2 October, 2017

There is limited information in open literature on environmental conditions effecting thermal performance of substation equipment. Majority of the information about  transformer  thermal  performance  is  concentrated around heating of its parts due to internal sources. It  appears that  cooling medium (water  and  (or) surrounding air) temperature and atmospheric pressure, interpreted as installation's altitude, are the only external factors impacting on transformer thermal performance.

We are thrilled to publish a paper by Dr Yuriy Odarenko, WTC Design Development Engineer, as an attempt to clarify the effects of some other environmental elements. Comparison of  different  environmental  conditions has been presented in terms of  how it is affecting temperatures of different parts of the equipment. It is identified that CFD modelling can be used to assess affects of  environmental conditions on transformer thermal performance. There is a potential to use the information in minimizing harmful impact and maximizing positive influence of environment on transformer thermal performance. Potentially the information can be used to improve other aspects of the equipment conditions.

It was confirmed by the simulations that certain level of  the  surrounding  factors  can significantly impact on transformer thermal performance. Some affects have  a  positive influence, some – negative and some  can have positive or  negative depending  on their level  and combination with other factors. Finally,  conclusions  and recommendations  have been derived based on the findings.

Click HERE to download a copy of the article.