Fuzzy Diagnostic System for Oleo-Pneumatic Drive Mechanism of High-Voltage Circuit Breakers

Many oil-based high-voltage circuit breakers are still in use in national power networks of developing countries, like those in Eastern Europe. Changing these breakers with new more reliable ones is not an easy task, due to their implementing costs. The acting device, called oleo-pneumatic mechanism (MOP), presents the highest fault rate from all components of circuit breaker. Therefore, online predictive diagnosis and early detection of the MOP fault tendencies are very important for their good functioning state. In this paper, fuzzy logic approach is used for the diagnosis of MOP-type drive mechanisms. Expert rules are generated to estimate the MOP functioning state, and a fuzzy system is proposed for predictive diagnosis. The fuzzy inputs give information about the number of starts and time of functioning per hour, in terms of short-term components, and their mean values. Several fuzzy systems were generated, using different sets of membership functions and rule bases, and their output performances are studied. Simulation results are presented based on an input data set, which contains hourly records of operating points for a time horizon of five years. The fuzzy systems work well, making an early detection of the MOP fault tendencies.