21, rue dArtois, F-75008 PARIS http : //www.cigre.

org

A2-107

CIGRE 2006

DEVELOPMENT OF GAS INSULATED TRANSFORMER I.S.HWANG*, K.S.PARK, J.H.WOO, J.Y.LEE and B.Y.SEOK Hyundai heavy industries co., Ltd. (KOREA)

SUMMARY
In the present study, SF6 gas insulated transformer (GIT), which can operate at low pressure (1.2~1.4 kg/cm2 @ 20), was developed. To get the basic design data, electrical insulation study has been conducted analytically and experimentally with the simulated electrode systems of the turn-to-turn and the section-to-section in windings. To verify the insulation design safety, half-scaled model of GIT windings was manufactured and tested under the chopped and full lightning impulses previously. Furthermore, in order to design cooling systems, the heat generated from windings and cores of transformer has been calculated analytically, and heat and flow analyses also have been done. For the stable cooling performance of the GIT, cooler with SF6 gas-to-liquid heat exchanger has been newly developed, and finally the performances of electrical and cooling system were verified with type test of the full-scaled prototype GIT.

KEYWORDS
Transformer, Insulation, Cooling, SF6 Gas

1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, electric power demand is increasing considerably in dense urban area. Therefore, the requirements to the new construction and the extension of power substation are increasing continuously for supply of stable and high quality electric power. To meet the increasing demands, substations inside building or underground are increasing due to the difficulty of acquisition of land for substation site in the urban area. However, oil immersed transformer in building and underground substation sometimes causes severe accidents and environmental problems due to the flammability and explosiveness of mineral oil. So the demands for the development of SF6 GITs are increases continuously due to their non-explosion and non-flammability. In Korea, high-pressure type (2.5~3.0 kg/cm2 @ 20) 20 MVA 154 kV class GIT was developed in 2000 and put into practical operation in underground substations of Korean electric power corporation (KEPCO) power network from 2002. However, high pressure GIT has no economical benefits due to the high manufacturing cost, which is several times higher than that of conventional oil immersed transformer. For the reduction of manufacturing cost of GIT, a low-pressure type SF6 GIT was developed in 2005. In this paper, outlines of the insulation and cooling designs of SF6 GIT which can be a technical issue, and the test results of the newly developed low pressure type SF6 GIT are described. ishwang@hhi.co.kr

2. THE SPECIFICATION OF PROTOTYPE SF6 GIT

Prototype SF6 GIT is KEPCO standard transformer and the specification of transformer is shown in table 1. As shown in the table, The GIT uses SF6 gas as an insulating and cooling medium, and the rated gas pressure is decided to be 1.2~1.4 kg/cm2 at 20 considering its performances and the economical efficiency. To improve cooling ability of SF6 GIT, gas direct forced and water forced (GDWF) cooling method was adopted. And, the insulation grade was decided to E-class considering the thermal conductivity of the SF6 gas. Table 1. Specification of prototype GIT Phase 1 x 3 Frequency[Hz] 60 Capacity 20MVA/ Voltage HV 154 / 3 1.25 x 10% [kV] LV 23 / 3 % IZ HV-LV 20%(at rated tap) Medium SF6 gas Insulation & Pressure 1.2~1.4 kg/cm2 @ 20 Cooling Insulation E class Cooling method HV Insulation level HVN (BIL/AC) LV(N) GDWF 650/275 kV 350/140 kV 150/50 kV

3. DESIGN CONCEPTS OF SF6 GIT

Insulating and cooling capacity of SF6 gas depends on SF6 gas pressure. That is, the higher the gas pressure, the better the insulating and cooling characteristics. But higher pressure may not be efficient due to the high resisting strengths of tank and cooler, which will increase the weight and manufacturing cost. Therefore, the rated pressure should be chosen carefully considering the rated voltage, power capacity, temperature rise and economical efficiency. 3.1. Insulation Design As mentioned in the previous chapter, GIT uses SF6 gas as an insulating and cooling medium instead of mineral oil. Breakdown voltage of SF6 gas under the pressure 1.2~1.4 kg/cm2 @ 20 has almost same dielectric strength with that of mineral oil for applied AC voltage. However, its insulation capability is far inferior to that of transformer oil for applied impulse voltage and its breakdown characteristic has high dependency with electric field distribution [1]. Therefore, insulation design must be conducted carefully for the development of low pressure SF6 GIT which can operate under the pressure of 1.2~1.4 kg/cm2 @ 20.

