Proceedings of the ASME 2017 Power Conference Joint With ICOPE-17

POWER2017-ICOPE-17
June 26-30, 2017, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

POWER-ICOPE2017-3319

STUDY ON CALCULATION METHOD OF COOLING OIL FLOW RATE ALLOCATION

FOR NATURAL OIL CIRCULATION TRANSFORMER

Rong Xie Na Wang

Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and
Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Dalian University of Technology,
Dalian, Liaoning, China,116024
Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy Utilization and
Energy Conservation of Ministry of Education,
School of Energy and Power Engineering,
Dalian University of Technology,
Dalian, Liaoning , China,116024

Zifu Lu Zhonglin Cheng Baopeng Xu

Hangzhou Steam turbine Co., Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy
Ltd, Utilization and Energy
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, Conservation of
310022 Ministry of Education,
School of Energy and Power
Engineering,
Dalian University of Technology,
Dalian, Liaoning, China,116024
Key Laboratory of Ocean Energy
Utilization and Energy
Conservation of
Ministry of Education,
School of Energy and Power
Engineering,
Dalian University of Technology,
Dalian, Liaoning, China,116024

ABSTRACT
For the natural oil circulation power transformer, the hot
spot temperature and winding temperature should be within
prescribed limits so as to ensure its life and reliability.
Temperature rise of inner windings not only depends on the
transformer loss, but relates to oil flow closely. Therefore,
whether the oil flow of transformer and oil flow distribution
rules among the three windings can be predicted or not, relates
to success or failure of the winding temperature rise research.
According to the structural characteristics of transformer, a
three-dimensional computational model including windings and
external radiators was built by a three-dimensional modeling
software. Initially, from the view of flow, the flow resistance of
natural oil circulation power transformer windings has been
calculated and analyzed using the CFD methodology, and the
resistance characteristic curves about high voltage windings,
middle voltage windings, low voltage windings, radiators and
pipelines were fitted respectively by the least square method.
And then, on the basis of above, the porous media model was
applied to simplify the integral model of transformer so as to
build a three-dimensional coupled porous media-pure fluid
computational model. Meanwhile, the author calculated
porosities and linear resistance coefficients of high voltage,
middle voltage and low voltage windings. At the end of this
paper, to obtain the relationship of oil flow distribution among
three windings, the pressure loss was calculated by numerical
simulation. Compared with the theoretical calculation results
which was based on the part of experimental data, the numerical
calculation results are in agreement with these data. And the
error between them is within 6 percent. Therefore, the
feasibility and accuracy of calculation method, which was used
to calculate oil flow of natural oil circulation power transformer
windings by the porous media model, has been verified as well.
There are two kinds of conventional method to calculate oil
flow, including an empirical method and an experimental
method. On the one hand, although the former kind of method
can be applied conveniently, it cannot consider all the factors so
that the accuracy cannot be guaranteed. On the other hand,
experimental method to calculate the flow can present high
accuracy, but the cost of carrying out experimental study is high.
Therefore, this paper presents another calculation method aimed
to the flow resistance and oil flow by CFD. And the calculation
method presented has higher calculation accuracy compared to
above. Meanwhile, the new method provides a theoretical
reference about oil flow distribution for the design of the power
transformer.
Key words: transformer, flow resistance, inlet flow rate
allocation, CFD
INTRODUCTION
Transformer is one of the core equipment in the power
system, and its reliability and stability under operation directly
concerns the security of the entire grid. With the growing

