A study of mechanical and electrical properties of coupled beams for understanding power transformer windings

[Truncated abstract] Power transformers are one of the main devices in found power systems. Reliability, power quality and economic cost are affected by the transformer’s health conditions. Catastrophic failures of power transformers may have a serious environmental impact, such as fire and transformer oil spill. Therefore, the failures of power transformers are of much concern and are investigated extensively. According to practical historical data, it is clear that a significant percentage of transformer failures is caused by winding problems, such as winding deformations caused by loss of clamping pressure or by the high electrodynamic forces appearing during short circuit, and insulation failures caused by aging or moisture issues. As a result, development of condition monitoring systems for the winding of power transformers holds promise towards cost reduction throughout power transformers' life cycle and towards an increase in the availability and reliability of power transformers. This thesis results from a study on the mechanical and electrical properties of a coupled beams system. Such study is relevant to the understanding of some basic features of power transformers' winding. ... In this thesis, the mechanical and electrical responses of the coupled beams are modelled experimentally and theoretically. The variable parameters of the coupled beams include the gap between the beams, the number of insulation blocks in the gap, and the moisture contents of the insulation blocks.