ABB Power Technology Products Document Number R IK 01 - 048

Department PTHVP/IK
Date 2001-12-11
Page 1 (1)

PRESSURE RELIEF DEVICE IN OIL INSULATED INSTRUMENT TRANSFORMERS

An internal arcing in an oil insulated instrument

transformer will create an extremely rapid
pressure increase. Old tests have shown that the
internal overpressure will be distributed slowly
within the oil volume. Safe function of a pressure
relief device can only be guaranteed if the
internal fault happens close to the device and for
that reason have we never incorporated a
pressure relief device in our designs.

Our design philosophy is instead to design the

welded aluminium bottom tank, where most of
the internal active parts are located, in such way
that a rapid internal pressure rise will give
controlled direction of mechanical forces and
rupture welds. The obtained pressure relief will in
this way limit the damages of other parts of the
transformer.

The design philosophy has been verified in an

internal arc test on an IMB 245. In the test was
an internal arc created by a 40 kA current with
0.2 s duration. The picture beside shows the
transformer tank after the test. The rapid internal
pressure rise has ruptured one of the welds and
released the pressure.

This pressure relief function is even more

effective for higher system voltages since the
energy involved in the arcing are higher and the
pressure rise and mechanical rupture forces
higher.