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 demand for electricity, the transformer voltage level and
capacity also continue to be improved. Because of the limitation
of transportation and installation, the increasing space of weight
and size for transformer gets less and less, so that the problem
of winding temperature rise is getting serious.
For oil immersed transformer, the winding temperature rise
not only depends on the losses of transformer, but also closely
relates to the oil flow rate. Therefore, whether the oil flow rate
distribution law among different windings can be accurately
predicted or not, closely relates to the success or failure of the
winding temperature rise research. All kinds of problems make
multiple physical fields research for transformers deserving of
more attention. The researchers can reveal the physical
properties in electromagnetic, mechanical aspects for
transformers. However, as for the transformer cooling problem,
the research is relatively weak. Currently, three main methods
are often used to calculate the spot temperature rise, namely
empirical formula method, hot road model method and
numerical simulation method. The first one has been applied in
certain practical engineering, offering different parameters to
different types of transformers, but it ignores too many factors.
The second one mainly uses the thermoelectricity analogy to
build thermal model of transformers in order to solve the hot
temperature. But the result is closely related to the parameters
set in the method. To a certain extent, the two methods above
ignore the transformer structure and the cooling medium on the
influence of the hot spots temperature. Therefore, in order to
more systematically research the temperature distribution inside
the transformer, many researchers proposed the numerical
simulation method based on fluid mechanics and heat transfer
theory, and established the physical model to analyze the
temperature field. However, due to the complex internal
structure of the transformer, the model had to be simplified in
the calculation. In addition, the pressure loss was mainly
calculated by empirical formula to, so the errors are inevitable.
To some extent, multiple physical fields coupling analysis
method is put forward to enhance the accuracy of the
temperature field solving. Yuan Gao[1] built a two-dimensional
model for windings, and analyzed the temperature field and
flow field using fluid-solid interaction method. The method
provides a reference for improving of winding temperature rise.
Haibin Fang[2] adopted finite volume method to study the flow
rate distribution and temperature rise of oil-immersed
transformer by two-dimensional model. Mufuta[3]adopted a two-
dimensional model according to symmetrical characteristics to
simulate temperature field and flow field under different mass
flow. Meanwhile, the author researched the effect of Reynolds
number and Gr number on heat dissipation effect. Skillen[4]
established integral two-dimensional model to simulate the
effect of heat flux on oil temperature and flow about low
voltage windings. Zhang et al.[5] developed two-dimensional
model to investigate the temperature distribution in a disc-type
transformer and formulated empirical correlations for
calculating local heat transfer coefficients. Most of the current
analysis was based on two-dimensional axisymmetric model,
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and ignored the influence of transformer temperature on
winding loss. Therefore, compared with three-dimensional
model, 2D model has certain errors. Ziyu Jia[6] put forward oil
flow distribution engineering calculation method for the forced
oil circulation guide cooling transformer on the basis of a large
number of experiments. Yongteng Jing[7] established three-
dimensional multi-physics coupling mathematical model and
researched the transformer winding heat problem based on the
nonlinear influence of material. M.A. Taghikhani[8] used finite
element method to simulate a transformer with non-directed oil-
forced cooling and directed oil-forced cooling. He also
compared the results with those obtained from finite integral
model. The experimental test checks the validity and accuracy
of the proposed method. Smolka[9] presented a state-of-the-art of
the numerical modeling of the coupled problems involving heat,
fluid flow and electromagnetic phenomena in electrical
transformers by establishing three-dimensional model. Chao
Liu[10] studied temperature rise of windings by introducing a
quasi-3D coupled-field method, and applied it on a ventilated
dry-type transformer.
In view of mentioned above, a three-dimensional coupled
porous media-pure fluid computational model was put forward
in this paper to analyze the pressure loss of the different
windings and distribution of oil mass flow among the windings.
The flow resistance characteristics and the cooling oil flow
distribution rule for oil-immersed transformer were focused on
from the flow view by the commercial CFD software.
PHYSICAL MODEL
An ODFS - 334000/500 type transformer was studied in this
paper—The capacity is 334000KVA, and the high voltage is
500KV. The geometric model of windings is composed of 48
groups of blocks and stays along the circumferential direction,
the windings was thus divided into 48 equal parts. According to
the characteristic of axial symmetry, only 1/48 module between
two sets of blocks and stays was taken for three-dimensional
modeling. The external radiators are symmetrically arranged on
both sides of the oil tank. Each side consists of the same 14
independent radiator pieces, except four radiator pieces located
in the lateral are slightly different from the others, the rest of the
radiator pieces has the similar structure and thermal properties.
Therefore, the only one of the radiator pieces is taken to
construct model according to its symmetrical characteristic. The
model diagram of high-voltage winding, middle-voltage
winding, low-voltage winding and radiator are respectively
shown in figure 1.

