2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

Computation of Static and Dynamic Axial and Radial Forces on Power Transformer Windings Due to Inrush and Short Circuit Currents
Jawad Faiz B. M. Ebrahimi Wejdan Abu-Elhaija King Abdullah II School for Electrical Engineering, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Amman, Jordan Center of Excellence on Applied Electromagnetic Systems, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract In this paper, the radial and axial forces due to inrush and short circuit currents on both inner and outer surfaces of low voltage (LV) and high voltage (HV) windings are calculated. Static and dynamic aspects of these forces which are related to the variation of forces versus winding height and time are analyzed. Power transformer in the start-up mode and under short circuit fault is modeled using two-dimensional (2D) time stepping finite element method (TSFEM). This approach leads to the precise determination of the required signals including current, magnetic flux density, radial and axial forces. Calculated forces are analyzed significantly to compare impacts of the mechanical forces due to inrush and short circuit currents on the windings of the transformer. Three-dimensional (3D) TSFEM is utilized to evaluate aforementioned forces and compare with 2D TSFEM results. In the 3D TSFEM, geometrical and physical characteristics of the all components of the transformer, nonlinearity of the core materials and distribution of the primary and secondary windings are taken into account. 2D TSFEM results are verified by 3D TSFEM results. Keywords- Power transformer; time stepping; finite element; short circuit; inrush current; axial and radial forces.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Power transformers are one of the most important and costly power components in power systems that play important role in reducing the losses and power transmission capability over long distances by enhancing the voltage level. To provide reliable energy for user, transformer must be capable to operate in different conditions. One of the major reasons for inner faults is the wearing out of windings and conductors insulations caused by vibrations due to electromechanical forces at the rated currents and over currents. Therefore, the transformer coils must be mechanically protected and pre-fixed by ribbon, wedge and bolts. The criterion for this structural protection is the forces produced by the maximum possible current. Since this current is produced in the short-circuit case and therefore generates the maximum forces on the windings only short-circuit test is generally required by manufacturers [1].

The improved T- method (T is the electric vector potential and is the magnetic vector potential) has been used to calculate three-dimensional transient eddy current fields and also electromechanical forces applied on the transformer windings [2]. Although the number of unknown variables in T- method is considerably decreased, in this method a fixed conductivity and linear homogenous magnetic permeance are considered. Based on the transformer model, 2D magnetic fields and shortcircuit forces exerted on the windings have been evaluated using FEM in [3]. The short-circuit forces composing of dc, fundamental frequency and 2nd frequency components and taking into account the following assumptions have been computed: 1) the ampere-turns of the primary and secondary are equal and opposite of each other, 2). Saturation and eddy currents inside if the windings are negligible. In [4], the short circuit conditions in a large power transformer have been analyzed and it has been concluded that the local axial force in both terminals of the winding (with a larger radial components) is very larger than the middle parts of the winding. FEM has been used [5] to calculate and compare the above-mentioned forces due to the perphase short circuit and inrush current. It is noted that the inrush current of transformer does not appear in steadystate mode but occurs in energizing the transformer. In fact, short circuit current is comparable with the inrush current. Exerted forces on the LV and HV windings of a shell-type transformer have been computed in [6]. It has been shown that the skin effect and proximity effect have no significant effect on the total force. It has been shown that the amplitudes of the axial forces in the yoke have a considerable difference with that of the outer points. Inrush current of a no-load transformer has been carefully analyzed in literature. Flux of legs at the transformer energizing time is proportional with the

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2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

integration of the voltage and it contains direct component which gradually damps. This dc component can saturate the core which leads to the inrush current. Amplitude of the inrush currents is similar to that of the fault current and therefore produces large electromagnetic forces [1]. The difference between the inrush current and short circuit current is that the inrush current lasts several ten seconds while the fault current damps shorter than but it may disconnect the transformer from the power system 10 ms [7]. The transient current waveform during energizing the transformer cannot cause harm to the network but it may disconnect the transformer from the power system. Therefore, protective devices must be fixed such that they prevent undesirable disconnection of transformer from the network
TABLE I. SPECIFICATIONS OF PROPOSED TRANSFORMER Quantity Primary voltage Secondary voltage Rated power Frequency No. of primary winding turns Primary winding resistance/phase No. of secondary winding turns Secondary winding resistance/phase Impedance Width of window Height of 1st and 2nd rows of taps Height of HV winding Height of LV winding Distance of 1st row taps to yoke Distance of 2nd row taps to yoke Distance of LV winding to upper/lower yoke Distance of HV winding to upper/lower yoke Distance of 1st and 2nd row taps to upper/lower yoke Core cross-section diameter Inner diameter of LV winding cylinder Inner diameter of HV winding cylinder Inner diameter of taps winding Outer diameter of taps winding Value 66 11 40 50 1200 123.7 200 12.07 13.79 20 912/834 1074 1136 187 226 75/55 106/86 834/812 579 613 826 1071 1174 Unit kV kV MVA Hz m m % mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm

