Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling

A reactor is an important piece of equipment used for reactive power compensation in power system and has a significant impact on the safe operation of power system. Thermal behavior is one of the main causes of reactor failures. For an accurate analysis of the thermal behavior of reactors, electrom...

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Main Authors: Jie Wu, Zhengwei Chang, Huajie Zhang, Man Zhang, Yumin Peng, Jun Liao, Qi Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-11-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/21/7456
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author Jie Wu
Zhengwei Chang
Huajie Zhang
Man Zhang
Yumin Peng
Jun Liao
Qi Huang
author_facet Jie Wu
Zhengwei Chang
Huajie Zhang
Man Zhang
Yumin Peng
Jun Liao
Qi Huang
author_sort Jie Wu
collection DOAJ
description A reactor is an important piece of equipment used for reactive power compensation in power system and has a significant impact on the safe operation of power system. Thermal behavior is one of the main causes of reactor failures. For an accurate analysis of the thermal behavior of reactors, electromagnetic–thermal–fluid multi-physics coupling modeling is chosen. However, there is a huge difference in size between the overall structure of the reactor and its insulating material, which makes it difficult to perform mesh generation, resulting in dense mesh and significantly increased solution degrees of freedom, thus making the solution of the reactor’s multi-physics field model very time-consuming. To address this, this paper proposes a simplified processing method to accelerate the solution calculation of the reactor’s multi-physics model. This method calculates the equivalent turns of each encapsulate with parallel coils in the reactor, simplifying the encapsulate into a single-layer coil, thereby greatly reducing the division and solution degrees of freedom of the multi-physics model, and thus accelerating the simulation calculation. Taking a BKDCKL-20000/35 dry-type air-core shunt reactor as an example, the outer diameter of the coil is nearly 12,000 times bigger than the coil insulation, which is a huge size difference. Both refined models and simplified models are established. Compared to the simulation results of the detailed model, the simplified model demonstrates good accuracy; the maximum relative error of temperature is just 2.19%. Meanwhile, the computational time of the simplified model is reduced by 35.7%, which shows promising effectiveness and significant potential for applying the optimization design and operation prediction of dry-type air-core shunt reactors for enhanced thermal performance.
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spelling doaj.art-25db3393b597479caa9df17f28e1030b2023-11-10T15:02:36ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732023-11-011621745610.3390/en16217456Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics CouplingJie Wu0Zhengwei Chang1Huajie Zhang2Man Zhang3Yumin Peng4Jun Liao5Qi Huang6Electric Power Research Institute of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, Chengdu 610041, ChinaElectric Power Research Institute of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, Chengdu 610041, ChinaElectric Power Research Institute of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, Chengdu 610041, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaSchool of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, ChinaElectric Power Research Institute of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, Chengdu 610041, ChinaPower System Wide-Area Measurement and Control Sichuan Provincial Key Laboratory, Chengdu 611731, ChinaA reactor is an important piece of equipment used for reactive power compensation in power system and has a significant impact on the safe operation of power system. Thermal behavior is one of the main causes of reactor failures. For an accurate analysis of the thermal behavior of reactors, electromagnetic–thermal–fluid multi-physics coupling modeling is chosen. However, there is a huge difference in size between the overall structure of the reactor and its insulating material, which makes it difficult to perform mesh generation, resulting in dense mesh and significantly increased solution degrees of freedom, thus making the solution of the reactor’s multi-physics field model very time-consuming. To address this, this paper proposes a simplified processing method to accelerate the solution calculation of the reactor’s multi-physics model. This method calculates the equivalent turns of each encapsulate with parallel coils in the reactor, simplifying the encapsulate into a single-layer coil, thereby greatly reducing the division and solution degrees of freedom of the multi-physics model, and thus accelerating the simulation calculation. Taking a BKDCKL-20000/35 dry-type air-core shunt reactor as an example, the outer diameter of the coil is nearly 12,000 times bigger than the coil insulation, which is a huge size difference. Both refined models and simplified models are established. Compared to the simulation results of the detailed model, the simplified model demonstrates good accuracy; the maximum relative error of temperature is just 2.19%. Meanwhile, the computational time of the simplified model is reduced by 35.7%, which shows promising effectiveness and significant potential for applying the optimization design and operation prediction of dry-type air-core shunt reactors for enhanced thermal performance.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/21/7456dry-type air-core reactormulti-physics couplingthermal performanceelectromagneticthermal–fluidfinite element method
spellingShingle Jie Wu
Zhengwei Chang
Huajie Zhang
Man Zhang
Yumin Peng
Jun Liao
Qi Huang
Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling
Energies
dry-type air-core reactor
multi-physics coupling
thermal performance
electromagnetic
thermal–fluid
finite element method
title Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling
title_full Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling
title_fullStr Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling
title_full_unstemmed Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling
title_short Thermal Simulation and Analysis of Dry-Type Air-Core Reactors Based on Multi-Physics Coupling
title_sort thermal simulation and analysis of dry type air core reactors based on multi physics coupling
topic dry-type air-core reactor
multi-physics coupling
thermal performance
electromagnetic
thermal–fluid
finite element method
url https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/21/7456
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