measurements depicted in Fig. 8. In
this figure, Zs represents the internal impedance of the
source, Zr is the reference impedance, Zt is the
impedance of the transformer and Zm is the
measurement impedance.

-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100
-110

dB

Noise floor
effect

AB phase
BC phase
CA phase

Figure 6: Example of the simultaneous effect of noise floor in

FRA measurements in delta connected windings

OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"

0.4

Itot

Zt

Im

Zs
Zr

Ur

Zm

Um

Figure 8: Equivalent circuit of FRA measurements

The current Itot coming from the FRA instrument may be

computed according to (1). As can be seen, the current
is proportional to the output voltage U. In this manner
the effect of the output voltage in the flowing current
during the measurements is evident. But from the point
of view of FRA measurements, what is important to
know is the effect of U in the voltage drops in the
impedances Zr and Zm, since the transfer functions
depends on the quotient (Um/Ur). These voltages Um
and Ur can be computed by (3) and (5) respectively. As
can be appreciated in (6), the transfer function (Um/Ur)
depends only on the impedance of the transformer (Zt)
and the measurement resistance (Zm) which is typically
50 . From this it can be concluded that the output
voltage has no effect in the transfer function.

I tot

Z r + Z m + Zt
=
U (1)
(Zt + Z m )Z r + Z s (Zt + Z r + Z m )

also be sensitive to power frequency noise. In the

majority of the cases it is impossible to completely
remove the noise by just increasing the output voltage.
For investigating the effect of the output voltage, FRA
measurements were performed in a 400 kV winding
with FRA instruments with different output voltages. As
can be appreciated in Fig. 9, the measurement with an
instrument with 20 Vpp presents lesser noise around 50
Hz than the measurement carried out with the
instrument with 2.83 Vpp. Nevertheless, the plot
corresponding to the instrument with 20 Vpp present
much more noise bellow -65 dB. It was found that the
reason of this was a limited dynamic range of the
instrument.

30

50

70

100

200

300

500

30

50

70

100

200

300

500

f/Hz

-55
-60
-65
-70
-75
-80
-85

dB

f/Hz

-50
-100
-150

Output voltage 20 Vpp

Zr
Im =
I tot (2)
Zt + Z m + Z r
Um =

Output voltage 2.83 Vpp

Figure 9: Experimental investigation of the effect of the output

voltage in the noise

Zr
I tot Z m (3)
Zt + Z m + Z r

Ir =

Zt + Z m
I tot
Zt + Z m + Z r

Ur =

Zt + Zm
I tot Z r
Zt + Z m + Z r

(4)

Um
Zm
50
=
=
U r Z m + Z t 50 + Z t

(5)

(6)

In summary, the frequency response or transfer

function is not dependant on the output voltage but the
signal (Itot) can be increased by increasing the output
voltage according to (1) what can be used for improving
the noise to signal ratio and therefore for avoiding noise
at power frequency. However, by increasing the output
voltage of the FRA instrument it is not possible to
reduce the wideband noise that as before shown is very
harmful for the assessment of FRA results.
Moreover even measurements carried out with FRA
instruments with output voltages higher than 10 V can

Regarding standards requirements, neither the CIGR

Report 342 [2] nor the Chinese standard [1] imposes
minimal requirements for the output voltage of the FRA
instrument. The output voltage of the most popular FRA
instruments is presented in Table 1.
Table 1. Output voltage of most popular FRA instruments
FRA Instrument
Output voltage
Impedance
OMICRON
2:83 V peak to
50 Ohm
FRAnalyzer
peak
M5200/M5300
of 20 V peak to
50 Ohm
Doble Engineering
peak
FRAX-101
of
10 V peak to
50 Ohm
Megger-PAX
peak
Diagnostics
12 V peak to
50 Ohm
FRA 5310 of Tettex peak
instruments
24 V peak to
1 MOhm
peak

5.1.2
Input filters
Normally at the inputs of the FRA instruments, there are
filters that have as objective to suppress noising
signals. The noise suppression capabilities of such
filters can be controlled by the bandwidth. The selection
of the bandwidth is a compromise between
measurement time and noise. An optimal setting of the
bandwidth can also be obtained by adapting
automatically the receiver bandwidth as function of the

OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"

0.5

attenuation of the signal. In Fig. 10, this concept is

illustrated.
if

OMICRON's FRAnalyzer is presented in Fig. 13. As

can be observed, thanks to the narrow bandwidth of the
instrument, it is possible to achieve a dynamic range of
at least 130 dB (-110 dB+20 dB).