major effect on the both current which has been ignored in the paper. TIME STEPPING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF INRUSH AND SHORT CIRCUIT CURRENTS FEM is able to calculate the magnetic field distribution within the transformer from geometrical dimensions and magnetic parameters of the transformer. Other quantities of the transformer such as the induced voltage waveform, magnetic flux density and forces exerted on the windings can be determined knowing the magnetic field distribution. Two-dimensional finite element method solves the following Possion equation in order to evaluate and analyze the magnetic flux distribution: A A ni ( )+ ( ) = x x y y Se (1) where A is the magnetic potential vector, R is the core sheets reluctivity, n is the number of winding turns and Se is the cross-section of the conductors. Since the current corresponding to the core losses is negligible compared with the magnetizing current, the corresponding inrush current with the excitation current can be taken identical with the
II.

[8]. In [9, 10], various algorithms have been introduced to discriminate the inrush current from the short circuit current. In spite of this, less work has been so far reported on the comparison of the forces caused by the inrush current and short circuit current [1, 2, 11]. In [1, 11], these two forces have been compared, but there are different cases which must be distinguished including: axial force and radial forces, inner and outer of windings, LV and HV windings. Meanwhile, dynamic aspect of exerted forces has not been investigated. In [2], Hopfield network energy minimization method has been used to calculate the forces caused by the inrush current and short circuit current; however magnetic saturation has a

Figure 1. Two dimensional Scheme of the modeled core type power transformer

magnetizing current. In the static analysis of the transformer, the magnetizing current in (1) is known and the magnetic potential vector A is unknown. For inrush current computation the transient mode of transformer must be analyzed. Therefore, the dynamic analysis of the transformer is required. In this analysis, in addition to the magnetic potential vector magnetizing current (inrush current) is also unknown in (1). Since, the numerical value of the current density over whole conducting region is not defined, it is necessary to model the voltage source as input and also circuit elements of the external

2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

circuit between the voltage source and the region under FE analysis. These elements show the internal impedance of the voltage source or approximate effects of those parts that are outside of the modeled region by FE. The principal equation the electric circuit is presented by (2):
V
s

i + L

di dt

(2) Where Vs is the input voltage of the transformer, Rs and Ls are the resistance and inductance of the supply. The matrix form of (1) and (2) are as follows:
[ K ][ A ] + [ M ] [ A ] [ C ][ i ] = 0 t

Figure 3. Flux distribution within transformer due to inrush current

(3)

[ D ]T

(4) where [A] and [i] are the magnetic potential and current vectors, [K], [M], [C], [D], [L] and [R] are the coefficients vector and [U] is the input vector. Now a non-linear equation must be introduced that links the FE magnetic equations to the electric circuit equations. This equation is as follows:
[ P ][ A U i ]T + [Q ] [A t v i ]T = [ S ]

[ A] + [L] [ i ] + [ R ][ i ] = [ u ] t t

waveform during this period depends on the energizing instant, residual magnetic flux and its direction, amplitude of the transient current and transient time. The phenomenon occurs due to the saturation of the core which leads to a larger magnetizing current. Asymmetry of three-phase currents during the transient mode is clear in Fig. 2. As Fig. 3 shows the saturation of the transformer core leads to the asymmetrical distribution of the flux. This asymmetry causes varying air gap inductances which are under influence of the magnetizing variations.
IV. SHORT CIRCUIT CURRENT EVALUATION

(5) where [P] and [Q] are the coefficients vector and [S] is the transformer input vector.
III. INRUSH CURRENT EVALUATION FOR NO-LOAD TRANSFORMER

Sinusoidal voltage is applied at the energizing time of a no-load transformer and three-phase current are passed to the windings. As shown in Fig. 2, after number of oscillations the current approaches its steady-state value. The current

