On the Effects of Lamination Artificial Faults in a 15 kVA Three-Phase Transformer Core

Cutting and punching of the steel used in power transformer core may cause edge burrs. This, along with the degradation of the lamination insulation, can lead to interlaminar short circuits. Analysing these faults helps understanding their effect on the transformer reliability and performance. In this light, the actual paper aims to experimentally simulate and analyse both faults using a 15 kVA three phase power transformer. Effects produced from both selected faults are experimentally investigated in this paper where different scenarios are considered such as the area of the affected regions and the number of short-circuited laminations. Various flux densities are considered ranging from 0.5 to 1.8 T. Of interest, the current at no load is recorded and the test is repeated for any given scenario. The obtained results are presented and discussed to study the effect of each fault on the transformer performance. Overall, the transformer current increases with the number of short-circuits between laminations for both faults. This increase is related to the flux density, which is dependent and sensitive to the short circuit location. Such findings represent a good indication of the severity of short circuits relative to their position in the transformer core, and can be exploited to discuss the power losses in the transformer core.