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.