Fig. 4 shows the time variations of three phases of transformer under short circuit fault. Comparison of Fig. 2 and Fig.4 indicates the differences between the two proposed phenomena well. These differences can be categorized the time of approaching the steady-state, amplitude of the current and symmetry of the curves. The period of approaching the steady-state short circuit current is very shorter than that of the inrush current. Lower ratio between the short circuit resistance and inductance leads to a shorter time. Although the short-circuit duration is not so long, however, the windings temperature may be risen to a risky case. As shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4, the amplitude of the short circuit current is very large at the steady-state, while the corresponding value for inrush case is large at the start-up and when the transformer reaches the steadystate mode, the

Figure 2. Inrush current in the HV winding

2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

the two windings increases. Therefore, these forces act outward on the outer winding and inward on the inner winding. Interaction between the winding currents and radial component of the leakage flux (Br) generates the axial forces (Faxial) that tend to compress windings conductors along the vertical axis in the middle. This force is as follows:
F axial = B r J

(8) between the winding currents and radial component of the leakage flux (Br) generates the axial forces (Faxial) that tend to
Figure 4. Short circuit current in the HV winding

inrush current will be the no-load current. There is a considerable difference between the time variations of the short circuit and inrush currents, the three phases currents are symmetrical in the short circuit case while they are asymmetrical in inrush current case. The reason is the unbalanced distribution of the MMF in the no-load transformer under inrush current.
V. NATURE OF FORCES APPLIED ON WINDINGS OF TRANSFORMER

Interaction between the winding current density and its surrounding leakage generates electromagnetic force within transformer. According to Amperes law, this force can be obtained as follows:
F = JB

(6)

where F is the force density vector, J is the current density vector and B is the leakage flux density. These forces are exerted on the inner or outer parts of the windings. They are produced by the short circuit or inrush currents, and they can be categorized as axial or radial forces. The axial leakage flux density (Bz) interacts with the current passing the windings and generates a radial force Fradial. The currents passing the winding that are under influence of the axial component of the leakage flux produces the radial forces. Such a force can be represented as follows:
Fradial = B z J

b Figure 5. variation of radial and axial forces on the inner surface of the LV winding of power transformer, (a) axial force and (b) radial force

compress windings conductors along the vertical axis in the middle. This force is as follows:
F axial = B r J

(7) where J is the current density in axis direction and Bz is the magnetic flux density in the z direction. The nature of the radial force is such that the free distance between

(9) where Br is the magnetic flux density in the r direction.

2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

VI. FORCES EXERTED ON LV WINDING OF TRANSFORMER A. Forces Exerted on the inner surface of Windings

Fig. 5 compares the variations of radial and axial forces on the inner surface of the LV winding of transformer caused by short circuit and inrush current. As shown the axial force has parabolic-shaped and the maximum force exerted on the winding is in the middle of the winding. Meanwhile, this comparison shows that the forces due to inrush and short-circuit currents are very close. As shown in Fig. 5b, reduction of the winding distance from the transformer body increases the radial force exerted on the winding. The forces caused by the inrush and short circuit are close.
B. Forces Exerted on the outer surface of Windings

is clear that the force exerted on the external surface is considerably lower that of the corresponding value on the inner surface of the winding. Fig. 6b shows the variations of the radial force on the outer surface of the winding of the transformer caused by the inrush current and short circuit current. According to Fig. 6b, the radial force on the winding in the closer parts to the body is very larger than that of the other parts of the winding. Therefore, the radial force on the winding increases when it is closer to the core. An interesting point in Fig. 6b is that the radial force on the outer surface of the winding is very smaller than the corresponding values on the inner surface of the winding shown in Fig. 6a.
VII. FORCES EXERTED ON HV WINDING OF TRANSFORMER A. Forces Exerted on the inner surface of Winding

Fig. 6a presents the variations of axial force on the LV winding of transformer. The maximum force exerted on the

Fig. 7a shows the variations of axial forces on the inner surface of the LV winding of transformer caused by short circuit and inrush current. It indicates that the maximum axial force exerted on the inner surface of HV winding is in the middle of the winding. Meanwhile, it shows that there is a large difference between the forces due to the inrush and short circuit current as such that the maximum axial force exerted on the inner surface of the winding is due to inrush current of 106 kN, while the corresponding value for the short circuit current is 102 kN. The corresponding difference is minimal at two ends of the winding as such that it is 100 kN for the inrush current and 98 kN for short circuit current. Fig. 7b presents the variations of the radial force on the inner surface of the HV winding caused by the inrush current and short circuit current. As shown in Fig. 7b, the radial force on the inner surface of the winding increases by keeping at a distance from the core. Fig. 7b indicates that this trend of rising the force continues slowly up to the middle of the winding and then quickly rises.
A. Forces Exerted on the outer surface of Windings

b Figure 6. variation of radial and axial forces on the outer surface of the LV winding of power transformer, (a) axial force and (b) radial force

winding is in the middle of the winding, while the forces due to the inrush current and inrush current are close. It

