Analysis of Transformer Short circuit Characteristics based on 3-D Finite Element Method

Zhijun Ye, Christian Kreischer, Stefan T. Kulig

Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology TU Dortmund University Dortmund, Germany zhijun.ye@tu-dortmund.de, christian.kreischer@tu-dortmund.de, stefan.kulig@tu-dortmund.de

Abstract Based on a 3-D Finite Element Model built up in FLUX 3-D, this paper shows simulation results of a single phase transformer to study the behavior of its reactance during short circuits with respect to saturation effects. In the first step measurements on a real transformer were done to determine its equivalent circuit parameters and to verify the Finite Element Model. In the second step the influence of core saturation on the impedance was studied. From the result of this study it can be concluded that the saturation has a big impact on the maximum short circuit current and has to be taken into account for detailed network studies. Keywords-transformer; short circuit; saturation; comparison; finite element model; measurement; current

location of winding deformation and the magnetic leakage field of the transformer was analyzed in [7]. The reactance of a transformer inevitably changes during short circuit process due to the core saturation. The changed reactance has influence on the amplitude of the current during the short circuit process. This current is also a significant variable for the construction of other components of the system. An accurate model for more detailed study of the saturation effects is therefore necessary. This paper describes the analysis of a prototype single-phase transformer. Results of measurements and simulations are presented and discussed to investigate the short circuit characteristics of the transformer. II. THEORETICAL BASICS

I.

INTRODUCTION

With the development of science and technology, all kinds of electric devices change rapidly. As an important electrical device, the transformer is generally utilized to implement power delivery and also widely used in other applications. In order to meet the requirements of load on different voltage levels, the transformer changes the AC power from one certain voltage level into another voltage level based on the principle of electromagnetic induction [1]. The short circuit impedance is one of the important parameters for transformers and has a big impact on the cost, efficiency, mechanical strength and the short circuit current of the transformer. On one hand the short circuit impedance should be small to minimize loss, improve efficiency and reduce influences on the output voltage caused by fluctuations of the load. One the other hand, the short circuit impedance should be large in order to decrease the short circuit current and improve the mechanical strength when the short circuit happens [2]. Recently many studies have been done in the fields of the short circuit and core saturation phenomena of transformers. Paper [3] describes transient behavior of the transformer when the short circuit occurs abruptly and it also explores the variation of current waveforms caused by the saturation of the core. In [4] and [5], a field-circuit coupling method using 3-D Finite Element Model is employed to investigate the transient behavior of the transformer at typical faults. However they omitted the core saturation of the transformer. The leakage inductance of a transformer and winding deformation were analyzed in ANSYS [6]. Further the relationship between the

A. Field-Circuit Coupled Model of Transformer The single-phase transformer consists of a ferrite core and two windings coiled around the core. Changes of magnetic flux through a winding lead to an induced voltage in the winding. Figure 1 shows the classical circuit model of a transformer, where R1 and R2 are the primary and the secondary coil resistance; L1 and L2 are the primary and the secondary leakage inductance; L1h and L2h are the primary and the secondary main inductance; M is the mutual inductance [8].

Figure 1. Transformer equivalent circuit

The primary side is connected with the voltage source and the secondary side is connected to the load. In FLUX, the inputs and outputs are considered as lumped parameters. Furthermore, winding and core regions are discretized by Finite Element Analysis (FEA). This technique is named Fieldcircuit coupled Finite-Element-Method (FCC-FEM). The basic principle is shown in Figure 2 [6]. The advantage of FCC-FEM is that it can calculate the magnetic field distribution in the winding regions and core

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region and obtain the voltage and current at the secondary side simultaneously.

insulation material of transformer and the air. The other one passes through the iron core and the air. In the first case the leakage inductance stays constant due to the constant relative permeability of air and insulation. The relationship between the magnetic field strength H around the current I flowing through N windings can be described as follows [10]:
G

Figure 2. Field-circuit coupled model of the transformer

The circuit in Figure 1 is further simplified as an equivalent circuit when the quantitative calculations are done in the power system. The equivalent circuit is displayed in Figure 3(a). There is a relationship between the currents of primary and secondary side. For the transformer with load or short circuit, however, the percentage of magnetizing current through the main impedance Zh is low because Zh is high. Therefore, the current is considered as 0 through the Zh of the equivalent circuit in the analysis of the short circuit process and load operation. For small or low load situations the main impedance is defined as:

G In magnetic materials the magnetic flux density B depends G on the magnetic field strength H and the permeability r of the

H ds = N I
s

(3)

material, that is

G G B = 0 r H
G G = B dA
A

(4)

The magnetic flux can be calculated by the summation of G all flux densities over the area A . (5)

Zh =

jRh X h Rh + jX h

(1)

Further, the more simplified equivalent circuit, as shown in Figure 3(b), is obtained by calculating the relevant parameters of the transformer [8].

