Numerical computation for a new way to reduce vibration and noise due to magnetostriction and magnetic forces of transformer cores

Magnetostriction (MS) caused by the global magnetization of limbs and yokes and magnetic forces are the undisputed causes of the vibration and noise in power transformer cores. This paper presents a novel way to reduce the vibration and noise, in which nanocrystalline soft magnetic composite (NSMC) material with high permeability is used to fill the step-lap joint gaps of the power transformer magnetic cores. In order to numerically predict the effectiveness of the proposed method, a 3-D magneto-mechanical strong coupled model including MS and magnetic anisotropy of steel sheet was founded. Then, the numerical model was applied to analyze the step-lap joint region of the corner of magnetic cores. The analysis results illustrated that the deformation and noise of core with NSMC are lower than with the traditional epoxy damping material. Moreover, the validity of the proposed new way was verified by the simplified step-lap joint cores, which were achieved based on Epstein Frames. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC