Does Surge Test Measurement Destructive?

Baker and discuss.

Rita,

you should contact generator's manufacturer for this kind of test, since this is related to their warranty (if still valid) and their credibility to provide assistance to customer like you.

Frankly, test as requested supposed to be OK as it is below requirement level.

surge voltage always destroy the insulation of windings if the applied voltage is beyond limit .but u can safely induce 2.5 times of out put volt as surge volt if the generator is new one.The manufacture allows to conduct these tests.But ur Qs does not explain well to reply for a better answer.

Friend,

Assuming that the generator is producing AC current, remember that the RMS voltage it is producing is only about 70% of the instantaneous peak voltage on the conductors. Therefore, a generator with an output voltage of 600V (RMS) has an instantaneous voltage phase-to-phase varying between +/- 839V. If you are looking at the voltage from phase-to-ground, it is 0.577 of this (+/- 490v). Hope that helps in interpreting their requirements.

--JMM

is effective to know the condition of the generator rotor winding insulation by using surge test? and if it is not a destructive test can you explain technical reason about it.and What is the standard required for this test?

Baker and discuss.

Take a good RLC bridge and measure the inductance from each rotor phase. If these values are almost the same (allowable difference 2-3 %) than this is a good sign that the winding will be good. A RLC measuring instrument has only an output voltage from a few volts. A Baker surge tester has an output voltage of several hundreds of volts. If there is a possible isolation fault, you could get a break through of the isolation and burn a hole in the isolation.

Let me say it in an different way. If there is a weak point in your isolation system, the Baker will find this weak point, and make the weak point even more bad

So I can understand you boss his idea to limit the value of the test voltage.