2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

New equivalent circuit of three-phase three-limb transformer based on

magnetic circuit characteristics
SUONAN JiaLe, xu LiQiang, JIAO ZaiBin
School ofElectrical Engineering, Xi 'an Jiaotong University, Xi 'an, 710049, China

Abstract: Due to the characteristics of three-phase three-limb transformer core topology, its magnetic flux can be represented
by leakage inductances, column leakage inductances and mutual inductances. Based on this representation, a new equivalent
circuit model of three-phase three-limb transformer is proposed in this paper. The distinguishing feature of the new model is
that the operating mechanism of three-phase three-limb transformer can be expressed straightforwardly. With a simpler struc
ture and fewer elements than the existing models, the proposed model is more convenient to be applied in qualitative analysis
and calculations. The new model is validated through the comparison with the conventional nonlinear transformer model based
on inductance matrix . As an example of application, the simplified fault current calculation model of three-phase three-limb
transformer is introduced in this paper.

Keywords: three-phase three-limb transformer; mathematical model; equivalent circuit; transient calculation

Introduction

Equivalent circuit model is the basic tool for analysis and

calculation of power system. For the power transformers,
the T-type or [' -type equivalent circuit provides a clear and
simple representation of single-phase transformer, and is
generally applied in the power community.
Because of core topology difference, three-phase
three-limb transformer has different characteristics from
other transformer types. Its magnetic path of column lea
kage flux (zero-sequence flux) is composed of iron core, air
gap and transformer tank, which results in low value of ze
ro-sequence magnetizing inductance. Another characteristic
is that the main flux of each limb has to pass through other
two limbs.
Conventional transformer model based on inductance
matrix is commonly used in transient calculation of
three-phase three-limb transformer. However, it cannot ex
plicitly reflect the excitation characteristics of the transfor
mer and without a simple and practical equivalent circuit, it
is difficult to use in investigating the cause-and-effect rela
tionship.
In the development of transient simulations, two equiva
lent circuit models of three-phase three-limb transformer
have been proposed, duality based model (applied in EMTP)
and numerical differential equation based model (applied in
EMTDC). However, with complex electrical circuits and
large nwnber of elements, both models are cumbersome in
general analysis and calculation, and have only been

adopted in transient simulation software.

The problem with the existing models of three-phase
three-limb transformer is that the operating mechanism
cannot be expressed explicitly. In this paper, the inductance
relationship of three-phase three-limb transformer is ana
lyzed based on the characteristics of core topology, and a
new equivalent circuit model of three-phase three-limb
transformer is proposed. Compared with the existing models,
the proposed model has a simpler structure and fewer ele
ments, and can clearly express the roles played by every
current component in inducing winding voltage. So the
proposed model is more convenient in analysis and calcula
tion and the cause-and-effect relationship can be easily in
vestigated like the T-type equivalent circuit to single-phase
transformer.
2

New model of three-phase three-limb tran s

former

Consider a two winding three-phase three-limb transformer

as shown in Figure 1. ulO and U28 (e =A, B, C)
represent the voltages of primary and secondary windings,
ilO and i28 represent the currents of primary and second
ary windings.

APAP2011

Corresponding author (email: sduxuliqiang@163.com)

978-1-4244-9621-1/111$26.00 2011 IEEE

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www.apap2011.org

2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

dp.A
LpA=n] -

(6)

d1da

So

LAA

can be expressed as:

LAA=LpA + LAB + LAC

(7)

Applying the same deduction as above to the windings of

limb B and limb C:
Figure 1

LBB=LpB + LAB + LBC

Lcc=Lpc + LAC + LBC

Three-phase three-limb transformer

Converting parameters of secondary side to primary side

by the transformer ratio, the voltages of both sides can be
expressed as:

[U]]=L]S [i]]+ fj[i]]+ [uM]

dt

Where
limb B,

di
de-idea)
di
dt
dt
dt
didb
d(-idab)
didbe
UMB - LpB
+ L AB
+ LBC
dt
dt
dt
dide
didea
d(-idbe)
UMC =LPCTt+ LACTt+ LBC
dt

ida

(2)

(to)

Where idab=ida - idb, idbe=idb - ide' idea=ide - ida'

So the winding voltages of both sides can be expressed
as follows:

Ide

Where ida ' idb , ide are differential currents of each

limb,

da
da b
UMA=LpA -+ LAB -+ LAC

induced by the fluxes passing through both windings of

each limb. [uM] can be expressed as:

db

Lp(J Lo.

