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Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 12, No. 3, 2022, 8488-8491 8488 
 

www.etasr.com Minhl et al.: Analysis of Leakage Inductances in Shunt Reactors: Application to High Voltage … 

 

Analysis of Leakage Inductances in Shunt Reactors: 

Application to High Voltage Transmission Lines 
 

Tu Pham Minh 

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 
Hanoi University of Science and Technology 

Hanoi, Vietnam 

tu.phamminh@hust.edu.vn 

Hung Bui Duc 

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 
Hanoi University of Science and Technology 

Hanoi, Vietnam 

hung.buiduc@hust.edu.vn 

Vuong Dang Quoc 

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 

Hanoi University of Science and Technology 

Hanoi, Vietnam 
vuong.dangquoc@hust.edu.vn 

 

Received: 12 February 2022 | Revised: 1 March 2022 | Accepted: 16 March 2022 

 

Αbstract–Inductance is one of the main parameters directly 

related to the reactive powers of Shunt Reactors (SRs) in 

electrical systems. Thus, the definition and computation of 

leakage inductances and the ratio of leakage to total inductances 

play an extremely important role in the design and 

manufacturing of SRs. In this study, a finite element approach 

was developed to compute leakage and total inductances and 

define a relationship between them with different SR powers and 

high voltage levels. The expanded method is presented with the 
magnetic vector potential formulations. 

Keywords-shunt reactor; leakage inductance; magnetic vector 
potential formulation; finite element method 

I. INTRODUCTION  

In long-distance high voltage transmission lines, 
capacitances occur between the phase voltage and earth or 
between phase voltages, leading to large reactive power in the 
electrical system [1-3]. In general, when a system operates on a 
full load, the reactive power is absorbed by the inductance load 
and lines. On the other hand, if the system works on low or no 
load, the voltage along lines increases, leading to overload 
voltage at the end of the line and affecting directly the electrical 
devices. Therefore, to overcome these drawbacks and maintain 
voltage stability in the electrical system, a Shunt Reactor (SR) 
is proposed to absorb the generated reactive powers [1-9]. The 
total inductance values, consisting of fringing and leakage 
inductances, are needed to compute and analyze the reactive 
power capacity of an SR. Fringing inductances have been 
recently proposed in [4, 10].  

In this study, a finite element approach was developed with 
magnetic vector potential formulations to calculate and analyze 
the leakage inductances of an SR. Based on the obtained 
results, a relation of the shape factors of an SR, between 
inductance leakages and total inductance, was proposed to help 

researchers and designers to select suitable leakage inductances 
for computing and designing. 

II. MAGNETODYNAMIC PROBLEMS 

A. Maxwell’s Equations 

A canonical magneto-dynamic problem is defined in a 
domain �, with boundary: 

�� = � = �h ∪ �e 

Maxwell’s equations, considered in the frequency domain 
and behavior laws, are written in the Euclidean space ℝ� as 
[11-12]: 

��	
	� = ��    (1-a) 

��	
	� = −��	�    (1-b) 

���	� = 0    (1-c) 

� = ��    (2-a) 

� = ��	    (2-b) 

where H is the magnetic field (A/m), B is the magnetic flux 
density (T), E is the electric field (V/m), Js is the current 
density (A/m

2
), and µ and σ are the relative permeability and 

electric conductivity (S/m), respectively. The Boundary 
Conditions (BCs) defined on Γ are expressed as [11-12]: 

	� × �|�� = 0    (3-a) 

	� ∙ �|�! = 0    (3-b) 

where n is the unit normal exterior to �, with � = �" ∪ �#
". 

The domains �" and �#
" are the conducting and non-conducting 

regions, respectively. The equations (1-a) and (1-b) were 
solved with BCs taking into account the tangential component 
of H in (3-a) and the normal component of B in (3-b). 