a. HV winding b. MV winding
c. LV winding d. radiator
Fig.1 Physical model
MESHING AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
The winding model was divided into solid domain and
fluid domain. The two domain structured grids were divided by
ICEM soft. And the grid was finely meshed near the wall. After
grid independence test, the grid number of high voltage
winding, middle voltage winding and low voltage winding is
respectively 5 million, 5.7 million and 5.4 million.
As the oil flow velocity is very slow for natural oil
circulation transformer, and Reynolds Number is below critical
degree by several orders, the flow in the transformer was
modeled laminar.
Circumferential boundaries was set as symmetric
boundary. The inlet condition was set to the velocity boundary
and the outlet was set to the pressure boundary. The inlet
temperature of fluid domain for a given oil was set to 29℃ and
the outlet pressure was set to 0 Pa. The heat transfer between
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the radiator and air was chosen the third boundary condition.
Because the fan is used to strengthen heat transfer by air side,
according to the experience, a given surface heat transfer
2
coefficient was set to 24W⋅ m ∙ K 1 . The ambient temperature
was set to 20℃.
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
In low-voltage winding, for example, the pressure contour
was illustrated in Fig.2 under given 0.0375kg/s inlet flow rate. It
is evident that the maximum value is located at the oil inlet, and
the oil pressure decreases gradually from bottom to top. But the
pressure difference is not obvious along horizontal direction.
The main reason is the oil viscidity. On the one hand, the
frictional resistance loss was caused by the friction effect
between the oil and the flow channel in the flow process. On the
other hand, the local resistance loss was produced by the oil
convectional effect and vortex dissipation in the horizontal and
vertical flow channels intersections. The comprehensive effect
of above two kinds of losses leads to fluid pressure decreases
along the vertical direction. However, owing to slower speed
and smaller flow loss of the oil in the horizontal direction, the
pressure difference is not obvious.
The pressure contour of the radiator was shown in Fig.3. It
can be seen that, the flow channel in the radiator is relatively
simple and the flow direction does not change. So the local
resistance loss in the flow process is low, leading to the total
pressure loss also less than that in windings. At the same height
of inlet side, the pressure in the center channel is higher than
that in both side channels. While the pressure change is exactly
opposite at the exit. The main reason is that the middle oil flow
channel is near the upper collection tube, the pressure loss is
small. While the pressure is lower on either side because the oil
flow channel is far away from the upper tube. Similarly, at the
exit, compared with the oil flow channel on both sides, the
middle oil flow channel is close to the lower collection tube, the
pressure loss of the oil is lower before entering the lower
collection tube, so the pressure is higher. Based on the above,
the oil flow rate in middle flow channel is higher than that in
both sides of the channels. But because both sides of the
channels directly contact with the atmosphere, the cooling effect
is better than that in middle passage. It indicates that the radiator
cooling effect does not achieve the optimal status.
 Bottom Top
Fig.2 Pressure contour in LV winding Fig.3 Pressure contour of radiator

under 0.0375kg/s inlet flow rate
In order to obtain pressure loss-flow rate curves of windings
under different mass flow, every winding was simulated under
eight flow rates. Big distinction between the selected mass flow
and the real mass flow may lead to a deviation in the fitting
results. For this reason, the flow rate was firstly evaluated by an
empirical equation (1), and then the eight inlet mass flow were
selected from 0.5Qm to 2Qm (in the area [0.5Qm, 2Qm]).
Qm  1.1PL
Where Qm is the inlet mass flow
PL is the loss in the windings.
According to energy conservation equation, the transformer
loss can be obtained by equation (2). The inlet oil temperature
in the radiator is approximately equal to the outlet temperature
of the windings,
PT  c pQm T
On the basis of above computing results, the relation curves
between the pressure loss and the mass flow were fitted by
using the least square method, shown in Fig.4, respectively for
high-voltage winding, middle-voltage winding, low-voltage
winding, radiators and pipelines (including upper and lower
collection tube). From the figures, it can be seen that the
pressure loss increases with the mass flow increasing. When the
inlet mass flow increases, the oil average temperature will
reduce, resulting in increased oil viscosity. The higher oil
viscosity is, the more obviously the flow is hindered.
(1)
(2)

