Buildup of Fault Protection for High-Current Single-Phase Transformers in Ore Furnaces

Abstract

High-power ore furnaces mainly use single-phase transformers supplied by phase-to-phase voltage with the secondary winding made in the form of four to eight isolated splits and a high-voltage busbar assembly made of the same number of pairs of tube buses. Due to these design features, turn-to-turn faults are the main faults in the primary winding of the transformer, and flexible coupling breaks and arc faults in splitting circuits prevail in the high-voltage system. This is why current and gas protections are currently used to protect transformers against short circuits. However, current protections are insensitive to turn faults, and the gas protection response time can be long since it strongly depends on the oil temperature. High-current systems are protected from arc faults only by insulating tube buses. However, this insulation is gradually destroyed under the impact of abrasive dust in the air, and the presence of coal dust in the air creates conditions for arc faults. There is no protection against breaks in the circuits of pairs of tube buses. The extent of damage in a transformer and its high-current system due to the faults can be significantly reduced by using new protection devices based on the measurements of the longitudinal and transverse asymmetry of the stray magnetic fields of the protected transformer. To implement these protections, this article suggests a method for protecting a transformer and a high-current system using magnetic current transformers (MCTs). The number and points for MCT winding coils are determined through the analysis of their EMF values versus their positions relative to the windings of the transformer operating under different modes. The results serve as the basis for the protection circuit design; the protection response threshold is calculated, the protection operation is described, and the results of the experiment are given.