SOME MECHANICAL PROBLEMS IN
TRANSFORMER DESIGN
by J. T. MACHOWICZ, B.Sc., Graduate
A LARGE number of students of electrical
engineering who know all about ampere-turns
and amps per square inch are perhaps not
fully aware of the variety of mechanical
problems associated with electrical design. It
may be true for small apparatus that,-if the
proportions "look .right" the apparatus will
not fail mechanically. With ever-increasing
physical sizes and ratings, however, the
mechanical forces are vastly increased, and a
stage has been reached when the mechanical
problems involved in electrical design can no
longer be ignored or left to chance.
•fiie modern transformer tank provides a
very good example of a mechanical problem
created by the growth and development of
the electrical component. When transformers
were small the tanks were merely sheet-steel
containers, possibly with a rib or so to stiffen
them and some hooks or eye-bolts for lifting.
Nowadays the problem is much more com-
plicated.
Apart from containing the oil, the tank for
a large transformer has to satisfy many other
requirements. With the very high working
voltages such as are employed on the new
275-kV line from Staythorpe to Sheffield at
present under construction it is becoming
more and more important to exclude all
moisture from transformer windings. This
can be done most satisfactorily by drying the
windings under vacuum in their own tanks and
then introducing good-quality dry oil. But it
• is advisable to repeat the vacuum drying after
the tank has been opened for maintenance
and/or repairs, which would mean shipping
the complete transformer back to the manu-
facturer's works. The obvious solution is to
design the transformer tank to withstand full
vacuum by itself. This would also be an
advantage from the manufacturing point of
view as it would relieve the considerable
demand on the shop vacuum pot.
Design for Vacuum
Before approaching the actual design it is
as well to formulate the requirements of the
transformer tank as against those of an
average vacuum vessel.
First of all, a tank suitable for vacuum is
heavier and more expensive than a tank, say,
to withstand only its own head of oil. The
question is to decide which tanks to design
for vacuum. A good practical rule would be
to reserve the vacuum design for tanks only
on transformers above 20 MVA and on all
those above 10 MVA which are either for
shipment overseas or above 66 kV if installed
. in this country.
* Abstract of Chairman's Address to the Rugby
Section on 10th October, 1951. The paper was awarded
a Students' Premium.
[ 171 ]
Now the question of the design stresses and
factors of safety. B.S. 1 500: 1949 lays down
the maximum possible design stresses for
welded vacuum vessels. However, whereas
such vessels would be suitable for the con-
tinuous or frequent application of vacuum, a
transformer tank is called upon to withstand
full vacuum only a few times—perhaps once
or twice—during its lifetime. The vacuum is
applied to a transformer tank gradually and
the whole of the tank can be watched while
this is in progress, with suitable precautions
against accident. Consequently the factors of
safety for transformer tanks under vacuum can
be very low and average stresses close to the
elastic limit of the material, with possibly the
maximum skin stresses even above that limit.
Permanent deflections are quite permissible
within reasonable limits, depending on the
size of tank sides; and a certain amount of
pre-stressing will increase the strength of the
structure—particularly as the vacuum is equiva-
lent to external pressure while the usual con-
dition for a tank is that of internal pressure
due to the head of oil.
In the author's experience the following
stresses for mild-steel tanks under vacuum are
satisfactory:
Working stress in stiffeners = 25 000 lb/in*.
Average stress in plate = 22 000 Ib/in*.
It should be borne in mind, of course, that
these values are only for stresses directly due
to the application of vacuum; parts stressed
by other causes will require to be designed
according to the duties they perform and the
types of loads applied.
Strength of Flat Plates
The complete analytical solution of the
problem of a flat plate is too complicated for
the purpose of this paper—the interested
student can find it in a book by Prof. S.
Timoshenko entitled "Theory of Plates and
Shells." The constants of integration in this
solution depend, as might be expected, on the
edge conditions of the plate. The practical
value of this rigid mathematical solution is
therefore limited by our ability to estimate
these conditions accurately. For the purposes
of tank design a simple empirical formula
which fits in with the test results will be found
more satisfactory.
What is required is to find a simple relation-
ship between stress and plate dimensions and
to determine the required constant experi-
mentally. This relationship for a rectangular
plate under uniform pressure p lb/in2 and
simply supported at the edges can be found
as follows:—
 Machowicz—Some Mechanical Problems in Transformer Design
Let the sides AB and BC (Fig. 1) of the stiffeners are suitably designed, the dimensions
rectangle ABCD be a and b respectively. It obtained from the above equations apply
can be shown that maximum stress occurs at to the panels between the stiffeners. An
the centre O and that it is approximately equal economic balance must be reached between the
in any direction. Let us then calculate it number of stiffeners and the thickness of plate.
across the diagonal AC. Let BP be a perpen- Due to comparatively high cost of welding and
labour it is usually cheaper to use thicker plate
and fewer stiffeners, but • to obtain a light
construction a thin plate with rather more
stiffeners is better. Apart from these con-
siderations the plate must be thick enough to
facilitate handling in assembly and to prevent
denting and similar damage in transport. The
usual thickness of plate for power transformer
tanks designed to withstand vacuum is i in,
but some large tanks with sides over 20 ft long
are made of -J-in plate.
The load on the stiffeners is found by taking
a strip of width c (Fig. 2) between the centre
lines of panels on either side of the stiffener.

