Single-phase transformer Application

Single-phase transformer

Electrical power transformer is a static device which transforms electrical energy from one circuit to another without any direct electrical connection and with the help of mutual induction between two windings. It transforms power from one circuit to another without changing its frequency but may be in different voltage level.

A single-phase transformer is a type of power transformer that utilizes single-phase alternating current, meaning the transformer relies on a voltage cycle that operates in a unified time phase. 

It consists of two coils of electrical wire called inner and outer windings. The primary is usually known to have the higher amount of voltage. Both coils are wrapped around a common closed magnetic iron circuit which is referred to as the core. The core is made up of several layers of iron, laminated together to decrease losses. Being linked at the common core allows power to be transferred from one coil to the other without an electrical connection. When current passes through the primary coil, a magnetic field is created which induces a voltage in the secondary coil. Usually, the primary coil is where the high voltage comes in and then is transformed to create a magnetic field. The job of the secondary coil is to transform the alternating magnetic field into electric power, supplying the required voltage output.

Solid works model of a Single-phase transformer

The Solid works model of a single-phase transformer consists of a Core, an inner coil and an outer coil, as shown in Figure 1.  

EMS Simulation of a Single-phase transformer

In EMS, a single-phase transformer is analyzed using AC Magnetic study coupled with thermal analysis to calculate the core loss, magnetic flux density and temperatures.

The frequency of operation of this transformer is 60 Hz.
 

Coupling to Thermal Analysis

Thermal analysis calculates the temperature distribution in a body due to conduction in the solids. A convection boundary condition is allowed to define what happens to the heat flux in the extremities of the model.

In EMS, Thermal analysis automatically follow an electromagnetic analysis so that the heat sources in the model are automatically pre-computed.

Material

The simulated model composed of a laminated steel Core, an inner coil, an outer coil and Air. The properties of the materials are summarized in Table 1.
The core loss curve is shown in Figure 2.

 

Component	Material	Relative permeability	Electrical Conductivity (S/m)	Thermal Conductivity (W*m-1  * k-1)
Core	laminated steel (M36 at 0.47mm; Mass density: 7700 kg/m^3)	1616	2.32558 e+006	43
Inner Coil/ Outer Coil	Copper	0.99991	5.7e+007	401
Coils Air, Inner Air, Outer Air	Air	1	0	0.024

 

Coils

In this simulation, the inner and outer coils are modeled as wound coils. They operate at 60 Hz with the inner coil passing 150 A-turns (300 turns, RMS current magnitude 500 mA, Current Phase 0 deg), while the outer coil passes 60 A-turns (600 turns, RMS current magnitude 100 mA, Current Phase 0 deg). This scenario captures one operating condition of the transformer at a particular load. The wire diameter of the wound conductors is 0.91168568 mm.

Thermal Inputs

Convection is the heat transfer mode in which heat transfers between a solid face and an adjacent moving fluid (or gas). In EMS, all air bodies (Outer Air, Inner Air and Coils Air) are applied a convection boundary condition.
Convection coefficient was set to be   10 W/ (m2 *k), and the Bulk ambient temperature was set to be 300 Kelvin.

Meshing

Meshing is a very crucial step in the simulation. EMS estimates a global element size for the model taking into consideration its volume, surface area, and other geometric details. The size of the generated mesh (number of nodes and elements) depends on the geometry and dimensions of the model, element size, mesh tolerance, and mesh control. In the early stages of your design where approximate results may suffice, you may specify a larger element size for a faster solution. For a more accurate solution, a smaller element size may be required.

To achieve a good accuracy without increasing the total number of mesh elements, it is recommended to apply a mesh control to the regions where a large variation is expected. Four locals mesh control are applied to the two coils, the Core, the inner Air and the Coils Air as shown in Table 2. Figure 3 shows the resulting mesh.

Results

The Eddy loss, the Hysteresis loss, the Excess loss and the Core loss in the Core of the transformer, computed by EMS, are shown in Figure 4. These constitute the total core loss.

3D plots generated by EMS

In AC Magnetic study coupled to thermal analysis, EMS generates 3D plots of Magnetic Flux Density as shown in Figures 5, Eddy current distribution as shown in Figure 6, Core Loss in the Core body as shown in Figure 7 and Temperature  in the solids as shown in Figure 8.

   

Conclusion

Using EMS, the AC Magnetic study coupled with thermal analysis of a single phase transformer gives the different core losses in the Core body, the magnetic flux density, the magnetic flux intensity, the current density and the Temperature. Users can do various scenarios like No Load test, Short circuit test and operating condition test to study the performance of the transformer.