Simulation, Design and Fabrication of an

Efficient Single phase Transformer

Muhammad Shahzad Aziz Sohaib Ahmed
Center for advanced studies in Energy(CAS- Electrical Engineering Department
EN) Islamia University
National university of sciences & Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
Technology [email protected]
H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan.
[email protected] Majid Ali*
Umair Saleem Center for advanced studies in Energy(CAS-
Center for advanced studies in Energy(CAS- EN)
EN) National university of sciences &
National university of sciences & Technology
Technology H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan.
H-12, Islamabad, Pakistan. [email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract— Transformer is a vital component of electric transformer’s windings are termed as the coper losses.
power systems for transmission and distribution. Robust These losses appear as heat dissipation in the windings’
design for the efficiency enhancement is the main stress in resistance. Efficiency of the transformer is limited due to
the fabrication of a transformer. Efficiency of a practical these losses [3], [4]. Other major factor which effects the
transformer is limited by the losses which are accounted
efficiency of the transformer is the design flaw. Poorly
for the design and manufacturing imperfections. This
paper deals with the simulation, design and fabrication of designed transformers have poor efficiencies while
a 0.30 KVA, Single phase, Shell type, tapped transformer. transformers with good design have good efficiencies.
Design and fabrication of this transformer has been made Procedures can be developed for the designs of
possible by the special calculations and design procedure. transformers to effectively enhance their efficiencies.
Simulation has been performed in MATLAB. Open circuit Design of a transformer includes: core design, yoke
test and short-circuit tests have been performed to design, window design and windings design. If
investigate the losses and efficiency of the designed implemented precisely, an effective design can result in
transformer. Simulation results and experimental results the maximum transformer’s efficiency [5], [6]. In this
have been compared which are closely matching.
paper, such a developed effective design has been tried
Keywords— Single phase transformer; design; for precise implementation on the fabrication of a 0.3
fabrication; simulation; MATLAB. KVA model transformer.
Rest of the paper has been arranged as: Section
I deals with the design problem highlighting the design
I. INTRODUCTION limitations and considerations, selection of design
Transformers are widely used in electrical power systems constants and dimensions of the transformer. Section II
for transmission and distribution [1]. They can be and Section III deal with the design and fabrication of
considered as an interface between three schemes i.e. transformer respectively. Section IV comprises of the
generation site and transmission lines, transmission simulation and experimental results and some discussion.
system and distribution system plus the distribution
system and the load. For some specific purposes, i.e. for II. THE TRANSFORMER DESIGN PROBLEM
distribution, transformers have to be energized for all the
A. Design Considrations and limitations:
time. These energized transformers face large variation
in load (no load to full load), therefore they are designed In a design, a concept is given shape with the
for minimum losses at no load [2]. Losses of a application of science, technology and invention to
transformer at no load are measured with its secondary realization of a machine so as to satisfy required
open circuited and rated voltage applied at its primary. performance and characteristics. A design process is not
merely engineering calculations but involves careful
These losses solely occur in the transformer’s core and
considerations of the design base, specifications, design
also termed as core losses. Losses which occur in the transfer and information updating.