Rk = R1 + R2 X k = X 1 + X 2 Z k = Rk + jX k
R2 jX 2
I2

It is obvious that in the first case (constant permeability) the magnetic leakage flux is proportional to the magnitude of the current. If the iron core is partly saturated the leakage flux is not proportional to the current anymore. For this case the leakage inductance becomes smaller. If the current is further enhanced, the core of the transformer gets fully magnetized and the permeability of the core equals to the permeability of air. In this case the leakage inductance is constant.

(2)

U2

I1 = I2

U2

(a) detailed equivalent circuit (b) simplified equivalent circuit Figure 3. Equivalent circuit of transformer

In Figure 3(b), supposing the second side is short-circuited, the simplified equivalent circuit can be considered approximately as an impedance of the primary side. This impedance is called short circuit impedance and is expressed by Zk. According to EN60076-1 [9], the voltage on primary side, which makes the induced current on secondary side reaching to the rated current, is defined as short circuit voltage Uk. The ratio between voltage and current on primary side is called short circuit impedance. B. Leakage Flux on Saturation Figure 4 shows the magnetic flux density of a saturated transformer. There are two different kinds of the magnetic lines of leakage flux. One of the magnetic lines passes through the

Figure 4. Magnetic leakage flux of saturated transformer

III.

RESULTS OF ANALYSES AND MEASUREMENTS

The specification of the prototype transformer is shown in Table I. The outer dimensions of the core are 300 mm 180 mm and the inner dimensions are 180 mm 60 mm. The core has a depth of 89 mm and is assembled from 174 laminations of grain-oriented silicon iron with a thickness of 0.05 mm. In order to build up an accurate model of the transformer in FLUX 3-D, the model of the transformer is



evaluated by no-load, short circuit and normal operation experiments. Figure 5 shows a picture of the test system. TABLE I. TRANSFORMER DATA
Rating primary voltage Rating primary current Primary winding Diameter of primary winding Rating power 230 (V) 22.3 (A) 155 (turns) 3.55 (mm) 5000 (VA) Rating secondary voltage Rating secondary current Secondary winding Diameter of secondary winding Rating frequency 690 (V) 7.25 (A) 470 ( turns) 2.12 (mm) 50 (Hz)

1.2 1 0.8

Measured Calculated

U2 [pu]

0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 U1 [pu] 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3

Figure 7. Comparison of the secondary voltage

The short circuit comparison of the measured primary current I1 and simulation results for different primary voltages are denoted in Figure 8. As the curves are approximately linear, the error of the impedance Zk respectively the short circuit voltage Uk stays nearly constant for the observed region. When the secondary short circuit current equals the rating current, the error is lower than 6%.
0.6 0.5

Measured Calculated

U1 [pu]

0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 I1 [pu] 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Figure 5. Pictures of the test system

This model is used for the study of the change of current on the primary side at different voltages when a short circuit occurs at the secondary side of a transformer. A 3-D transformer model is necessary when considering the accuracy of leakage flux calculation, because a 2-D model may lead to high errors for the short circuit voltage. Figure 6 shows the comparison between measured and calculated values on steady state conditions. The abscissa is the primary voltage and the ordinate is the no-load current. It is obvious that the measured and calculated values are very similar. The error is lower than 1% under the condition that the primary voltage is the rated voltage. The comparison of secondary voltage between measured values and calculated values is displayed in Figure 7. The results are very similar to the variation of primary voltage.
0.18 0.16 0.14 0.12

Figure 8. Comparison of the primary voltage

Figure 9 indicates the comparison results of load operation experiment. For the primary current, the measured values are similar (lower than 1% deviation) with the calculated values and for the secondary voltage, all the errors are smaller than 4%.
1 0.9 0.8 0.7

U2 and I1 [pu]

0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0.15 0.25 0.35 0.45

Measured Calculated

Measured primary current Calculated primary current Measured secondary voltage Calculated secondary voltage

I0 [pu]

0.1

0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 U1 [pu] 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3

