th

THE 9 INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCED TOPICS IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

May 7-9, 2015
Bucharest, Romania

Numerical and Experimental Investigations on the

Energizing of Miniature Iron Core Transformers
Emil Cazacu1, Valentin IoniĠă1, Member IEEE, Lucian Petrescu1, Member IEEE
1
University Politehnica of Bucharest, Electrical Engineering Department
313 Splaiul Independentei, 060042, Bucharest, Romania
emil.cazacu@upb.ro, valentin.ionita@upb.ro, lucian.petrescu@upb.ro

Abstract – The paper analysis both numerically and To conclude, the inrush current issues are very important
experimentally the no-load miniature power transformer and require a special treatment in order to circumvent its
energizing process. The transient state characterization targets
the predetermination of the main inrush current features:
above-mentioned undesirable consequences.
amplitude, duration and waveform signature. The whole The paper reports the analytical solution of the inrush
quantitative investigation is carried out on a particular core- current problem for miniature power transformers of special
shaped devices (E+I), widely used in small power applications. core shape geometry (E and I). Hence, a lumped-parameter
The here suggested analytical computation method bases on the circuit model of the switched transformers was adopted, also
solution of the nonlinear differential equations that model the
commutation phenomenon. Supplementary, a simple and low-
taking into account the intrinsic nonlinear characteristic of the
cost experimental set-up platform is proposed to validate the magnetic circuit. That is succeeded by considering an
theoretical results. adequate expression of B-H dependency, which is mainly
Keywords: miniature power transformer, transients, inrush able to accurately cover the material magnetization curve.
current, experimental set-up. The transient process is thus modeled by a differential-
algebraic equations system that could be easily solved by
I. INTRODUCTION common numerical methods implemented in any general
purpose computation software.
Most of the power electric loads (domestic or industrial)
In order to verify the suggested theoretical solution of the
such as: electronic power supply, power amplifiers,
commutation phenomenon an experimental investigation set-
fluorescent or LED lamps, active power factor correction
up was also designed and implemented. The low-cost
equipment, capacitor banks, electric motors, transformers and
platform mainly comprises: a zero crossing solid state relay, a
many others, surge an important current when they are
variable DC power supply, a few passive components and a
energized [1-4]. The phenomenon that generates this inrush
two channel oscilloscope. So, the inrush current waveforms
current is specific to each electric load and may
are accordingly visualized, captured, and analyzed. A special
fundamentally differ from one device to another.
design dedicated code was developed in order to rapidly
Unfortunately, most of the electric or electronic appliances
extract and inquire the main inrush current features.
manufacturers do not indicate any specifications considering
the equipment inrush current features. Consequently, the
predetermination (when possible) of the inrush current peak- II. INRUSH CURRENT GENERATION AND
value and its duration becomes an important data for a proper CHARACTERISTICS
use and protection of the installation. The initial high-value amplitude of the magnetizing inrush
The small-power magnetic core electric devices current surged by a no-loaded transformer at the energizing
(transformer, reactors etc.) often experiences commutations instant is mainly caused by the H-B nonlinear characteristic
during their normal operation [5-7]. The corresponding of the device magnetic core [7, 12–14].
energizing (inrush) or de-energizing (out-rush) currents are Normally, the transformers are designed to steady-state
characterized by a particular waveform that exhibits extreme operate with a core magnetic flux density value that lies under
high amplitude value of the first cycle and an even harmonic the “knee” point of the electrical steel magnetization curve.
attendance in its spectrum [8-11]. These transient currents Immediately after the transformer is powered on, due to the
generate additional electrodynamic forces and thermal stress transient process and the laminations remanent induction, the
exercised on both the devices and the corresponding supply core magnetic flux may reach more than twice its rated value
network elements. [12–15]. Consequently, a current of extremely high amplitude
Supplementary, since the inrush currents has amplitudes will flow through the transformer’s primary winding.
that may equal short-circuit currents, different techniques are The so generated transformer core overfluxing rapidly
to be developed in order to discriminate between these decays and the steady-state no-load current (magnetizing
functional (inrush) and fault currents (short-circuits). Thus, current) becomes just one percent of the transformer rated
the inadequate operation of the protection apparatuses e. g. – current.
their unpredictable trip or malfunction is to be avoided.

