IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 18, NO.

3, JULY 2003

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A Harmonic Model for the Nonlinearities of Single-Phase Transformer With Describing Functions
Sy-Ruen Huang, Member, IEEE, Steven Chingyei Chung, Bing-Nan Chen, and Yi-Hung Chen
AbstractIn a transformer, the harmonic model is essential for the filter design and analysis of harmonic power flow. Among all of the harmonic analyses of nonlinear devices, the core nonlinearity caused by the transformer hysteresis has received the most interest. Although many harmonic models have been proposed to interpret the nonlinearity of the transformer core, most of them require complex calculations. In this study, we derive the mathematical formulas of the exciting current for a single-phase transformer by the describing function methods. The mathematical expression allows us to obtain the Fourier series for the exciting current; and, then, it provides the various order harmonic magnitudes and phase angles of the exciting current. This work also presents a mathematical model characterized by simple calculation and with high precision for the harmonics of exciting current. The transformer is under no load condition. Actual measuring verifies the effectiveness of the proposed model. Index TermsDescribing function, harmonics, hysteresis loop, transformer.

I. INTRODUCTION XTENSIVE applications of power electronic equipment and other nonlinear components often result in the harmonic distortions in a power supply system. Such distortions lead to several serious problems such as the overvoltage of a system capacitor bank, harmonic resonance, misactions of the protective relay, and equipment overheating. Hence, understanding how the harmonics affects a power supply system requires exploring the harmonic characteristics of each nonlinear component (including the transformer). Thus, harmonic models can be developed to analyze the harmonic power flow and filter designs. Regarding the harmonic model of a transformer, many numerical methods have been applied to simulate the nonlinearity of transformer core. To replace the nonlinearity of transformer core and to obtain the equivalent circuit, a related method that adds a nonlinear component to the magnetizing branch of a transformer has been presented in [1]. Other studies [2][4] attempted to find an equivalent Norton harmonic circuit for the magnetizing branch of a transformer in the harmonic domain. According to a transformers electrical configuration, it can be used to combine with the power network. In [5], a time-dependent differential equation is derived to describe the transformer harmonic model and, in doing so, the solution
Manuscript received May 14, 2001; revised December 4, 2001. This work was supported by the National Science Council of the Republic of China under Contract No.. NSC 89-2213-E-035-077. The authors are with the Energy Conversion Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2003.813878

can be obtained through an effective algorithm. The finite element method mentioned in [6],[7] utilizes several parameters ranging from the size of transformer core, saturation curve of ferromagnetic material, magnetic core boundary condition, number of elements to the integral time step when establishing a two-dimensional (2-D) magnetic vector potential governing equation. Meanwhile, harmonic balance finite element method can be applied to calculate the flux linkage and excitation current (two variables along with its various orders of harmonic content) of transformer core at any random position-a numeric simulation methodology. A unique feature of this harmonic balance finite element method lies in the random establishment of time varying reluctivity within the magnetic core, thus rendering a high precision rate in calculation, however, with a rather complicated process. With parameters such as number of elements, magnetic core boundary conditions, and integral time step exacting their influences, it adversely impacts the calculation time and its precision level. The method of describing function has been extensively used to determine the limit cycle and dynamic behavior of a nonlinear system [8][13]. As for other applications, the describing function can also be viewed as another harmonic balance technique [9],[10] that can even be used on a power supply system with the large current or voltage signals. Therefore, this work develops a no-load harmonic model for a single-phase transformer by applying the describing function. Doing so allows us to interpret hysteresis nonlinearity of transformer core and derive a mathematical expression for the exciting current. Then, with the Fourier series algorithm, the equations of various order harmonic magnitudes and harmonic angles can be obtained. Finally, each factor from the hysteresis loop is substituted to solve various order harmonic magnitude and harmonic angles. In this study, the proposed method differs from above-mentioned methods mainly in that the proposed method can be used to estimate various order harmonic magnitudes and angles efficiently and accurately, thereby reducing the calculation time. The proposed approach can be summarized as follows: in magnetizing characteristic analysis, time-periodic of input flux linkage waveform is used to divide the varying voltage into three reluctivityassuming reluctivity does not vary with changing positions. Restated, the reluctivity of the entire transformer is divided into three piecewise linear. Meanwhile, utilize the concept of descriptive function, regarding reluctivity in three piecewise linear as gain. Additionally, through the known input flux linkage, transformer excitation current can easily be calculated. Finally, with Fourier analysis, the mathematical formula is deducted for various order harmonic magnitudes and harmonic phase angles

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B. Describing Function for the Nonlinearity of the Magnetizing Branch of the Transformer Core Consider the input, a sinusoid flux linkage with amplitude and frequency . The periodic can be obtained through the nonlinear exciting current component of core inductance, as shown in Fig. 3. Considcan be ering only the fundamental frequency, the output expressed as follows: Fundamental frequency output (7) The fundamental frequency of the describing function for the nonlinear core of the magnetizing branch can be defined as Describing function (8)

Fig. 1.