Fig. 1.—Stress diagram. ^ ^_y~^~^ -~

dicular from B on to AC. The resultant „ 4— ~ . »
reaction at the edges AB and BC being at the
middle points E and F, the resultant reaction
on the* half-rectangle ABC is in the line EF /r////*rUiwy / / / / /
and is distant ^BP from AC.
A B
But . BPIBC = ABJAC
and BP = o6/V(a2 + 62) !
The magnitude of the pressure andXreaction / / , ' / ST,rftN'f«'' / ' ? ' / c
is \abp; hence 1

Bending moment on AC
1
0

Section modulus of AC ' / / / ' / '*V"tHty'/ / / /

= PI6V(a2 + b2)
Therefore stress
+ 62)]
The relationship between stress and plate - " ^ ^ - ^ • — -

dimensions can thus be put in the form:

/=*/Xj2//2(l+fl2/62)
Fig. 2.—Data for stiffener calculations.
where £ is a constant and depends on the edge Total load on portion ABCD of tank side
conditions. For simply supported edges and = pbc lb. The portion of the load that is
with the assumptions made above k was found carried by the ends AD and BC can be taken
to be equal to \, but the conditions in a welded to be in proportion to the periphery of the
tank are obviously modified. The welded strip, i.e. pbc x c[(b + c).
sides constrain the edges but allow a certain Thus the effective load on stiffener
degree of flexing. The condition is obviously
intermediate between a built-in edge and a = W = pbcx bl(b + c) lb
freely supported edge and the choice of the The stiffener can be taken as a uniformly
factor A: is a matter of design experience. loaded beam, and the end conditions approxi-
Incidentally, the exact solution given by mate to those of a simple support. The
Timoshenko is in the form required section modulus of the stiffener is
/=ftw2//2 therefore given by:
where /? depends on the edge conditions and Z = ioblf • = pPclWb + c) in'
the ratio bja.
Design of Stiffeners
Plate Reinforcement The problem in designing the stiffener is to
In order to keep the plate reasonably thin determine how much of the total load is
the tank sides must be subdivided into smaller shared by the plate. A simple practical rule
panels by welding on stiffeners. If these when calculating the section modulus of a
f 172 ]
STUDENTS* QUARTERLY JOURNAL JUNE 1953

proposed stiffener is to take the plate extending
for a width of 15 times its thickness on either
side of the stiffener as forming part of the
stiffener, as shown in Fig. 3.
It can be seen that an I joist [Fig. 3(6)] is
unsuitable as a tank stiffener because the
resultant section is unsymmetrical and there-
fore wasteful. Theoretically the best section
to be welded on is a T section [Fig. 3(c)], but
on long stiffeners it is advisable to strengthen
the web of the T by welding gussets at regular
intervals. A very robust section which is
eminently suitable for lifting and supporting
the tank as well as providing stiffening for the
application of vacuum is the box section
[Fig. 3(a)]- This can be either built-up or
formed by an inverted standard channel
deflections in the design stage. It is easy to
check the calculations by actual measurement
of deflections under vacuum, and this test is
much easier than, say, measurement of stress
by the strain-gauge method.
The deflection of rectangular plates is given
by Timoshenko as
where a depends on the ratio b/a and the
boundary conditions of the plate and E is
Young's modulus of the material. For values
of bja greater than 2-5, a approaches asymp-
totically to the value 0-0284.
Deflections of stiffeners are given by
A=

W////////////////777\.

