Thermal modelling of power transformer

Transformer life is mainly related to the degradation of the insulation, which is mainly a factor of the thermal upgrading of the insulating paper, together with its decomposition. It is now well established that, in service conditions, core and coil losses generate significant internal heat that, unless dissipated, can shorten the life of the transformers. The aim of this contribution is to develop a thermo-electrical model using finite element methods to evaluate temperature distributions in the windings. This model allows estimating the influence of some parameters on the transformer behaviour.