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Abstract—A comprehensive test program was performed on a Load losses per-unit value.
2500-kVA oil natural–air natural cooling mode (ONAN) trans- DC losses per-unit value.
former without external cooling. It is shown that the hot-spot to Eddy losses per-unit value.
top-oil temperature gradient depends on the transformer con-
struction. The top-oil time constant formula, which has already DC losses (in watts).
been defined and validated in the authors’ previous work related Eddy losses (in watts).
to transformers with external cooling, is modified in order to take Stray losses (in watts).
into account the basic design differences. The results are verified Heat generated by total losses.
by thermocouple measurements and tests at varying loading
current.
Heat generated by load losses.
The hot-spot and top-oil temperature responses predicted by the Heat generated by no-load losses.
IEEE Loading Guide, Annex G, are also compared to the measured Ratio load losses at rated current to no-load
values. losses.
Index Terms—Distribution transformer, hot-spot temperature, Nonlinear thermal resistance of the oil.
top-oil temperature. Nonlinear winding to oil thermal
resistance.
Ambient temperature.
NOMENCLATURE
Top-oil temperature.
Overshoot factor (maximum of the func- Average bulk oil temperature.
tion ). Temperature at the top surface of the
Thermal capacitance. cooling ribs.
Oil thermal capacitance. Temperature at the bottom surface of the
Winding thermal capacitance. cooling ribs.
Per-unit eddy loss at winding hot spot. Bottom-oil temperature.
Rated average winding to average oil tem- Hot-spot temperature.
perature gradient. Winding average temperature.
Normalized time variation of hot-spot Rated top-oil temperature rise over
temperature rise above top-oil temperature ambient.
(in oil pocket) for a step increase in Rated hot-spot temperature rise over top
load current. oil.
Per-unit winding height to hot spot. Tasted or rated average winding rise over
Hot-spot factor. ambient.
Load current. Tested or rated hot-spot rise over ambient.
Subscript indicates initial. Tested or rated top-oil rise over ambient.
Load factor. Tested or rated bottom oil rise over
Weight of core and coil assembly (in ambient.
kilograms). Initial winding hottest-spot temperature.
Weight of the tank and fittings (in Initial average winding temperature.
kilograms). Initial top-oil temperature.
Weight of the oil (in kilograms). Initial top-duct-oil temperature.
Constant. Initial bottom-oil temperature.
Temperature factor for the loss correction.
Oil time constant.
Manuscript received April 7, 2004; revised October 1, 2004. Paper no.
TPWRD-00171-2004. Winding time constant.
D. Susa and M. Lehtonen are with Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo Warm resistance.
02015, Finland (e-mail: Dejan.Susa@hut.fi; Matti.Lehtonen@hut.fi). Cold resistance.
H. Nordman is with ABB Oy, Vaasa 65101, Finland (e-mail:
hasse.nordman@fi.abb.com). rated Subscript indicates rated value.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2005.848675 p.u. Subscript indicates per-unit value.
0885-8977/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
1920 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 3, JULY 2005
the layer nine and the layer ten. The distance from the LV foils
to the yokes is 15 mm at both the top and bottom. At the top and
bottom, an 8-mm pressboard bond is added to the foils (i.e., the
yoke distance from the insulated winding is 7 mm at the top and
bottom). The cooling duct is collapsed at the LV busbar because
the LV busbar needs space. The width of the bars was 100 mm,
and it means that totally about 150 mm of the duct is blocked
on the side of the core. The HV winding (20.5 kV) consists
of 15 layers, each layer comprising 66 conductors except one
layer which comprises only 21 conductors to obtain the proper
number of turns. The winding has two axial cooling ducts, the
first one between the fifth and sixth layers and the second one
between the tenth and 11th layers. The distance from the HV
conductor metal to the yoke is 25 mm at the top and bottom.
Fig. 1. Normalized time variation of hot-spot temperature rise above
An 18-mm pressboard bond is added as end insulation at the
top-oil temperature f (t) (in oil pocket) for a step increase in load current top and bottom (i.e., the yoke distance from the insulated
B —overshoot factor (maximum of the function f (t)). winding is also, in this case, 7 mm at the top and bottom). The
connection is Dy11 and the short-circuit impedance is 6%. The
tank is a corrugated tank with 250-mm cooling ribs, a center
I. INTRODUCTION distance of 40 mm. There are 15 ribs on the short sides and
39 on the long sides (Fig. 6). The tank is hermetically sealed
I T has been shown in [1]–[3] that the hot-spot temperature
rise over top-oil temperature in the tank due to a change in
load varies as a function of time , according to the solid
and filled with oil.