Combining (7)-(9) and (2), the following expression can

be obtained:

winding voltages and winding currents of secondary side

converted by transformer ratio. [uM] represent voltages

][ ]

of

is composed of iron core, air

equals to the zero sequence excitation inductance

leakage inductance and winding resistance of secondary

side converted by transformer ratio, [u;], [i;] represent

UMA
LAA -LAB -LAC
UMB = =LAB LBB -L BC
LAC -LBC LCC
UMC

p(J

of

gap and transformer tank. In the sequence component re

presentation of three-phase three-limb transformer, Lp(J

[u;]=L;s [i;]+ r;[i;]+ [uM]

dt
Where s and fj represent leakage inductance and
winding resistance of primary side, L;s and r; represent

[ ][

(9)

LpB corresponds to the column leakage flux

Lpc corresponds to the column leakage flux

limb C.
The magnetic path of

(1)

(8)

ida=i]A + i;A' idb=i]B + i;B' ide=i]C + i;c

The magnetic flux corresponding to

self-induced flux

AA

LAA

is the

of windings around limb A.

AA
d.LAA=n]-

(3)

d1da

According to (1)-(2),

AA

doesn't include the leakage

flux which only links one winding. So

into 3 parts:
limb B;

AC

AB

AA

(11)

can be divided

which links the windings of limb A and

which links the windings of limb A and limb

C; and column leakage flux

pA

which links both wind

ings of limb A, but fails to link the windings of other limbs.

d.AB
LAB =n]-

(4)

d1da

(5)
Defining column leakage inductance parameter

LpA

as:

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2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

tual inductances

LAB ' LBC ' LAC are sufficient to

represent the main fluxes of the transformer. The currents of

the excitation inductance branches are the subtraction be
tween differential currents of different limbs idab, idbe and
idea' eliminating its zero-mode current component. This

From the definition of idab,

idab + idbe + idea

indicates that the zero-mode current component is not part

of the excitation current of three-phase three-limb transfor
mer, and all the flux it produced is leakage flux. This con
clusion is in accordance with our general conception of
three-phase three-limb transformer.
Compared with the existing models, the proposed model
has made full use of the core structure of three-phase
three-limb transformer and can demonstrate the effects of
each current component in inducing the winding voltage
straightforwardly.
As a simple and straightforward representation of
three-phase three-limb transformer, the proposed circuit
model can facilitate the understanding and analysis of the
transformer operating mechanism. As shown in the equiva
lent circuit, differential current can be divided into two parts:
circulating current resulted from voltage unbalance and ex
citation currents determined by the saturation state of the
iron core. When the transformer woks in normal operation,
no circulating current is generated because of the voltage
balance and the excitation currents are negligible. The three
limb core-type transformer is approximates to three inde
pendent single-phase transformers in this condition. During
unbalanced operation, i.e. external ground fault, the diffe
rential current are mainly the circulating current resulted
from the voltage unbalance. So for the three-phase
three-limb transformer, differential currents of large value
can be generated even without internal fault, this is different
from other transformer types.
When the transformer is energized, the excitation induc-

idbe and idea:

=

(13)

Based on (11)-(13), a new equivalent circuit model of

three-phase three-limb transformer as shown in Figure 2 is
obtained.

tances LAB' LBC' LAC can become very small as the

Figure 2

transformer core reaches to saturation, therefore inrush cur

rents are generated.
As analyzed above, the new model can generally applies
to three-phase three-limb transformer under steady or tran
sient, balance or unbalance, saturated or unsaturated sate.
The no-load loss also can be taken into account by attaching
resistors in parallel with excitation voltages of the equiva
lent circuit.

