Chapter three

Transformers
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2.1 Introduction.
What is a Transformer?
• A transformer is a static electrical machine which transfers
electrical energy from one circuit to another without changing
the frequency.

• A transformer is a static electrical machine which raises or

lowers voltage or current at the same frequency.

• It works on the principle of MUTUAL INDUCTION.

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Transfor
mer
• It consists of two windings insulated from each other and wound on a
common core made up of a magnetic material.

• AC voltage is connected across one of the windings called primary

winding.

• Load is connected to the other winding called the secondary winding.

• In both windings, EMF is induced by electromagnetic induction.

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 Single phase Transformer

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 2.2. Construction and working principle

• Main Components of a Transformer are,

 Magnetic core
 Primary & Secondary windings
 Insulation of windings
 Conservator tank & Explosion vent
 Bushings
 Buchholz relay
 Breather
 Cooling arrangements

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 6

Magnetic Core

• Magnetic circuit consists of an iron

core.
• Core is made up of stacks of thin
laminations (0.35mm thickness) of
Cold Rolled Grain Oriented (CRGO)
silicon steel.
• These laminations are lightly
insulated with varnish.
• Two types of magnetic circuit are
core type and shell type.
11/02/2025 Course Instructor . Nigus Manie
Magnetic Core

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 Core type
construction
• In the core type, the windings are wound around two legs of a rectangular magnetic core.

• Windings surround the core & it has only one magnetic path.

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Shell type construction

• In shell type, the windings are wound around the center leg of a three-legged core

• Core surrounds the windings.

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 Windings

• A transformer has two windings namely primary and secondary.

• These windings consist of a series of turns called coils, wound

around the core.

• Transformer windings are made of solid or stranded copper or

aluminum strip conductors.

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 Conservator and Explosion Vent

• Conservator is used to provide adequate

space for the expansion of oil when
transformer is loaded or when ambient
temperature changes.

• Explosion Vent is used to discharge excess

pressure developed inside the transformer
during loading, to the atmosphere.
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Course Instructor . Nigus Manie
 Breath
er
• It sucks the moisture from the air
which is taken by transformer so that
dry air is taken by transformer.

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 13

Bushings
• Transformers are connected to high voltage
lines.
• Extreme care should be taken to prevent the
conductors touching the transformer tank.
• So the connections in and out of the
transformer are made by the use of
bushings.
• Bushings are normally porcelain insulators.

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 Buchholz Relay
• It is a safety device connected between main
tank and conservator tank.

• In case of slow developing faults, it sounds an

alarm to alert the operator.

• If serious fault occur in the transformer, it

disconnects the transformer to protect it.
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15

Methods of Cooling of
Transformers
• Air natural
• Air Blast
• Oil natural
• Oil blast
• Forced circulation of oil
• Oil and water cooled
• Forced oil and water
cooled

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 2.3. Ideal and practical Transformers
Ideal Transformers
An ideal transformer is a lossless device with an input winding and
an output winding. It has the following properties:
 No iron and copper losses.
 No leakage fluxes
 A core of infinite magnetic permeability and of infinite electrical
resistivity
 Flux is confined to the core and winding resistances are negligible

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Ideal Transformers

v p t  i s t  N p
  a
v s t  i p t  N s

Vp I
In rms quantities  s a
Vs I p

Np: Number of turns on the primary winding

Ns: Number of turns on the secondary winding
vp(t): voltage applied to the primary side
vs(t): voltage at the secondary side
a: turns ratio
ip(t): current flowing into the primary side
is(t): current flowing into the secondary side
Derivation of the Relationship

d p t 
d M t  …………….. (1)
v p t   N p
dt dt
d t  d t  …………….. (2)
v s t   s  N s M
dt dt
v p t  N p
Dividing (1) by (2)  a ………………......……….. (3)
v s t  N s

From Ampere’s law N p i p t   N s i s t 

i s t  N p …………………..……….. (4)
 a
ip t  Ns

v p t  i s t  N p ………………….. (5)
Equating (3) and (4)   a
v s t  i p t  N s
Power in an Ideal Transformer

Real power P supplied to the transformer by the primary circuit

Pin V p I p cos  p
 p  s 
Real power coming out of the secondary circuit
 Vp 
Pout V s I s cos  s   
 aI p cos  V p I p cos  Pin

 a 
Thus, the output power of an ideal transformer is equal to its input power.

The same relationship applies to reactive Q and apparent power S:

 Is 
 
Qin V p I p sin   aVs   cos  V s I s sin  Qout
 a 
S in V p I p V s I s S out
Impedance Transformation through a Transformer

Ip Is
Impedance of the load:
ZL = Vs/Is
Vp Vs ZL
The impedance of the primary circuit:
Z’L = Vp/Ip
= (aVs)/(Is /a)
= a2 (Vs / Is )
= a 2 ZL

Ip Is
Z’L

Vp Vs
Example 1

A 100-kVA, 2400/240-V, 60-Hz step-down transformer (ideal) is used between a

transmission line and a distribution system.

a) Determine turns ratio.

b) What secondary load impedance will cause the transformer to be fully
loaded, and what is the corresponding primary current?
c) Find the load impedance referred to the primary.
Solution to Example 1

a) Turns ratio, a = 2400 / 240 = 10

b) Is= 100,000/240 = 416.67 A

Ip = Is /a = 416.67 / 10 = 41.67 A
Magnitude of the load impedance
= Vs/Is = 240/416.7 = 0.576
ohm

c) Load impedance referred to the primary

= a2*0.576 = 57.6 ohm
 Practical transformer

Leakage flux: flux that goes through one of the transformer windings
but not the other one
Mutual flux: flux that remains in the core and links both windings
 Practical transformer

