ELEKTROENERGETIKA

Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

SOME ASPECTS OF INVESTIGATION OF MAGNETIC
FIELDS PRODUCED BY MEDIUM VOLTAGE SWITCHGEARS


*Martin MACH, **Raimund SUMMER

*
Department of Theory of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitn 26, 306 14 Plze,
Czech Republic, Phone: +420-377634697, E-mail: mach@kte.zcu.cz

**
Areva Sachsenwerk GmbH,
Rathenaustrasse 2, D-93055 Regensburg, Germany
Phone: +490 941 46 20 206, E-mail: raimund.summer@areva-td.com


Abstract
Investigation of magnetic fields in medium voltage switchgears (up to 40 kV) becomes a
strongly topical business, which has several reasons. Nowadays, various switchgears and
substations of this kind are often installed in densely populated areas (for example in
buildings for commercial purposes etc.) and may represent a danger associated with their
possibly negative influencing of near low current and telecommunication devices as well as
living organisms. Because of a lot of various uncertainties in this domain practically all
developed countries accepted corresponding standards that, nevertheless, still substantially
differ from one another. The unambiguous trend is (at least within the European Union),
however, their unification.
Manufacturers and operators of the mentioned appliances must certify them, accordingly,
i.e. must guarantee the maximum values of field quantities in its neighborhood. This may be
realized by either measurements (that is, however, time consuming, expensive and, under
common operation conditions, often complicated) or numerical simulations. The latter way
after validating results by experiments becomes relatively cheap and offers inclusion of
optimization techniques.
The authors continue in their work where they suggested a methodology of determining
magnetic field distribution in the neighborhood of switchgears that consists of several steps.
The basics steps are represented by preprocessing (input of 3D geometry), building of 3D
mathematical model, its solution (realized by a combination of ANSYS and a number of user
procedures) and consequent verification of results. The paper pays attention mainly to the
phase of preprocessing (selection of the definition area with boundary conditions, parameters
of discretization mesh) and solution. Discussed is accuracy of results and also problems
concerning measurements and evaluation of the field distribution. The methodology is
illustrated on an example switchgear substation of type WS, manufacturer Areva
Sachsenwerk, Germany. The most important results are compared with measured values.
This paper represents one of the results of cooperation between the University of West
Bohemia and Areva Sachsenwerk, Germany.

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

1. Basic properties of the switchgears

The essential components of switchgear
installations are the bus bars (as well as some
bar elements), switchgear device, space for
feeding of power cables and other equipment
(case for switchgear mechanism, low voltage
devices etc.). The basic structure is
schematically shown in Fig. 1. The entire
switchgear installation consists of those
switchgears panels where the arrangements
and types of used panels depend on the
requirements of the operating utility.

From the viewpoint of computer simulation it
is possible to divide the investigated medium
voltage switchgear into next following five
basic functional parts:

container with vacuum circuit breakers,
disconnector, bus bars etc
cable compartment
low voltage cabinet
housing for the operating mechanism of the switching devices
cooler



All these parts can be then divided into two types: active parts (such as conductors, bus bars
etc.) representing sources of magnetic field and passive parts (cases from magnetic or
nonmagnetic steel, coolers) that more or less shield the magnetic fields.

2. Steps of the solution

For the numerical simulation using FEM software it is usually necessary to simplify this
relatively complicated geometry and take into account only the relevant shielding parts
reducing the magnetic field outside the device. Resembling all above mentioned parts, the
authors used in phase of preprocessing a combination of possibilities of CAD systems
(Mechanical Desktop) with Ansys pre-processor. The model geometry created was then
discretized and solved in Ansys 6.1 environment.
Distribution of magnetic field is evaluated mainly outside the switchgear with the aim to
evaluate how far from the investigated device are isolines 1, 10 and 100 (maximum
values admitted by the standards).
The results obtained are then compared with measurement (in this case with respect to the
Switzerland national standard allowing 1). The measurement of the switchgear was
carried out under operation conditions in the factory of Areva in Regensburg.

Bus bar
Circuit-breaker
Feeding power
cables
Case for switchgear mechanism
Low voltage cabinet
Fig. 1: Schematic structure of a
switchgear panel

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

3. Mathematical model of the task

The switchgear station produces open-boundary magnetic field that must be (for the sake of
computations) bounded by an artificial boundary sufficiently distant from the field sources.
Even so, some other simplifications have to be accepted in order that the definition area is
acceptable as for its size. That is why we neglect the contribution of the conductors feeding
the switchgear (this is acceptable to some extent, because in a three-phase system whose
conductors are close to one another the magnetic field is small). Respected will be, therefore,
only the switchgear itself, whose active parts are placed more than 1.5 m over the earth
surface. The field is then supposed to be closed in the indicated space. It is generally
described by the parabolic equation for vector potential A


ext
1
curl curl

+ =



A
A J
t
. (1)

with the Dirichlet boundary
condition, as indicated in Fig. 2.
Here denotes the magnetic
permeability, the electrical
conductivity and
ext
J the density
of external currents.

