diff --git a/common/changes/@itwin/core-transformer/transformer-handle-large-models_2022-02-22-18-07.json b/common/changes/@itwin/core-transformer/transformer-handle-large-models_2022-02-22-18-07.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..78f58038cff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/changes/@itwin/core-transformer/transformer-handle-large-models_2022-02-22-18-07.json
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+{
+  "changes": [
+    {
+      "packageName": "@itwin/core-transformer",
+      "comment": "mitigate memory leak in large model processing",
+      "type": "none"
+    }
+  ],
+  "packageName": "@itwin/core-transformer"
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/core/transformer/src/IModelExporter.ts b/core/transformer/src/IModelExporter.ts
index e2a32339811..b62591d6a42 100644
--- a/core/transformer/src/IModelExporter.ts
+++ b/core/transformer/src/IModelExporter.ts
@@ -475,6 +475,7 @@ export class IModelExporter {
       }
       while (DbResult.BE_SQLITE_ROW === statement.step()) {
         await this.exportElement(statement.getValue(0).getId());
+        await new Promise(setImmediate); // workaround for: https://github.com/nodejs/node-addon-api/issues/1140
       }
     });
   }
@@ -638,6 +639,7 @@ export class IModelExporter {
         const relInstanceId: Id64String = statement.getValue(0).getId();
         const relProps: RelationshipProps = this.sourceDb.relationships.getInstanceProps(baseRelClassFullName, relInstanceId);
         await this.exportRelationship(relProps.classFullName, relInstanceId); // must call exportRelationship using the actual classFullName, not baseRelClassFullName
+        await new Promise(setImmediate); // workaround for: https://github.com/nodejs/node-addon-api/issues/1140
       }
     });
   }
diff --git a/core/transformer/src/IModelTransformer.ts b/core/transformer/src/IModelTransformer.ts
index 27a3af9583b..b8929d807b3 100644
--- a/core/transformer/src/IModelTransformer.ts
+++ b/core/transformer/src/IModelTransformer.ts
@@ -709,7 +709,7 @@ export class IModelTransformer extends IModelExportHandler {
     }
     const aspectDeleteIds: Id64String[] = [];
     const sql = `SELECT ECInstanceId,Identifier,JsonProperties FROM ${ExternalSourceAspect.classFullName} aspect WHERE aspect.Scope.Id=:scopeId AND aspect.Kind=:kind`;
-    this.targetDb.withPreparedStatement(sql, (statement: ECSqlStatement): void => {
+    await this.targetDb.withPreparedStatement(sql, async (statement: ECSqlStatement) => {
       statement.bindId("scopeId", this.targetScopeElementId);
       statement.bindString("kind", ExternalSourceAspect.Kind.Relationship);
       while (DbResult.BE_SQLITE_ROW === statement.step()) {
@@ -722,6 +722,7 @@ export class IModelTransformer extends IModelExportHandler {
           }
           aspectDeleteIds.push(statement.getValue(0).getId());
         }
+        await new Promise(setImmediate); // workaround for: https://github.com/nodejs/node-addon-api/issues/1140
       }
     });
     this.targetDb.elements.deleteAspect(aspectDeleteIds);