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    Buchholz Relays

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    Sai Ganesh Mopada
    The Buchholz relay is a gas operated relay that protects oil immersed transformers from internal faults. It uses the principle that faults cause oil to decompose and generate gases, primarily hydrogen, which rise and collect in the relay. Under normal operation the relay is full of oil, but a fault causes gas to collect and tilt a float, closing contacts to sound an alarm. More severe faults increase gas generation and oil flow, tripping the transformer by closing additional contacts. The Buchholz relay thus provides both alarm and trip functions for transformer protection.

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    Buchholz Relays

    Uploaded by

    Sai Ganesh Mopada
    205 views4 pages
    The Buchholz relay is a gas operated relay that protects oil immersed transformers from internal faults. It uses the principle that faults cause oil to decompose and generate gases, primarily hydrogen, which rise and collect in the relay. Under normal operation the relay is full of oil, but a fault causes gas to collect and tilt a float, closing contacts to sound an alarm. More severe faults increase gas generation and oil flow, tripping the transformer by closing additional contacts. The Buchholz relay thus provides both alarm and trip functions for transformer protection.

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    BUCHHOLZ relay notes

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    The Buchholz relay is a gas operated relay that protects oil immersed transformers from internal faults. It uses the principle that faults cause oil to decompose and generate gases, primarily hydrogen, which rise and collect in the relay. Under normal operation the relay is full of oil, but a fault causes gas to collect and tilt a float, closing contacts to sound an alarm. More severe faults increase gas generation and oil flow, tripping the transformer by closing additional contacts. The Buchholz relay thus provides both alarm and trip functions for transformer protection.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    205 views4 pages

    Buchholz Relays

    Uploaded by

    Sai Ganesh Mopada
    The Buchholz relay is a gas operated relay that protects oil immersed transformers from internal faults. It uses the principle that faults cause oil to decompose and generate gases, primarily hydrogen, which rise and collect in the relay. Under normal operation the relay is full of oil, but a fault causes gas to collect and tilt a float, closing contacts to sound an alarm. More severe faults increase gas generation and oil flow, tripping the transformer by closing additional contacts. The Buchholz relay thus provides both alarm and trip functions for transformer protection.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    Buchholz Relays

    The Buchholz relay is a gas operated relay used for the protection of oil immersed transformers
    against all the types of internals faults.
    The slow developing faults called incipient faults in the transformer tank below oil level operate
    Buchholz relay which gives an alarm. If the faults are severe it disconnects the transformer from
    the supply.
    It uses the principle that due to the faults, oil in the tank decomposes, generating the gases.
    The 70% component of such gases is hydrogen which is light and hence rises upwards towards
    conservator through the pipe. Buchholz relay is connected in the pipe, as shown in the Fig.
    Due to the gas collected in the upper portion of the Buchholz relay, the relay operates and gives
    an alarm.

    Basic arrangement of Buchholz relay

    Construction Buchholz relay :

    Under normal conditions, the Buchholz relay is full of oil. It consists of a cast housing containing
    a hinged hollow float.
    A mercury switch is attached to a float. The float being rotated in the upper part of the housing.
    Another hinged flap valve is located in the lower part which is directly in the path of the oil
    between tank and the conservator.
    Another mercury switch is attached to a flap valve. The float closes the alarm circuit while the
    lower flap valve closes the trip circuit in case of internal faults.
    Under normal conditions, the Buchholz relay is full of oil. It consists of a cast housing containing
    a hinged hollow float.
    Under normal conditions, the Buchholz relay is full of oil. It consists of a cast housing containing
    a hinged hollow float.

    Under normal conditions, the Buchholz relay is full of oil. It consists of a cast housing containing
    a hinged hollow float.
    A mercury switch is attached to a float. The float being rotated in the upper part of the housing.
    Another hinged flap valve is located in the lower part which is directly in the path of the oil
    between tank and the conservator.
    Another mercury switch is attached to a flap valve. The float closes the alarm circuit while the
    lower flap valve closes the trip circuit in case of internal faults.

    Operation :
    There are many types of internal faults such as insulation fault, core heating, bad switch contacts,
    faulty joints etc. which can occur. When the fault occurs the decomposition of oil in the main
    tank starts due to which the gases are generated. As mentioned earlier, major component of such
    gases is hydrogen. The hydrogen tries to rise up towards conservator but in its path it gets
    accumulated in the upper part of the Buchholz relay. Through passage of the gas is prevented by
    the flap valve.
    When gas gets accumulated in the upper part of housing. The oil level inside the housing falls.
    Due to which the hollow float tills and close the contacts of the mercury switch attached to it.
    This completes the alarm circuit to sound an alarm. Due to this operator knows that there is some
    incipient fault in the transformer.
    The transformer is disconnected and the gas sample is tested. The testing results give the
    indication, what type of fault is started developing in the transformer.
    Hence transformer can be disconnected before grows into a serious one. The alarm circuit does
    not immediately disconnects the transformer but gives only indication to the operator.
    This is because some times bubbles in the oil circulating system may operate the alarm circuit
    through actually there is no fault.
    However if a serious fault such as internal short circuit between phases, earth fault inside the tank
    etc. occurs then the considerable amount of gas gets generated.
    Thus due to fast reduce level of oil, The pressure in the tank increases. Due to this the oil rushes
    towards the conservator. While doing so it passes through the relay where flap valve is present.
    The flap valve gets deflected due to the rushing oil.
    Due to this the mercury switch contacts get closed. This energizes the trip circuit which opens the
    circuit breaker. Thus transformer is totally disconnected from the supply.
    The connecting pipe between the tank and the conservator should be as straight as possible and
    should slope upwards conservator at a small angle from the horizontal.
    For the economic considerations, Buchholz relays are not provided for the transformer having
    rating below 500 KVA.

    Advantages :

    The various advantages of the Buchholz relay are,

    1. Normally a protective relay does not indicate the appearance of the fault. It operates when fault occurs.
    But Buchholz relay gives an indication of the fault at very early stage, by anticipating the fault and
    operating the alarm circuit. Thus the transformer can be taken out of service before any type of serious
    damage occurs.

    2. It is the simplest protection in case of transformers.

    Limitations :

    The various limitation of the Buchholz relay are,

    1. Can be used only for oil immersed transformers having conservator tanks.

    2. Only faults below oil level are detected.


    3. Setting of the mercury switches can not be kept too sensitive otherwise the relay can operate due to
    bubbles, vibration, earthquakes mechanical shocks etc.

    4. The relay is slow to operate having minimum operating time of 0.1 seconds and average time of 0.2
    seconds.

    Applications :

    The following types of transformer faults can be protected by the Buchholz relay and are indicated by
    alarm :

    1. Local overheating

    2. Entrance of air bubbles in oil

    3. Core bolt insulation failure

    4. Short circuited laminations

    5. Loss of oil and reduction in oil level due to leakage

    6. Bad and loose electrical contacts

    7. Short circuit between phases

    8. Winding short circuit

    9. Bushing puncture

    10. Winding earth fault.

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