The transformer was equipped with a total of 28 thermocou-
line in Fig. 1 [1]. This is especially so for ON-cooled power ples, which were fitted in the transformer as follows:
transformers with external oil circulation. • Nine in the low-voltage winding, where thermocouples
A thermal investigation performed on a distribution trans- were inserted to a depth of about 5 mm between adjacent
former with external cooling [4] showed similar results; there- foils (Figs. 2 and 3). It was expected that the hottest spot
fore, the authors were strongly motivated to make a comprehen- temperature occurs at the location of the collapsed ducts.
sive test program on a distribution transformer without external Therefore, two thermocouples were inserted there. The lo-
cooling. cation of the hottest spot thermocouple is shown in Figs. 4
The test shows that the hot-spot temperature rise over top-oil and 5.
temperature for the oil temperature measured in the oil pocket • Six in the HV winding, where the thermocouples were in-
due to a change in load is an exponential function with the serted to a depth of about 5 mm from the edge of the con-
time constant equal to the winding time constant in the dashed ductor, between adjacent flat conductors (Fig. 2). The lo-
line in Fig. 1. It has also been noticed that the top-oil time con- cation of the hottest spot thermocouple is shown in Fig. 5.
stant is longer compared to the time constant obtained for large • Two in the oil pockets at each end of the tank . The
power transformers [1], [2]. The time delay between the top-oil distance from both tank walls to the center of the pocket
temperature rise in the tank and the hot-spot temperature rise pipe is about 30 mm (Fig. 6).
has also been recorded; similar behavior is given in [5]. • Two on the outside surface of the tank, at the top , and
The top-oil time constant formula [1] is modified in order the bottom . They were attached to the center line of the
to take into account the basic design difference between trans- long sides of the tank wall, between two adjacent cooling
formers with and without external cooling. Results obtained ribs, right at the top and bottom levels of the cooling ribs
with the model will be compared with the test results obtained (Fig. 6).
at varying load current, the IEEE loading guide, and the Annex • Two thermocouples 50 mm under the tank cover were
G method [6]. right above the center line of the active part (Fig. 6).
• Two in the mixed bottom oil located on a center line be-
II. TEST PROGRAM tween two adjacent phases, on a line along the outer edges
of the winding block at the top level of the bottom yoke
A short description of the tested transformer, performed tests,
(Fig. 6). They were fixed to pressboard sheets functioning
and position of the installed thermocouples is given below. The
as phase insulation.
recorded winding and oil temperature rises are also given in the
• Two in both the duct inlet , and the duct outlet for the
following text.
HV winding at different phases and 1 in the duct outlet for
low-voltage winding . The thermocouples measuring
A. Tested Unit and Position of the Thermocouples the duct oil were right in the center of the duct, at the edge
The rated voltages of the transformer are of the winding insulation. This means that their vertical
kV. The low-voltage winding (0.71-kV winding) positions were 8 mm from the LV foil and 18 mm from the
consists of 18 Al-foil layers with an axial cooling duct between HV conductor, at both the top and bottom (Figs. 2 and 6).
SUSA et al.: DYNAMIC THERMAL MODELLING OF DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMERS 1921
Fig. 6. Position of thermocouples in the tank, side and top view; dimensions
are in millimeters.
Fig. 4. Position of the hottest thermocouple.
TABLE I
TOP-OIL TEMPERATURE MEASURED AT DIFFERENT LOCATIONS
Fig. 7. Top-oil temperatures recorded in different locations during the first test.
TABLE III
HOT-SPOT TO TOP-OIL TEMPERATURE RISES
TABLE V TABLE VI
AVERAGE WINDING TO AVERAGE OIL TEMPERATURE RISES AVERAGE WINDING TO AVERAGE OIL TEMPERATURE RISES
(1)
(3) (5)
In this case, it has been assumed that the expression “
where the value for the hot-spot to top-oil gradient is taken temperature of the moving liquid at the top and the bottom
from Table III. Equations (2) and (3) will be also used to calcu- of the cooling means.” means the temperature at the top
late the values for Table VI, Table VII, and Table VIII below. , and the bottom of the
c) Gradients based on IEC 60 076-2: The rule in IEC [7] cooling ribs. The results are given in Table VIII.
is as follows: “For ONAN transformers up to 2500 kVA, with Generally, the IEC method only yields a somewhat high
plain or corrugated tanks or individual cooling tubes mounted average winding to average oil gradients for the measured
directly on the tank, the average oil temperature rise above am- 2500-kVA unit, whereas the IEEE method yields significantly
bient air temperature may be taken as 80% of the top oil tem- high values compared to values obtained by well-established
perature rise.” calculation methods.
