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Selecting the right level of complexity for thermal modelling of transformer

windings

T. LANERYD, A. GUSTAFSSON, B. SAMUELSSON, Y. JIAO

ABB AB
Sweden

SUMMARY
Accurate prediction of winding hotspot temperature is critical for reliability of power transformer
design. Thermal analysis of a transformer disc winding has been performed using CFD analysis in
three and two dimensions as well as thermohydraulic networks. If the losses and mass flow rate are
scaled to account for the existence of spacers, the results show good correspondence between 2D and
3D. The average winding temperature is the least sensitive to the modelling approach, whereas the
exact value of the hot spot temperature depends on local flow conditions and therefore shows larger
variation. Due to the considerably lower computational effort compared to 3D modelling, 2D CFD
simulation is the preferred approach for transformer thermal validation, whereas thermohydraulic
network modelling is suitable for design and optimization.

KEYWORDS
Transformer thermal modelling, CFD, thermohydraulic networks, hot spot

tor.laneryd@se.abb.com
1. INTRODUCTION
Trustworthy prediction and measurement of the winding hot spot temperature are vital in
establishing the thermal design quality of a power transformer, guaranteeing that the ageing of
insulation materials does not exceed the guarantee limits to fulfill the requirements on reliability.
[1] In the past, hot spot factors have played an important role in predicting the hot spot
temperature, but this approach has limitations. The hot spot factor is often taken as a default
value of 1.3 (as suggested by the standards [2] [3] in case no further information on the actual
design is known) or estimated by loss calculations. In recent years, the hydrodynamic effects
inside the winding have been recognized to have a large effect on the local cooling performance.
This affects both the magnitude and the location of the hot spot, which may therefore differ from
the position of the highest losses. For this reason, fiber-optic measurements of hot spot
temperature are only dependable if they are installed in the right location. [4]
Today direct calculation of the temperature distribution in the entire transformer winding
using detailed thermal simulations is entirely feasible. The choice of modelling approach is a
balance between computational effort and ensuring that geometrical aspects and detailed loss
distribution are taken into account. Large power transformers are typically customized
according to the specific needs of each installation, and are normally manufactured in small
series with a unique electrical, mechanical and thermal design. Fast computational speed is
therefore essential.
Thermo-hydraulic networks are a computationally efficient approach to model the
combination of oil and heat transport to predict the position and level of the hot spot
temperature, suitable for the generally well-defined and confined nature of a winding. Of
course, fast computational speed cannot be permitted to cause significant loss of accuracy.
More details of the flow field can be considered by using Computational Fluid Dynamic
(CFD) modelling. The level of model complexity can be optimized based on the
characteristics of the winding geometry and cooling type. [5]
The heat transfer problem can be described as conjugate heat transfer with natural or mixed
convection of a high Prandtl number fluid in the laminar regime through a series of parallel
cooling ducts. Because of the axisymmetric geometry that is obtained if the spacers in the
transformer winding are neglected, it is tempting to use a two-dimensional CFD approach to
reduce computational cost, and this is indeed the strategy employed in most of the existing
publications. It’s important to validate that this simplification does not cause erroneous results.
Incorrect temperature levels in the solution process will adversely affect the accuracy if the flow
is dominated by natural convection.
It should be mentioned that there are many reasons for discrepancies between CFD modelling
results in comparison to measured results. There are errors involved in the formulation of the
numerical method and its application, but also errors and uncertainty in how measurements are
performed. In this investigation, our target is to estimate the modelling errors due to reduced
geometrical complexity when a three-dimensional problem is approximated by a two-
dimensional model or a thermohydraulic network.
The topic is not new. Comparisons between 3D CFD modelling and other models have been
presented in [6], [7] and [8], with the general conclusion that the more inexpensive modelling
approaches do not provide sufficient accuracy. The novelty of the present investigation is
therefore that we propose a 2D method that seems to offer a good accuracy compared to 3D
modelling without any need for post-processing correction coefficients.

