Transformer design studio
This is an interactive design tool and needs JavaScript to run. Here is what it does.
What it works out
You set the rating, the input and output voltages, the frequency and the construction. It computes, live: volts per turn, the main flux, net and gross core area, the diameter of the circumscribing circle, window area, ampere-turns, the turns on each winding, the full-load currents, conductor areas and the specific copper loss.
How a transformer works
Alternating current in the first coil creates a magnetic field that grows and collapses fifty times a second. The steel core is a closed loop, so almost all of that field is guided round to the second coil rather than leaking into the air. A changing field induces a voltage in that second coil, and each single turn of wire picks up the same amount — the volts-per-turn figure. The ratio of turns therefore sets the ratio of voltages.
The four trade-offs
- Push the iron harder — smaller, cheaper core, but hotter, noisier and hungrier at no load.
- Push the copper harder — thinner wire and a smaller window, but heat rises with the square of current density.
- Fill the window fuller — more copper in the same space, but less room for insulation and cooling oil.
- More core steps — the round coil is filled better and less wire is wasted, but there are more stampings to cut and stack.
Method
Closed-form classical design after A. K. Sawhney, A Course in Electrical Machine Design, Chapter 7. Results are analytical rather than finite-element, and the interface says so. Each module is checked in CI against the book's worked examples.
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