U1 [pu]

0.55

0.65

0.75

0.85

0.95

Figure 9. Comparison of the primary current and secondary voltage

Figure 6. Comparison of the no-load current

From the above analysis, the results of three kinds of experiments are convincible and the differences between measurements and simulations are acceptable. Therefore, the 3-D model of the transformer in FLUX is used for a transient study of short circuit phenomena under different



voltage levels. Figure 10 shows the primary current of calculation and measurement for a short circuit at a primary voltage of U1=103.1V. In steady state, the error is lower than 4% and in short circuit process the difference of the maximum current is lower than 8%. The measurement shows higher harmonics after the short circuit due to the measurement equipment, which is not regarded in the model.
30 20 10

0.35 0.3 0.25

Zk,max [pu]

0.2

0.15 0.1 0.05 0 0.5 2.5 4.5 6.5 8.5 10.5 12.5 Ik,max [pu] 14.5 16.5 18.5 20.5

constant permeability BH-curve

I1 [A]

Figure 12. Short circuit impedance over maximum of the short circuit current

-10 -20 -30 -40 -50 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 t [s] 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45

IV.
Measured Calculated

CONCLUSIONS

Figure 10. Comparison of the primary current

In order to display the results more clearly, the situation with a constant permeability is shown for comparison. In the simulation the short circuit is initiated when the primary voltage is crossing zero to get the maximum short circuit current. From the results in Figure 11, it can be seen that the maximum current I k,max is nearly the same no matter if a B-H curve or constant permeability is used under the condition that the primary voltage is lower than the rated voltage. However, the value by use of B-H curve is much higher than the value by use of constant permeability when primary voltage is higher than the rated voltage. In order to describe the conclusions more clearly, the diagram Figure 11 is shown in another form in Figure 12. The short circuit impedance retains the same value when the permeability is constant. However, the values regarding the B-H curve are becoming smaller because of saturation of the core.
22 20 18 16 14

In this paper, a FCC-FEM model of a transformer was established by means of Finite-Element-Software in FLUX. By comparing the simulation and the test results for a prototype single-phase transformer, their errors are lower than 8%. The results further indicate that there is a big impact of the core saturation on the impedance of the transformer. The saturation depends on the currents of the transformer so that higher short circuit currents affect a reduction of the impedance. Such phenomenon will be further studied for the transformers integrated in electric networks. V.
[1]

REFERENCES

constant permeability BH-curve

12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3

U1 [pu]

1.5

1.7

1.9

2.1

2.3

2.5

2.7

2.9

Z. B. Zhang, Transformer Principles and Applications, Chemical Industry Press Beijing, Jan. 2009. [2] J. D. Qiu, H. Y. Lin, H. F. Zhu, C. X. Jin and Z. H. Xu,Calculation of Transformers Short Impedance Based on Energy Method, Electrical Applications, vol. 25, No. 11, 2006. [3] S. Bouissou and F. Piriou, Numerical Simulation of a Power Transformer using 3D Finite Element Method Coupled to Circuit Equation, IEEE Trans Mag, vol. 30, No. 5, September 1994. [4] Z. G. Liang and R. Y. Tang, Fault Simulation of a Power Transformers using 3D Finite Element Method Coupled to Circuit Equation, Proceedings of the CSEE, vol. 23, No. 3, Mar. 2003. [5] Z. G. Liang and R. Y. Tang, The Field-circuit Coupled Model of a Three-phase Power Transformer and Its Sudden Short-circuit Procedure Calculation, Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society, vol. 19, No. 3, Mar. 2004. [6] P. Li, B. H. Zhang, Z. G. Hao and Y. L. Chu Based on ANSYS for calculating the transformer leakage inductance and applications in the winding deformation,. [7] X. B. Xiao, S. C. Ji, C. J. Wang and Y. Y. Luo, Simulation of Transformer Short-circuit Reactance with FFM by Coupling Magnetic Field with Electric Cicuit, High Voltage Apparatus, vol. 46, No. 3, Mar. 2010. [8] S. Exnowski, Lecture notes of Elektrische Maschinen fr Maschinenbauer und Logistiker, University Dortmund, 2010. [9] German Standard, Power transformers - Part 1: General (EN60076-1), Jan. 2003. [10] S. Kulig, Lecture notes of Electromagnetic Theory, University Dortmund, 1999.

Ik,max [pu]

Figure 11. Maximum of the short circuit current over different primary voltage