Equivalent circuit model of three-phase three-limb transformer

Except the column leakage inductances are introduced in

this paper, all the other inductances of the proposed model
have the same meaning with conventional models. As
shown in Figure 2, winding currents flow through leakage
inductances o' Lo' representing the leakage fluxes of

Model validation

In order to verify the model proposed in this paper, conven

tional model described in (1) and proposed model are ap
plied for the simulation of a specific three-phase three-limb
transformer respectively.
The test object is a three-phase three-limb transformer
described in [16], its parameters are shown in Table. I. With
a preferred match to experimental results in both the satu
rated and unsaturated regions, the hyperbola equation (7) is

each winding; the differential current of each limb flows

through branches of inductance Lpo' representing the
column leakage fluxes. Excitation inductances LAB' LBc,

LAC correspond to the main fluxes confined to the iron

core. The three-limb transformer core topology determines
that the self-induced main flux of each limb is split into
mutual-fluxes of the other two limbs. Therefore, three mu-

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2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

transformer is energized. As shown in the simulation results,

the conventional model has the same simulation perfor
mance with the proposed model.

adopted for the B-H curve representation; its constants are

listed in Table.2.
Table.1

Parameters of the test object

Rated capacity

187.5MVA

Turns of primary

450

Turns of Secondary
Short circuit impedance

Cross-sectional

0.454m2

area of limb

3.59m

Length of limb
Cross-sectional

65

0.454 m2

area of yoke

2.66m

Length of yoke

O.I13pu

(a) Conventional model

Figure 5
Table 2

(b) Proposed model

Comparison of inrush currents under switch condition

Parameters of B-H curve

Take the inductances related to limb A for example, LAA'

0.021

0.00003

1.63

LAB ' LAC and LpA can be calculated from magnetic

1.9

equivalent

Figure 3 shows the magnetic equivalent circuit of

circuit

in

each

simulation

step,

defining

three-phase three-limb transformer. Where Ae represent

the iron core permeance of each limb. AE, AF represent

the permeance of the yokes. Ap represents the permeance

when switching on the transformer with no load, as shown

in the results, L is identical with LAA, verifying the

corresponding to column leakage flux .

inductance relationship of (7).

LpA + LAB + LAC' Figure 6 shows the L and LAA

60
45
J:

:::; 30
15
%------10--15------2'0
Vms

Figure 3

Magnetic equivalent circuit of three-limb transformer

(a) Conventional model

Figure 4

Figure 6

Comparison between

LAA

and

under switch condition

The simulation in this section indicates that the conven

tional model and the proposed model can be transformed
into each other, and are equivalent in the transient calcula
tion. The connection between the two models is the induc
tance relationship (7)-(9). For the conventional model based
on inductance matrix, the characteristics of three-phase
three-limb transformer are expressed through the values of
all the self and mutual inductances, while in the proposed
model of this paper, these characteristics are applied directly.
This is similar to the relationship between T-type equivalent
circuit and inductance matrix based equation of sin
gle-phase transformer.

(b) Proposed model

Comparison of excitation currents under normal operation

Figure 4 shows the excitation currents calculated using

each model under normal operation. Figure 5 shows the
inrush currents calculated using each model when the

