590 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO.

5, MAY 2008

Three- and Two-Dimensional Finite-Element Computation of Inrush

Current and Short-Circuit Electromagnetic Forces on Windings
of a Three-Phase Core-Type Power Transformer
Jawad Faiz, Bashir Mahdi Ebrahimi, and Tahere Noori
Center of Excellence on Applied Electromagnetic Systems, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Although short-circuit current is frequently considered the major design fundamental for power transformers, experience with trans-
former failures shows that inrush currents that occur when transformers are energized can also cause serious damage. To investigate
the resultant forces due to energizing power transformer windings, we modeled a three-phase, three-legged 66/11 kV, 40 MVA power
transformer in two and three dimensions. We calculated electromechanical forces for short-circuit cases and also for inrush current
through the windings, using the finite-element method. The results show that the forces exerted on the windings due to inrush current in
many regions are larger than those due to short-circuit currents. Since the inrush current appears more frequently with a much longer
duration compared to a short-current event, its harmful effects are worse than those of the short-circuit case.
Index TermsElectromagnetic forces, finite-element method, inrush current, power transformer, short-circuit.

I. INTRODUCTION is left open, while the same winding may be subject to a negative
radial force during a short circuit state. It has been also observed
that the axial forces acting on the LV winding are less in the case

D ESIGNING power transformers, as a major and key ap-

paratus of electric power systems, is very important, be-
cause their breakdown results in costly repair or replacement.
This may lead to temporary loss of electrical power at very high
cost [1]. One of the threatening factors for power transformers
is inrush current at the energizing time, which has particularly
undesirable affects on its windings and may gradually ruin the
transformer. In the design of power transformers, short-circuit
conditions are considered the worst conditions to determine the
dimensions. In many cases, the amplitude of the inrush current
can be equal to the short-circuit current [1], but since inrush
current lasts longer in the system its repetition can seriously
damage the windings. Perhaps short-circuit and inrush current
seem similar, but they are completely different from the core
magnetizing point of view. In the short-circuit case, a large cur-
rent passes the primary and also secondary, while inrush cur-
rent passes only the primary winding and secondary winding is
normally open-circuit at no-load [2]. On the other hand, mag-
netizing current in the steady-state operation is only 1% to 2%
of the rated current, while inrush current could tend to 10 to 20
times the rated current [3]. There are many papers concerning
the nature of the inrush current in power transformers [3][5],
but radial and axial electromechanical forces exerted on the
windings of the transformer are rarely studied [1], [2]. In [2],
mechanical forces within the windings built up under inrush cur-
rent of a single-phase transformer are evaluated using the Hope-
field neural network (HNN) energy minimization technique, and
it has been shown that almost always-positive radial forces build
up in the LV winding during an inrush current when HV winding
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2008.917819
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
0018-9464/$25.00 2008 IEEE
of a short circuit compared to its corresponding values on in-
rush current state. In [1], the forces have been calculated using
the finite-element method (FEM) for both inrush current and
short-circuit current cases and the results are compared; how-
ever, the asymmetry of the inrush current was ignored and it was
shown that for inrush current peaks of 70%, the rated short-cir-
cuit current local forces are on the same order of magnitude as
those at short-circuit. It also shows that the axial force distribu-
tion along the tap-changing coils is approximately 20% higher
at inrush current than in the short-circuit case. To avoid com-
plexity of the simulation model, the actual three-dimensional
(3-D) geometry of a three-legged power transformer was sim-
plified into a one-phase, two-dimensional (2-D) equivalent axial
symmetry geometry.
Simulation results obtained in the above-mentioned 3-D and
2-D models were close. In [6], it has been shown that in the pro-
posed transformer the exerted forces under unbalanced magne-
tomotive forces (MMFs) on the outer winding can be 2 to 10
times the forces in the short-circuit case.
The buckling strength analysis of transformer windings
subjected to electromagnetic force under short-circuit has
been dealt with in [7]. Based on the expressions of transient
three-phase short-circuit current, the formulas of radial and
axial electromagnetic forces acting on the transformer windings
have been derived [8]. The fundamental assumptions in [8]
include two-dimensional (2-D) field, neglecting saturation and
eddy current, simplified transformer equivalent circuit, and
equal ampere-turns of primary and secondary. In [8], it has
been shown that the amplitudes of the axial forces in the yoke
have considerable differences with that of the outer points. The
improved - method has been employed in [9] to estimate
the short-circuit electromagnetic forces acting on the large
transformer windings. A 3-D analysis of the magnetic field
and electromagnetic forces due to the short circuit current has
been done using - method [8]. It has been shown that the
FAIZ et al.: 3- AND 2-D FINITE-ELEMENT COMPUTATION OF INRUSH CURRENT AND SHORT-CIRCUIT ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES 591