 P  M   LP
 S  M   LS

fp: total average primary flux

fM : flux linking both primary and secondary windings
fLP: primary leakage flux
fS: total average secondary flux
fLS: secondary leakage flux
 Magnetization Current

E1

When an ac power source is connected to a transformer, a current flows in its primary circuit,
even when the secondary circuit is open circuited. This current is the current required to
produce flux in the ferromagnetic core and is called excitation current. It consists of two
components:
1. The magnetization current Im, which is the current required to produce the flux in
the transformer core
2. The core-loss current Ih+e, which is the current required to make up for hysteresis
and eddy current losses
 The Magnetization Current in a Real Transformer
When an ac power source is connected to the primary of a transformer, a current
flows in its primary circuit, even when there is no current in the secondary. The
transformer is said to be on no-load. If the secondary current is zero, the primary
current should be zero too. However, when the transformer is on no-load, excitation
current flows in the primary because of the core losses and the finite permeability of
Ic
the core. E1
Excitation current, qo
Io
Magnetization current
IM IM
(current required to produce Io
flux in the core)
f
Core-loss current Ih+e IM is proportional to the flux f
(current required to make up
for hysteresis and eddy Ic = Ih+e = Core loss/E1
current losses)
 The Equivalent Circuit of a Transformer
The losses that occur in transformers have to be accounted for in any accurate model of
transformer behavior.
1. Copper (I2R) losses. Copper losses are the resistive heating losses in the primary and
secondary windings of the transformer. They are proportional to the square of the current in
the windings.
2. Eddy current losses. Eddy current losses are resistive heating losses in the core of the
transformer. They are proportional to the square of the voltage applied to the transformer.
3. Hysteresis losses. Hysteresis losses are associated with the rearrangement of the magnetic
domains in the core during each half-cycle. They are a complex, nonlinear function of the
voltage applied to the transformer.
4. Leakage flux. The fluxes which escape the core and pass through only one of the
transformer windings are leakage fluxes. These escaped fluxes produce a self-inductance in
the primary and secondary coils, and the effects of this inductance must be accounted for.
Losses in a Transformer

• The power losses in a transformer are of two types, namely;

 Core or Iron losses
 Copper losses

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Copper losses (PC)
• These losses occur in both the primary and secondary windings due
to their ohmic resistance.
• These losses can be determined by short-circuit test.

• Copper losses vary as the square of load current.

• Copper losses account for about 90% of the total losses.

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Core or Iron losses (Pi)

• This loss consists of hysteresis and eddy current loss and occur in the
transformer core due to the alternating flux.
• These losses can be determined by open-circuit test.

• Both the above losses depend on Bm and frequency which are

constant.
• Hence, core or iron losses are practically the same at all loads.
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 Summa
ry Copper loss or I2R loss
Core loss
It is a variable loss
It is the Constant loss
Also called as I2R loss
Does not change even as the
Proportional to square of the load
load current changes
current
Proportional to supply voltage
Occurs in the winding resistances
and frequency
It is dissipated as heat

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 The Exact Equivalent Circuit of a Transformer

To analyze practical circuits containing transformers, it is normally necessary to convert

the entire circuit to an equivalent circuit at a single voltage level. Therefore, the
equivalent circuit must be referred either to its primary side or to its secondary side.

Figure (a) is the equivalent circuit of

the transformer referred to its primary
side.

Figure (b) is the equivalent circuit

referred to its secondary side.
Approximate Equivalent Circuits of a Transformer
Impedance
Ratio

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 Shifting
Impedances

• When transferring resistance or reactance from primary to

secondary, multiply it by K2.

• When transferring resistance or reactance from secondary to

primary, divide it by K2.
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Equivalent Circuit of a Transformer

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Simplified Equivalent Circuit of a Transformer

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Equivalent Circuit Referred to Primary Side

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Equivalent Circuit Referred to Primary Side

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Equivalent Circuit Referred to Secondary Side

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Equivalent Circuit Referred to Secondary Side

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Transformer Voltage Regulation
Because a real transformer has series impedance within it, the output voltage
of a transformer varies with the load even if the input voltage remains
constant. The voltage regulation of a transformer is the change in the
magnitude of the secondary terminal voltage from no-load to full-load.

V no  load   Vs  full  load 

%Voltage Re gulation  s 100

Vs full  load 

V p no  load   V p  full  load 

 100
V p  full  load 

Referred to the primary side

Transformer Efficiency

Power Output

Power Input
Power Input  Losses

Power Input
Losses
1 
Power Input
Pcopper loss  Pcore loss
1 
Pcopper loss  Pcore loss  V s I s cos 

Usually the efficiency for a power transformer is between 0.9 to 0.99.

The higher the rating of a transformer, the greater is its efficiency.
 Example 4 (Problem No. 2-2, page 144 of your text)

A 20-kVA, 8000:480-V distribution transformer has the following resistances and reactance's:

RP = 32 ohm RS = 0.05 ohm

XP = 45 ohm XS = 0.06 ohm

RC = 250,000 ohm XM = 30,000 ohm

The excitation branch impedances are referred to the high-voltage side.

a) Find the equivalent circuit of the transformer referred to the high-voltage side.

b) Assume that the transformer is supplying rated load at 480 V and 0.8 power factor lagging.

c) What is this transformer’s input voltage? What is its voltage regulation?

d) What is this transformer’s efficiency under the conditions of part (c)?