Computation of impulse-voltage stresses in

transformer windings
R. Kasturi, M.E., M.S., and G.R.K. Murty, B.E., M.Tech.

Indexing terms: Electrical-engineering computing, Transformer windings

Abstract
Trapezoidal rule of integration is used for the computation of impulse-voltage stresses in transformer windings
through a companion-network approach. The method is compared with two other methods, one based on eigen-
values and eigenvectors and the other based on series expansion of the state-transition matrix. The method is also
verified by comparing it with experimental results.

List of principal symbols circuit shown in Fig. 1 is used. The transformer winding is subdivided
into a finite number of sections, each containing inductance, series
La = self inductance of /th section and ground capacitances. The inductive elements are all mutually
Ly = mutual inductance between sections / and / coupled to each other. The capacitance between nonadjacent sections
Ctf = shunt capacitance to ground and the losses in the transformer are neglected for simplicity.
C] = series capacitance along the winding This network is employed for calculating the transient phenomena
YN = nodal admittance matrix using all the three methods for a comparative study of the methods.
t = time
A^, h = time step
G = nodal conductance matrix
IN = column vector of net equivalent current sources feeding
nodes
e = base of natural logarithms
/ = identity matrix
X = state vector
U = output vector of node voltages
V = input voltage
A, C = matrices of constant coefficients
B,D = column matrices of constant coefficients

1 Introduction
It is necessary for the transformer designer to know the
impulse-voltage stresses at all parts of the winding as accurately as
possible at the design state so that he may select an efficient winding
and insulation structure.
Although very accurate determination of the impulse-voltage
distribution in transformer windings is possible with the help of the
electromagnetic model developed by Abetti,1 the method lacks flexi-
bility because a new model has to be constructed each time a new
design is to be studied. Further, the construction of a model is both
time consuming and costly. Since the digital computer came into use,
there has been a growing interest in calculating numerically the
transient phenomena in transformer windings.
Any numerical method used for the purpose should be stable,
require minimum computer time and storage and give results of
acceptable accuracy for engineering purposes. Because the trapezoidal
rule of integration is a numerically stable method with reasonable
accuracy, it was proposed to employ this method for calculating the
transient phenomena in transformer windings. The transient-voltage
response is calculated using the trapezoidal rule of integration,
through a companion-network approach.8"10'11
With a view to establishing the advantages of this method, it is
compared with two other methods, one based on eigenvalues and
eigenvectors and the other based on series expansion of the state
transition matrix of Reference 6. The method is also verified by
comparison with the experimental and analogue-computer results
obtained by Waldvogel and Rouxel.2
2 Equivalent electrical-network representation of
transformer winding
A proper mathematical model of the transformer winding
is necessary for computing the impulse-voltage response by means
of a digital computer. For this purpose, the traditional equivalent
Paper 8287P, first received 3rd October 1978 and in revised form 23rd January
1979
Mr. Kasturi is with the Electrical Engineering Department, Indian Institute of
Technology, Kharagpur (W.B.) 721302, India, and Mr. Murty is with the Electri-
cal Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Kakinda (A.P.)-533003,
India
PROC. IEE, Vol. 126,No. 5,MAY 1979
Fig. 1
Equivalent circuit of transformer winding
3 Transient-voltage response calculation by
trapezoidal-rule integration
The problem is formulated through a companion-network
approach. The companion network is the original network in which
each branch element is replaced by its companion model. The com-
panion model of a branch element is obtained from a network in-
terpretation of the recursion relationship, which results from'the
application of a numerical integration formula to the branch relation-
ship. The companion models for different branch elements, derived
from the application of the trapezoidal-rule integration to the branch
relationship, are shown in Fig. 3. In the companion model, the resistor
R remains fixed for fixed step size At. The current source depends on
the voltage v(tk) which is determined previously at time tk. The
companion models are also known as the associated discrete circuit
models in Reference 12.
For obtaining the companion network, the circuit shown in Fig. 1
is replaced by an equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2. The mutually
coupled elements of the circuit in Fig. 1 are replaced by equivalent
uncoupled elements in Fig. 2. The two circuits are equivalent and have
the same nodal-admittance matrix. The circuit in Fig. 2 can therefore
be synthesised from the nodal admittance matrix of the circuit in
Fig. 1. If the transformer winding is subdivided into N sections, there
will be TV node pairs. The nodal-admittance matrix YN of the circuit
in Fig. 1 is therefore a N x N matrix. The procedures for obtaining
YN are well known and will not be dealt with here.
To construct the equivalent network shown in Fig. 2 from the
nodal-admittance matrix YN, the following procedure is applied. A
matrix element YNij is represented as an admittance branch — YNiJ-
drawn between the nodes / and /. When all the elements of a single
row, except the one on the main diagonal, have been accounted for,
the sum of all the off-diagonal elements is added to the diagonal term
to get the admittance, which must be connected between node i and
the reference node.
The resulting network is equivalent to the original network with
respect to the response at the node pairs having a common reference
397
0020-3270/79/050397 + 04. $01-50/0
node. This procedure yields a circuit without mutual coupling of 5 Voltage-response calculation through series
branch elements, which is immediately adaptable for writing the expansion of the state-transition matrix
companion network. The companion network is obtained by merely
replacing each branch element of the circuit in Fig. 2 by its com- In this method, the state vector is calculated at discrete time
panion model. intervals h from the recursive relation
The advantage of the companion network is that it can be analysed
using well known methods because it is a purely resistive circuit. The X[(K+l)h] = eAhX(Kh)+ f eA(h~T)BV(Kh + T)dT
circuit can be analysed for any given input voltage. With the input J
o
known, the nodal equilibrium equations for the companion network
consist of a system of N— I linear algebraic equations that describe k = 0,1,2,... (7)
the state of the system at any time tk + t : Substituting for V(Kh + T) from eqn. 4, the solution is obtained as 6

