Parallel CFD Analysis of Conjugate Heat Transfer in a Dry-Type Transformer

In this paper, we present the conjugate heat transfer analysis in a 167-kVA dry-type transformer using the parallel version of the Computational Fluid Dynamics code Fluent 6.0. The renormalization group kappa-epsilon model is proposed to compute the turbulent aspect of the convective airflow inside the transformer metal tank for Air Natural/Air Natural cooling conditions. An experimental approach was used to assess Joule losses in the low-/high-voltage windings and eddy-current losses in the magnetic core. The resulting mathematical model was solved using 14 compute nodes on a distributed machine.