(a) turn-to-turn

(b) section-to-section

3.1.1.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the wedge-like gas gap region in windings of SF6 GIT. Insulation design in between turns and sections

Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of wedge-like gas gap formed between turn-to-turn and sectionto-section of the windings in SF6 GIT. From the viewpoint of electrical insulation, sometimes these wedge-like gas gap regions could be one of the weakest points due to their shapes and the difference of permittivity between the gas and the solid insulation material. Therefore, careful attention should be taken to the design and choice of solid insulation materials considering their properties [2][3]. For the safe design of wedge-like gas gap in windings, many studies have been carried out analytically and experimentally. Fig. 2 and Fig. 3 show the calculation results of electric field distribution and Emax-r characteristics in wedge-like gas gap, respectively, which is formed between turns and sections. As shown in Fig. 2, the maximum electric field intensities in wedge-like gas gap between turns and sections are much higher than the other solid insulation regions. This calculation results mean that decreasing the maximum electric field in gas gap region is very important to protect insulation failure resulting from the partial discharge in wedge-like gas gap. Fig. 3 shows the variation of maximum electric field intensity in the gas gap region depends on dielectric permittivity of neighbouring solid insulation. As shown in figure, the higher the dielectric permittivity of solid insulation wrapped conductor, the higher the maximum electric field intensity in the gas gap between turns.

(a) turn-to-turn

(b) section-to-section

Fig. 2. Calculation results of electric field distribution in wedge-like gas gap regions (Vapp=1 kV).

Fig. 3. Emaxr characteristics in wedge-like gas gap region (d=1.0 mm).

1) Wedge-like gas gap 2) Spacer with high dielectric constant 3) Spacer with low dielectric constant

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of the composite insulation spacers between sections. Fig. 4 shows schematic diagram of composite insulation spacers between sections, which is one of possible methods to decrease the concentration of electric field in the gas gap. In this case, the field distribution in the gas gap is affected by the ratio of permittivities between two different insulation spacers. Fig. 5 shows that maximum electric field intensity in the wedge-like gas gap depends on the permittivities of composite insulations. Namely, if the spacer adjacent to the high dielectric constant spacer has low dielectric permittivity, maximum field intensity in the wedge-like gas gap can be reduced, therefore stable insulation system can be achieved.

Spacer with high dielectric constant (r=5, d=2 mm) Spacer with low dielectric constant (d=1.5 mm) Insulation paper (r=5, d=2 mm) Fig. 5. Dependency of Emax on the dielectric constant of spacer in composite insulation spacers between sections. Fig. 6 shows the electrode system and the test chamber to investigate the impulse breakdown characteristics of the high electric field area in the wedge-like gas gap region between turns and sections. In this study, impulse breakdown test was carried out with the model electrodes in the simple test chamber, and the insulation design of GIT windings was carried out on the basis of the those results.

(a) Electrode model

(b) Test chamber

Fig. 6. Photos of electrode model and test chamber for SF6 gas insulation test. 3.1.2. Insulation test of half-scaled model

Through the above mentioned analytical and experimental studies, breakdown criteria was decided for the insulation design of winding part of low pressure SF6 GIT. However, there could be some risk to manufacture a full-scaled prototype of 154 kV / 20 MVA SF6 GIT. Therefore, half-scaled model with same insulation design criteria of full-scaled model was manufactured for the verification of insulation design. A Hisercap disc winding system was adopted for high voltage winding for uniform surge distribution on the entry of a lightning impulse, and shield ring was adopted on the winding edge to

reduce the maximum electric field. Main insulation such as gap between windings, between winding and tank, and between winding and core was designed rationally and economically by using FEM tools and carrying out model test, and finally, the insulation design was verified by insulation breakdown test of half-scaled model. Fig. 7 shows the half-scaled model of SF6 GIT which was manufactured on the basis of the same insulation design technology as full-scaled prototype transformer.

Fig. 7. Half-scaled model under test. Fig. 8 shows the results of the insulation test. The figures show that the value of withstand voltage, 650 kV full lightning impulse (FLI) voltage and 750 kV chopped lightning impulse (CLI) voltage is accepted. However, electrical breakdown occurs when the 716 kV full lightning impulse applied. The results of impulse voltage test assuring that the half-scaled model has almost 10% insulation safety margin. Based on the test results, design and manufacturing techniques have been established for the low pressure type SF6 GIT.