GU(tk+l) = IN (1) X[(K+ l)h] = ^{XiKh)* V0[Fi1(e~aHe~Afl -^{e^f

l bh Ah bh k
with -Gi (e- e- -I)(e- ) ]B) (8)
G = nodal-conductance matrix where
=
U(tk +1) column vector of node voltages at time tk + r F, = -(A+al)
IN = known column vector of net equivalent current sources Gl = -(A + bl)
feeding the nodes. The state vector can be computed recursively from eqn. 8 when once
the matrix exponential eAh is evaluated by series expansion. The-
The nodal-conductance matrix is real and symmetric and is un- state vector being known, the output vector of node voltages is
changed as long as the time step At is unchanged. To start with, the obtained from eqn. 3.
right-hand side of eqn. 1 is obtained from known initial conditons.
The node voltages are obtained by recursively solving eqn. 1, updating
the right-hand side after each solution. This includes the updating of
the current sources of the companion models. Because the same set of
equations are to be solved for different right-hand sides, the LU-
factorisation technique is employed for obtaining the solution.

Fig. 2
Equivalent circuit without mutual coupling

4 Voltage-response calculation through eigenvalues

and eigenvectors
With a properly chosen set of state variables, the state
equations are obtained in the standard form:
X=AX+BV (2)
The output equation is Fig. 3
Companion models
U = CX + DV (3)
a Associated with inductance
The input impulse wave is expressed analytically as b Associated with capacitance

V = V0(e-at - e~bt) (4)

where Vo, a and b are constants for a particular wave.
6 Comparison of the proposed method with other
methods
The solution of eqn. 2 is obtained as The transient voltage distribution in a hypothetical trans-
former winding is determined by all the three methods for compari-
X(t) = eA'X(0)+ f' eA«-T)BV0(e-aT-e-bT)dT (5) son. A 12-section winding with the inductance- and capacitance-
0 parameter values given in Table 1 is assumed. The standard impulse
Assuming zero initial conditons, the solution of eqn. 5 is expressed wave (1/50) is taken as the input and is expressed analytically as
as7
V = 1-0161 (e-°'m7it-e-6-f*91t)

*,(')= flifcCafct cos(cjkt-dik)-qike-at + rike~bt} (6) where tis in microseconds.

where xt is the /th component of the state vector and m is the number
of nodes excluding the input node. Pk,Oik, ock,Uk, Qik and rik are
known once the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the A -matrix are
found. The node voltages are obtained from eqn. 3.
398
The results obtained by the three methods agreed to within
0-005 p.u. Because the results agreed very closely, the voltage response
curves for the three methods could not be shown distinctly in one
Figure. Hence, the voltage-response curves obtained by the proposed
method (trapezoidal-rule integration) only are shown in Figs. 4, 5
and 6.
PROC IEE, Vol. 126, No. 5, MA Y1979
 The trapezoidal-rule-integration scheme required about 25% of the 7 Comparison with experimental and analogue-
core storage required by either of the other two methods, on an E.C. computer results
1030 computer. No numerical difficulties are encountered with this
method. The method is stable even with increased step sizes. The The transient-voltage response of the model transformer,
response curves obtained by this method with two step sizes of 0-01 which was used by Waldvogel and Rouxel2 for their studies,- is
and 0-05JUS are compared in Fig. 7, the former being the step size, calculated by the trapezoidal-rule integration. The inductance and
required to get results by this method to agree with the results ob- capacitance parameters of the 10-section winding of the model
tained by the other methods within 0-005 p.u. Fig. 7 shows that transformer are given in Table 2. The voltage response calculated by
there is no significant loss of accuracy with the higher step size. the trapezoidal-rule integration for a step input is compared with the
The computation time required by the method based on eigen- experimental and analogue computer results, obtained by Waldvogel
values and eigenvectors is that required for finding the eigenvalues and Rouxel, in Fig. 8. The voltage response of the winding for a
and eigenvectors and for the subsequent computation of the node rectangular surge of 3 JUS duration is also calculated by trapezoidal-rule
voltages at the desired time intervals in the output. For computation integration and compared with the response curves obtained by
of results up to 50;us, with a reasonable time interval in the output, Waldvogel and Rouxel, in Fig. 9. The results are found to be generally
it was found that the trapezoidal-rule integration is about 15% faster in agreement.
than the method based on eigenvalues and eigenvectors. This percent-
age goes up if outputs are desired at closer intervals or if the total 14
time of interest is reduced. 12
• The trapezoidal-rule integration compared almost similarly with 10
the method based on series expansion of the state-transition matrix, 08
with regard to computation time. ' 06
1
04
02
Table 1 00
INDUCTANCE AND CAPACITANCE PARAMETERS USED WITH 12- -0 2
SECTION WINDING -04
-06
Inductance parameters, Capacitance parameters
mH PF
Fig. 6
0-668 Co 412-6 Voltage response at node 11
Ln 0-526 c, 120
Ll3 0-425
0-344
LiS 0-283
L16 0-232
Ln 0186
0139
Ll9 0101
^110 006
/--in 003
L{ 12 00

