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Modeling of high frequency characteristic of a

6.6 kV transformer
Conference Paper September 2012
DOI: 10.1109/UPEC.2012.6398677

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2 authors:
Swee Peng Ang

M. A. Salam

Institut Teknologi Brunei

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Modeling of High Frequency Characteristic

of a 6.6 kV Transformer
S.P. Ang

M.A. Salam

Institut Teknologi Brunei, Brunei

Institut Teknologi Brunei, Brunei

ang.swee.peng@itb.edu.bn

Abstract-In this paper, a high frequency characteristic of a

6.6 kV transformer winding with a continuous disc type high
voltage (HV) winding which consists of 13 turn and 22 discs is
modeled. The formulation of the distributed parameters
particularly the capacitances are determined according to the
geometry and construction of the HV winding of the
transformer. The determination of turn-to-turn and coil-to-coil
capacitances of the winding is also taken into consideration. In
addition, the model also includes the total value of series
capacitance, Cs for the unshielded winding, the total ground
capacitance, Cg, the series resistance, Rs and resistance to
ground, Rg. The accuracy of the developed high frequency
transformer model is simulated by using a computer simulation
package, PSCAD and compared with the measurement results.
A low voltage impulse with a double-exponential waveform
which is similar to the characteristic of a lightning impulse is
employed for the performance study of the developed model.
The results obtained from both the simulation and the
measurement are in good agreement.
Index TermsCapacitance, Continuous Type Winding,
Modeling, PSCAD, Simulation, Transformer,

I.

INTRODUCTION

Modeling of transformers under the normal power

frequency 50 Hz are usually represented by equivalent
circuits consisting of resistances and inductances. However,
when they are subjected to power system transients such as
overvoltages, overcurrents, faults and re-ignition of circuit
breakers, the capacitances of transformer windings become
more pronounced and need much attention.
An accurate representation of power system simulation
model for transient study requires an adequate representation
of power system components taking account the frequency
range of the transient phenomena [1, 2]. The main
components in power transformer consist of magnetic core
and windings. Their representation can be very complex
when they are subjected to transient phenomena. The
complexity changes the different behaviour or the
characteristic of the transformer representation depending on
the range of frequency that are present in the phenomena.
Because of this, modelling of power transformer for transient
study using computer simulation is difficult. In view of this,
detailed modelling of power transformer to account for such
factor is difficult to achieve therefore the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and CIGRE WG 33-02
[3,4] have come up with four groups of classification aimed
for providing the types of transformer model valid for a

abdus.salam@itb.edu.bn

specific range of transient phenomena.

The transformer model [5] which is based on the
formulation of Principle of Duality to model core topology
with external winding capacitance and leakage inductances
for a 1000 MVA 400/275/13 kV transformer was modeled.
Frequency Response Analysis (FRA) of up to 1 kHz is
validated between the simulation and the measurement
results. A computation of very fast transient overvoltages
(VFTO) in transformer windings presented in [6] employed a
algorithm uses a combination of the Multi-Conductor
Transmission Line Model (MTLM) and the singleTransmission Line Model (STLM). The formulation of the
model is suitable for the study of inter-turn insulation which
is of particular vulnerable to high frequency oscillation. In
addition, the distribution of inter-turn overvoltages is of
essential interest. Modeling of transformer winding at high
frequency in [7] presented a technique of grouping turns, to
avoid the number of turns or nodes becoming too large. The
transient analysis is performed using the Electromagnetic
Transients Program (EMTP).
In this paper, modeling of a high frequency characteristic
of a 6.6 kV transformer winding with a continuous disc type
high voltage (HV) winding is presented. The modeling
approach is based on the parameter formulation derived from
the physical geometry and dimensions of transformer and
then applied to distributed parameter model.
II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE 6.6 KV TRANSFORMER

Fig.1 (a) and (b) show the construction of a 6.6 kV

transformer which is of a continuous type winding.

(a)

Front View

Windings form one of the most essential transformer

components for the purpose of the electromagnetic induction
process. Two types windings are available, the layer type and
the disc type [8]. The one is of interest in this paper is the disc
type winding.

A. The Disc-to-Disc Capacitance, Cdd

The arrangement of the capacitances is distributed along the
winding. Two capacitances are connected in parallel in the
duct, namely the capacitance of the portion containing the key
spacer and the capacitance which consists of air thickness.
The capacitance is determined based on a two parallel plate
capacitors with two dielectrics,
C=

o A
d1

(2)

d2

Where d1 and d2 are the thicknesses of parallel plates and 1

and 2 are the dielectrics of relative permittivity of related
materials.
B. The HV-to-LV Winding Capacitance, Chl
This consists of LV winding which are wound cylindrically
by the HV winding, separated by major insulation structure
(pressboard), with some air space isolated from the HV and
LV winding, to provide better insulation strength. This are
five series capacitances of LV insulation, between pressboard
and LV outer single sided paper insulation, cylindrical
pressboard between HV and LV winding, HV key spacer and
distance of air space and air space and HV inner single-sided
paper insulation.
(b)

