Analysis of thermal models to determine the loss of life of mineral oil immersed transformers

Hot spot as well as top oil temperatures have played the most effective parameters on the life of the electrical transformers. The prognostication of these factors is very vital for determining the residual life of the electrical transformers in the transmission and distribution systems. Thus, an accurate mathematical method is required to calculate the critical temperature such as hot spot and top oil temperature based on the different types of thermal models. In this study calculates the service life of the transformers based on an accurate top oil temperature. Accordingly, An approach solution is given for calculating the thermal model. Also, findings are validated with true temperatures. Finally, this method is implemented on 2500 KVA electrical transformer.

The influence of the deforming regime on the losses of power and energy in the electrical transformers on board the cruise ships

Power transformers are the basic components of a naval power system at the same time as the equipment with the most significant losses. The deforming regime is introduced by the power electronics in the case of ships of static frequency converters, cycloconverters or syncroconverters (variable speed drives) for the control of propulsion motors, etc. The central theme of this paper is the impact of the deforming regime on power and energy losses in the case of electrical transformers on board cruise ships. For this purpose, the analytical model regarding the determination of losses in transformers when operating in deforming regime is presented. In addition to the winding losses, the magnetic and dielectric circuit also includes additional losses due to the deforming regime. At the same time, an analysis was performed regarding the optimal operation management of the power transformers affected by the deforming regime.

A Novel Condition Monitoring Procedure for Early Detection of Copper Corrosion Problems in Oil-Filled Electrical Transformers

The negative impacts of catastrophic fire and explosion accidents due to copper corrosion problems of oil-filled electrical transformers are still in the spotlight due to a lack of effective methods for early fault detection. To address this gap, a condition monitoring (CM) procedure that can detect such problems in the initial stage is proposed in this paper. The suggested CM procedure is based on identified measurable variables, which are the relevant by-products of the corrosion reaction, and utilizes an Early Fault Diagnosis (EFD) model to detect and solve the copper corrosion problems. The EFD model includes a fault trend chart that can track a fault progression during the useful life of transformers. The purpose of this paper is to verify and validate the effectiveness of the suggested CM procedure by an empirical study in a power plant. The result of applying this procedure was early detection of copper corrosion problems in two transformers with suspected copper corrosion propagation from a total of 84. The corrective action was adding an optimized amount of a passivator, an anticorrosion additive, to suppress the corrosion reaction at the correct time. The main conclusion of this study is the importance of early detection of transformer faults to avoid the negative impacts on societal, company, and individual levels.

On Approaching Relevant Cost-Effective Sustainable Maintenance of Mineral Oil-Filled Electrical Transformers

Fire and explosion accidents of oil-filled electrical transformers are leading to negative impacts, not only on the delivery of energy, but also on workplace health and safety as well as the surrounding environment. Such accidents are still being reported, regardless of applying the regular maintenance strategy in the power plants. The purpose of this paper is to integrate a sustainability perspective into the maintenance strategy. The problem addressed is: how can we approach the relevant cost-effective sustainable maintenance for oil-filled electrical transformers? For this purpose, an empirical study in a power plant in Kuwait was introduced. The first stage was to carry out a sustainability assessment using the ABCD procedure. In this procedure, gaps to approach sustainability were identified and actions prioritized to close these gaps were demonstrated. Applying this procedure yielded an early fault diagnosis (EFD) model for achieving cost-effective sustainable maintenance using a fault trend chart based on a novel numerical method. Implementing this model resulted in an extension of the lifetime of transformers with suspected failure propagation, leading to a deferral of the replacement investment costs. The principal conclusion of this paper is the importance of viewing the maintenance strategy of transformers from a strategic sustainability perspective, in order to approach relevant cost-effective sustainable maintenance.

EVALUAREA SOLICITĂRILOR TERMICE ȘI A DURATEI DE VIAȚĂ A TRANSFORMATOARELOR DE DISTRIBUȚIE AFLATE ÎN REGIM PERIODIC NESINUSOIDAL

Electrical transformers are some of the most important equipment in the entire electricity distribution chain. Their operation with optimal values of the parameters (electrical, thermal and mechanical) ensures the continuous supply of consumers. The modern electrical loads of power distribution transformers are often nonlinear and generate several power quality problems, especially the distortion of the waveform of the current that flows through the windings of the transformer. This generates additional stresses (electrical and thermal) of the various components of the transformer (originally designed to operate in pure sinusoidal mode) which can cause abnormal (faulty) operation of the transformer and ultimately reducing its life (estimated by the manufacturer for permanent sinusoidal regime). In order to prevent or diminish the negative effects of the nonsinusoidal regime on the transformer, a deliberate limitation (reduction) of its maximum load is performed. The procedure is known as transformer derating. Its main aim is to establish the most appropriate declassification factors (denomination), resulting from the correlation of the nominal and constructive data of the transformer with the power quality parameters, measured in its secondary part (usually, these are the current distortion level and the corresponding spectrum harmonic). This paper analyzes qualitatively and quantitatively these aspects and proposes a downgrading procedure for in-service transformers which it illustrates in a case study.

Improving the thermal performance of electrical transformers using hybrid mixture of (transformer oil, nanoparticles, and PCM)

In this paper, an experimental electrical distribution transformer was studied and a new technique was proposed to improve the performance of a new mixed cooling consisting of pure transformer oil, paraffin wax and nanoparticles. The experiment was carried out on a small transformer that was done by taking a model with dimensions (15 * 10 * 10) cm to facilitate calculations. Paraffin wax absorbs the heat generated in the transformer due to the smelting process that can be used to cool electrical appliances. Nanoparticles have good thermal properties and lead to increased oil insulation to thermal improvements in transformer oil with dispersal of solid nanoparticles and their effects on transformer cooling. Three types of solid nanoparticles were used in this experiment (Al2O3, TiO2, and Sic) with a different volume concentration (1%, 3%, and 5%) and 4% paraffin wax as a certified added percentage for each process. The obtained results showed that when mixing paraffin wax and solid nanoparticles with transformer oil, the transformer cooling performance is improved by reducing the temperature. The best selected nanoparticles were found to be Sic and the reason for this is that Sic has a higher thermal conductivity compared to (Al2O3 and TiO2). The proposed hybrid oil reduces the temperature by 10 ° C (in the case of PCM and Sic) and it is possible to improve the cooling performance of electrical transformers.