Dry-Type Power Transformers Thermal Analysis with Finite Element Method

Abstract

The transformer temperature is one of the main variables of interest in its manufacture and operation, since it interferes in the useful life of the transformer. In this sense, the present work proposes a thermal simulation for the temperature estimate of a dry-type transformer. Initially a thermal analysis was performed from experimental measurements of temperatures of a dry-type power transformer of 500kVA for different conditions of load. Posteriorly, a thermal simulation was proposed using finite element theory. Thus, the heat diffusion equation was used, with the following boundary conditions: convection and radiation equations; characteristics of the materials used; the measurement data and the dimensions of the transformer. FEMM 2D software was used for the proposed simulation. Finally, in order to validate the proposed analyzes, experimental measurements were compared with the values obtained in the thermal simulation. The results of the thermal simulation showed agreement with the experimentally measured values.