An Improved Radial Buckling Analysis Method and Test Investigation for Power Transformer under Short Circuit Impact

The inner winding of the power transformer is subjected to uniform compressive stress in the radial direction during the short circuit, which makes circular radial stability a crucial component of reliability. The radial stability evaluation system currently needs more state characteristic judgment quantity considering the manufacturing deviations(MD) and assembly gaps. Thus, there is a significant deviation in the transformer design, which seriously endangers the operation safety of the power system. This paper proposes an improved radial buckling analysis method (IRBAM) to investigate the circular radial stability of inner winding. The IRBAM is implemented by defining two characteristic parameters: equivalent flexibility and MD. Besides, the relative change ratio of impedance (RCRI) is proposed as the buckling judgment for ending each short-circuit test.The destructive short-circuit tested transformer is designed with the rated power of 50 MVA and the high-voltage (HV) rated voltage of 110 kV. Then, 73 cumulative short-circuit tests are performed until impedance exceeds the permissible value based on the judgment. Finally, it is verified that IRBAM can effectively match the winding failure modes by comparing the buckling phenomena and calculation results. Further, the IRBAM can provide a reference for similar designs and verification with more minor deviations.