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Received August 2, 2012; revised September 2, 2012; accepted September 10, 2012
ABSTRACT
Electrical transformers are vital components found virtually in most power-operated equipments. These transformers
spontaneously radiate heat in both operation and steady-state mode. Should this thermal radiation inherent in trans-
formers rises above allowable threshold a reduction in efficiency of operation occurs. In addition, this could cause other
components in the system to malfunction. The aim of this work is to detect the remote causes of this undesirable ther-
mal rise in transformers such as oil distribution transformers and ways to control this prevailing thermal problem. Oil
transformers consist of these components: windings usually made of copper or aluminum conductor, the core normally
made of silicon steel, the heat radiators, and the dielectric materials such as transformer oil, cellulose insulators and
other peripherals. The Resistor-Inductor-Capacitor Thermal Network (RLCTN) model at architectural level identifies
with these components to have ensemble operational mode as oil transformer. The Inductor represents the windings, the
Resistor representing the core and the Capacitor represents the dielectrics. Thermography of transformer under various
loading conditions was analyzed base on Infrared thermal gradient. Mathematical, experimental, and simulation results
gotten through RLCTN with respect to time and thermal image analysis proved that the capacitance of the dielectric is
inversely proportional to the thermal rise.
criteria (∆T) [4], which are of two folds first: The thermal lightly scrutinizing appropriate electrical equipment in
value of equipment without thermal fault considered as order to pinpoint defective components and make ambi-
reference point is compared with other ensemble equip- ent temperatures evaluations of the power distribution
ment having similar load and similar environment condi- system. Should there be any thermal anomalies untimely
tion [5]. Next is where thermal variation (∆T) of electri- detected and uncorrected, such can be potentially haz-
cal equipment is compared between equipment and its ardous both to the equipment and to the user resulting to
ambient temperatures [6,7]. In RLCTN, various thermal system shutdown or failure [15].
nodes will be examined and analyzed with respect to This work presents a heat management system using
time until stability is maintained at certain thermal thre- RLCTN algorithm for pre-fault analysis of transformers
shold value. The eagerness that lead to the RLCTN re- and other similar electrical equipments under various
search came as a result of backdrops of some previous operating conditions. It was also targeted such that, the
researches [8-11] on electrical defect detection where gap between system components and thermal defect
critical sustaining issues where neither properly ad- monitoring against breakdown of system itself that defi-
dressed nor attended at all. Thermal fault detection is one nitely affects production is timely bridged. Hence, pre-
issue and detection of remote cause of the thermal fault is vention is better than cure. The proposed work takes the
another, the latter thermal problem is the focus of this advantage of using simple components comprising resis-
paper. tors, inductors and capacitors electrically connected to
At architecture design level, RLCTN will contribute to model the thermal effect on distribution transformer
the development of mathematical algorithm to study the components such as windings, core, and dielectrics dur-
thermal characteristics of oil distribution transformers ing operation and steady state. This paper is organized as
base on the Resistance-Inductance-Capacitance network follows: Section 2 presents an overview of RLCTN
[12]. The thermal fault model for transformers includes equivalent network and real time dynamic thermal gra-
abnormal thermal gradient caused by failures of capaci- dient. RLCTN thermal gradient and frequency responds
tance of dielectric property in the form of transformer oil, analysis and nodal analysis as it applies to transformer
cellulose paper and other insulators. The second impact are explained in Sections 3 and 4. Section 5 is all about
is in showing the application of RLCTN as a base foun- validation results and discussion of the proposed model
dation for extensive projects. To achieve the desired re- while Section 6 concludes the work.
sult and bring the proposition of this work to a logical
conclusion, this model is implemented into a simulator to 2. RLCTN Equivalent Analysis
study the effect of thermal events on the design of abnor- The RLCTN analysis is derived from a simple RLC elec-
mal thermal detection mechanism in a soft-real-time en- trical network. Table 1 shows the equivalence of con-
vironment such as electrical power distribution substation. cepts of the thermal RLCTN and the electrical RLC net-
Common methods of fault localization are reviewed work. Taking current {I} to represent heat transfer rate
such as digital control and advanced signal analysis algo- H q usually, current sources are heat producers, Volt-
rithms-based; this concentrates on the incorporation of age {V} to represent Temperature Variation {T}, Resis-
digital control, communications, and intelligent algo- tance {R} represents the Thermal Resistance TR ,
rithms into power electronic devices such as direct-cur- transformer oil and other dielectrics accounts for Ther-
rent-to-direct-current converters and protective switch- mal capacitance TC which is the active heat absorber
gears. These, enables revolutionary changes in the way (storage) while the transformer radiators represents the
electrical power systems are designed, developed, con- passive heat absorber like heatsink. This analogy is pos-
figured, and integrated in aerospace vehicles and satel- sible because the same Equations apply in each model.