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2. WINDING TEMPERATURE CALCULATION METHODS

2.1. Full CFD analysis

At the highest level of detail, the heat transfer in a liquid-cooled transformer behaves
according to the fundamental conservation laws of mass, momentum and energy. These can
be expressed through the Navier-Stokes set of equations and solved using Computational
Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in three dimensions. The accuracy of the modelling is limited by how
well the geometry and the materials are represented in the model, and the boundary conditions
such as the detailed distribution of losses and temperature surrounding. For the purposes of
this paper, we limit ourselves to steady and laminar flow conditions with adiabatic boundary
conditions toward the surrounding. The effect of buoyancy is taken into account through the
Boussinesq approximation. [9]

2.2. Axisymmetric CFD analysis

The geometry of a power transformer disc winding is nearly axisymmetric. The symmetry is
broken by the existence of the spacer elements that create the horizontal cooling ducts between
turns of the cable. Previous investigations into the accuracy of CFD modelling of transformer
disc windings reported in literature [7] [8] have concluded significant discrepancies between
three-dimensional and two-dimensional models of the same geometry and have called this
approach into question.
In fact, with the appropriate considerations, two-dimensional analysis of transformer windings
can provide good accuracy in comparison to three-dimensional models for both forced and
natural convection dominated cases. The key insight is to adjust the mass flow rate and volume
losses to achieve the correct flow velocities and surface losses in parts of the cooling ducts where
fluid can flow unobstructed by the spacers. The increase in mass flow rate accounts for the effect
that the horizontal and vertical spacers block the flow of the dielectric fluid. The increase in
volume losses account for the heat generation within the portion of the disc that is covered by the
spacers and that is conducted through the cable. These assumptions still neglect other 3D effects
such as axial and radial heat conduction through the spacers, and wall friction on the fluid along
the spacers, but these can be considered minor. The 2D approach described here is from now on
denoted as 2D modelling with rescaling, in contrast to 2D modelling with nominal volume losses
and mass flow rate.
The advantage of the axisymmetric 2D modelling is a considerable reduction in computational
effort compared to 3D modelling, which includes computation time, hardware investments, and
additional complexity in pre- and post-processing.

2.3. Thermal network modelling

A transformer disc winding can be described as a series of thin interconnected cooling ducts
and is therefore well suited to be expressed as thermohydraulic circuit. It’s also based on the
conservation laws of mass, momentum, and energy, but has a lower spatial resolution of the
fluid flow, only considering locally average values of temperature and flow velocity. A
characteristic property of dielectric fluids such as transformer oils or esters is that they have
high viscosity and low thermal conductivity, which means that there may be local temperature
gradients that a thermohydraulic network cannot resolve in detail, and may have a large
impact on the solution. [5] Nevertheless, the method offers reasonable accuracy at a very low
computational cost.

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3. CASE STUDY
Calculations have been performed on a geometry corresponding to the low voltage winding of
a 160 MVA transformer with ONAF cooling. It is a disc winding with 106 discs and mineral
oil as the coolant. All CFD modelling has been performed in Ansys Fluent 14.
For a well-designed winding, the hot spot can be expected to occur in the top part of the
winding at rated load. To reduce the computational effort, only the two top sections of the
winding is modelled in 3D. Because the solution is sensitive to the boundary conditions at the
inlet, a CFD analysis of the full winding has been performed using the 2D axisymmetric
formulation with rescaled properties, and the velocity profile and temperature profile have
been used as inlet boundary conditions for the 3D model. For the given design, the covered
disc surface by spacer corresponds to 27% of the total disc surface and the volume loss and
mass flow rate had to be rescaled correspondingly. The 3D model was later used as a
reference and the results were compared to three different models (2D with rescaling, 2D
without rescaling and THNM). The calculation cases are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Calculation cases

Average flow
Mass flow rate Volume losses Surface losses
velocities
3D 100% 100% 100% 100%
2D without
100% 73% 100% 73%
rescaling
2D with
136% 100% 136% 100%
rescaling
Thermohydraulic
136% 100% 136% 100%
network model

The disc losses in the winding are considered non-uniform due to eddy losses and are
presented in Figure 1. In the bottom disc, only the heat losses that are cooled from above (as
concluded from the 2D full winding model) are included.

Figure 1 : Winding losses per disc in the CFD model. Additional eddy losses are introduced at the top of
the winding. The bottom disc has reduced losses to compensate that the cooling duct below is not
modelled.
Detailed spacer heights have been considered throughout the whole model to correctly capture
the hydraulic effects and their influence of the temperature distribution. The accuracy of the
models is demonstrated by comparing radial oil duct flow velocities, and winding disc maximum

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and average temperatures between the thermohydraulic network model and the two-dimensional
CFD models with the three-dimensional CFD model as a reference.
Contour plots of temperature rise over top oil for the different CFD models are displayed in
Figure 2. The result for the 3D CFD model is a slicing plane in the center of the cooling duct.

Figure 2: Contour plot of temperature rise over top oil for CFD model in 3D (left), 2D without rescaling
(center) and 2D with rescaling (right).

