Abstract
Moisture and temperature are the main factors that affect the life expectancy of liquid-immersed power transformers. These factors speed up the aging process of cellulose insulation, worsening its physio-chemical properties and increasing the risk of faults in the transformer. Recently, a multi-physical modeling approach was reported aimed at estimating the temperature and moisture dynamics of transformer insulation for different loading conditions. The model objective was to evaluate how the moisture dynamics between oil and paper insulation might affect the loading capability of the transformer. Although the model is based on the representation and analysis of concrete regions of the oil–paper insulation, it could also be useful for the estimation of the moisture content of the solid insulation in moisture monitoring systems; however, the modeling had not been experimentally validated due to the difficulty of measuring the moisture in cellulose insulation during transformer operation. In this work, an experiment was designed and developed to carry out the experimental validation of the model and to evaluate the possibility of applying it for moisture monitoring purposes. Moisture dynamics experiments were carried out in an experimental test plant; the evolution of the moisture content throughout the experiment was assessed by direct measure and with dielectric response measurements. The experimental conditions were simulated with the model, and the estimated and measured moisture contents were compared. A detailed analysis was carried out to evaluate the precision of the model and to identify possible sources of error and improvements that may be implemented to improve its accuracy.
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Funding
This work was supported by Universidad del Valle and the Colombian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation through the project "Experimental validation of a multi-physical model of moisture temperature diffusion to estimate the moisture dynamics in cellulosic insulation of power transformers" Grant: 2857 and "Online monitoring system to estimate the power transformers useful life" Grant: 110671550932. The paper was prepared during the secondment of Diego García in the University of Cantabria in the frame of Biotrafo project Grant Agreement No 823969.
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WC and DG did conceptualization and methodology, experimental development and writing—original draft preparation; W.C. done model implementation; W.C., B.G., and D.G. were involved in experimental result analysis and model validation and writing–review and editing; D.G. supervised the article and project administration.
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Correa, W., García, D. & García, B. Power transformer temperature–moisture dynamics modeling: an experimental validation. Electr Eng 105, 761–773 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00202-022-01696-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00202-022-01696-0