Inrush Current Control in Transformers

Seshanna Panthala
Faculty of Engineering, Assumption University Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract
The paper deals with the problem of magnetizing inrush current phenomenon in transformers and describes the design of a robust time delay relay which can be used to control the inrush current into transformers. Test results are presented on the performance of the time delay relay to demonstrate the effectiveness of the relay in reducing the switch on inrush current into a small laboratory transformer. Keywords: Inrush current, time delay relay, bridge rectifier, current source, thermistor.

Introduction
When a transformer is switched on to line, at times the circuit breaker trips or their fuse blows. This happens even if the transformer is on no load with its secondary open. This is due to the heavy magnetizing current drawn by the transformer. This current may reach a level exceeding the full load current. However, this heavy inrush current magnitude depends on the instant on the a.c wave at which the transformer is switched on. If the instant happens to be such that the a.c voltage wave is going through its peak value, then there will be no inrush current drawn by the transformer. The magnitude of the current in this case will be at normal no load value. If the instant happens to be such that the a.c wave is going through its zero value, then the current drawn will be very high leading to breaker tripping. Hence to avoid inrush current, the transformer is to be connected to the line when the voltage is going through its peak. This requires a point on wave switch (Panthala 1999) which makes the switching equipment costly and is not adopted in practice. A mechanical or electro-mechanical contactor is used to connect the transformer to the line in practice and there is no control on the instant of switching. Inrush current does occur occasionally leading to nuisance tripping of the breaker. One simple way to reduce inrush current is to insert a resistor in series with the

transformer at the beginning of switching and then cut this resistor out after a short time to allow normal operation. Another way is to use NTC thermistor (AMETHERM 2001) in series with primary. This NTC thermistor will offer high resistance at the beginning of switching and limit the inrush current. After a short time thermistor resistance decreases to a low value due to self heating and does not affect normal operation. The NTC thermistor solution is practicable for small transformers. In this paper a time delay relay solution is presented which will physically insert a resistor in the primary circuit and then cut this resistor completely out of the circuit automatically after a predetermined time delay. First a brief theory is presented to explain the reason for the inrush current in transformers and then the time delay relay circuit is described. Finally some test results are presented. Refer to Fig.1, the switch SW is closed at time t =0. Neglecting the resistance of the primary winding the equation for the primary loop will be v = Nd/dt where v = Vm sin (wt + ), d/dt = (Vm /N ) sin (wt + ). Integrating this equation we get = -m cos (wt + ) + k. The value of k is evaluated by applying the initial condition that at t =0, = 0. The final equation for the flux in the core is given by = m {cos - cos (wt + ) } where m = Vm /wN. It should be noted that this is a simplified analysis. In a real case when resistance is taken into account m cos term dies down

Switching Behavior of Transformer

Fig. 1. Excitation circuit of transformer with secondary open exponentially leaving the sinusoidally varying term. Two extreme cases of flux variation can be seen from the above equation depending on the instant of switching. Case1: = 0, this means that the switch SW is closed when the a.c voltage wave is passing through its zero value. The core flux reaches a maximum value of 2 m. Under normal operating condition the core flux is m and the core of the transformer is operating at the knee of the B-H curve. In order to produce 2 m the current required will be extremely high because of the non linear nature of the B-H curve and drives the core material into saturation. This results in heavy inrush current into the transformer (Fig. 5). Case2: = 90o , this means that the switch SW is closed when the a.c voltage wave is going through its peak value. The core flux reaches a maximum value of m which is its normal value and the current drawn will be normal no load value. So, in order to avoid inrush current the switch is to be closed when the voltage wave is going through its peak value for which point on wave switching system is required as mentioned earlier. Since the actual instant of closing the switch can be any instant, inrush current will occur at times and circuit breaker may trip. To make sure that the switching is safe and secure a time delay circuit is used to limit the inrush current. The details of the proposed TDR is given in the latter section. Time Delay Relay Circuit Refer to Fig. 2 wherein the time delay relay circuit and its connection to a load such as a transformer is shown. As soon as the transformer is switched on the TDR comes into action. The series resistor R limits the initial current drawn by the transformer. After a predetermined time the relay cuts out the resistor R by short circuiting it through its NO contact - thus allowing the normal transformer operation. The design and working of the TDR is as described below: The steady state d.c current requirement of the relay coil will decide the design of the other components of the circuit. The capacitor C2 is to be chosen such that the average value of the rectified current Iav is equal to the current required by the relay coil and the resistance of the coil should be small compared to the capacitive reactance of the capacitor C2 at line frequency. Under these conditions the average rectified current is approximately equal to Iav = (V..C2 )/1.11 where V = rms value of the line voltage (220V), = 2 f, f = line frequency (=50Hz ) and C2 =required capacitor value. Knowing the relay current, it is now possible to select the required capacitor and the bridge diodes. The capacitor C1 is to be selected from the delay time required. The voltage across C1 rises exponentially with a time constant = C1 .RL as shown in Fig. 3. Knowing the relay pick up voltage and its coil resistance it is now possible to choose the required value for C1 . As far as the working of the circuit is concerned it