Where PT is the transformer loss

Qm is inlet mass flow
c p is the average specific heat coefficient of oil
∆T is the temperature rise between inlet and outlet of the
radiator.

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 Fig.4 Relation curves between pressure loss and mass flow

INTEGRAL MODEL ESTABLISHMENT

The structure size of windings is 6m×4m×5m，while the
gap between two layers of windings is 2mm, so the number of
grids meeting computing requirement is considerable. The grid
quantity of high-voltage winding, middle-voltage winding, low-
voltage winding, and radiators is respectively 5 million, 5.7
million, 5.4 million and 136, 000. If integral model is directly
built, too large grid quantity may not be able to run in a
workstation and will take a very long computing time.
Obviously, the method of integrally modeling cannot conform to
the engineering practice. Therefore, it is convenient to simulate
by dividing the integral model into several blocks.
In previous studies, the middle-voltage winding was
simulated in isolation. The inlet of oil domain for a given oil
temperature was set to 29 ℃ , and given mass flow was
0.052kg/s. Pressure of outlet was set to 0 Pa. The top oil
temperature rises was presented in Table 1. There is a big error
between the simulative result and the experimental one. One
reason is the inlet mass flow of different windings is achieved
from empirical equation (1). Another one is the computing
model is isolated.
In order to obtain more accurate computing results and
make the grid quantity meeting the workstation requirements, a
porous media model was established to simplify the whole
structure, including high-voltage winding, middle-voltage
winding, low-voltage winding, pipeline system and radiators.
And the inlet mass flow in different windings is allocated
according to above pressure loss-flow rate curves. The
simplified model effectively reduced the grid quantity, took all
kinds of critical parts into consideration synthetically. As seen in
Fig.4, the pressure loss of oil in the pipeline between the
windings and the radiator accounts for small percentage
compared to total loss. So the loss in the pipeline has little
impact on oil flow. Above pipeline system was simplified to
single pipe with the same diameter as pipeline installed in

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 radiators. The temperature field of integral model was presented Table 2. Simulation results of integral model
in figure 5.
linear
Table 1. Comparison of top oil temperature rise for the Top oil pressure resistance mass
middle-voltage winding Model temperature loss coefficient flow
type (K) (Pa) 3 1 (kg/s)
Model type Top oil Top oil (kg∙ m ∙ s )
(middle-voltage temperature temperature
HV 54.85 183.1 31550 0.139
winding) (℃) rise(℃)
Isolated model 77 48 MV 59.05 201.8 33818 0.096
Integral model 59.5 30.5 LV 56.35 197.8 18024 0.060
experimental data --- 30.4

For a porous media model, the continuity equation and

energy equation are the same as the standard governing
equations, except for the momentum equation, obtained by
adding a resistance term on the standard N-S equation. And for
the porous media model, the resistance term can be written as,
p (3)
  C1vi  C2 v j v j
xi
Where p is the pressure
C1 is the first resistance coefficient
C 2 is the second resistance coefficient
vi and v j are the velocity components on i and j
direction.
Because of low oil velocity in the winding, the second
resistance term donates only a little to the total resistance, Fig.5 Contours of temperature of integral model.
which can be omitted, so eq. (3) is equivalent to, THEORETICAL CALCULATION
p
  C1vi (4) For furthermore verifying the accuracy of porous media
xi model, theoretical calculation was conducted according to the
Eq. (4) is known as Darcy’s Law. It shows that, under low balance principle of driving force and resistance under steady
oil velocity, flow resistance is proportional to the velocity. flow. The curves of buoyancy and resistance are presented in
Furthermore, there is little temperature variation of oil in the Fig.6. The flow balance lies in the intersection of the two curves.
pipeline, so it was treated as isentropic flow.
The oil temperature, linear resistance coefficient and mass
flow of oil are shown in Table 2 by simulating the simplified
model. Because only one single piece of the radiator was
simulated, the real mass flow is 28 times of the simulation
solution, thus the real mass flow in high-voltage winding,
middle-voltage winding and low-voltage winding is respectively
3.89kg/s, 2.69kg/s and 8.27kg/s.
The top oil temperature of middle-voltage obtained from
integral model was compared with the experimental result,
shown in Table 1. Obviously, the two are in good agreement,
verifying the porous media model is effective and credible.