978-1-4799-7514-3/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE

170
 The main features of this inrush current (amplitude, Accordingly, the here suggested method starts from the
duration and waveform spectrum) are directly influenced by fundamental electromagnetic laws that govern the
the following factors [12, 16, 17]: commutation phenomenon and adequately consider numerous
• Switching angle of commutation (point-on voltage other physical parameters involved in the transient process.
wave) – the inrush current amplitude reaches maxima The simple proposed method is mainly based on the solution
when the energizing moment occurs at the voltage of the differential equations system that derived from the
zero crossing line instant. commutation model, the analytical representation of the core
material magnetization curve and the geometrical data of the
• Amplitude and polarity of the core remanent flux investigated transformer. The latter is depicted in Fig. 1,
(induction) before the energizing moment – the most where also the notations for the length parameters are detailed
unfavorable case is considered when the residual according to manufacturer construction data [27-29].
induction equals the materials remanence value Br.
• Magnetic core characteristics – a stronger nonlinearity
in B–H relation leads to the higher amplitude of the
magnetizing current and a significant even harmonic
attendance in the first cycle of inrush current
spectrum.
• Ohmic resistance of the primary winding circuit –
often represents the only parameter that limits the
energizing current amplitude.
• Geometry of the transformer core – strongly
influences inrush current characteristics mainly due to
the air gaps presence along the close magnetic line
path.
Moreover, a classical power source used in electronic
circuits contains a miniature transformer with the secondary
winding connected to a rectifier followed by filter capacitors.
In this case, at the switching instant, the capacitors will
Fig. 1. Magnetic core geometry of the E-I type transformer.
practically “short-circuit” the transformer output favoring the
appearance of an even greater inrush current. But, in this
At the connection instant, the electromagnetic induction
case, the current amplitude is independent of the voltage
law can be written in terms of the applied sinusoidal voltage
switching angle and will mainly be determined by the
of initial phase Į, the winding voltage drop uR(t) and the
filtering capacitors values [18].
magnetic flux ĭ(t) exercised within the transformer core:
The predicted magnetizing inrush current time variation
and characteristics might be an excellent indicator concerning
d Φ (t ) d B (t )
the most effective mitigation techniques that should be U 2 sin(ωt + α) = uR (t ) + = Ri (t ) + NA 1 , (2)
adopted for a given particular case [19-21]. dt dt

where R is primary loss resistance, i(t) is the evaluated device

III. PROCEDURE FOR MAGNETIZING INRUSH CURRENT inrush current, N is the number of turns, A is the core cross-
EVALUATION
sectional and B1 is the magnetic flux density inside the core.
An analytical relation for evaluating the inrush current Supplementary, taking into account the particular
peak value Iˆ was firstly suggested in [22, 23], where the symmetric geometry of the magnetic circuit for the E and I
resistance of the coil R, its initial inductance L and other core shape miniature transformers (Fig.1), one can write the
magnetic material properties are considered: Ampère's circuital law [27]:

H1 (t )l1 + H 2 (t )l2 + H 0 (t )δ = Ni (t ) with

U 2 § 2 Bn + B r − B s · , (3)
Iˆ = ¨¨ ¸¸ , (1) l1 = 2c + g + 2c, l2 = g + 2c
R + (ωL )
2 2
© Bn ¹
with U the voltage effective value, Ȧ the angular frequency, where H1(t), H2(t) are the magnetic field strengths in the first
Bn, Br, and Bs the normal (operating), remanent and saturation and the second core pieces and H0(t) is in the air gap region.
magnetic flux density, respectively. Correspondingly l1, l2 and į are the lengths of the mean path
Unfortunately, such relations and other similar proposed in in the E- and I-shaped pieces, and air gap, respectively.
different paper works [24-26] are less accurate and cannot In order to accurately compute the magnetic circuit
properly predict the inrush current amplitude or its time parameters, numerous specific geometrical and construction
evolution immediately after switching moment. coefficients are to be considered. Therefore, the flux leakage