NEUTRAL

ist -\%t-
Fig. 3.—Alternative
forms of stiffener.

f/s ? / A
••r
N.A. V
N

(b)
section. The main difficulty with such a where W is the total load on the stiffener and
section is the prevention of condensation and / is the moment of inertia of the section, both
corrosion inside the box; special precautions values being obtained as above.
must also be taken to prevent the leakage of Total deflection of the tank side is, of course,
oil into the section which could proceed un- the sum of the deflections of the plate and
detected from the outside. stiffeners. In the author's experience the
The practice of intermittent welding of tank deflections calculated by the above method are
stiffeners is not recommended, even though the in agreement with the test results to within
welds could be made sufficiently strong, as it ± 1/32 in.
would be practically impossible to exclude
atmospheric moisture and consequent corro- Tank Shape
sion between the stiffeners and the tank.
The question of the tank size is determined
by electrical requirements. Having obtained
Deflections the required length, width and height, the
A tank may be designed strong enough to optimum shape must be found.
withstand vacuum and yet be unsatisfactory Obviously the best geometrical shape to
due to excessive deflections of the sides. The withstand pressure is a sphere. Within the
permanent deflections of tanks designed using limits of practical possibilities the best shape
the above methods of estimating the strength is a cylinder. The hoop stress in the walls of
of plates and their reinforcement will be a cylinder subjected to pressure is given by
negligible within the accuracy of measurement, f = pRlt
but temporary deflections under stress may be
considerable, particularly in large panels. It where R is the radius of the cylinder.
2
For
is thus always desirable to calculate these an external pressure of 15 lb/in and, say, a
173 ]
 Machowtcz—Some Mechanical Problems in Transformer Design
i-in plate the stress is low even for very large Substituting in the above "equation:
radii. A long cylinder subjected to an ex-
ternal pressure is, however, liable to collapse
long before even the elastic limit of the material where s is the length of the quadrant of the
is reached, in similar manner to a long column ring and
in compression. The critical pressure at which
this collapse occurs is given by Ix = and Iy =
For the shape shown the bending moment
where L = unsupported length ;
of cylinder and diagram is of the form shown in Fig. 4(ii).
E = Young's modulus. The numerical maximum bending moment
Any amount of initial ellipticity will con-
siderably lower this critical pressure, and to
allow for inaccuracies in fabrication and varia-
tions of thickness of the plate a generous
safety factor must be applied to the above
formula. For application of vacuum the tank
dimensions must be such that the critical
pressure is not less than 70 to 75 lb/in2.
. The cylindrical tank, though very desirable,
has a limited application confined mainly to
reactors and potential transformers. The
lowest number of core limbs for a power
transformer is two, which-gives it an oblong
shape, and to put it in a cylindrical tank
would be very wasteful of oil. The next best
shape is given by a round-ended tank. The
position of leads and tap changing reactors
inside the tank and the provision of pockets, Fig. 4.—Bending-moment calculations.
coolers, etc., on the outside may render even
this shape difficult, in which case a round- occurs either at A or B and must be calculated
cornered tank should be attempted. A square- for both these positions. This bending
cornered tank should be used only as a last moment is, of course, due to unit width, of
resort. However, the absolute necessity for strip, and, if the width of panel supported by
economy of space makes even a rectangular the given stiffener is c, the required section
tank preferable to a nicely rounded one if the modulus is:
latter has had to be made much larger. Z = Mclf or Maclf
Having decided on the dimensions and shape whichever is greater.
of a tank, the position of stiffeners must be For round-ended tanks the required modulus
determined. The spacing between the stiffeners can be found by putting a — r in the above
is determined by the maximum size of panel solution or by using an approximate formula
allowable for the given thickness of plate. It
will be found that the required section modulus Z = pa(b - a)cll-25f
rises steeply with the length of the stiffener.
Hence it is best to place the stiffeners along a
Design of Tanks to Withstand a Head of Oil
dimension which keeps them as short as
possible. On single-phase tanks, which are The discussion so far has dealt mainly with
greater in height than in length, horizontal the design of tanks to withstand vacuum. The
application of vacuum is, however, only a test
stiffeners are best, while on a tank over 27 ft
in length it would be absurd to specify them. condition to be repeated very infrequently and
On fairly short round-ended or round-cornered the transformer tank throughout its life will
tanks the added advantage of horizontal be subjected to a constant internal pressure
due to the head of oil. When it is realized
stiffening is that the stiffeners can be made to
form hoops right round the tank. This is a that a column of oil 8 ft high exerts a pressure
very rigid construction, its bending moment of 3 lb/in2, and that head of oil in a trans-
being found as follows. former is measured from the top of the relief
pipe, which is above the conservator and at
Assume a uniform pressure p on a strip of a considerable height from the tank top, it
unit width round the tank (Fig. 4). Due to will be seen that quite high pressures have to
the symmetry of the section only one quadrant be reckoned with near the bottom of the tank.