Tabulated results for the different CFD approaches as well as for the thermohydraulic network
model are presented in Table 2. The maximum temperature rise over top oil per disc is shown in
Figure 3, and the relative mass flow rate in the horizontal cooling ducts is shown in Figure 4.

Table 2: Calculated temperature rise above top oil for different models
Max ∆T in Top Average ∆T in Average ∆T in All
Disc Top Disc Discs
3D 14.0 K 10.8 K 3.9 K
2D without
17.4 K 12.7 K 2.3 K
rescaling
2D with
15.1 K 11.6 K 4.0 K
rescaling
Thermohydraulic
12.5 K 9.9 K 4.0 K
network model

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T over top oil (K)
max

Figure 3: Maximum temperature rise over top oil per disc for 3D and 2D CFD models.
mass flow ratio (%)

Figure 4: Mass flow rate in cooling ducts between disc for 3D and 2D CFD models.

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The results show that 2D CFD without rescaling gives a large discrepancy compared to the
3D model. For this specific design, the winding average temperature is underestimated
whereas the hotspot temperature is overestimated. This should not be considered a general
conclusion but a clear indication that the 2D CFD results without proper rescaling are not
dependable. Since the flow behavior is fundamentally different, it would be difficult to
compensate for it through post-processing.
On the other hand, the results from the 2D CFD analysis with rescaling as well as the THNM
show good correspondence with the 3D CFD model. The average winding temperature is the
least sensitive to the modelling approach, whereas the exact value of the hot spot temperature
depends on local flow conditions and therefore shows larger variation.
As seen in Figure 5, the circumferential variation in temperature is small, which demonstrates
the validity of the assumption that heat conduction effectively distributes the generated losses
to the cooling surface.

Figure 5 : Contour plot of temperature rise over top oil in a cross section of top disc in 3D CFD model.

The calculation time for models of various complexity is shown in Figure 6. The exact values
of calculation time will depend on model parameters such as mesh size, discretization scheme
and convergence criteria.

Figure 6 : Computation time for different modelling complexity

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4. CONCLUSION
This investigation has shown that axisymmetric 2D CFD modelling provides good
correspondence with full 3D CFD modelling as long as the disc losses and mass flow rates are
correctly scaled to take into account the effect of horizontal and vertical spacers. This is valid for
hot spot temperature, mean winding temperature, and local flow velocities, and is expected valid
within the laminar flow regime.
Correctly scaled 2D CFD analysis can therefore be considered sufficient to validate the thermal
designs of transformer windings and should be performed routinely in cases for units where the
thermal performance is essential. The considerable increase in computational time will typically
not motivate full 3D CFD analysis unless there are other symmetry breaking features than
vertical and horizontal spacers.
Thermohydraulic network modelling is a good approach to be used for design and optimization.
The results can be considered reasonably accurate given the assumption that the thermal
streaking is kept under control and that relevant design parameters such as flow rate and
geometry details like spacers and local insulation are considered properly.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] Working Group A2.38 CIGRE, “Transformer Thermal Modelling” (June 2016)
[2] IEC 60076-7 (Edition 1.0 2005-12) Power transformers – Part 7: Loading guide for oil-immersed
power transformers (Annex E), IEC, 2005
[3] IEEE Std 1538-2000 (R2011) IEEE Guide for Determination of Maximum Winding Temperature
Rise in Liquid-Filled Transformers (Annex C), IEEE, 2011
[4] T. Laneryd, A. Gustafsson, J. Kranenborg, P. Duarte, W. Calil, J. Zacharias, J.C. Mendes, “Hot
spot determination in transformer windings through CFD analysis,” VII Workspot – International
workshop on power transformers, equipment substations and materials (2014)
[5] A. Gustafsson, Y. Jiao, J. Kranenborg, T. Laneryd, B. Samuelsson, Transformer winding oil flow
rate and hot spot temperature: A straightforward relationship?,” Conference of The Electric
Power Supply Industry CEPSI (2016)
[6] P. Picher, F. Torriano, M. Chaaban, S. Gravel, C. Rajotte, B. Girard, “Optimization of transformer
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[7] F. Torriano, P. Picher, M. Chaaban, “Numerical investigation of 3D flow and thermal effects in a
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[8] S. Tenbohlen, C. Breuer, F. Devaux, R. Lebreton, N. Schmidt, T. Stirl, “Evaluation of the thermal
performance of transformer windings by numerical investigations and measurements” (Cigre
Science & Engineering, 7 (2017), pages 16-22)
[9] F. P. Incropera, D. P. Dewitt, T. L. Bergman, A. S. Lavine, ”Fundamentals of Heat and Mass
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