Corresponding author: Hung Bui Duc



Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 12, No. 3, 2022, 8488-8491 8489 
 

www.etasr.com Minhl et al.: Analysis of Leakage Inductances in Shunt Reactors: Application to High Voltage … 

 

The fields H, B, E, and J are defined to satisfy Tonti’s 
diagram [12]. This means that �	 ∈ %& 	'��	
; �) , �	 ∈
%*	'��	
; �) , �	 ∈ �	'���; �) , and �	 ∈ %* 	'���; �) , where 
%&	'curl; Ω)  and %* 	'div; Ω)  are function spaces containing 
BCs and the fields defined on �& and �3 of the studied domain 
�. 

 

 
Fig. 1.  Tonti’s diagram [12]. 

The field B in (1-c) is derived from a vector potential A such 
that: 

�	 = 	curl	4    (4) 

Combining (4) with (1-b), leads to the definition of an 
electric scalar potential v such that: 

�	 = 	 −�5 4 − 6	7�	8    (5) 

B. Magnetic Vector Potential Weak Formulations 

Based on the weak form of Ampere’s law (1-a), the weak 
formulation of magnetic problems is written as [11-13]: 

9

:
∮ '��	
	4 ∙ 	��	
	<)�� �

=
� ∮ '�5 4 ∙=>

	��	
	<)��" ? � ∮ '6	7�	@ ∙ 	��	
	<)��" ?=>
A '� � �) ∙ <��

�

 ∮ '�� ∙ <)���=B

, ∀	< ∈ %*
E'��	
, �)  

(6) 

where %*
E'��	
, �)	 is a function space defined on �  and 

containing the basis functions for 4 and the test function t. The 
surface integral term 〈� × �, <〉

Γ�
on Γ& in (6) accounts for the 

natural BCs and can be given in (3a-b). The energy density 
(HI) is defined via the post-processing, i.e: 

HJ =
9

K
∮ H ∙ B

N
dΩ    (7) 

Finally, the inductance value (L) is computed via (7), being: 

O =
KPQ

RS
   (8) 

III. ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICAL TEST 

The practical test problem was a single-phase SR of 

35MVAr (500/ √3 kV and 50Hz). A simple model of this 
single-phase SR is presented in Figure 2. The typical 
parameters are given in Table I [4]. The percentage of the 
leakage inductance to the total can be defined as: 

VI% =
XY!Z[Z\!

X]^]ZY
× 100    (9) 

where OI*`a`b*  (H) and O5c5`I  (H) are the leakage and total 
inductances of the SR respectively. The distribution of the 
magnetic vector potentials due to the current following in the 
winding is presented in Figure 3. The percentage ratio of 

OI*`a`b*  to O5c5`I  (kl %) for different reactive powers and 
voltage levels is shown in Figure 4.  

 

 
Fig. 2.  Model of a single-phase shunt reactor. 

TABLE I.  TYPICAL PARAMETERS OF THE SR 

Parameters Notations Values 

Reactive power Q (MVAr) 35 

Rated voltage U (kV) 500/√3 
Rated current I (A) 121.24 

Totalinductance L (H) 7.5788 

Core dimension Dc (mm) 701 

Height of core Hc (mm) 1793 

Total air gap length lg (mm) 386 

Turn number N (turn) 2018 
 

 
Fig. 3.  Distribution of magnetic vector potentials. 

 
Fig. 4.  Ratio of OI*`a`b* to O5c5`I (kl %) for diferent voltage levels. 

Hc

Dc

Hw

Ww

Hy

Dy

Wy



Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 12, No. 3, 2022, 8488-8491 8490 
 

www.etasr.com Minhl et al.: Analysis of Leakage Inductances in Shunt Reactors: Application to High Voltage … 

 

As can be noted, at the same voltage level, when the 
reactive power increases, the ratio of leakage inductance to 
total inductance also increases. From the obtained results, a 
polynomial function of the leakage inductance, power, and 
voltage, is expressed via the Lagrange interpolation method 
[14]. According to the Lagrange interpolation theory, it is 
possible to determine a polynomial function P(x) of degree less 
than or equal to n satisfying the conditions P(xi) = yi, for i 
=1…n+1. The general formula is written as: 

d'e) = ∑ gh
ij9
hk9 ∏

mnmo

mpnmo
qrh     (10) 

where xi can be considered as the voltage (U), power (Q), and 
yi is the ratio of the total value of leakage flux. Based on (10), 
the polynomial leakage inductance according to power and 
voltage is defined as: 

%OI*`a`b* = s't, u) 	 = '−9.913 × 10
n9EuK ?