lites [13], an active “collaboration” among modular com- As an example: In Ohms law V = IR has an equivalent
ponents to improve performance and enable the use of thermal Equation as T H q TR .
common modules, thereby reducing costs was developed. A thermal resistance represents the difference in tem-
The performance improvement goals include active cur- perature necessary to transfer a certain amount of heat;
rent sharing, load efficiency optimization, and active the unit for thermal resistance is ˚C/Watt. Physical prop-
power quality control. Artificial Intelligence (AI) was erties such as composition of the components in the sys-
another method developed to monitor, predict and detect tem, shape, surface area and the volume of the compo-
faults at an early stage in a particular section of power nents have big impacts on this value. A heat sink is de-
system. Here the detector only takes external measure- signed as thermal radiators, is a passive heat absorber
ments from input and output of the power system that element that radiate heat to the ambient through the body
was simulated using Artificial Neural Networks equiva- of oil distribution transformer. This should have a mini-
lent circuit developed to predict and detect fault [14]. mal thermal resistance value so that it can transfer a sub-
Every electrical thermographic examination aimed at stantial amount of heat without requiring a large differ-
ence in temperature. Because of this, the air gap or space not new but an analytical algorithm that describes every
between the radiator fins, type of material and size are individual component with respect to the thermal char-
importantly considered. Capacitor in this thermal analy- acteristics of most current dependent or current sourcing
sis network plays the role of active heat absorber meas- equipment such as oil distribution transformer. In every
ured in Joule per degree centigrade, i.e., J/˚C. The ca- electrical distribution substation, there exists lots of heat
pacitance is a measure of the amount of thermal energy dissipating components comprising of instantaneous
that is stored or removed to increase or decrease the elements arranged for efficient generation of electric
thermal flow within the oil distribution transformer that power. RLCTN as the name implies is reasonably less
depends largely on the heat absorbent or storage capacity, cumbersome and less complexity due to small number of
type of materials such as oil viscosity, quality of cellu- components are used, which is quite imperative for on-
lous paper and conductor insulators, then volume and line computation and for prediction of future thermal
size of the oil container. The above analogy describes the variations at all levels. This thermal analysis incorporates
thermal properties as a system of linear differential equa- heat producers for example, transformer windings repre-
tions that will be detailed in the subsequent sections of sented as inductors; core represented as resistors and heat
this paper; a popular technique widely adopted in most absorbers such as transformer oil, cellulous insulators
circuitries, mainly in electrical and electronic engineering and other dielectric materials represented as capacitors.
designs. This very simple thermal RLCTN can analyze This thermal model analysis focuses on second-order
and predict the dynamic behavior of real-time oil distri- thermal networks, which are a set of component parame-
bution transformer as shown in Figure 1 [16]. ters that help to define the behaviors of individual com-
ponents of the system (oil transformer) consisting of re-
3. Thermal Gradient Analysis sistors, inductors and capacitors. By measuring the steps
RLCTN approach is used for instantaneous thermal and thermal behaviors, the heat transfer functions can be
analysis of electrical distribution substation transformer. determined. The ideology of RLCTN that depicts the
The idea of using RLCTN for analyzing thermal effect is thermal characteristics of oil transformer and its ambient
temperature is diagrammatically illustrated in Figure 2.
Table 1. Comparison of thermal network to electrical net- By varying the time and capacitance values, the circuit
work. bode plot can be generated. Referring to Figure 2,
RLCTN consist of a resistor of thermal resistance TR , a
Thermal Network Electrical Network
coil of thermal inductance TL , a capacitor of thermal ca-
Temperature T (˚C) Voltage V (Volt) pacitance TC and a temperature source TS connected
Heat Transfer Rate H q (Watt) Current I (Ampere) in series. If the quantity of heat absorbed by the capacitor
Thermal Resistance TR (˚C/Watt) Resistance R (Ohms) is TQ and the rate of heat flow in the thermal network is
Thermal Inductance TL Inductance L (Henry) H q , the temperatures across TR , TL , and TC are;
dH q TQ
Thermal Capacitance TC (J/˚C) Capacitance C (Coulomb/Volt) H qTR , TL and respectively.
dt TC
Temperature Source TS Voltage Source
Using thermal equivalent of Kirchhoff’s Law, the
Heat Source H S Current Source
temperature difference between any two points has to be
independent of the path used to travel between the two
points; the Equation (1) is of the form:
TQ
L t H qTL t
H qT t TS t (1)
TC
Assuming that TR , TL , TC and TS are known, this is
a differential equation in two unknown quantities, H q
and TQ . However, the two unknown quantities are
Figure 1. Dynamic thermal gradient of oil transformer. Figure 2. Ideology of RLCTN applied to transformer.