Example of practical application

Fault current calculation is essential in developing a proper

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2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

protection scheme and in the study of transformer perfor

mance. Different from three-phase bank and three-phase
five-limb transformer, a high reluctance return path exists
for zero-sequence (mode) flux of three-phase three-limb
transformer. This results differential currents in unbalanced
condition. The traditional sequence circuit only applies to
steady-state calculation and the three-phase three-limb
transformer models in the existing transient tools are com
plex and inconvenient to use. In some transient calculation
tools, i.e. MATLAB power system package, no three-phase
three-limb transformer model is available for the calcula
tion.
In this section, a simplified fault current calculation
model is introduced as an application example of the pro
posed model.
ilA r,

lilA +

ilB

r,

lII8 +

ilC
+

r, L
IS

lIle

The simplified model can explicitly reflect the generation

mechanism of differential currents. Composed of basic
components, the simplified model can be built directly in
the existing transient tools. The winding connection and
transformer ratio can be implemented through ideal trans
formers. The model also can be built with three single-phase
three winding transformer as shown in Figure 8. Where
primary winding and secondary winding W2 of each
single phase transformer represents the primary and sec
ondary windings of the three-phase three-limb transformer
and winding connection and transformer ratio can be im
plemented directly through these windings. The third wind
ings of each single-phase transformer are connected in delta,
corresponding to the branch of 3Lo in Figure 7, where

L2J 'i i 2A

ing the three column leakage inductances into a single ele

ment. Figure 7 shows the simplified equivalent circuit of
three-phase three-limb transformer, 3Lo LpA + LpB + Lpc .

lil

i dO

ide
L2J 'i i2c

ida

idb

ide'

In

this case, the negligible excitation

currents of three-phase three-limb transformer can be com

pensated to some extent by the single-phase transformers.
For the transformer object test described in section 2, the
traditional model taking excitation currents into account and
the proposed simplified model as shown in Figure 7 are
applied respectively to calculate fault currents.

i2B
t
8 r2

+1128

3L
O
i da

+1I2C

4000

Figure 7

Simplified equivalent circuit for fault current calculation

T2

lil

!lIB

+
+

ii
1- - 1\jJ

i2A

ilA

2000

.1I2A

W;

-2000

-4000

(a) conventional model

i dO

Figure 9

20

t!ms

40

60

(b) simplified model

Comparison of primary winding currents with external single

phase to ground fault

Figure 8

Figure 9 and Figure 1 0 show the primary and secondary

winding currents calculated by both models when sin
gle-phase to ground fault happens to the three-phase
three-limb transformer. Because the transformer core is un
saturated with fault occurrence, the values of excitation
currents are comparatively very small. There exists a good
agreement between the currents calculated by the two mod
els.
Figure 11 shows the differential currents of each phase
calculated using the two models. The differential currents
calculated from both models are approximately equal. As
indicated by the simplified equivalent circuit, the differen
tial currents are approximately identical to each other.

Simplified fault current calculation model composed of three

single-phase transformers

In most fault occasions, the transformer core will not get

saturated and the excitation current is negligible compared
with fault current. In fact, for the high capacity transformers,
the excitation currents are only about 1 % of rated currents
when transformer is unsaturated, and have an even smaller
ratio compared with the fault currents. In this case, the dif
ferential current of each limb is the circulating current re
sulted from the voltage unbalance, ida idb ide ' The
=

equivalent circuit shown in Figure 2 can be simplified by

eliminating the excitation inductance branches and combin-

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2011The International Conference on Advanced Power System Automation and Protection

transformer component is available, the simplified fault

calculation model can be implemented by the commonly
used elements.
This work

is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.

50907048, 51037005) and Specialized Research Fundfor the Doctoral Pro

gram ofHigher Education (No. 20090201120018).

TANG Yunqiu, SHI Nai. electric machinery0 Beijing: China Machine

Press, 2001
2

(b)simplified model

(a) conventional model

Figure 10

Dommel H.W. EMTP theory book. Beijing:

China water power

Press, 19910
3

Comparison of secondary winding currents with external

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single-phase to ground fault

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The equivalent circuit model proposed in this paper can

clearly express the operating mechanism of three-phase
three-limb transformer. With simpler structure and fewer
elements than the existing models, the new model is more
convenient in analysis and calculation and the
cause-and-effect relationship can be easily investigated. The
simplified fault current calculation model derived from the
proposed equivalent circuit can straightforwardly explain
the generation mechanism of the differential currents. In the
transient packages where no specific three-phase three-limb

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