Nonlinear systems.

of the excitation current. Consequently, a simpler calculation procedure is achieved, with less calculation time since it falls within the allowable margin of error. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II introduces the describing function and describing function expression for the transformer core. Section III presents the harmonic mathematical model of single-phase transformers exciting current under no-load condition. Next, Section IV compares the proposed model and actual measurement results. Conclusions are finally made in Section V. II. DESCRIBING FUNCTION A. Basic Concept of the Describing Function Fig. 1 illustrates a nonlinear system. In this figure, let

is related only to the In(8), this describing function frequency and amplitude of the input flux linkage. Therefore, the fundamental frequency of the describing function for the magnetizing branch of the nonlinear core can be expressed as (9) (1) In above equations

is a periodic function. ThereIn the steady state, the output can be expressed as a Fourier series. Thus fore, (2) and in (2) can be obtained by the following equation: (3) (4) , , where is the period of the input signal is a random point on the time axis. Assuming that the and is zero. Moreover, nenonlinear component is symmetric, can be approximated glecting the influence of harmonics, as Based on the above concept, this investigation estimates the harmonic magnitudes and angles of the transformers exciting current under no-load conditions. C. Describing Function of Transformer Hysteresis Fig. 3 illustrates the relationship between the exciting current and the magnetizing branch of the nonlinear core of the transis the input sinusoidal flux linkage; is former, where the output nonsinusoidal exciting current, and a hysteresis loop and . Therefore, the defines the relationship between concept in Section II-B can be used to establish the describing , a hysteresis loop. The exciting current function of can be expressed mathematically. The calculation steps follow. Step 1) Divide the hysteresis loop into three linear pieces , , and classified according with slopes to the saturation and nonsaturation of the magnetizing branch of the transformer core. Restated, the shown in Fig. 3 is linearized hysteresis loop of piecewise. Fig. 3 also presents other parameters such of the hysteresis loop. as the knee points Therefore, the describing function is shown in Fig. 4. Step 2) Comparing the corresponding gain at different time slot to both input flux linkage waveform and output exciting current waveform during the same period in three allows us to calculate the value of different time slots, as illustrated in (9) and Fig. 2. values actually represent the In Fig. 3,

(5) can be rewritten as using In (5), trigonometric identities. Based on (5), the gain of the nonlinear component can be expressed as a complex number The gain of nonlinearity (6)

HUANG et al.: A HARMONIC MODEL FOR THE NONLINEARITIES OF SINGLE-PHASE TRANSFORMER WITH DESCRIBING FUNCTIONS

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Fig. 2. Expression of describing function.

Fig. 4.

Piecewise linear function of hysteresis loop.

value generally falls within the range between 10 and 30 A/m. III. MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION FOR THE HARMONICS OF EXCITING CURRENT FOR A SINGLE PHASE TRANSFORMER WITHOUT LOAD

THE

Fig. 3. Exciting-current waveform for a transformers core.

slope of three piecewise linear in the hysteresis , , and loop, which are designated as parameters, respectively. Therefore, if input is known, can be calculated as follows

Substituting the exciting current from (10) into (2)(4) can generate the Fourier series for the exciting current. Correspondingly, the fundamental content, harmonic magnitude, and the angle of each order of harmonic can be solved by the following equations: (11)

(12)

(10) is the angle corresponding where to the knee point of the hysteresis loop and the unit is the reverse is radian. The coercive force magnetic force required to reduce the residual magnetism to zero. From Amperes Law, we come to the ( : mean magnetic following equation : excitation current length : winding number : coercive force.) Herein, the direct current coercive force parameter provided by the transformer of Fig. 4. manufacturer is used to calculate

(13) (14)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 18, NO. 3, JULY 2003

(15)

Fig. 5.

Waveform for the exciting current.

(16)

TABLE I HARMONIC CONTENTS OF TRANSFORMER EXCITING CURRENT. (ACTUAL MEASUREMENT RESULTS)

where is the harmonic amplitude of the exciting current, is the harmonic phase angle of the exciting current, and is the harmonic order of the exciting current. Equations (11)(16) indicate that various order harmonic magnitudes and phase angles relate directly to the knee point of the hysteresis loop, the slopes of each linear piece in the hysteresis loop, and the input flux linkage. Therefore, the above parameters can be obtained from actual measurements. For solving the various order harmonic magnitudes and phase angles of exciting current, we substitute the above parameters obtained from actual measurements into the above equations to solve the various order harmonic magnitudes and phase angles. From a different angle, assume that this model can be applied to a no-load electricity power system. Additionally, excitation current analysis can become further complicated if the oddnumber order harmonic (such as fifth and seventh and order harmonic) in the voltage source is considered. In this case, numerical analysis is more feasible. Herein, only transformer no-load excitation current related data are listed in the Appendix. IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN MATHEMATICAL MODEL AND ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS Herein, the test transformer is a single-phased amorphous metal transformer with a rated voltage 110 V and capacity 500 VA. With the no-load test, the waveform for the exciting current is shown in Fig. 5. In addition, the simulated waveform of the exciting current for the harmonic model is shown in Fig. 5. The simulated waveform is expressed in (10). In the experiment, the harmonic contents are measured by the no-load test with a series connection to a 1- , sampling resister, which converts the current signal to the voltage signal. The voltage signal also becomes an input to the harmonic analyzer for more analysis. Table I summarizes the experimental results of various order harmonic contents. Also, Table II lists the theoretical results of the harmonic contents of the exciting current predicted by (11)(16). However, the parameters , ,