distribution of the axial force density in both terminals of the

windings in the direction of height is larger than that of the
middle point. The radial components of the flux density and
nonuniform distribution of ampere-turns lead to the noniden-
tical forces distribution curve in two windings. Also, density of
the axial forces under the core yoke outer points is different.
Different techniques based on the theory of images and the
FEM enabling to calculate the static electromagnetic forces
on the winding of power transformers have been compared in
[10]. The electromagnetic forces acting in a power transformer
under short-circuit in the windings have been determined in
[11]. Although nonlinearity of the core material has been taken
into account, the skin effect, eddy current, and magnetic field
outside the transformer have been ignored. The stationary
magnetic field has been studied at the moment when the current Fig. 1. Dimensions of the proposed transformer (all values in mm).
is maximal. It has been shown that the axial components are
expressed the most at the end of the windings and displace-
ment of the windings in the axial direction, while the radial TABLE I
SPECIFICATIONS AND DIMENSIONS OF PROPOSED THREE-PHASE
component of the forces produces a hoop stress in the other THREE-LEGGED CORE-TYPE TRANSFORMER
winding and compressive stress in the inner winding. In [12],
FEM has been used to evaluate the forces exerted on the coils
of a single-phase shell-type transformer. It has been shown that
the skin effect and proximity effect have no significant effect
on the total force. It has been shown that the amplitudes of the
axial forces in the yoke have a considerable difference with that
of the outer points. It has been confirmed that a 3-D analysis is
necessary to compute the end forces and examine asymmetries
outside the window that are not possible with 2-D analysis.
A comprehensive analysis of a split-winding transformer has
been reported in [13] to assess its short-circuit performance
under preset and post-set short-circuit test conditions. The axial
and radial force has been computed using nonlinear transient
field-circuit coupled formulation. The 2-D asymmetric non-
linear transient FE model has been developed to investigate
transient axial and radial forces in the windings of split-winding
transformers; it has been verified with the 3-D model and also
shown that there is a considerable rise in the axial forces when
one winding is short circuited as compared with the case when
both windings are short-circuited. In [14], the short-circuit
conditions in a large power transformer have been analyzed and
it has been concluded that the local axial force in both terminals
of the winding (with a larger radial components) is much larger sions and specifications of the proposed transformer are pre-
than that of the middle parts of the winding. sented in Fig. 1 and Table I. For modeling the transformer, the
The goal of the present paper is the calculation and investi- following have been considered.
gation of the forces under inrush current and short circuit cur- 1) In 3-D modeling, the core with real dimensions and lami-
rent and their comparison taking into account the asymmetry of nated exactly similar to the actual core of transformer (to
phase current in the inrush current state. A three-phase three- exclude the eddy current effects in a real core) is simu-
legged power transformer is modeled in 2-D and 3-D and dif- lated. In the 2-D modeling of three legs, core cross section
ferent developed forces under inrush current and short-circuit is taken to be square shape, and in the single leg modeling
are calculated by FEM. In addition, a one-phase, 2-D equivalent the core is assumed similar with that reported in [1].
axial symmetric geometry model reported in [1] is also simu- 2) To simplify the 2-D modeling, cross sections of the wind-
lated. The simulation method and the results are presented and ings are considered and the windings depths are not taken
developed forces under inrush current and short-circuit cases are into account. However, this simplification reflects the in-
compared in 2-D and 3-D cases. herent characteristic of the 2-D modeling which causes a
small error. Unit length in z-direction is considered for the
II. FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING OF TRANSFORMER force calculations by 2-D model; to obtain the actual force
A three-phase, three-legged, core-type power transformer is the calculated force is multiplied by the length of the trans-
modeled by the Vector Field 2-D and 3-D FE packages. Dimen- former in z-direction.
592 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO. 5, MAY 2008