FRA instrument

BW

Output

if: intermediate frequency

BW: bandwidth

Sampling points

Reference

Measurement

Figure 12: Connection scheme for measuring the dynamic

range of FRA instruments

Figure 10: Illustration of the noise filtering methods bay

The Chinese standard [1] states that the testing

instrument shall have frequency selective filtering
function and the bandwidth shall be less than 5% of the
centre frequency of frequency selector filter.
It can be demonstrated that by a proper setting of the
bandwidth it is possible to suppress both the power
frequency noise and the noise floor. The suppression of
the noise floor leads to an increase the dynamic range
of the instrument, which is one of the most important
specifications of an FRA instruments.
The dynamic range is normally defined as the absolute
value of the negative measurement range plus 20 dB.
This definition is graphically illustrated in Fig. 11.
According to the CIGR report 342 [2], a measurement
range of -100 dB to +20 dB should be enough to cover
all the cases. The only FRA standard available at
present [1] also states that the FRA instrument shall
have a dynamic range of -100 dB ~ 20 dB. The dynamic
range of the most popular FRA instruments is
presented in Table 2.

20 dB

1.000e+002

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

1.000e+006

-120

-130

-140

-150

-160

dB

Figure 13: Dynamic range of the OMICRON's FRAnalyzer

5.1.3
Integration and sine correlation
This method is based on the fact that the noise is
sometimes positive, sometimes negative, at random.
For this reason, when random positive and negative
numbers are added together, they "eat" each other up.
It has been established that when the sum of n periods
of signal with uncorrelated noise is performed, the
signal/noise ratio is increased by a factor

Dynamic Range of the

FRA instruments:
+20dBNoise floor

Noise floor
Figure 11: Illustration of the dynamic range concept

Table 2. Dynamic range of the most popular FRA instruments

FRA Instrument
Dynamic range
OMICRON FRAnalyzer
>120 dB
M5200/M5300 of Doble Engineering
>90 dB
FRAX-101 of Megger-PAX Diagnostics
>130 dB
FRA 5310 of Tettex instruments

f/Hz

-110

n [4].

Sine correlation is a noise suppression method based

on the integration principle before mentioned. A detailed
explanation of this method is presented in [5]. The sine
correlation analyzer uses one sine channel to calculate
the real part of the response R(T), and one cosine
channel to calculate the imaginary part I(T) as shown in
Fig. 14. The response signal coming from the device
under test (DUT) is multiplied by the sin and cosine of
the output signal of the instrument. Then real and
imaginary parts of the signal are integrated in order to
average the signal along T seconds. As the averaging
or integration time is increase, the unwanted frequency
components, i.e., noise, decreases.

90 dB

The dynamic range of one FRA instrument can be

easily measured by connecting the instrument as
shown in Fig. 12. The dynamic range measured in the

OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"

0.6

H(j)
DUT
Asint

R(T)

50

70

100

200

300

500

30

50

70

100

200

300

500

f/Hz

-20

sint

Signal
Generators

30
-10

cost

Multipliers

R(T)