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between the E- and I-pieces, the magnetic flux fringing and IV. NUMERICAL SIMULATION
the core laminations stacking are quantitatively expressed by The inrush current computation procedure, presented in the
factors ı, kf and kst, respectively. previous section, was systematically verified on different E+I
Adopting similar notations B1(t), B2(t) and B0(t) for the core shape miniature power transformers. In order to illustrate
magnetic flux densities in the three regions of the transformer the method performances, a very common E+I iron core
magnetic core shape and regarding the magnetic flux law, one device of a rated power 15 VA was selected. Its core
can write: geometrical data and technical parameters are indicated in
Appendix section by Table I and Table II, respectively [27].
kf kf The transformer core laminations are made of FeSi sheets
B1 (t ) = B0 (t ) ; B2 (t ) = B0 (t ) . (4).
k st (1 − σ) k st with a thickness of 0.25 mm and remanent magnetic
induction Br = 0.90 T. The magnetic field line fringing
With (4) we can express (3) as: coefficient was considered kf = 0.98, while the electrical steel
stacking factor kst = 0.96. According to the air gap value of
H1 (t )l1 + H 2 (t )l2 B1 (t ) k st (1 − σ ) the corresponding E and I magnetic circuit (Fig.1), the flux
i (t ) = + δ, (5) leakage parameter was taken ı = 3 % [28-29].
N N k f ⋅ μ0
The magnetic core characteristic of the miniature
transformer is represented by the electrical steel
where ȝ0 is the vacuum permeability. magnetization curve. The manufacturers usually indicated it
The laminations nonlinear magnetic characteristic can be by a finite number of measured pair of points. Hence, Fig. 2
very well approximated (especially in the saturation area) by illustrates the curve’s discrete visualization, along with the
using an analytical H-B expression provided by the Bauer corresponding Bauer B-H analytical function. One can notice
formula [30]. With (4) we get: that the curve’s model successfully covers the material
saturation area, which is critical for the analyzed transient
[
H 1 (t ) = pB1 (t ) + qB1 (t ) exp rB12 (t ) ] (6) state.
And
[
H 2 ( t ) = p[(1 − σ )B1 (t )] + q (1 − σ )B1 (t ) exp r (1 − σ )2 B12 (t ) , (7) ]
where the coefficients p, q and r are to be predicted for any
type of electrical steel by a fitting procedure, which
constrains the Bauer function to meet through at least three of
the H-B curve indicated pairs of points.
Finally, the inrush current solution is generated by solving
with a numerical procedure the equations system generated
by (2) and (5).
In order to investigate the harmonic content of the inrush
current first cycle waveform, a discrete Fourier analysis over
the signal is also performed. Hence, denoting with T the
voltage period and by M the number of data sample acquired
in equal time interval I, the current expression i(t) can be
rewritten [16, 31]:

M −1 Fig. 2. Transformer core magnetization curve (solid dots) and the

i (t ) = ¦[ak cos(mkI ) + bk sin(mkI )], with
k =0
corresponding Bauer H-B relation visualization (continuous line).

M −1 M −1
The simulation were performed considering the worst case
2 2
ak =
T ¦
m =0
i (t ) cos(mkI ), bk =
T ¦i(t ) sin(mkI ).
m =0
(8) scenario, i. e. the device energizing moment concurs with the
zero crossing voltage instant (commutation angle Į = 0) and,
simultaneously, the transformer iron-core remanent induction
has its maximum positive value (Br = 0.90 T). In order to
Accordingly, the percent level of each harmonic hk can be solve the corresponding initial-value differential-algebraic
evaluated: equations indicated by (2) to (7), the Runge-Kutta
computation method [32] was adopted. Thus, Fig. 3 portraits
ck the inrush current time variation during a period of 10 ms
c k = a k2 + bk2 , hk [%] = ⋅ 100. (9) immediately after the device was powered on. One can notice
c1 that the computed inrush current first peak values exceeds
2.16 A, while the here investigated transformer rated current
only reaches 65.2 mA.

172
 proportional with the inspected inrush current. Thus, this
signal is visualized by a digital oscilloscope – Fig. 9 and, due
to a special developed code, a completed quantitative analysis
is performed, in order to extract the magnetizing inrush
current main characteristics.

Fig. 3. Computed magnetizing inrush current time variation immediately

after the switching process.

A harmonic analysis over the first cycle of the inrush

current was also performed, revealing significant zero and
even harmonics levels attendance into its spectrum –Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Chart diagram of diagram of the experimental platform.
That could generate undesirable power quality issues that
may spread out into the entire supply network during the
various iron-core low-voltage equipment transient states.

Fig. 6. The schematic diagram of the experimental set-up for the inrush
current investigation of miniature power transformers.
Fig. 4. The inrush current first cycle harmonic spectrum histogram.

V. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
In order to verify the simulation results regarding the
proposed inrush current parameters predetermination
procedure, an experimental set-up was designed and
implemented – Figs. 5–8. The platform comprises: an AC
variable power supply source, a zero crossing solid-state relay
[33], the investigated E and I core shape miniature power
transformer, a digital oscilloscope and a portable computer
system. Due to the electronic intrinsic relay features, (zero
crossing type – Appendix section Table III) the most
unfavorable commutation conditions are assured in terms of Fig. 7. A close up of the inrush current generation system.
point-on voltage wave switching instant. An autotransformer
of 500 VA was selected as the variable supply source in order
to be able to test iron-core devices with different rated
primary voltage. The electrical features of this source do not
affect the measured parameters since the rated power of the
investigated transformers only limits to 15 VA (no significant
voltage drop within the autotransformer is generated during
the transient phenomenon).
A supplementary DC power supply provides the current
signal that controls the relay static commutation. A shunt
resistor of 1ȍ/10W connected in series with the tested
transformer primary winding was used for acquiring a signal Fig. 8. An overview on the developed experimental platform.

173
 method) to solve the transient electromagnetic problem for
the iron-core device may increase the computing
performance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The work has been funded by the Sectoral Operational
Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 of
the Ministry of European Funds through the Financial
Agreement POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132397 and from the grant of
the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research,
CNDI– UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-
3.2-0373.

Fig. 9. The captured inrush current waveform signature visualization. APPENDIX

The experimental investigation over the particular case Geometry of the core for the E and I is described by the
study (the 15 VA miniature iron-core transformer) reveals a parameters contained in Table I and depicted in Fig. 1.
good accordance (acceptable relative errors) between the
predicted and measurement transient parameters (current peak TABLE I
value and duration). The computation errors are directly GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF THE E-I TYPE TRANSFORMERS
dependent on the investigated miniature transformer rated Parameter Value [mm]
power. Hence, the precision increases for devices with higher
rated power but it rapidly diminishes when the rated power a 60
b 50
decays. That is mainly due to the numerous geometrical and c 10
construction required data that are not indicated or certain e 30
(especially for tiny capsulated devices). f 20
g 10

VI. CONCLUSIONS
Other datasheet specifications for the transformer are
The inrush current problem for a miniature power iron-core indicated in Table II.
transformer was both numerical and experimental
investigated. The suggested procedure of magnetizing inrush TABLE II
current parameters predetermination is based on the solutions TECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF THE E AND I TYPE TRANSFORMER
of an algebraic-differential equations system derived from the Parameter Description E-I core
basic electromagnetic laws, applied on the device magnetic
and electric circuit. Sn (VA) rated power 15
The iron-core B-H nonlinear dependency is also considered U1n (V) rated primary voltage 230
by adopting a convenient analytical expression that properly U2n (V) rated primary voltage 9
covers the entire saturation magnetic material area. In order to f (Hz) operating frequency 50
reach high accuracy, numerous other technical aspects, like
R(ȍ) primary loss resistance 141
laminations stacking, magnetic flux leakage or fringing were,
also taken into account. Supplementary, the inrush current N number of turns in primary 1900
waveform was examined in terms of its first cycle harmonic
content, showing important features of this particular A(cm2) magnetic core area 4
transient signal.
B̂ (T) steady-state peak flux density 1.52
Moreover, a dedicated experimental set-up for miniature
transformer inrush current investigation was developed and 120
realized. The platform is being able to both visualize and lFe(mm) magnetic path length in the core ­l1 = 30
®
quantitatively analyze the transient current waveform ¯l 2 = 90
signature of various miniature iron-core devices with į(mm) air gap thickness 0.1
different rated power. A special developed numerical code Ș efficiency 0.72
compares the computed inrush current parameters with those PFe(W) core power losses 1.8
measured from the experimental set-up. Although, the whole PCu(W) coil power losses 2.1
study was performed for E and I core shape iron core device,
both the computation method and the experimental platform
The fundamental technical specifications of solid state
can be easily adapted (with minor alternations) for any other
core shape geometry and power rated levels up to 500 VA. relay used in the experimental set-up platform are indicated in
The here reported method is to be improved in terms of its Table III in accordance with the manufacturer product
accuracy when other models, more elaborated, for the datasheet [33].
magnetic core characteristics (hysteretic) are adopted.
Additionally, using numerical methods (e. g. finite elements

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