Fig. 2. Magnetization characteristic of transformer core.

3) Although the peak current does not always develop the

maximum force, the transformer tap is placed on the first
step in order to pass the maximum current through the
windings.
4) The magnetization characteristic of the core material pro-
vided by the manufacturer is used (see Fig. 2).
5) Fig. 3 shows the scheme of the modeled transformer in
which the cross section of the core has been considered
square-shaped. Fig. 3(b) presents the zoomed view of the
top right of transformer. Since the core diameter has signif-
icant influence upon the force calculations, Fig. 3(b), pre-
senting the depth of the transformer core, has been given
individually. If the third dimension of the transformer (core
diameter) is not modeled, the force of unity length is cal-
culated and multiplied by the length of the transformer.
In the 2-D, three-phase, and 3-D models, asymmetry of the
currents of the phases at the energized transformer are taken into
account. In the 2-D model of single leg, where only the middle
leg is simulated, it is assumed that the maximum current passes
the middle phase at the switch-on time.

III. ANALYSIS METHOD

Vector field software does magnetic field analysis by solution
of the Maxwell equations [15]. The local force density, , in the
winding is equal to the vector product of local current density, ,
in the winding and the local magnetic flux density, , as given
by
(1)
Since the current density assigned to the windings is obtained
from the amplitude of the first peak of the inrush current, it has a
constant value, consequently relationship between the flux den-
sity and force is assumed linear. So, for calculation of forces
and their distributions only determination of the flux density
distribution is sufficed [1]. Since the windings are assumed to
be cylindrical, only azimuthally component of the current is
considered.
For magnetic field analysis around windings at the trans-
former energizing time, knowing the amplitude of the current
Fig. 3. Scheme of the modeled transformer: (a) 3-D, (b) zoomed of the top
right of transformer, (c) meshed three-leg 2-D, and (d) meshed single-leg, 2-D
with modified core.
passing through the windings is necessary. Since phase cur-
rents in the transient conditions of the inrush current is not
symmetrical, similar to the normal case, current of three phases
must be separately calculated. Current of any phase of ener-
gizing transformer is obtained by transient analysis of the 2-D
three-legged model.
IV. FLUX AND INRUSH CURRENT ESTIMATION
In the analysis of a transformer using the time-stepping fi-
nite-element method (TSFEM), the voltage applied to the ter-
minal of the transformer is considered as the required input
value and primary phase current is evaluated as the unknown
FAIZ et al.: 3- AND 2-D FINITE-ELEMENT COMPUTATION OF INRUSH CURRENT AND SHORT-CIRCUIT ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES 593

By substituting in (4)

(6)

(7)

Since the right-hand side of (7) is sinusoidal, the response of

the equation has an exponential transient component, and a
sinusoidal steady-state component, , and

Fig. 4. Flux distribution within transformer.