Taking general solution of (4) by considering between node m, n, o at instant x, H Lx the heat flowing
H q P t A sin t with the thermal rise (A) and through thermal inductance TL at instant x and
the thermal gradient to be determined. That is, H TxC the heat flowing through thermal capacitance
m ,n ,o
guessing that the RLCTN responds to an oscillating ap- TCm ,n ,o at instant x and H m, n,o is heat flow rate across
plied temperature source with a heat flow that oscillates the nodes [18].
with the same rate [17]. For H q P t to be a solution, For each node except the reference node (G), the rate
temperature at node “P” (see Figure 2) has to be consid- at which heat is flowing H m, n,o in and out of each node is
ered in Equation (5) as, expressed as the algebraic sum of the heat flowing in or
out of a node equals zero. (By algebraic sum, it means
Hq P that the quantity of heat flowing into a node is to be con-
TL H q P t TR H q P t t Eo cos t (5)
TC sidered as the same quantity negative heat flowing out of
the node).
A sin t
TL 2 A sin t TR A cos t
TC HTx Cm ,n ,o
H TxC
m ,n ,o
H TxL H m, n ,o 0 (12)
Eo cos t Eo cos t
Equation (14) represents the conservation of heat energy,
(6) it means that heat can neither be created nor destroyed ra-
Hence, ther can be converted from one form to another in a node
1 2 hence heat cannot be bunched up. Expressing the heat at
TL A sin t TR A cos t junction m and the entire junction o in terms of the nodal
C
T (7)
temperature at each end of the junction using Ohm’s Law
Eo cos t Eo sin sin t
I V R thermal equivalent H q T TR where H q
Matching coefficients of sin t is the Heat flow rate, T is the temperature and TR is the
and cos t on the left and right hand sides yields, thermal resistance. Equation (13) is of the form,
1 Tmx, n ,o
TL A Eo sin
2
(8)
x
H qTR
(13)
m , n ,o TRm ,n ,o
TC
Eo
T 2 1 T
TR 2 2 A Eo A
2
(11)
L
L
2
TL 2 1 TC TR 2 2
The values in Table 3 also show the effect of varying ties. In these scenarios, the time constant (i.e., the time it
thermal capacitance on the thermal nodes (m, n, and o) as takes for the transformer winding to achieve its highest
shown in Figure 3. This explains the higher thermal ca- stable temperature) changes from 0 second to 10 seconds
pacitance the slower heat flow rate to the node junc- as shown in Figures 9-11, respectively, even though the
tions and vice vase. In the case transformers, this reduces final temperature is the same. Statistically, in consumer
the risk of arc flash between phases or phase and neutral or industrial applications, a transformer temperature rise
[19-21]. Figure 6 replicates the nodal analysis method of about 40˚C to 50˚C may be acceptable, resulting in a
well defined in Section 3 and thermal equivalent of Kir- maximum internal temperature of about 100˚C (trans-
chhoff’s Law, stating that temperature difference be- formers’ temperature rise limit). However, it may be
tween any two points has to be independent of the path wiser to increase the capacitance as well as the core size
used to travel between the two points. Figure 6 graphi- in other to obtain reduced temperature rise and reduced
cally illustrates that the heat flow rate across the nodes losses for better power supply efficiency.
were linearly increased and stabilized at about 1750 sec
time interval.
In Table 4, it is seen that there was insufficient ther-
mal resistance TR which represent the transformer
core. Here it was observed that the transformer winding
(L) temperature increased to about 30˚C irrespective of
the high thermal capacitance value TC . Figure 7
shows the graphical illustration.
The experimental value in Table 5 shows the effect of
thermal capacitance TC degradation, which represents
the dielectrics of a transformer such as oil. Here also it is
seen that the transformer dielectric TC materials have
decreased in its heat absorption capacity causing the Figure 10. Thermal gradient with respect to time at
winding L temperature to rise so high up to 180˚C at TC 199.2 J C, TR 14 kC W and TL 14 .
1500 sec irrespective of the high thermal resistance value
TR . Figure 8 graphically show the effect of thermal ca-
pacitance TC degradation.
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