Then, the average bulk oil temperature will be calculated ac-
cording to the following equation:
III. THERMAL MODEL
(4)
The suggested thermal calculations are based on the thermal
and the results are given in Table VII. model for large power transformers that have already been vali-
d) Gradients based on IEEE C57.12.90—1999: In this dated and defined in the authors’ paper [1]. The model’s top-oil
case, the average bulk oil temperature [8] is calculated as fol- constant formula used for distribution transformers without ex-
lows: “The average liquid temperature shall be taken to be equal ternal cooling will be slightly modified in order to take into ac-
to the top liquid temperature minus half the difference in tem- count the design difference between them and transformers with
perature of the moving liquid at the top and the bottom of the external cooling.
SUSA et al.: DYNAMIC THERMAL MODELLING OF DISTRIBUTION TRANSFORMERS 1925
where
ratio of rated load losses to no-load
losses [1], [13];
load factor [1], [13];
oil viscosity (per-unit value), [1];
ambient temperature;
top-oil temperature;
rated top-oil temperature rise over
ambient;
hot-spot temperature;
hot-spot temperature rise over top-
oil;
load loss’s dependence on temper-
ature [1];
rated oil time constant [6];
rated winding time constant;
constant equal to 0.25 [1].
The load loss’s dependence on temperature is de-
Fig. 12. Thermal overall circuit model. fined in the following equation:
(10)
(6) • transformers with external cooling [1]
(11)
• hot-spot temperature
where
weight of core and coil assembly (in kilograms);
(7) weight of the tank and fittings (in kilograms);
weight of the oil (in kilograms).
1926 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 3, JULY 2005
TABLE IX
INPUT DATA FOR CALCULATION MODELS CONSIDERED
Fig. 14. Hot-spot temperature response of the HV winding with varying load.
Fig. 15. Top-oil response temperature with varying load. Fig. 18. Warm resistance curves measured and calculated.
bottom level of the transformer tank are very high. These gra-
dients are explained by the fact that the oil flow inside a trans-
former tank is more complex and random for this specific type
of transformer than for transformers with external cooling.
A thermal model to calculate top-oil temperature and hot-spot
temperature is suggested for distribution transformers without
external cooling. The model is based on heat-transfer theory, ap-
plication of the lumped capacitance method, the thermal-elec-
trical analogy, and definition of nonlinear thermal resistance.
The key factor is that the model considers variations in oil vis-
cosity and winding resistance.
The top-oil temperature delay was recorded but it was not
taken into account in the suggested thermal model in order to
keep the modeling as simple as possible (modeling of the delay
Fig. 16. Hot-spot temperature of the low-voltage winding with varying load,
when the oil temperature is defined according to IEEE. can be achieved by adding a certain number of RC elements in
the top-oil circuit of the model).
It is shown that the hot-spot temperature rise over the top-oil
temperature does not behave as an overshoot function (func-
tion , solid line in Fig. 1) when the top-oil temperature is
measured in the oil pocket. For different locations of the top-oil
thermal sensor, such as the location 50 mm under the tank cover,
the gradient matches an overshoot factor that is approxi-
mately equal to 1.26 for the LV winding and 1.23 for the HV
winding. It is also shown that the gradient changes its location
with the load change (Table III), but it continues to behave as an
exponential function (function , dashed line in Fig. 1) with
a time constant of the same order of magnitude as the winding
time constant if the top-oil temperature is measured in the oil
pockets. The “oil pocket” temperature is widely measured in the
transformer world; therefore, this particular temperature is used
in the suggested thermal model.
Fig. 17. Hot-spot temperature of the HV winding with varying load, when the The winding-to-oil average temperature rises are calculated
oil temperature is defined according to IEEE. by four different methods. Based on the results presented in this
paper, it is suggested that the method used in the industrial stan-
dards to define average liquid temperature rises in distribution
transformers without external cooling should be improved.