But even this equation describing
the time evolution of 3D
magnetic field in time is difficult
to solve. On the other hand, from
the reasons mentioned above, the
ferromagnetic materials used in
structural parts of the switchgear
are not oversaturated and their
permeability (confirmed by
measurements) may be
considered approximately
constant. Now (1) can be
simplified to the Helmholtz
equation for the corresponding phasors



ext
curl curl j + = A A J (2)

(the boundary condition remaining unchanged). The part of the second term j A
expresses eddy current densities in electrically conductive parts of the system.




A=0
A=0
x
z
y
Fig. 2: Schematic structure of a switchgear panel

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

4. Numerical simulation of WS switchgear

This part of the paper deals with a simulation model of a switchgear of type WS produced by
Areva Sachsenwerk GmbH (Germany). This type of switchgear with thoroughly gas-insulated
bus bar systems is primarily designed for installation in transformer substations, industrial
plants and infrastructure. The real arrangement of one switchgear unit and its comparison
with 3D simulation model is shown in the Fig. 3. The numerical model was solved in Ansys
6.1 environment and the 3D geometry was in combination of CAD systems and Ansys
preprocessing tools created. Simulated was one of typical produced arrangement with two
functional units of nominal current I = 1000, 1500 A. Several checking calculations had to be
carried out for obtaining a good idea about hardware requirements and mesh control
parameters.























Next table shows the basic material properties of used materials and the main dimensions of
the tested switchgear. Material of the conductors is copper, the circuit breaker container is
made from nonmagnetic steel, the cooler from aluminum and the others steel parts from
magnetic steel. Thickness of steel parts is 0.003m.






Tab. 1: Material properties of used materials and the basic the basic dimensions of the
complete device
Material/Properties Permeability (-) Resistivity (/m)
Copper 1 1.8E-8
Aluminum 1 4.54E-8
Nonmagnetic steel 1 0.73E-6
Magnetic steel 700 0.12E-6
Fig. 3: Investigated switchgear of WS, comparison with simulated
low voltage cabinet
case for the sw. mechanism
cooler
cable compartment
system of conductors
cooler compartement
circuit breaker container
1 2
1.6 m
2
.
5
m
1.1m

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

Solution of magnetic field distribution around switchgears is a typical task involving
geometrical incommensurabilities. Relatively small parts (steel sheet) are placed in large
volumes (air background) and hence the meshing of the model is not an easy business and a
suitable approach is needed.

In the domain of discretization we took advantage of mesh possibilities in Ansys environment
and in steel parts (with the thickness 0.003m) we used a regular hexahedral mesh (see Fig. 4).
The discretization adequate to skin-depth could be created and the number of elements in the
model was significantly limited. The number of elements across the thickness is given by the
fact that it is not necessary to know exactly the distribution of the magnetic field in the steel
parts and in the close space. It was found that for adequate distribution of magnetic field at
points more then 0.2 m far from the device three elements are quite enough. As the problem
does not require accurate evaluation of the current density in the conductors, we used the
same type of elements also in them (but only with one element).














The switchgear is then placed in an air volume and along its exterior surfaces the boundary
conditions are applied. In our case we used an upper half of a fictitious sphere of radius r >
7m (see Figs. 2, 5). The optimal radius of the background volume was determined
experimentally. For its discretization we used tetrahedral elements. In the course of
implementation of the model, the ANSYS elements SOLID 117 were employed for all parts.

For the sake of simplification, we took a linear magnetic permeability of the magnetic steel
parts. Nevertheless, this simplification is relatively correct, because the shielding material is
not fully saturated and our constant permeability presumption has no effects on the results of
solution. This assumption was validated also by measurements, where a linear dependence of
the magnetic field on source current was detected.

Nevertheless, in any case the number of elements in the model exceeded the limit 250 000.
Two types of solvers were also used during computations. The first one a direct sparse
solver is based on direct elimination of equations and is recommended especially for ill-
conditioned matrices, due to poorly shaped elements. Unfortunately, this type of solver has
extremely memory requirements and, therefore, bigger models had to be solved by an
iterative solver. Unfortunately, this type of solver converges in harmonic magnetic problems
only very slowly. The practical values are presented in Tab. 4 and Tab. 5.

Fig. 4: Discretization mesh in conductors
and steel
Fig. 5: An example of discretized
background

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

Most of computations were realized on a PC WIN XP machine 2*P4 3.4 GHz, 4GB RAM and
the time of computation was approximately 1 hour. Practical experience shows, that the
effective and operative computations (optimization) of real devices have really high hardware
requirements.