Top View

Fig 1. A 6.6 kV continuous disc type winding (a) Front view (b) Top view

The physical construction of a 6.6 kV continuous disc type

winding is shown in Fig. 1 (a) front view and (b) top view. It
consists of HV and LV windings, with 22 discs or coils
arranged in vertical stack, with air space in between two
adjacent discs. Each disc constitutes of 13 turns wound
continuously in cylindrical fashion. The remaining air space
is called duct which is used for oil circulation and for better
insulation breakdown. Each HV disc consists of 13 turns
wound spirally side by side of its adjacent turns.
Since the developed model is based on [9], which required
the turn-to-turn capacitance (Ctt), disc-to-disc capacitance
(Cdd) and HV-to-LV capacitance (CHL) to account for the
distributed parameters of series capacitance (Cs) and ground
capacitance (Cg). The coupling capacitances are determined
based on the physical layout and dimension of the winding.
A. The Turn-to-Turn Capacitance, Ctt
This transformer consists of 22 discs (coils), with each disc
consists of 13 turns. Each turn conductor is in rectangular
shape with double-sided paper inserted in between the turns.
The discs are separated by means of key spacer and air (oil).
The rectangular bare turn-to-turn conductors are wrapped in a
called Nomex. The capacitances that exist between the two
adjacent conductors are insulated with paper dielectric which
is called Turn-to-Turn capacitance, Ctt The capacitance is
determined by using the method of parallel-plate capacitor,

o rA

(1)
d
Where A is area of parallel plate, d is distance between the
plate, o is the permittivity of free space = 8.85 10-12 F/m,
r is the relative permittivity of materials.

C=

III.

IMPULSE MEASUREMENT OF TRANSFORMER WINDING

The aim of the study is to investigate the characteristics of

the HV winding when it is subjected to the lightning impulse
at different section of the coils along the winding.
A. Measurement Setup
The overall measurement setup is shown in Fig. 2. It
consists of Recurrent Surge Generator (RSG), a digital
storage oscilloscope (DSC) and a 6.6 kV transformer
winding.

Fig 2. Measurement Setup

A Recurrent Surge Generator (RSG) is used to generate the

intended impulse, with 50 V peak, 1.25 s/40 s lightning
wave shape (Fig. 3). The output voltages across the coils
along winding were measured using a Ultima 500 DSO
digital storage oscilloscope, with a setting bandwidth of 200
MHz was employed and the rise time of this oscilloscope is
calculated as 1.79 ns which provide sufficient sampling for
the measurement of impulse characteristic.

Fig.5. Modified equivalent electrical network

V.

Fig.3. Lightning Impulse using RSG

In this experiment, a lightning impulse with the 1.25 s/40 s

wave shape was impacted across the 1st coil with respect to
ground of the HV terminals. The LV winding is shortcircuited and solidly connected to ground. The coils-toground transient voltage of odd numbered coils 1st, 3rd, 5th,
7th, 9th.to the 21st coil (disc) were measured by using
oscilloscope. Then the results are compared with the
simulation ones.
IV.

ELECTRICAL
NETWORK
EQUIVALENT
REPRESENTATION OF A CONTINUOUS DISC TYPE
WINDING

DESCRIPTION OF SIMULATION MODEL

The circuit shown in Fig. 5 was modeled by using PSCAD.

The model consists of low voltage lightning impulse, the
distributed equivalent circuit of the 6.6 kV winding and time
controlled circuit breaker.
A. Determination of the Front and Tail time of Low Voltage
Lightning Impulse
PSpice was employed to determine the rise and tail times of
the low voltage impulse wave shape. Fig. 6 shows the plot
with its rise time, t1 the time is taken for the voltage to rise
from 10% to 90% of its crest value. t1 was determined as
1.0859 s which is permitted by the standard since the
tolerance for the rise time is permitted to vary by up to 30%
that is 0.84 s to 1.56 s for a specified 1.2 s rise time.

The equivalent electrical network representation of the disc

winding is depicted in Fig. 4 [10]. P1 is the starting point of
the line end terminal at the HV side and the other end is at the
286th turn which situated at the 22nd coil, which in this case
is not shown here. Each numbered rectangular block
represents the cross-section as a turn.

Fig.6. Determination of front time using PSpice

The determination of tail time is shown in Fig. 7. The fall

time was found to be 41.791 s which is also permitted
according to the standard. The waveform tolerance for the
tail time is 20% (40 s to 60 s for specified 50 s fall time).

Fig. 4. Equivalent Electrical Network [10]

After further simplification, the equivalent network which

consists of lumped elements is represented as shown in Fig.5.
The series resistance [11] is determined based on the turn-toturn and disc-to-disc capacitance from the physical geometry.

