Application of a digital computer to the design of power transformers to specification

MOST power transformers of 1,000 kva and larger are built to specification, and the problem of reducing the amount of time required to produce designs for them has been acute for many years. In early 1954, this problem became the focus of attention because of increasingly critical performance requirements which actually lengthened the time required for design while at the same time demands for shorter building cycles were becoming more and more pressing. Furthermore, developments in core steel and insulation increased the need for comprehensive studies of the effects of these improved materials on the economics of transformer design and construction. Such studies can be made on a theoretical basis. They can also be made by changing individual parameters (e.g., cross-sectional area of the core) and calculating the effect of this change on the transformer characteristics. However, neither of these methods is a wholly satisfactory substitute for making a series of designs all of which meet the same requirements, with one exception (e.g., noise level) which is varied over a specified range. Because a given charcteristic may have a greater effect on one rating than on another, the number of designs which must be made necessarily covers a wide range of ratings and is quite large. Not only is such a project expensive, tedious, and time-consuming, but the problem of consistency is acute since no two engineers will use exactly the same margins; in fact, the amount of margin which a single engineer thinks necessary may vary over a period of time.