A combined technique for power transformer fault diagnosis based on k‐means clustering and support vector machine

Abstract This contribution presents a two‐step hybrid diagnostic approach, combining k ‐means clustering for subset formation, followed by subset analysis conducted by human experts. As the feature input vector has a significant influence on the performance of unsupervised machine learning algorithms, seven feature input vectors derived from traditional methods, including Duval pentagon method, Rogers ratio method, three ratios technique, Denkyoken method, ensemble gas characteristics method, Duval triangle method, and Gouda triangle method were explored for the subset formation stage. The seven proposed individual methods, corresponding to the seven feature input vectors, were implemented using a dataset of 595 DGA samples and tested on an additional 254 DGA samples. Furthermore, a combined technique based on a support vector machine was introduced, utilising the diagnostic results of the individual methods as input features. From training and testing, with diagnostic outcomes of 91.09% and 90.94%, the combined technique demonstrated the highest overall diagnostic accuracies. Using the IEC TC10 database, the diagnosis accuracies of the proposed diagnostic methods were compared to existing methods of literature. From the results obtained, the combined technique outperformed the proposed individual methods and existing methods used for comparison.