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Background
he transformer is now over 100 years old. In its Thinner laminations and laser etched core
T 100-year-pluslife, the transformer has undergone
many changes and improvements: Voltage levels
have increased from a few hundred volts to 765,000 V
steels have reduced no-load losses
dramatically.
and beyond, and the size has also grown from a few ki-
lovoltamperes to over 1,000 MVA in the largest trans-
formers. [ 11
Changes have also been made that have improved ef- find its way into more and more oil-filled transformers
ficiency and reliability. Thinner laminations and laser- around the world.
etched core steels have reduced no-load losses dramati- The higher temperature stability of aramid insulation,
cally. Amorphous metals promise to reduce iron losses up to 220°C, allows a higher temperature rise of the
even further. New winding and conductor configura- winding without damage to the insulation structure.
tions have improved load-loss efficiency. Losses today The higher temperature rise capability permits either
are only a fraction of what they were 20 years ago. [2] an increase in megavoltampere rating with the same
Despite all these improvements, very little change amount of active material, or a dramatic decrease in
has occurred in the materials used to insulate oil-filled weight for a given megavoltampere rating. To date the
transformers. Transformer insulation contains two basic most common application of aramid-insulated oil-filled
components: cellulose-based paper and mineral oil. Al- transformers has been mobile, portable, railroad, and in-
though improved analytical techniques and manufactur- dustrial transformers. The same winding temperature
ing practices allow more optimum use of these materi- rise increase can be applied to substation transformers
als in today's transformer insulation systems, the basic to improve overload capabilities and/or reduce size.
components are virtually unchanged. [ 31 This increased use of aramid insulation in oil-filled
Aramid transformerboard is a recent development transformers led to the need for the conductor insula-
that has led to a change in the solid material used in tion tests described in this article. It is commonly
some oil-filled transformer insulation structures. Its pre- known that aramid pressboard and paper are superior
decessor, aramid paper, has been employed for 20 to kraft insulation in thermal aging characteristics, me-
years or more as a dielectric insulation material in air. chanical strength, and dielectric strength in air. How-
It is still used extensively in open-ventilated transform- ever, there was very little information on the dielectric
ers and motors because of its high dielectric strength in strength of an aramid/oil insulation system. The pur-
air and its high-temperature stability. pose of this test series was to gather data on the dielec-
Aramid paper was used in oil-filled transformers as a tric strength of aramid paper in oil used as turn-to-turn
means to solve special problems on specific transform- insulation. A vast amount of data and design experience
ers. Applications included insulating conductors whose exists for kraft paper conductor insulation. Therefore,
hot-spot temperatures exceeded the capability of cellu- high-density, thermally upgraded kraft paper insulation
lose paper and insulating mobile transformers whose was tested as a control. The information gathered in
average winding temperature rise was much higher this test series should be helpful in the design of ara-
than in typical transformers and, in some cases, ex- mid-insulated oil-filled transformers. [41
ceeded the capability of cellulose insulation.
Widespread use of aramid insulation in oil-filled
transformers was limited, however, because aramid in-
Setup
sulation was available only in paper form. This format Some information on the dielectric strength of aramid
made it very difficult to obtain insulation components conductor insulation was given in an IEEE paper written
normally made from pressboard or pressboard lami- in 1971, by L. E. Feather and P. Voytik. The tests were
nates. The introduction of aramid transformerboard done with square sheets of stacked aramid or kraft paper
solved this problem, and aramid insulation is starting to between disk electrodes. In contrast, the test setup used
0883-7554/89/0007-001OSO1.00 0 1989 IEEE
Test Method
The number of samples to be tested to achieve statisti-
Fig. 1. Turn-to-turn sample. cally acceptable results was determined by a preliminary
E
I EE Electrical Insulation Magazine July/August 1969-Vol. 5, No. 4 11
FULL WAVE IMPULSE 1 . 60 Hz-I-Min Withstand Test (ASTM 0149)
-Starting voltage was 70 percent of anticipated
failure voltage and held for 1 min.
-Voltage was stepped up 10 percent of the initial
voltage with a maximum step of 5 kV and held for
1 min.
-Steps were continued until the sample failed.
-Sample failure voltage value and time into the step
were recorded.
The samples were tested to simulate the tests and 4. I -psec Chopped-WaveImpulse
dielectric stress that the insulated conductors would -Impulse wave resembled a 1.2 X 50 full wave
experience in a transformer on a manufacturer's test floor. except that it was chopped 1 psec after it reached
These tests conformed to ASTM methods. The following 75 percent of peak value on the rise (see Fig. 4).
tests were performed: [ 51 -Procedure was the same as the full-wave impulse.
E l 2 3 4 5 6 7 E Q 10 E l 2 3 4 5 6 7 E Q 10
TIUE (uSEC) TIUE (SED
Fig. 3. 3-psec impulse. Fig. 4. 1-psecimpulse.
Coil-to-Coil Tests
Coil-to-coil distances varied over a wide range of
spacing. The coil-to-coil distances tested ranged from
0.204 to 0.641 in. The test series contained five coil-
to-coil distances: 0.204,0.266,0.391,0.516,and 0.641 in.
The oil gap was established by placing three blocks in line
with the push rods of the test furture (see Fig. 8). For the
I00
-
I
-i L--
10 - I
0 01 Fig. 8. Coil-to-coilsample.
TURN-TO-TURN DISTAN
__-_ __I-
* KRAFT +*
I
Turn-to-Turn Results
Figures 5-7 represent, on a log-log scale, the results of
the turn-to-turn 60-Hz and impulse tests. The lines were
obtained by averaging the data for each turn-to-turn
thickness and then applying those averages to a linear Fig. 10. Coil-to-coiltest: full-waveimpulse.