12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 44 46
time, ps
Table 2
INDUCTANCE AND CAPACITANCE PARAMETERS USED WITH 10-
SECTION WINDING Fig. 7
Inductance parameters, Capacitance parameters, Effect of step size on impulse-response calculation
mH pF
node 1
3-1 Co 61 At = 005
1-457 C, 66 At = 001
0-496
/-14 0-217
0124
0062 8 Conclusions
0031 Trapezoidal-rule integration is used to calculate impulse-
0031 voltage stresses in transformer windings. The method is compared
0031
with two other methods, one based on eigenvalues and eigenvectors
0031
and the other based on series expansion of the state-transition matrix.
The method using trapezoidal-rule integration requires about 25% of
the computer storage required by either of the other two methods.
The method is also considerably faster than the other methods when
outputs are required at close time intervals within a time of interest
which is not large.
The trapezoidal-rule-integration method is also verified by com-
parison with the experimental and analogue-computer results obtained
by Waldvogel and Rouxel.2
10 14 18 22 26 30 34 38 42 46

Fig. 4 9 Acknowledgment
Voltage response at node 1
The authors wish to thank N. Kesavamurthy, Head of Electri-
14 cal Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology,
12 Kharagpur, India, for his help in carrying out this work.
10
EL 0 8
Q;- 0 6
g1 04
10 References
| 02
1 ABETTI, P.A.: 'Transformer models for the determination of transient
a, 00 voltages', AIEE Trans., 1953, 72, Pt. Ill, pp. 4 6 8 - 4 8 0
V26 30 34 4 2 / 46
E-0 2 2 WALDVOGEL, P., and ROUXEL, R.: 'A new method of calculating the
time, JJS
-0 4 electric stresses in a winding subjected to a surge voltage', Brown Boveri
-0 6 Rev., 1956,43, pp. 206-213
Fig. 5 3 MCWHIRTER, J.H., FAHRNKOPF, C D . , and STEELE, J.H.: 'Determi-
Voltage response at node 6 nation of impulse stresses within transformer windings by computers',
AIEE Trans., 1957, 75, Pt. Ill, pp. 1267-74
PROC. 1EE, Vol. 126, No. 5, MA Y1979 399
4 DENT, B.M., HARTILL, E.R., and MILES, J.G.: 'A method of analysis of
transformer impulse voltage distribution using a digital computer', Proc.
IEE, 1958, 105, Pt. A, pp. 4 4 5 - 4 5 9
5 ABETTI, P.A.: 'Survey and classification of published data on the surge
performance of transformers and rotating machines', AIEE Trans., 1959,
77, Pt. HI, pp. J403-1414
6 FERGESTAD, P.I., and HENRIKSEN, T.: 'Transient oscillations in multi-
winding transformers', IEEE Trans., 1974, PAS-93, pp. 500-507
7 FERGESTAD, P.I.: 'Transient oscillations in transformer windings', Ph.D.
thesis, Oslo Universitets forlaget, 1972
8 DOMMEL, H.W.: 'Digital computer solution of electromagnetic transients
in single - and multiphase networks', IEEE Trans., 1969, PAS-88,
pp. 388-396
9 CARLIN, H.J., and GIORDANO, A.B.: 'Network theory' (Prentice-Hall,
1964)
10 CALAHAN, D.A.: 'Computer-aided network design' (McGraw-Hill, 1972)
11 DIRECTOR, S.W.: 'Circuit theory: a computational approach' (John Wiley
and Sons, 1975)
12 CHUA, L.O., and LIN, P.M.: 'Computer-aided analysis of electronic circuits'
(Prentice-Hall, 1975)

100

3
50

10 20

100
°/o
\
V
t7 (\\

/'#' A• // M
50- \
VI 1
7 /
\ // /
\ /
J, 10
\\l
V • \
20 \J ps
/

Fig. 8
Comparison of results for step voltages
U{ —U9 are node voltages to earth
voltages calculated by Waldvogel and Rouxel
voltages measured by Waldvogel and Rouxel
— • — • voltages calculated by the authors using trapezoidal-rule integration

20N ps

Fig. 9
Comparison of results for a rectangular surge of 3ps duration
t/, — U9 are node voltages to earth
voltages calculated by Waldvogel and Rouxel
voltages calculated by the authors using trapezoidal-rule integration

400 PROC. IEE, Vol. 126, No. 5, MA Y 1979