Numerical Study of Cooling by Ferrofluids in an Electrical Transformer using an Axisymmetric Model

Raphaël Zanella (1, 2) , Xavier Mininger (2) , Caroline Nore (1) , Frédéric Bouillault (2) , Jean-Luc Guermond (3)

1 LIMSI - Laboratoire d'Informatique pour la Mécanique et les Sciences de l'Ingénieur
2 GeePs - Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris
3 TAMU - Department of Mathematics [Texas]

We present a numerical study of the cooling of a 40 kVA electrical transformer by using an oil-based ferrofluid. The temperature and velocity fields are compared to that obtained with regular transformer oil to assess the benefits of the ferrofluid. The interest of ferrofluids is in the thermomagnetic convection phenomenon generated by the leakage magnetic field. An axisymmetric model of the transformer shows that the ferrofluid reduces the maximum temperature.

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Electromagnetism; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Reactive fluid environment

Raphaël Zanella, Xavier Mininger, Caroline Nore, Frédéric Bouillault, Jean-Luc Guermond. Numerical Study of Cooling by Ferrofluids in an Electrical Transformer using an Axisymmetric Model. IEEE CEFC, 2020, Pise, Italy. ⟨hal-03324151⟩