TABLE II HARMONIC CONTENTS OF TRANSFORMER EXCITING CURRENT. (THE MODEL)

, and estimated from the experiment are listed in Table III. Table III also lists the different values for the parameters as obtained from Fig. 6, and used in the simulation. According to Tables I and II, the calculations in this work for harmonic

HUANG et al.: A HARMONIC MODEL FOR THE NONLINEARITIES OF SINGLE-PHASE TRANSFORMER WITH DESCRIBING FUNCTIONS

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TABLE III DIFFERENT PARAMETERS VALUES USED IN THE MODEL

tent and phase angle are neglected, input voltage calculation takes the following equation: (A.1) and , and neglecting harmonic assuming takes the folphase angle influences, excitation current lowing forms:

(A.2)

(A.3)

(A.4)

(A.5) where
Fig. 6. Hysteresis loop of transformer (actual measurements).

content of various orders of excitation current demonstrate that the first, third, and fifth order harmonic contents are closer to the laboratory measurement results. Only the seventh order harmonic content demonstrates a wider margin of error, and with a higher value. We hypothesize that this is owing to that, by using descriptive function, it puts the hysteresis loop in a piecewise linear fashion, thus rendering a relatively high margin of error when estimating higher order excitation current harmonic contents. Also, during the real measurement, amorphous metal transformers hysteresis loop is asymmetric, which adversely influences harmonic estimate and measurement error. V. CONCLUSIONS Comparative results in this study have revealed only a slight discrepancy between the experimental results and theoretical predictions of (11)(16), thus demonstrating that the proposed model has a high accuracy. In addition, this harmonic model can also be derived for the phase angles of the exciting current of various order harmonic contents. Additionally, the data of the hysteresis loop required by the model can be also obtained from the manufacturers. Hence, established on the basis of minimal information, the proposed model attempts to provide a high precision algorithm without complex calculations. APPENDIX If the input voltage containing fifth and seventh order harmonic is considered and influences from smaller harmonic con-

REFERENCES
[1] J. D. Greene and C. A. Gross, Nonlinear modeling of transformers, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 24, pp. 434438, May/June 1988. [2] J. Arrillaga, B. C. Smith, N. R. Watson, and A. R. Wood, Power System Harmonic Analysis: Wiley, 1997, pp. 207221. [3] A. Semlyen, E. Acha, J. Arrillaga, and S. Mem, Newton-type algorithms for the harmonic phasor analysis of nonlinear power circuits, in periodical steady state with special references to magnetic nonlinearities, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 3, pp. 10901097, July 1988. [4] E. Acha, J. Arrillaga, A. Medina, and A. Semlyen, General frame of reference for analysis of harmonic distortion in systems with multiple transformer nonlinearities, Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng.Gen. Transm. Dist., vol. 136, no. 5, pp. 271278, 1989. [5] D. Dolinar, J. Pihler, and B. Grcar, Dynamic model of a three-phase power transformer, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 8, pp. 18111819, Oct. 1993. [6] S. Yamada, K. Bessho, and J. Lu, Harmonic balance finite element method applied to nonlinear AC magnetic analysis, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 25, pp. 29712973, July 1989. [7] C. W. T. Mclynan, Transformer and Inductor Design Handbook, 2nd ed. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1978, pp. 1625. [8] J. E. Slotine and W.-P Li, Applied Nonlinear Control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. [9] M. Vidyasagar, Nonlinear System Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1994. [10] P. A. Cook, Nonlinear Dynamical Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994. [11] S. C. Chung and J. L. Li, A general class of sliding surface for the sliding model control, IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., vol. 43, pp. 115119, Jan. 1998. [12] , A transformed lure problem for the sliding mode control and chattering reduction, IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr., vol. 44, pp. 563568, Mar. 1999. [13] R. R. Mohler, Nonlinear System, Dynamics and Control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991, vol. I.

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Sy-Ruen Huang (M93) received the B.S. degree from Feng Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C. in 1988, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from National Tsing Hua University of Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1989 and 1993. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Feng Chia University. His research interests include applying neural networks and time series analysis to electric power systems.

Bing-Nan Chen received the B.S. degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Feng Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C. He is currently pursuing the Masters degree in the Electrical Engineering Department at Feng Chia University His research interests include harmonic measurement and engineering economics applied to power systems.

Steven Chingyei Chung received the B.S. degree from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1983, the M.S. degree from National Tsing Hua University of Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1985, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, in 1992. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at Feng Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C. His research interests include automatic control, power electronics, mechantronics, and power systems.

Yi-Hung Chen received the B.S. degree from the Electrical Engineering Department of Feng Chia University, Taiwan, R.O.C. He is currently pursuing the Masters degree in the Electrical Engineering Department of Feng Chia University. His research interests harmonic measurement and engineering economics applied to power systems.