Abstract
Electricity companies around the world are constantly seeking ways to provide electricity more safely and efficiently while reducing the negative impact on the environment. Mineral oils have been the most popular transformer insulation, having excellent electrical insulating properties, but have many problems such as high flammability, significant cleaning problems, and are toxic to fish and wildlife. This paper presents an alternative approach to mineral oil: a transformer design that is clean and provides better performance and environmental benefits. A 50 kVA, 34.5/0.4 kV gas insulated distribution transformer was designed and evaluated using the COMSOL Multiphysics environment. R410A was used as insulation material. R410A is a near-azeotropic mixture of difluoromethane (CH2F2, called R-32) and pentafluoro ethane (C2HF5, called R-125), which is used as a refrigerant in air conditioning applications. It has excellent properties including environmentally friendly, no-ozone depletion, low greenhouse effect, non-explosive and non-flammable, First, the breakdown voltage of the selected gas was determined. The electrostatic and thermal properties of the R410A gas insulated transformer were investigated in the COMSOL environment. The simulation results for the performance of oil and SF6 gas insulated transformers using the same model were compared. The gas-insulated transformer is believed to have equivalent performance and is an environmentally friendly alternative to current oil-based transformers.
Highlights
As the importance of electrical energy in modern society increases due to increase in population, increased industrial activity, and the increase in energy consumption from technological developments, research has focused on improved transmission of energy
Most of the transformers used in the electrical distribution industry are filled with mineral oil as it has excellent properties in terms of both electrical insulation and thermal conductivity
Distribution transformers are widely used in areas where people live, such as hospitals, schools, shopping malls, and under buildings; it should be of small size, high power, low maintenance, non-flammable-explosive features
Summary
As the importance of electrical energy in modern society increases due to increase in population, increased industrial activity, and the increase in energy consumption from technological developments, research has focused on improved transmission of energy. Depending on the conditions of use and the environment of the transformer, oil deterioration occurs over time and it is well-known fact that it relatively reduces the dielectric properties This situation causes both time and economic losses and additional costs in the transformer manufacturing process. Distribution transformers are widely used in areas where people live, such as hospitals, schools, shopping malls, and under buildings; it should be of small size, high power, low maintenance, non-flammable-explosive features. For these reasons, gas insulated transformers hold much potential [3], as they are non-explosive, nonflammable and environment friendly. Details of gases previously studied that are non-toxic, non-flammable, and have no Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) and low Global Warming Potential, are given in Table 1 [13,17,18]
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