Fig. 8a presents the variations of axial force on the outer surface of the transformer winding caused by inrush current and short circuit current. According to this figure, the maximum axial force exerted on the outer surface of the winding is in the middle of the winding and the values due to the both current are close; meanwhile is very lower in comparison with of Fig. 7b. It is observed that the rising slope of the force exerted on the outer surface of the winding compared with the corresponding values on the inner surface is very sharper. Fig. 8b presents the variations of the radial force on the external surface of the HV winding caused by the

2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

inrush current and short circuit current.

of the radial force due to inrush current is larger than the force due to short circuit currents. It is noteworthy that the radial force shown in fig. 9 is for the forces exerting the windings in phase 1. Magnitude of the forces exerting phases 2 and 3 are less than phase 1. This is due to the fact that when phase 1 takes more current the currents in phases 2 and 3 have less value and so the forces influencing phase 1 is larger.

b Figure 7. variation of radial and axial forces on the inner surface of the HV winding of power transformer, (a) axial force and (b) radial force

The radial force on the outer surface of the HV winding increases by keeping at a distance from the core of transformer as such that the outer surface of the winding provides the maximum radial force; meanwhile the radial force on the outer surface of the HV is very lower than of the corresponding values on the inner surface. Also the slope of the rising the force on the outer surface of the transformer winding is quicker than the corresponding values on the inner surface.
VIII. TIME VARIATION OF RADIAL AND AXIAL FORCES EXERTED ON LV AND HV WINDINGS A. Radial Force

b Figure 8. variation of radial and axial forces on the outer surface of the HV winding of power transformer, (a) axial force and (b) radial force

A. Axial Force

Fig. 9 shows the normalized density variation of radial forces, due to inrush current (IC) and short circuit current (ScC), which exerted the low and high voltage windings. As it can be seen; most of the time, magnitude

Fig. 10 shows the normalized density of axial force exerting low and high voltage windings due to inrush and short circuit currents versus time. Regarding this figure it can be seen that although the incremental rate of axial force is more than radial ones, the magnitude of axial forces due to inrush currents is larger than those due to short circuit currents. Comparing of Figs. 9 and 10 presents that magnitude of radial force due to inrush current and short circuit is much larger than axial force.

2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

define different loads. The three-dimensional propagation magnetic field is illustrated as follows:

equation

for

A A A ni ( )+ ( )+ ( )= x x y y z z Se
(10)

Figure 9. Time variation of radial force due to inrush and short circuit current on the LV and HV windings of power transformer, 2D TSFEM

Figure 11. Three-dimensional scheme of the modeled core type power transformer.

After determination of A, the magnetic flux density distribution can be calculated by:
B = A

(11)

Figure 10. Time variation of Axial force due to inrush and short circuit current on the LV and HV windings of power transformer, 2D TSFEM

IX.

VERIFICATION OF THE OBTAINED RESULTS

In 3D TSFEM, spatial distribution of the stator windings, skin effects, non-linear characteristics of the core materials, are taken into account. Transient analysis (TR) is employed for modeling and analyzing the transformer with short circuit fault. The TR Program is a transient eddy current solver, extended to include the effects of the start-up mode of the transformer [12]. The solver also provides for the use of external circuits in the primary and secondary of the transformer. In the modeling of a transformer under short circuit fault, threephase sinusoidal voltages are applied to the transformer terminals as inputs, primary and secondary currents, magnetic flux density and different forces are determined as the selected signals for analyzing. In this simulation, electrical equations due to the primary external circuits which exhibit supply are combined with magnetic field equation in FEM and secondary external circuits which