6.116 � 10nyu � 3.451 � 10n|)tK 	 ? '1.329 �
10nyuK � 8.83 � 10n�u ? 9.037 � 10nK)t �
'9.008 � 10nyuK ? 3.002 � 10n�u � 8.289)  

(11) 

where Q (MVAr) is the reactive power and U (kV) is the 
voltage. Polynomial (10) allows determining the percentage of 
leakage inductance at different reactive powers and voltage 
values. In addition, leakage inductance depends significantly 
on the winding factor (kw) in the magnetic core’s window. It is 
shown that kw is the basis to determine the overall shape of the 
magnetic core. For each value of different reactive power and 

voltage, the value of OI*`a`b* is computed with the different 
value of kw (kw= 4� 12) for a change step of 0.2, as shown in 
Figure 5. 

A polynomial function of the leakage inductance value at 
the high voltage level of 110 kV is defined as: 

VI	'99Ea�)% = s'VP , t) = '−4.753 × 10
n�tK ?

10.61 � 10n|t ? 0.1136)VP
K ? '1.127 � 10n|tK �

2.627 � 10nKt � 2.704)VP ? '�9.091 �
10n|tK ? 0.2223 � 10nKt ? 20.85)  

(12) 

 

 
Fig. 5.  Calculation of the leakage inductance with the change of winding 
factor. 

In the same way, the leakage inductance value at the high 
voltage level of 220kV is expressed as: 

VI	'KKEa�) % = s'VP , t) = '−5.069 � 10
n�tK ?

10.3 � 10n|t ? 0.1068)VP
K ? '1.154 � 10n|tK �

2.517 � 10nKt � 2.567)VP ? '�8.932 �
10n|tK ? 0.2135 � 10nKt ? 20.15)  

(13) 

For the extra high voltage level of 500kV, the leakage 
inductance is computed as: 

VI	'�EEa�) % 
 s'VP , t) 
 '�4.823 � 10
n�tK ?

9.908 � 10n|t ? 0.1046)VP
K ? '1.11 � 10n|tK �

2.432 � 10nKt � 2.521)VP ? '�8.535 �
10n|tK ? 0.2063 � 10nKt ? 19.94)  

(14) 

Based on the polynomial functions given in (12), (13), and 
(14), the percentage of leakage inductance to total inductance 
VI 	'%)  according to VP  at different reactive powers and 
voltage levels is shown in Figures 6-8. 

 

 

Fig. 6.  The value of VI'%) flowing to VP with different powers at 110kV. 

 
Fig. 7.  The value of VI'%) flowing to VP with different powers at 220kV. 

Based on the results shown in Figures 6-8 and the 
polynomial functions of the leakage inductance according to 
the winding factor at different reactive powers and voltage 
levels, this method can be a basis for researchers, designers, 
and manufacturers to choose and look up leakage inductance 
values when calculating the design, and thus reduce the number 
of the needed virtual object models. 



Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 12, No. 3, 2022, 8488-8491 8491 
 

www.etasr.com Minhl et al.: Analysis of Leakage Inductances in Shunt Reactors: Application to High Voltage … 

 

 
Fig. 8.  The value of VI '%) flowing to VP with different powers at 500kV. 

IV. CONCLUSION 

A finite element approach was developed with the magnetic 
vector potential formulations. Based on the development of the 
formulation, the leakage and total inductance values according 
to the winding factor were defined at different reactive powers 
and voltage levels of 110kV, 220kV, and 500kV. The proposed 
method and the obtained results could help designers and 
manufacturers to make a suitable selection of the leakage 
inductance during the design or manufacturing of the SRs. The 
obtained results also show that there is a very good agreement 
on standardizing the type of leakage inductances in the SR. 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

This study was funded by the Hanoi University of Science 
and Technology (HUST) under grant number T2021-PC-006. 
The authors also gratefully acknowledge the Quy Nhon 
University, which provided favorable conditions for the use of 
the copyright-supported Ansys Electronics Desktop V19.R1. 

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