978-1-4673-6813-1/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

 Knowing the characteristics and specifications that a central limb will have the double area as that of outer
transformer has to satisfy, the main areas of design limbs.
include:
• Magnetic circuit; core, window etc.
• The electric circuit; the windings.
• The insulation
• The mechanical construction
The designer’s work lies in suitably allocating the
space to frame, core, air gap, windings, insulation and
cooling circuit in the transformer. Moreover economy in
manufacturing costs, operating and running costs are also
kept in view.
Limitations are imposed on design because of:-
Figure 1: Dimensions of Shell Type Transformer
• Saturation of magnetic parts
• Temperature rise under high output
a = width of outer limbs
• Insulation breakdown due to high voltage b =depth of core
gradients
2a=width of central limb.
B. Selection Of Design Constants: Gross core section of central limb = (2a x b)
Much of design depends upon power selection of
design constants, flux density (Bm), current density (δ) Over all width (W) = 2Ww + 4a
and window space factor (KW). Therefore, it is Overall height (H) = hw + 2hy = hw + 2a
worthwhile to discuss the factors governing the choice of
these constants.
III. DESIGN OF TRANSFORMER
If we choose higher value of flux density (Bm), the In this section, design for the fabrication of single
core area Ai reduces. This will reduce the diameter of phase shell type tapped transformer has been presented.
circum-circle thereby reducing the length of mean turn. The design of core and the windings has been discussed.
Thus there is saving in the cost of iron and copper. But Core design includes the window height, window width
very high flux density is not possible, the limitation is and the outer and central limbs. Winding design includes
because of iron losses, saturation and magnetizing the area of cross section and number of turns.
current. Transformer should be designed for lower iron
losses giving good efficiency. Therefore, for small The design process is very complicated because of
transformer comparatively lower flux density (1.1 to 1.4 the choice of magnetic loading Bm and the choice of
Wb/m2) is assumed. current density (δ). The core of good magnetic material
is important for the good design of transformer. The
The choice of current density (δ) affects the I2 R sizes of winding conductors essentially depend upon the
losses and also the load at which maximum efficiency choice of current density. For more current density, the
occurs. The permissible values of current density for conductor of small cross section is used and vice versa.
small power transformers are taken as (δ =1.5 to 2.6
A/mm2). A. Specifications
The window space factor, Kw has been defined as the The designed transformer is of 300 VA,
ratio of copper area in the window to the total window (60+60)/(60+60) Volts, 50 Hz, Single phase, Shell type,
area .The total window area includes the copper area, tapped transformer. Design and fabrication of this
insulation and the air gap of coil spaces. The relative transformer has been made possible by the special
amounts of copper and insulation used will influence the calculations and design procedure.
value of Kw. The amount of copper and insulation used
depends upon the KVA capacity and voltage rating B. Core Design:
respectively. Thus choice of Kw depends upon KVA
capacity and voltage rating. The following empirical The core section for shell type transformer is
relation is normally used for estimation of Kw. invariably being of rectangular shape. The design of the
core is presented by the following procedure. Design
Kw = 10/ (30+KV) constants in this design procedure are selected as for the
small transformers.
Where KV is the voltage in kilo-volts of high voltage
winding.

C. Dimensions of Shell Type Transformer:

Dimensions of the shell type transformer have been
shown in Figure.1. For shell type transformer only the
central limb is wound. The central limb in this case
caries double flux as that of outer limbs. Therefore, the
 voltage per turn = Vt = K × Q (volts) D. Window Design:

Q = KVA rating of transform er

KVA of single phase shell - type
K = Output constant of transform er
transforme r is given as :
Turns per volt (Te) for a small transform er is
S = 2.22 ×  ×  ×  ×  × Kw × δ × 10 -3
given as :
S
  =
= 2.22 ×  ×  ×  × Kw × δ × 10 -3

 ×  ×  × 
Where ;
 = Net Iron Area of Core
  = Area of window in cm 2
Ai = f = frequency in Hz

 ×  ×  × 
Te = 2 Turns/V ,  = Flux density in web/ m 2
Flux density = Bm = 1.55 web/ m 2 , 
Kw = window factor =
f = Supply frequency = 50 Hz 30 +
Agi = Gross Iron Area of Core δ = current density in A/mm 2
  = Net Iron Area of Core
 = ∴ Ks = stacking factor = 0.9
  = w w × h w
a = 0.85 ×  hw
=3
b = 0.53 ×  ww
w w = Window Width , h w = Window height
where ;
a = Height of outer limb
E. Overall Frame Design:
b = Depth of yoke (core)
Overall Width of frame = W = [(2 × w w ) + (4 × a)]cm
Overall height of frame = H = [h w + (2 × h y )] cm
C. Yoke Design:
Window height = h y = a

To minimize the iron losses of the yoke,

F. Windings Design:
area of yoke is fixed to be 2 times
the core area. :
Primary winding :
 = (1.2) × 
φm Primary winding current I1 = ( ) Ampere
yoke flux densidy =  =
 I1
a 1 = .[( ) + L.C]mm 2
φ m =  ×  δ
yoke area (net) = yoke area (gross) × Ks a 1 = Cross - section of primary winding
Ks = stacking factor δ = current density in A/mm 2
For rectengular yoke section : L.C = Lamination coating = 0.005 mm 2
yoke depth =  = Number of turns :
yoke area (gross) No. of secondary turns = N 2 = V2 × 
yoke height =  =
 No. of primary turns = N1 = V1 × 
N1 = primary turns; N 2 = secondary turns shows the winding fabrication and E-I laminations for
the core fabrication.
Secondery winding :
Secondary winding has been designed with same
conductor as with the primary winding.
Cross - section of secondary winding = a 2 = a 1
For winding s, SWG 20 conductor has been used
with dia of d = 1.0758 mm.

