DESIGN OF POWER TRANSFORMERS INSULATION STRUCTURES BASIC INFORMATION
How To Design Power Transformer Insulation Structures?
Three factors must be considered in the evaluation of the dielectric capability of an insulation structure—the voltage distribution must be calculated between different parts of the winding, the dielectric stresses are then calculated knowing the voltages and the geometry, and finally the actual stresses can be compared with breakdown or design stresses to determine the design margin.
Voltage distributions are linear when the flux in the core is established. This occurs during all power frequency test and operating conditions and to a great extent under switching impulse conditions.
(Switching impulse waves have front times in the order of tens to hundreds of microseconds and tails in excess of 1000 μs.) These conditions tend to stress the major insulation and not inside of the winding.
For shorter-duration impulses, such as full-wave, chopped-wave, or front-wave, the voltage does not divide linearly within the winding and must be determined by calculation or low voltage measurement.
The initial distribution is determined by the capacitative network of the winding. For disk and helical windings, the capacitance to ground is usually much greater than the series capacitance through the winding.
Under impulse conditions, most of the capacitive current flows through the capacitance to ground near the end of the winding, creating a large voltage drop across the line end portion of the coil.
The capacitance network for shell form and layer-wound core form results in a more uniform initial distribution because they use electrostatic shields on both terminals of the coil to increase the ratio between the series and to ground capacitances.
Static shields are commonly used in disk windings to prevent excessive concentrations of voltages on the line-end turns by increasing the effective series capacitance within the coil, especially in the line end sections.
Interleaving turns and introducing floating metal shields are two other techniques that are commonly used to increase the series capacitance of the coil.
Following the initial period, electrical oscillations occur within the windings. These oscillations impose greater stresses from the middle parts of the windings to ground for long-duration waves than for short-duration waves.
Very fast impulses, such as steep chopped waves, impose the greatest stresses between turns and coil portions. Note that switching impulse transient voltages are two types— asperiodic and oscillatory. Unlike the asperiodic waves discussed earlier, the oscillatory waves can excite winding natural frequencies and produce stresses of concern in the internal winding insulation.
Transformer windings that have low natural frequencies are the most vulnerable because internal damping is more effective at high frequencies.
Dielectric stresses existing within the insulation structure are determined using direct calculation (for basic geometries), analog modeling, or most recently, sophisticated finite-element computer programs.
Allowable stresses are determined from experience, model tests, or published data. For liquidinsulated transformers, insulation strength is greatly affected by contamination and moisture. The relatively porous and hygroscopic paper-based insulation must be carefully dried and vacuum impregnated with oil to remove moisture and gas to obtain the required high dielectric strength and to resist deterioration at operating temperatures.
Gas pockets or bubbles in the insulation are particularly destructive to the insulation because the gas (usually air) not only has a low dielectric constant (about 1.0), which means that it will be stressed more highly than the other insulation, but also air has a low dielectric strength.
High-voltage dc stresses may be imposed on certain transformers used in terminal equipment for dc transmission lines. Direct-current voltage applied to a composite insulation structure divides between individual components in proportion to the resistivities of the material.
In general the resistivity of an insulating material is not a constant but varies over a range of 100:1 or more, depending on temperature, dryness, contamination, and stress. Insulation design of high-voltage dc transformers in particular require extreme care.
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