Optical measurements of vibration of medium voltage transformers

This paper describes an assembled optical prototype for measurements of vibration of a distributing transformers tank. It consists of optical MEMS accelerometers, an acquisition unit wireless connected to a remote PC. A SW interface was developed to simultaneously control configuration settings of input channels, the display on the PC screen of acquired data and their storage. Preliminary tests were performed on a conventional type distribution transformer (30kVA); results of comparative analysis with standard piezoelectric accelerometers used as references confirm the feasibility of the proposed approach¹.