need be considered. Let a and b be the semi- Moreover, the tanks have to be designed to
axes of the section and r the radius of the withstand a test pressure which for large
corner. If Mo represents the statically in- transformers is usually 5 lb/in2 added to the
determinate moment at A, the bending moment top oil. This test pressure in addition to the
M at any cross-section C, with co-ordinates normal head allows for any sudden rise in
x and y is: internal pressure due to possible explosions,
1 2 2
M — Mo — ifxt + ipx + ipy and also helps to detect any oil leaks in the
From symmetry the slope at A is zero and, by tank welds.
applying Castigliano's theorem dU/dMo 0, = Oil tanks which are not required to with-
where V. is the strain energy of the quadrant stand full vacuum are designed to meet this
under consideration. oil test, and, of course, even the vacuum tanks
[ 174]
STUDENTS' QUARTERLY JOURN, JUNE 1953
must be checked to ensure that they would and levered and generally roughly handled,
satisfy it. The allowable stress in plate under and the base must be able to withstand any
test conditions should be lower than that for mechanical shocks without denting, twisting
a vacuum and should not exceed 20 000 lb/in*. or springing a leak. In general, a base that is
The plate formula used previously can be correctly designed to satisfy the above condi-
suitably modified and used to estimate stresses tions will be quite able to withstand vacuum.
in plates subjected to a hydrostatic oil pressure. The base can be designed in two ways: the
The vertjcal stiffeners can be designed as plate can be made either comparatively thin
before, taking account of the linear increase with suitable reinforcement or thick enough
of loading towards the bottom. Since pressure not to require any stiffeners. On large power
increases towards the bottom of the tank, the transformers the stiffeners, either solid bars or
most logical way of placing stiffeners on a joists, are placed inside the tank in order to
tank designed for a head of oil is horizontally, raise the core and coils off the tank floor to
with fewer stiffeners near the top and pro- improve oil circulation. The base in this case
gressively more towards the bottom. The must be made at least $ in thick for robustness.
correct way to design such horizontal rein- On smaller tanks there is usually an outside
forcement is to split up the tank into a number underbase provided with either skids or rollers
of panels, large at the top of the tank and and the base can be made of the same thick-
smaller at the bottom, so that the stress in each ness as the tank sides.
panel is equal and as near the maximum
allowable as possible. At the intersections
between the panels a horizontal stiffener is General Features
provided, • its cross-section being sufficient to The core and coils must be suitably located
withstand the loading at that point. and fixed in the tank so as to prevent relative
movement in transport, particularly duiing sea
Tank Covers passage. Provision must also be made for
lifting the transformer tank together with core
Tank covers must satisfy the same conditions and coils, bushings and all other fittings, and
as the tanks,.i.e. either vacuum or oil test, full of oil. These, however, are normal
though the internal pressure on the cover due requirements and will not be considered hete.
to an oil test is fairly low. The special point One final point is worth emphasizing. The
to consider in cover design is that it must be stresses
sufficiently rigid to prevent distortion of the the samein waywelds must be carefully analysed in
as stresses in any other part.
gasket face-and consequent oil leakage and to It is only a very rough approximation to
prevent undue flexing when it is lifted off the assume that, say, a fillet weld of a given size
tank. Transformer tank covers are made with is capable of carrying a given load per inch run.
sloping panels and a peak running along the
middle; this is intended to prevent water from Oil-tight welds must not be allowed to carry
collecting on the top but gives the added any load. An example is the weld round the
advantage of increased strength. tank base which transmits the whole weight
A tank cover usually has a number of of the core, coils and oil to the tank sides and
must at the same time be absolutely oil-tight.
openings—it has to accommodate a number To satisfy this condition a double weld is
of bushings, inspection covers, man-holes for
making connections to a tap changer terminal employed, one inside and one outside the tank,
board if any, hand-holes • for making con- and the weight is carried by gusset plates
nections to bushings, etc. AH these openings between the base and the sides.
require heavy flanges welded round them, with '
blind-tapped holes and studs. Due to the Acknowledgments
large number of flanges required it is much The author wishes to thank the Directors
more economical to make the whole cover of The British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd.,
sufficiently thick to take the studs without any for permission to publish this paper. Thanks
added flanges. The minimum thickness re- are also due to all those whose criticism and
quired for blind-tapping and screwing in of advice helped in its preparation.
i-in dia. studs is J in.
Tank Bases REFERENCES
A -tank base presents a somewhat different (1) "Strength of Materials," by ARTHUR
problem. It has to support the full weight of MORLEY, O.B.E., D.Sc.,"M.l.Mech.E.
the core and coils in addition to the oil head (2) "Theory of Plates and Shells," by S.
and test pressure. Moreover, when a trans- TlMOSHENKO.
former is placed in position on site it is skidded (3) "Strength of Materials—advanced Theory
on greased plates, pushed on rollers, jacked and Problems," by S. TIMOSHENKO.

•ins.)