V. CONCLUSION
The thermal model suggested is applied at varying load and
A comprehensive test program was performed on a distribu- the results are compared to results obtained by measurement,
tion transformer without external cooling. During the test pro- and to results obtained by the IEEE-Annex G method. It is
gram, it was observed that oil temperature gradients obtained shown that the thermal model generally yields results that
from measurements at different locations in both the top and match well with measured results. The IEEE-Annex G model
1928 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 3, JULY 2005
TABLE X where
WARM RESISTANCE VALUES warm resistance of the HV winding;
warm resistance of the low-voltage winding;
time (in seconds).
Additionally, the warm resistance values obtained from the
warm resistance curves at shutdown, the cold resistance values,
and the corresponding temperatures for both high- and low-
voltage windings are given in Table XI.
The tolerance of the resistance measurements is below
0.5%.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank G. Swift for his valuable
suggestion.
REFERENCES
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of power transformers,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 20, no. 1, pp.
197–204, Jan. 2005.
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changes in the load current of power transformers,” IEEE Trans. Power
Del., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 1110–1117, Oct. 2003.
[3] L. W. Pierce, “An investigation of the thermal performance of an oil
filled transformer winding,” IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 7, no. 3, pp.
1347–1358, Jul. 1992.
[4] Z. Radakovic and K. Feser, “A new method for the calculation of the
hot-spot temperature in power transformers with ONAN cooling,” IEEE
Trans. Power Del., vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 1284–1292, Oct. 2003.
[5] J. Aubin, R. Bergeron, and R. Morin, “Distribution transformer over-
loading capability under cold-load pickup conditions,” IEEE Trans.
Power Del., vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1883–1890, Oct. 1990.
[6] IEEE Guide for Loading Mineral-Oil-Immersed Transformers, IEEE
Std. C57.91-1995.
[7] “Power Transformers, Part 2: Temperature Rise,” IEC 60076-2, 2 ed.,
1993-94.
[8] IEEE Standard Test Code for Liquid-Immersed Distribution, Power, and
Regulating Transformers, IEEE Std. C57.12.90-1999.
[9] F. P. Incropera and D. P. DeWitt, Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
Transfer, 4th ed. New York: Wiley, 1996.
[10] K. Karsai, D. Kerenyi, and L. Kiss, Large Power Transformers. New
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TABLE XI [11] G. Swift, T. S. Molinski, and W. Lehn, “A fundamental approach to
RESISTANCES AND CORRESPONDING TEMPERATURES transformer thermal modeling, Part I—theory and equivalent circuit,”
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[13] “Loading Guide for Oil-immersed Power Transformers,” IEC 354-1991,
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[14] L. W. Pierce, “Predicting liquid filled transformer loading capability,”
IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 170–178, Jan./Feb. 1994.
also yields very accurate results. Both methods require that
proper top and bottom oil temperatures are used, to be accurate.
Matti Lehtonen was born in 1959. he received Hasse Nordman was born in Overmark, Finland, in
the M.Sc. and Licentiate degrees in electrical en- 1945. He received the Ph.D. degree in mathematics
gineering from Helsinki University of Technology, from the Abo Akademi University, Turku, Finland,
Helsinki, Finland, in 1984 and 1989, respectively, in 1977.
and the Ph.D. degree in technology from Tampere From 1970 to 1982, he was with ABB Corporate
University of Technology, Tampere, Finland, in Research, Vaasa, Finland (formerly Stromberg
1992. Research Centre), working on current-related phe-
Currently, he is a Professor of IT applications nomena (losses, temperatures, short-circuit forces)
at Helsinki University of Technology. He is also in electric power equipment. Currently, he is with
with VTT Energy, Espoo, Finland, where he has the Development Engineering Department in the
been since 1987. His activities include earth fault Power Transformer Division of ABB, Vassa, where
problems, harmonic-related issues, and applications of information technology he has been since 1982. He is also the leader of the global ABB R&D activity
in distribution automation and distribution energy management. “Load Losses and Thermal Performance.”
Dr. Nordman a member of CIGRE. He is the chairman of the Finnish National
Committee in the IEC Power Transformer Technical Committee (TC 14), and
the convenor of the Maintenance Team MT1: Revision of IEC 354: Loading
guide for oil-immersed power transformers.