Correlation between the thermal performance and the microstructure of the material used in medium and high voltage transformer terminals

In Colombia, energy companies neglect the distribution that represents the main and most valuable process, presenting shortcomings in prevention and forecasting programs, using contractors who perform corrective maintenance of the components without guaranteeing the quality and performance of the materials. Within the process, the terminals determine the effective connection between the voltage line and the transformer, which have faults that are evidenced by the thermal deterioration of the material. In this work, a diagnosis of the thermal performance of these components was carried out and it was correlated with the microstructure, observing variations of the working temperature, with a thermography camera, for three types of terminals, which were classified by X-ray fluorescence in brass Z20, Z40 and Z60, and for two types of connection, copper and aluminium. The microstructure results showed that copper is the conductor that degrades the terminals faster, evidencing cracking of the material; on the other hand, the Z40 brass was the most stable with the lowest temperature variation regardless of the conductor diameter; however, in all cases the behaviour of higher temperature to lower calibre is satisfied.