Fig.6 Curves of buoyancy and resistance

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 (2) to obtain the blow formulations:
13.69
1  6  (12)
Q1
23.89
2  6  (13)
Q2
29.29
3  6  (14)
Q3
146.6
4  6  (15)
QT
73.3
5   6  (16)
QT
Where Q1 , Q2 , Q3 , QT is respectively the mass flow in high-
Fig.7 Simplified network model voltage windings, middle-voltage windings, low-voltage
windings, radiators.
In the porous media model, the windings and the radiator Refer to the resistance characteristic of pipeline, the inlet
respectively locate on two sides, and the cooling oil circularly and outlet pipelines of radiator was simplified. The pressure loss
flows, so the influence of gravity was ignored. and the flow rate respectively achieved from the theoretical
Buoyancy appears due to the density difference between calculation and the simulation of the porous media integral
different location oil, the computation formula is as follows: model are presented in table 3.
h
F     R  x   S x gdx (5) Table 3. Comparison of theoretical results
0
and simulation results
Where F is buoyancy for oil, Pressure loss Mass flow
 R is density of oil around windings, Model
type Pa kg/s
 S is density of oil around radiator.
theoretical simulation error theoretical simulation error
According to the simplified network model of the results results results results
transformer, as shown in figure 7, the buoyancy expression of HV 193.3 197.8 2.3% 1.73 1.69 2.3%
winding circuit is as follows: MV 218.8 201.8 7.8% 2.85 2.69 5.6%
FLV   5 gh5  6 gh6    1gh1  4 gh4  (6)
LV 205.4 183.1 10% 4.04 3.89 3.7%
FMV   5 gh5  6 gh6    2 gh2  4 gh4  (7) radiator 61.7 58.4 5.3% 8.62 8.27 4.1%

FHV   5 gh5  6 gh6    3 gh3  4 gh4  (8)

Considering the balance principle of resistance and
buoyancy, equal (9)-(11) are available:
FLV  P1  P4  P5  P6
FMV  P2  P4  P5  P6
FHV  P3  P4  P5  P6
Where ∆ P1 , ∆ P2 , ∆ P3 , ∆ P4 , ∆ P5 , ∆ P6 are respectively the
resistance of cooling oil in low-voltage winding, middle-voltage
winding, high-voltage winding, cross-upper pipe, radiator, cross-
lower pipe; 1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 are respectively the
density of cooling oil in low-voltage winding, middle-voltage
winding, high-voltage winding, cross-upper pipe, radiator, cross-
lower pipe.
In addition, owing to the oil density changing with the
temperature, the above expressions were combined with equal
As seen in Tab.3, in addition to the pressure loss of the
low-voltage winding, most of the errors are within the range
of engineering precision.
(9)
(10) CONCLUSION
(1) The resistance characteristic of transformer was focused on
(11)
by separate simulation for every components. The flow
resistance of different components increases with the increasing
of flow rate. The faster the flow rate increases, the bigger the
flow resistance is. The determination of flow resistance lays the
foundation for the inlet flow rate calculation in different
windings.
(2) The porous media integral model was built to simplify the
transformer. Compared with isolated model, it can obtain results
in good agreement with the experimental ones.

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