(a) CLI test (750 kV)

(b) FLI test (650 kV)

(c) FLI test (716 kV)

Fig. 8. Impulse voltage test in half-scaled model. 3.2. Cooling design The SF6 GIT has a worse cooling condition than that of oil immersed transformer because the value of SF6 gas density is so small. So it must be required the thermal design to develop the cooling efficiency at the winding and core parts. 3.2.1. Active part cooling design For the cooling design at each part of the windings and core, the initial cooling rates of SF6 gas should be defined and then the numerical analysis should be required under various operating conditions for the precision design. The cooling rates in the active part can be represented by the heat transfer correlations. In the cooling duct of windings, for a temperature rise of SF6 gas, T given by

P ...(Eq. 1) V C w v where P is power loss (W), is SF6 gas density (kg/m3), Vw is the total volume (m3) and Cv is the T =
specific heat (W/kg) of the system.

For using a heat transfer correlation with according to flow conditions as laminar and turbulent, Reynolds number, Re, should be obtained. Then Nusselt number, Nu, is defined as follows;

Re =

V d g

. (Eq. 2)

Nu = 0.023 Re 0.8 Pr 0.4 ...(Eq. 3)

where Vg is SF6 gas velocity (m/sec), d is hydraulic diameter (m) of duct channel and v is kinematic viscosity (m2/sec) The convective heat transfer coefficient, h (W/m2), is calculated between the heat dissipate part (windings & cores) and SF6 gas in the duct as follow;

h=

Nu k g d

. (Eq. 4)

where kg is SF6 gas conductivity (W/m). And then the average temperature rise of the winding and core parts is obtained by

TC =

q c .. (Eq. 5) h Ac

From the correlations, we settle the initial cooling rate, which is drawn as to an allowable average temperature rise of the winding and core part with various gas velocities. Fig. 9 shows the cooling design point of windings that is calculated from the temperature rise with various SF6 gas flow rates.

Fig. 9. Temperature rise trends of the windings with various SF6 gas flow rates. In order to find out the temperature rise and pressure drop at the winding and core parts precisely, the three-dimensional numerical analyses which are based on the initial SF6 flow rate using a commercial FVM flow analysis solver, Fluent have been done. In the analyses, the flow and heat transfer domain is defined as shown Fig. 10. The thermal stability of GIT is confirmed through CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis that is conducted with various cooling duct sizes, winding types and cooling path area of gas entrance.

Fig. 10. Geometry model of the active part in GIT. The final result of the thermal analysis is drawn as to the SF6 gas flow and temperature rise at each part is shown Fig. 11. From the Fig. 11 (a), the predicted hot spot temperature of the winding as 108.5 shows good agreement with the design point in Fig. 9 at 100%-load, 40-ambient. Fig. 11 (b) shows the pressure contour at the SF6 gas flow path and the gas blower is selected with considering pressure drop in GIT.

(a) Temperature contour at the active part (unit:

) (b) Pressure contour at the cooling duct (unit: Pa)

Fig. 11. Thermal & fluid analysis result of the SF6 GIT. 3.2.2. Cooler Design In a cooler, the heat transfer occurs between hot SF6 gas and cold water of the tube. Design parameters, which influence performance of the cooler, are line velocity of fluids, area of tubes and fins, configuration of the fins and tubes, and the number of the fins and tubes. Using those design parameters together with temperature and flow rate of each fluid at the entrance and the exit, the overall heat transfer coefficient, the log mean temperature difference and the cooler capacity are determined [4][5]. Fig. 12 shows a counter flow type heat exchanger, which is a shell and tube type heat exchanger with two flow paths.

Fig. 12. Counter flow type heat exchanger with two flow paths.

Fig. 13. Experimental setup for cooler performance experiment. A cooler was designed considering pressure drop as well as heat transfer characteristics, and a prototype was made for cooling performance experiment. In the experiment a water reservoir, a pump, a heater, a blower with wind tunnel, and a heat exchanger were arranged. For the measurement of flow rates, temperature and pressure, a turbine flow meter, hot wires, thermocouples and pressure gauges were used, respectively. Fig.13 shows experimental arrangement for the cooler performance test. The measured data were collected in the PC through a data acquisition system. The experiments were done for various conditions and the cooling capacity from experimental results shows good agreement with the predicted. 3.3. Tank Design For structural design of a transformer, the tank strength under working pressure is very important. Since the pressure of the gas transformer is higher than that of an oil transformer, the structural strength evaluation using finite element stress analysis was performed as shown in Fig. 14. Hydro pressure test using 1.5 times working pressure was conducted by IEC 60517, and it has been shown that the designed transformer has good structural integrity even under the internal pressure increase caused by an internal fault during operation.