Number of volumes 80
Number of nodes 260 000
Number of elements 150 000
Number of equations 200 000

Tab. 2: Typical parameters of the 3D model and its solution
(the ICCG type of iterative solver implemented in Ansys 6.1)

Fig. 6 shows an example of the magnetic field distribution around the investigated switchgear
station. 1 isosurfaces of magnetic field outside the switchgear are depicted. In order to
obtain correct results, a shielding wall was also considered at the left side, just as it was
during the verification measurement. Using these results, it is then possible to make a cut in
all controlled (measured) levels and compare the simulated isolines with measurements.





























Matrix solver Time of solution
Direct (Sparse) 50 min
Iterative (ICCG) 80 hours
Fig. 6: 1 T isosurface, cut in the front plane of the device

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005

5. Measurement

In order to check the usability of the proposed method as well as its validity and accuracy,
corresponding measurements have been performed at real switchgear installation in January
2005. The device under test consists of two functional units. It was necessary to find the
distribution of magnetic field and the distance of 1T lines from the switchgear. The
measurement was performed for purpose of validation of the simulation. Measured was the
magnetic field from the switchgear as well as field from the transformer. For validation of
presumption of linear permeability we performed measurements for two values of the feeding
current. The measurement configuration is shown in Fig. 6.


Fig.7. The measurement configuration - top view, real arrangement

The switchgear station was measured in free area. The current source was a 3 phase
transformer. The 3 phase current leads were insulated and put into close contact to reduce
the magnetic emission. Steel plates were placed on top of the leads for additional shielding.
The current input was in functional unit 1 (left in Fig. 1). Both units were connected by bus
bars and the conductors in second unit were short-circuited.

The magnetic field measurement on the WS switchgear was performed using magnetic field
measurement device EFA-3 that measured the effective (RMS) value of field. Because the
measured data represent the sum of transformer magnetic field and magnetic field from the
switchgear, we measured only magnetic field of the transformer (switchgear device is
disconnected) in order to be able to secure a correct comparison between simulation and
measurement. The relevant distribution of magnetic flux density between the measuring points
was interpolated by continuous curves.. Magnetic field of the switchgear station was
determined from measurement data as is depicted in Fig. 8.




ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005


0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
1.5 1.7 1.9 2.1 2.3 2.5 2.7 2.9 3.1 3.3 3.5
distance (m)
B
m
o
d

(
T
)
Switchgear +transformer
Only transformer
Only switchgear
1T

Fig. 8: Determination of magnetic flux density of switchgear from measurement data

6. Comparison between simulation and measurement

The comparison between numerical simulation and measurement is shown in Fig. 9.
As can be seen, the agreement at the selected level h = 2m is very good. Along the lower
levels (see, for example, Fig. 10) the results still well correspond with measurement, but
nevertheless, difference between measurement and simulation is more obvious. This is caused
by deformation of magnetic field by shielding plates, not included in the simulation. A better
way how to shield the transformer field is to use a channel from magnetic steel for the lead-in
cable.













Fig. 9: Comparison with measurement, cut h =2m, I = 1000A
measuring
points
interpolated curves
resultant field
measurement
calculated 1T lines

ELEKTROENERGETIKA
Star Lesn, 21. - 23. 9. 2005















Fig. 10: Comparison with measurement, cut h =1m, I = 1000A

Conclusion

The aim of this paper was to present the possibilities of numerical simulation as a powerful
tool in the field of certification of industry devices and summarize the practical experiences of
the authors in this field. A numerical model in Ansys 6.1 environment was developed for
selected type of medium voltage switchgear and corresponding measurements were
performed. A very good agreement with measurements was achieved without modifying
material properties. The main part of the modeling is realized by Ansys scripting language
that is very easy to modify and extend.

References

[1] Dvok P., Mach M.: Possibilities of passive and active shielding of medium-frequency magnetic
fields, Proceedings EMD2004, 22.-24.9. 2004, Vilnius, Lithuania, ISBN 9986-05-776-3, pp. 79-82
[2] Chari M., Salon S.: Numerical methods in electromagnetism, Academic Press, 2000.
[3] Mach M., Summer R.: Magnetic field emission of gas-insulated switchgears, Proceedings
EPE2004, 31.5.-2.6. 1005, Dlouh Strn, Czech Republic, ISBN 80-248-0842-0, pp. 79-82
[4] Jkel W. B.: Investigation of magnetic fields of single pole encapsulated switchgear installations,
Proceedings EMC 2002, Wroclaw, pp. 369-372
[5] Ida N:, Engineering electromagnetic, Springer, 2000.
[6] Ansys reference manual, Ansys Inc.
[7] www.areva-td.com
[8] www.ansys.com
measurement


calculated 1T lines