(8)
(9)
(10)
value. The transient equations of the external circuit showing
the electric supplies and circuit elements are combined with the
field equations in TSFEM. Solution of this system of equations is the initial phase of . At the no-load condition, flux has
can provide the primary phase current as a principle and re- almost 90 delay, therefore
quired variable. An equation that relates the FE equations ex-
(11)
pressing electromagnetic of the transformer with electrical cir-
cuit equations is as follows:
is the maximum amplitude of the steady-state flux. At ,
flux is equal to the residual flux , thus
(2)
(12)
(13)
where and are the magnetic potential vector and current
that must be determined. , , , and are the coeffi-
cients matrices, and is the vector related to the input voltage. (14)
Fig. 4 shows the inrush current of the full-load transformer. The
peak value of inrush current is equal to 10.5 kA. The system ap-
proaches its steady-state after a very short time, and therefore
and are obtained as follows: (15)

Referring to (15), the worst case occurs when the transformer

(3)
where is the electrical angular frequency which is equal to
that of the input voltage. Flux distribution in 2-D within the
transformer is presented in Fig. 4.
V. JUSTIFICATION OF FLUX AND INRUSH CURRENT
COMPUTATION RESULTS
Voltage equation in the primary winding is as follows:
(4)
where is the primary winding turn number, is the total
flux consisting of the steady-state and residual fluxes, is the
primary winding resistance, is the primary winding current,
and is the voltage initial phase. In the steady-state, the total
flux depends on , , which depends on the magneti-
zation characteristic of the core. If transformer operates within
the linear region of the magnetization characteristic (above the
knee of the curve), then
(5)
is energizing and voltage is at and has maximum neg-
ative amplitude. So, the three-phase 2-D modeled transformer
has been energized at zero angle of the voltage and the max-
imum negative residual flux.
Fig. 5 presents the inrush current in the HV windings in which
asymmetry of the three phase currents is obvious. As shown in
the figures, the inrush current has been damped after 300 ms
and the primary winding current tend to its rated value. At the
first instant, the maximum current passes two phases of the HV
winding, the amplitudes of the obtained currents were applied
to the simulated models.
VI. ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE CALCULATIONS
Distribution of the magnetic flux density is calculated from
the magnetic potential vector as follows:
(16)
It is noted that has been already computed in Section IV.
Therefore, having the distribution of the forces along the
height of the windings in the axial direction ( ) (2-D models)
and in the direction (3-D model) is determined. The height of
winding is divided into 1000 parts (in both 2-D and 3-D model)
594
Fig. 5. Inrush current in the HV winding: (a) phase a, (b) phase b, and
(c) phase c.
and the force for each part is obtained. The flux density distribu-
tion in the windings indicates that it varies along the coil thick-
ness. Therefore, evaluation of force on different layers of the
winding is necessary. At this end, in 3-D model the windings
are divided into 10 parts along their radial. In the 3-D model,
the flux density in the regions of the windings under the yoke
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO. 5, MAY 2008
Fig. 6. LV winding where flux density is calculated along lines 1 and 2.
and the other regions are different, for example, Fig. 7 shows
the radial and axial flux density in the inner surface of the LV
winding along lines 1 and 2 in Fig. 6. So the windings are di-
vided into 12 segments in azimuthally direction to include these
variations, and forces are obtained in 120 000 parts. The height
of these elements is identical, thus
(17)
(18)
Consequently, the resulting axial force at the coils end is
(19)
where is the radius of any layer of the winding, is the
flux density in the segment th of th winding, and is the
winding thickness. , for 2-D models
and for 3-D model .
To check the model accuracy, the number of the nodes and
elements in the FE computations are changed and the forces on
the middle leg LV winding within 2-D three-legged model are
determined. In the force calculation the end points and inner
and outer surfaces of the windings are important, and the mesh
is changed by varying the number of elements in these points.
The results have been summarized in Table II. It is noted that
a similar procedure is used for force calculation in the case of
short circuit.
VII. COMPARISON OF 2-D AND 3-D MODELS
Figs. 811 show the axial and radial forces developed by the