-30
-40

Integrators

Figure 14: Sine correlation circuit

-50
-60

5.2 Software based methods

Software based methods consists in removing the noise
of an already measured FRA plot by means of signal
processing techniques. Some methods have been
found in the literature for the detection and suppression
of noising signals. The method described in [6] is based
in variance analysis which was developed for detecting
and quantifying the nonlinear distortions and the
disturbing noise in frequency response measurements.
Other examples are the application of the Wavelet
transformation that was used in [7] for suppressing
noise in time domain FRA measurements and the
application of Kalman filters [8] for eliminating the
narrow-band noise and wideband noises from FRA
plots.
Other methods of easier implementation consists in
typical averaging filters such as the well know moving
average filter, exponential weighted moving average
filter, etc. Applications of fittings algorithms such as
vector fitting [9] can also be used for reconstructing
noising FRA plots.
Some commercially available FRA instruments, such as
the OMICRON FRAnalyzer, have some signal
processing tools implemented in the software that can
be used for removing noise in FRA plots. As shown in
Fig. 15.

-70

dB

f/Hz

-50
-100
-150

N W Before noise removal

N W After noise removal

Figure 16: Comparison of the FRA plot before and after noise
removal

5.3 Connection technique

The connection technique can also help to reduce the
noise. In Fig. 17 the FRA plots measured in a
substation with very high noise interferences using
aluminium braids and wire as connection technique are
compared. It is clear that the use of aluminium braids
also helps to reduce the noise.
1.000e+002

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

1.000e+002

1.000e+003

1.000e+004

1.000e+005

f/Hz

-20

-30

-40

-50

-60

-70

dB

150
100

Figure 15: Noise removal in FRA plots with average filtering

The noising plot shown in Fig. 9 was cleaned up by

using the averaging filter of the FRAnalyzer software. A
comparison of the plots before and after noise removal
is presented in Fig. 16.

N C with Alu braid

f/Hz

N C with Wire

Figure 17: Connection technique and noise suppression

6 Conclusions
The effects of the power frequency noise takes place
around 50/60 Hz. Because in this frequency range the
linear behavior of the magnetizing inductance domains
the response, this kind of noise is not as harmful as the
noise floor for the assessment and interpretation of the
FRA results and its suppression can be easily achieved.
It was demonstrated that the output voltage of the FRA
instrument can help in reducing power frequency noise,

OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"

0.7

however
depending
on
the
electromagnetic
environment of the substation even measurements
carried out with FRA instruments with output voltages
higher than 10 V are sensitive to noise. Neither the
Chinese standard nor the CIGR Report establishes
minimal requirements for the output voltage of the FRA
instrument.
The effects of the wideband noise or noise floor of the
FRA instrument are very critical. The frequency
response of transformers with big magnetizing
inductances or of delta connected windings as well as
capacitive inter-winding requires a dynamic range of al
least -100 dB20 dB. If the FRA instrument has not
enough dynamic range, the high content of noise
obscures the frequency response signal which makes
difficult the assessment and interpretation of the results.
It was also found that the only available standard
establish as requirement that the dynamic range of the
FRA instruments shall be of at least -100 dB20 dB.
The CIGR Report 342 also agrees with this dynamic
range requirement..
There are different methods of mitigating the effects of
noise in FRA results. With a narrow bandwidth of the
FRA instrument the noise can be highly mitigated
during the measurement. In cases in which the noise
cannot be completely suppressed during the
measurement, there are software based methods such
as averaging filters that can be used for removing the
noise from FRA results.

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[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]

[7]
[8]

[9]

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1st, 2005.
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Response Analysis, April 2008.
IEEE PC57.149/D6, Draft Trial Use Guide for the
Application and Interpretation of Frequency Response
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E. Brasseur, "How does a receiver work?", 1997,
http://www.4p8.com/eric.brasseur/receiv.html
N.D. Cogger, R.V.Webb, Frequency Response
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Tom Dhaene, Rik Pintelon, Johan Schoukens, Els Van
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R. Wimmer, K. Feser,
S. Tenbohlen, M. Krger,
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Predicting
Purposes'Iranian
Journal
of
Electrical&Electronical Engineering, Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan.
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OMICRON electronics GmbH 2009 Workshop "Diagnostic Measurements on Power Transformers"