Fig. 2. Time delay relay and load circuit connection has to be small ( 10% ) as compared to the amplitude of the a.c supply voltage, (b) the average current through the relay coil is decided by the capacitor C2 (see the equation in the text), and (c) the relay contact rating must be sufficient to meet the full load current requirement of the transformer. If very high load current is to be carried then a bigger contactor is to be used which can easily be operated with a smaller relay as used in the testing. The bridge rectifier output is like a constant current source. In case the relay coil gets open circuited, then the out voltage will rise as the capacitor C1 will be charged with this constant average current I av. Hence a zener diode of adequate rating to carry Iav continuously is connected across the capacitor-relay combination to limit the voltage rise to say 15 volts in this design. The 50 resistor is used to limit the switch on surge current into the TDR circuit itself.

is easy to see that when the main switch is closed the load drawing inrush current and the time delay relay circuit are energized simultaneously. The capacitor/relay combination is driven by a constant average current source and the d.c voltage rises exponentially. When this voltage reaches the pick up voltage of the relay, its normally open contact connected across the series resistor R closes and thus removing it from the load circuit. When the main switch is opened the voltage across the relay coil will fall again exponentially. When this voltage reaches the drop out voltage of the relay, the contact opens and the resistor is again in series with the load and ready for next switching operation. The pick up voltage of the 12volt relay used in the testing is about 6volts and the contact closure time is found to be 330ms as marked in fig.3.The drop out voltage of this relay is about 4.5 volts and the contact opening time is about 500ms (Fig. 4). The important design considerations are: (a) the normal operating voltage of the relay

Test Results
The test results are presented in two parts: (a) The TDR is tested for its pick up and drop out performance as shown in the recordings in Figs. 3 and 4. It was found that the pick up voltage is 6 V and took 330 ms to close the NO contact. This is the time duration in which the series resistor is in the circuit. The drop out voltage was 4.5 V and took 500 ms to open the contact to insert the resistance R in the circuit again. (b) The recording in Fig. 5 shows the current drawn by the transformer without the TDR and series resistor in place. The transformer was rated at 1Kva at 220volts. The switch on in rush current was seen to be 32 amperes while its full load current was 4.5 amp. The recording in fig.6 is with a resistance of 50 ohm connected in series with the primary and with TDR in place. The maximum switch on current in this case is limited to about 4 ampere. Clearly with TDR the inrush current is contained.

Conclusion
The inrush current drawn by a transformer may reach 5 to 6 times its full load current and will last for a few cycles time. This may result in nuisance tripping of circuit breaker. A resistor inserted in series with primary will reduce the inrush current during switch on. This series resistor has to be cut out. Otherwise the normal operation of the transformer will be impaired. A time delay relay as described in this paper can be used advantageously for this purpose. The inrush current can be reduced to tolerable limits by selecting a suitable value for the series resistor.

References
AMETHERM. 2001. Circuit Protection Thermister specification sheets. Chapman, S.J. 1991. Electronic Machinery Fundamentals, 2nd ed. McGraw Hill Int. Ed., New York. Panthala, S. 1999. Behavior of thyristor switched capacitive load - Part 2. Experimental analysis. AU J.T. 2: 131-7.

Fig. 3. Exponential rise of TDR coil voltage following switch on

Fig. 5. Current drawn by a transformer upon switch on without TDR

Fig. 4. Exponential fall of TDR coil voltage following switch off

Fig. 6. Current drawn by the transformer upon switch on with TDR and 50 ohm resistor