Abstract
Increased demand of power-transformer's capacity inevitably results in an excessive temperature rise of transformer components, which in turn requires improved radiator design. In this paper, numerical simulation of the cooling performance of an ONAN-type (Oil Natural Air Natural) radiator surrounded by air was performed by using CFX. The natural convection of the air was treated with the full-model. The present parametric study considers variation of important variables that are expected to affect the cooling performance. We changed the pattern and cross-sectional area of flow passages, the fin interval, the flow rate of oil and shape of flow passages. Results show that the area of flow passage, the fin interval, the flow rate of oil and shape of flow passages considerably affect the cooling performance whereas the pattern of flow passages is not so much influential. We also found that for the case of the fin interval smaller than the basic design, the temperature drop decreases while a larger interval gives almost unchanged temperature drop, indicating that the basic design is optimal. Further, as the flow rate of oil increases, the temperature drop slowly decreases as expected. On the other hand, when the shape of flow passages are changed, temperature drop is increased, indicating that the cooling performance is enhanced thereupon.