Considering (6)-(8), radial and axial forces due to inrush and short circuit currents are calculated. Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 reveal these forces versus time. Comparison between Fig. 9, Fig. 10, Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 shows the minor difference between results obtained by 2D and 3D TSFEM. This difference is related to the ignoring the third direction in 2D TSFEM. Meanwhile, distribution of the magnetic flux density which is evaluated by 3D approach is more precise than the 2D method. Comparison between obtained results by 2D and 3D TSFEM has been presented in Table II and Table III.
TABLE II. MAXIMUM VALUE OF THE FORCES ON THE LV AND HV WINDINGS OBTAINED BY 2D AND 3D TSFEM IN kN LV Radial Force (Inner Surface) Axial Force (Inner Surface) Radial Force (Outer Surface) Axial Force (Outer Surface) HV Radial Force (Inner Surface) Axial Force (Inner Surface) Radial Force (Outer Surface) Axial Force (Outer Surface) 2D, IC 102 101 57 65 2D, IC 100.1 106 46.8 60 3D, IC 108 109 62 71 3D, IC 107 111 52 64 2D, ScC 101 100 56 64 2D, ScC 99.8 102 47.5 60 3D, ScC 111 107 61 70 3D, ScC 103 106 53 66

2011 IEEE Jordan Conference on Applied Electrical Engineering and Computing Technologies (AEECT)

on the LV winding. The axial and radial forces on the inner surface of the LV windings are larger than the corresponding values on the outer surface. The axial and radial forces on the inner and outer surface of the LV and HV windings are close and there is a difference on the peaks of these forces.
REFERENCES Michael Steurer and Klaus Frhlich, "The Impact of Inrush Currents on the Mechanical Stress of High Voltage Power Transformer Coils", IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 17, No. 1, January 2002, pp. 155160. [2] T. Renyuan, L. Yan, L. Dake and T. Lijian, Numerical calculation of 3D eddy current field and short circuit electromagnetic force in large transformers, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 14181421, March. 1992. [3] T. Y. Qiu, Q. J. Qiu and X. Z. Hong, Numerical calculation of short circuit electromagnetic forces in electromagnetic forces on the transformer winding IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 26, No. 2, March. 1990, pp. 1039-1041. [4] S. L. Ho, Y. Li, H. C. Wong, S. H. Wang and R. Y. Tang, Numerical simulation of transient force and eddy current loss in a 720 MVA power transformer, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 40, No. 2, March 2004, pp. 687-690. [5] G. B. Kumbhar and S.V. Kulkarni, Analysis of short circuit performance of split-winding transformer using coupled field-circuit approach, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 22, No. 2, April. 2007, pp. 936-943 [6] S. Salon, B. LaMattina and K. Sivasubramaniam, Comparison of assumptions in computation of short circuit forces in transformers, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 36, No. 5, April 2007, pp. 3521-3523. [7] A. A. Adly, Computation of inrush current forces on transformer windings, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, Vol. 37, No. 4, Jul 2001, pp. 2855-2857. [8] C. E. Lin, C. L. Cheng, C. L. Huang and J. C. Yeh, Investigation of magnetizing inrush current in transformers, I. Numerical simulation, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No. 1, Jan. 1993, pp. 246-254. [9] J. Faiz, S. Lotfi-Fard A Novel Wavelet-based Algorithm for Discrimination of Internal Faults from Magnetizing Inrush Currents in Power Transformers, IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 21, No. 4, , October 2006, pp.1989-1996. . [10] S. Lotfi-fard, J. Faiz, M. Reza. Iravani Improved Over-Current Protection using Symmetrical Components IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2007, pp.8 43-850. [11] J. Faiz, B. M. Ebrahimi, T. Noori, Three- and Two-Dimensional Finite Element Computation of Inrush Current and Short-Circuit Electromagnetic Forces on Windings of a Three-phase Core-Type Power Transformer, IEEE Trans on Magnetics,Vol. 44, No. 5, May 2008, pp. 590-597. [12] Vector Field Software Documentation, 2005.
[1]

Figure 12. Time variation of radial force due to inrush and short circuit current on the LV and HV windings of power transformer, 3D TSFEM

Figure 13. Time variation of Axial force due to inrush and short circuit current on the LV and HV windings of power transformer, 3D TSFEM

X.

CONCLUSION

This paper used TSFE method to model and analyzes a three-phase core-type transformer under inrush current and short circuit fault. Comparison of the amplitudes of the both currents indicated that they are close, but the distribution of the inrush current is asymmetrical. This is due to the asymmetrical distribution of the MMF in the transformer core at start-up. Variations of the axial and radial forces caused by the inrush current and short circuit on the inner and outer surfaces of the HV and LV windings showed that the maximum axial force of the both currents are in the middle of the inner surface or/and outer surface of the LV or HV windings. Also, the peak radial force due to the inrush current and short circuit of the LV winding is on the closest point to the core and the peak radial force on the HV winding is on the most far point of the core. The slope of the forces on the HV winding is sharper than the corresponding values