Use of advanced software techniques in transformer design

In order to compete successfully in the modern market, transformer manufacturers need design software capable of producing optimised, technically fully verified and manufacturable designs in a very short time. Use of more effective optimisation algorithms, combined with powerful and sophisticated numerical methods for the design verification, such as finite element (FE) or boundary element (BE) based software, and supported by the knowledge based (KB) design decision support systems, offers the potential to achieve this aim. The overall design time can be significantly reduced by using modern solid modelling packages, for generating 3-D parametric models of the transformers, or its subsystems and components, associated with the specification of parts and material instead of conventional manufacturing instructions and drawings. The front-end electrical design program can be linked with the production design package, thus resulting in an automated and flexible design process, which incorporates the full potential of sophisticated numerical analytical techniques for verification of the dielectric, electromagnetic, thermodynamic and mechanical performance characteristics of modern power transformers