Fig.7. Determination of fall time using PSpice

The front and fall times of the lightning impulse wave shape
was obtained to be 1.0859 s/41.791 s. The magnitude of

Low Voltage Lightning Impulse Circuit

Timed Controlled Circuit Breaker

Oscilloscopes

Equivalent Electrical Circuit of a 6.6 kV Transformer Winding

Fig. 8 Modeling of 6.6 kV Transformer Winding using PSCAD

the impulse voltage is 50 V peak. The coils-to-ground

transient voltage of odd numbered coils of 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th,
9th.to the 21st coils (discs) were measured by using
oscilloscope. The results reproduced from the simulation
model are then compared with the measured ones.

(b) Transient Voltage across 5th Coil

Measurement

VI. COMPARISON BETWEEN MEASURED AND

SIMULATION RESULTS
Due to the space constraint, the measured and simulated
results for the coils-to-ground transient voltage across the odd
numbered coils of 1st, 5th, 9th, 13rd, 17th and 21st are presented
as shown in the following figures.

Simulation

(a) Transient Voltage across 1st

Coil
Measurement

Simulation

Looking at the measurement results, when the 50 V impulse

voltage with a 1.25 s/40 s characteristic was impacted
across the HV winding of the transformer. The voltage
measured along the coils revealed a similar trend showing the
tail of the waveshape discharges at a much faster rate. The
measured voltage at 1st coil has dropped to 40 V without any
trace of oscillation. The reason is because the frequency
components contained in the impulse is not able to excite the
natural frequency of the whole winding of the transformer.
The oscillation has been damped in a very much faster rate
due to the high presence of resistance in the winding.

(c) Transient Voltage across 9th Coil

(e) Transient Voltage across 17th Coil

Measurement

Measurement

Simulation

Simulation

(d) Transient Voltage across 13th Coil

(f) Transient Voltage across 21st Coil

Measurement

Measurement

Simulation

Simulation

Fig. 9. Voltage measurement and simulation results across 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th,17thand 21st coils

From all the measurement results of Fig. 9, it can be seen that

the peak voltage gradually decreases as measurement were
taken toward the end coil that is toward the ground terminal
of the HV winding. The voltage distribution with respect to
the coil position is shown in Fig. 10.

Simulation

Measurement

Fig. 10 Voltage distribution across the coils

As can be seen from the figure, the voltage decreases as the

position of the coil (closer to coil position 21) is moved
toward the ground terminal of the winding. In addition, the

magnitudes of the impulse voltage start to oscillate more

intense as the measurement is taken toward to the ground
terminal of the HV winding. This can be seen in Fig. 9(a) to
(f).
As can be seen from Fig. 9 (a) of the voltage at coil position
1, there is no indication of oscillatory voltage occurs in the
impulse wave, the magnitude decayed exponentially in the
envelope of the wave tail above the reference axis. This
phenomenon happened when the whole coils i.e. 1st, 3rd, 5th,
7th, 9th, 11th, 13rd, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st of the winding are
taken into consideration. That is including all the lumped
elements along the winding. The reasons that there is no
oscillation in the impulse voltage is because of the winding
I2R losses is more significant, i.e. more winding resistance.
Moreover, the impulse voltage subjected to the input of the
HV winding is not able to excite the natural frequency of the
whole section of the coils. As for Fig. 9 (b), at the 5th coil, the
magnitudes of the impulse start to oscillate showing a small
significant of voltage oscillation along the tail. This trend
continues and the magnitude of oscillation becomes more
pronounce as the coils move closer to the ground terminal of
the HV winding. The ability to damp out the oscillation
becomes less intense due to the fact that the resistance of the

winding is gradually reduced as it is closer to the ground

terminal.
In comparison between the measurement and simulation
results, there is a similarity trend in terms of exciting
oscillatory voltage and voltage wave shapes. However, there
is a slight variation in term of (1) the first peak magnitude of
the impulse voltage, it can be seen that the magnitude is
slightly higher at the beginning of the coil 1 to 11 (2) the rate
of exponential decay of the wave tail, it can be seen that the
oscillatory voltage generated from the simulation model has a
much slower rate as compared to the measured one. This
slight discrepancy in term of the accuracy of the simulation
model can be further improved by including frequency
dependence model, such as Foster circuit [12, 13] into the
resistance of the HV winding. One of the important damping
mechanism at higher frequency.
One interesting point to note in this study is that there is no
likelihood of occurrence of transient overvoltage of more than
1 p.u subjected along the coils of the winding. The main
reason is that the transformer employed is low voltage and its
winding resistance is high, and is able to damp out oscillation.
VII.

CONCLUSIONS

Modeling of a 6.6 kV transformer for high frequency

characteristic study such as lightning and switching surge has
been presented by using a distributed lumped parameter. The
formulation of the lumped element is derived from the
available geometry and dimension of the physical layout of
the transformer.
PSCAD has been employed to assess to performance of the
characteristic of the developed simulation model, a model
representation for high frequency characteristic of
transformer consisting of distributed lumped elements. The
graphical simulation results of oscillatory voltages measured
at different layers of coil sections presented in this paper
clearly show that the developed model is suitable for
electromagnetic transient study such as lightning surge.
VIII.
[1]
[2]
[3]

[4]
[5]

[6]
[7]
[8]

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