I. FABRICATION OF TRANSFORMER
Figure 2: winding fabrication and E-I laminations for
the core fabrication
The transformer has been fabricated by precisely
considering the resulted dimensions calculated from the II. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
practice described in section III. Measurements of the
dimensions obtained from the calculations has been A. Simulation Results:
enlisted in TABLE I. The designed transformer has been simulated in
TABLE I: DIMENSIONS OF THE FABRICATED MATLAB. Performance characteristics obtained from
TRANSFORMER. the simulation has been enlisted in TABLE II.
Resulted Figure.3 shows the simulation curve of the
Dimensions
Measurements transformer. Iron losses and copper losses are 0.74W and
Core Design 1.43W respectively. This depicts the simulation
Width of outer limb (a) 3.510 cm efficiency of the designed transformer comes to be 99.1
% at 0.273 KVA.
Depth of core (b) 2.185 cm
Width of central limb (2a) 7.020 cm
Central limb cross section
15.34 cm2
(2axb)
Net Iron area (Ai) 15.30 cm2
Net gross area (Aig) 17.01 cm2
Window Design
Height of window (hw) 4.575 cm
Width of window (Ww) 1.525 cm
Area of window (Aw) 6.976 cm2
Yoke Design
Yoke depth (Dy) 3.510 cm
Yoke height (Hy) 4.846 cm
Yoke Area (Ay) 18.36 cm2
Overall Frame Design
Overall Width (W) 17.090 cm
Overall Height (H) 11.595 cm
Windings Design Figure 3: Simulation characteristic Curve.
Conductor used for primary & SWG 20 with
secondary sides. d=1.0758 mm Voltage regulation of the designed transformer when
Lamination coating (L.C) 0.005 mm2 simulated comes to be 5.73 % and total loss is 2.17W
which is the sum of iron and core/copper losses.
Per volt turns 2
No. of Primary & Secondary TABLE II: SIMULATION ND EXPERIMENTAL
120 turns per tap. MEAUREMENTS OF THE FABRICATED
turns
Cross section of winding’s TRANSFORMER.
0.914 mm2 Simulation Experimental
conductor Characteristic
Measureme Measurement
s
Core of the Transformer has been fabricated using E-I nts s
stampings of the iron laminations. Central limb of the
core has Iron loss (Wo) 0.74 W 0.96 W

been wound with the windings such that the secondary Copper loss
covers the primary to minimize the core loss. Figure.2. 1.43 W 2.41 W
(Wc)
 Simulation Experimental
Characteristic
Measureme Measurement
s
nts s

Total loss (Wt) 2.17 W 3.37 W

Efficiency 99.1 % 98.6 %

B. Experimental Results:
Short circuit test for copper losses and open circuit
test for iron losses have been performed on the fabricated
transformer. Performance characteristics obtained from
the tests has been enlisted in TABLE II.

Figure 5: Experimental characteristic Curve.

III. CONCLUSION
Transformer is the most important component
of a power system. A good design for efficiency boost is
a challenge in the fabrication of a transformer. Less
efficient transformers are poorly designed because the
losses occurring in a transformer are more likely
considered the design flaw. Transformers can be made
maximum efficient if fabricated using the precise
dimensions. In the current work, a model transformer of
the rating 0.30 KVA was fabricated by carefully using
the exact dimensions calculated from the special design
procedure to make the transformer efficient up-to
Figure 4: Fabricated Transformer under experimental maximum. The losses were minimized by the robust
testing. design and the efficiency of the transformer came to be
98.6 %. Same transformer was simulated in MATLAB
Figure.4 shows the fabricated transformer under and the resulted characteristics from the simulation were
testing for the experimental results. A comparison of the compared with the experimental characteristics.
experimental and simulation results indicates that the Experimental results closely match with simulation
values for different characteristics in both cases do not results. Thus the effective design, precisely implemented
show considerable differences and are precisely resulted in the maximum efficiency.
equivalent and hence the fabricated transformer very
nearly represents the simulated transformer. REFERENCES
Figure. 5 shows the experimental characteristic curve [1] Martin J. Heathcote. 1988. J and P Transformer book. Oxford
of the fabricated transformer. Different characteristics university press.
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losses are 0.96W and 2.41W respectively. This depicts CBS publishers India..
the experimental efficiency of the designed transformer [3] P. Gill, “Electrical Power Equipment Maintenance and
Testing”, 2nd edition., CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
comes to be 98.6 % at 0.265 KVA 2009.
Voltage regulation of the designed transformer when [4] Stephen J. Chapman, “Electrical Machinary Fundamentals”,
tested under experiments comes to be 6.21 % and total BAE SYSTEMS Austrailia.
loss is 3.37W which is the sum of iron and core/copper [5] Sawhney A.K. 2006. Electrical Machine Design, Dhanapat
Rai publishers, India.
losses.
[6] R.K. Agarwal, “Principles of Electrical Machine Design”, S. K.
Kataria & Sons, 2009.