inrush current in the HV and LV winding of 3-D and 2-D three-
legged and 2-D single-legged models. These forces have been
obtained in the middle leg and along the height of windings.
These figures show that the forces calculated in 2-D models are
significantly different from those obtained from the 3-D model.
Fig. 8 presents the axial force on LV winding in which the
maximum axial forces on HV winding calculated by both 2-D
models are almost the same but they differ about 40% from
that calculated in 3-D model. Fig. 9 shows that the maximum
axial forces calculated in three-phase, 2-D and one-phase, 2-D
models differ 36% and 45% from that obtained by 3-D model.
Fig. 10 shows that the maximum radial forces on LV winding
FAIZ et al.: 3- AND 2-D FINITE-ELEMENT COMPUTATION OF INRUSH CURRENT AND SHORT-CIRCUIT ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES
Fig. 7. Normalized values of flux density applied on the inner surface of LV
winding along lines 1 and 2: (a) radial and (b) axial.
TABLE II
FORCES ON LV WINDING IN THE MIDDLE LEG FOR DIFFERENT MESH
NUMBERSTWO-DIMENSIONAL [FIG. 3(c)]
Fig. 8. Axial force on LV winding in three models.
in three-phase and one-phase 2-D models differ about 10% and
80% from the force calculated in 3-D model. Fig. 10 shows even
a larger difference between the models. The radial force cal-
culated by three-phase and one-phase 2-D models differ about
595
Fig. 9. Axial force on HV winding in three models.
Fig. 10. Radial force on LV winding in three models.
Fig. 11. Radial force on HV winding in three models.
64% and 68% from that obtained by 3-D model. These fig-
ures show that both 2-D models have an insufficient accuracy in
forces calculation, particularly for the radial forces. In the one-
phase, 2-D model only one phase has been modeled, meaning
that the axisymmetry of current has been ignored and this is
the major reason for the low accuracy in this case. Although
in three-phase, 2-D model, the shape of the coils has been taken
into account while calculating the forces, this has been ignored
in the flux density and forces calculations on LV winding.
596
Fig. 12. Axial forces due to inrush current and short circuit current applied on
LV winding.
Fig. 13. Axial forces due to inrush current and short circuit current applied on
HV winding.
Since the force obtained in 2-D and precise 3-D model differ
considerably, and on the other hand, the difference between the
flux density under and outside of the core yoke is not visible
in 2-D modeling, in order to investigate the forces developed
by the inrush current in power transformer precisely and their
comparison with the forces obtained for short circuit, 3-D model
is used.
Figs. 1215 show 3-D model analysis of the forces in the
transformer windings in the short circuit and inrush current
modes. Figs. 12 and 13 indicate that the axial forces applied to
the LV and HV windings when inrush current is about 45% and
36% larger than the corresponding forces in short circuit case.
Figs. 14 and 15 show the distribution of radial forces in LV and
HV windings. As seen the radial force on the LV winding in
short circuit case is about 40% larger than the corresponding
force in inrush current condition, while the maximum radial
force on HV winding in short circuit case is about 1/3 that of
inrush current.
VIII. CONCLUSION
In order to examine the radial and axial electromechanical
forces developed by the inrush current and short-circuit, 2-D
and 3-D FEM models were presented. The results show that
the forces obtained from 2-D models are considerably different
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 44, NO. 5, MAY 2008
Fig. 14. Radial forces on LV winding due to inrush and short circuit currents.
Fig. 15. Radial forces on HV winding due to inrush and short circuit currents.
than those obtained by precise 3-D models. In the 3-D model, it
was proved that the axial forces due to inrush current are always
larger than those obtained for short circuit current. It has been
also shown that the radial force on the LV winding in inrush
current condition is 40% less than that of short circuit while the
inrush current radial force applied on HV winding is about three
times the corresponding force of short circuit condition.
The maximum difference between the inrush current and
short circuit current from electromechanical forces viewpoint,
is the unbalanced excitation and consequently developing axial
forces with high amplitude that put the windings under stress in
the energizing period which is longer that the short circuit case.
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Manuscript received September 20, 2006; revised January 26, 2008. Corre-
sponding author: J. Faiz (e-mail: jfaiz@ut.ac.ir).