Fig. 14. Geometry model for structure analysis.

Fig. 15. SF6 gas insulated transformer under final test.

4. TEST OF THE FULL-SCALED SF6 GIT

Fig. 15 shows an external appearance of the 154/23 kV 20 MVA low pressure type SF6 GIT developed on the basis of above insulation, cooling and structure design. 4.1. Insulation test Table 2. Switching impulse test result Polarity Wave shape (s) Neg. TP : 190 Td : 404 Tz : 1,700

Voltage 540 kV

Result Pass

HV HVN LV LVN TV1 TV2

Table 3. Lightning impulse test results Voltage Polarity Wave shape (s) FLI 650 kV 1.4349.6 CLI 750 kV 2~6 FLI 350 kV 1.3053.1 FLI 150 kV 1.3652.5 CLI 165 kV 2~6 Neg. FLI 150 kV 1.3652.7 FLI 60 kV 1.0450.1 CLI 69 kV 2~6 FLI 60 kV 1.0848.8 CLI 69 kV 2~6

Result Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

Fig. 16. Switching impulse test wave(HV winding : 540 kV).

(a) Chopped wave: 750 kV

(b) Full wave: 650 kV

Fig. 17. Lightning impulse test wave (HV winding). As shown in Table 1, the insulation tests were carried out according to ES, technical standards of KEPCO. This paper describes only impulse test voltages, which are comparatively more severe than AC voltage at low pressure level. As shown in Table 2 and 3, the entire insulation tests were carried

out successfully. Fig. 16 and 17 shows the wave of switching impulse, chopped lightning impulse and full lightning impulse voltage, which is applied during the impulse voltage test. 4.2. Temperature rise test The temperature rise test at the HV, LV, TV winding and SF6 gas are carried out. The predicted results of the average winding and SF6 gas using analysis are compared to the test results. The results of comparisons are summarized in Table 4. As shown in Table 4, the prediction using the CFD analysis shows good agreement with the results of the experiment within 5 K error bound. Table 4. Comparison of the Numerical Prediction to Experimental Results Guarantee (K) Analysis (K) Test (K) SF6 gas 60.0 K 35.0 K 35.7 K HV 69.7 K 67.1 75.0 K LV 70.3 K 69.8 TV 60.0 K 65.0

5. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented the insulation, cooling and structure design concepts of low pressure type SF6 GIT and test results of the model and prototype transformer. These results can be summarized as follows; 1. Insulation design technology for low pressure (1.2~1.4 kg/cm2 @ 20) type GIT was accomplished through the process of experimental and analytical studies of wedge-like gas gap region, insulation test of half-scaled model and insulation test of the full-scaled prototype of 20 MVA 154 kV. A series of insulation tests verified that the developed insulation design method for low pressure GIT is effective. 2. Cooling performance of a GIT is worse than that of an oil immersed transformer. In order to improve it, more thermally stable coil has been newly designed by conducting flow and heat transfer analyses, and temperature rise of the prototype in consideration with the new design has shown an agreement with the prediction less than 8 %. And also a new gas-to-liquid heat exchanger with capacity 160 kW has been developed, and its performance has been verified by conducting performance experiment and temperature rise test of the prototype GIT. For the further studies, investigations of thermal and electrical characteristics of SF6 gas as an insulation and cooling medium, and the development of the high voltage and large capacity GIT will be conducted continuously.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Y.Togawa, M.Ikeda, K.toda and K.Esumi, Progress of Gas-insulated Transformer (IEEE Proceedings of International Conference of Energy Mangement and Power Delivery, 1995, pages 540-547) T.Inoue, T.Ternishi, M.Ikeda and S.Yanabu,Dielectric characteristics of turn-to-turn insulation of Gas-Insulated Transformer for various impulse voltage application(Trans.IEE Japan, Vol. 120-B, No.4, 2000, pages 569-575) K.Muramatsu, T.Goda, M.Ikeda, K.Hirai, Y.Ishioka and K.Toda, Study on Application of thermally upgraded and low permittivity dielectrics to Gas Insulated Transformer (Trans.IEE Japan, Vol. 120-B, No.4, 2000, pages 511-517) Idelchik.I.E, Handbook of Hydraulic Resistance(3rd Edition, CRC Press,1994) Kays.W.M, London.A.L, Compact Heat Exchanger(3rd Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1999)

10