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1251
ABSTRACT
Petroleum based mineral oils are generally used for electric power apparatus insulation
and cooling applications. Since the conventionally used mineral oils are not
biodegradable and difficult to decompose, there is a need for the development of
alternate vegetable based insulation oils for such applications. Formation of partial
discharges plays a major role in determining the life time of liquid insulation. Reports on
partial discharge characteristics of thermal aged natural ester fluids for high voltage
applications are scanty. The major aim of this research work is to understand the partial
discharge characteristics of natural esters as a dielectric fluid for power transformer and
other electric power apparatus insulation applications. Laboratory experiments are
performed as per IEC (International Electro technical Commission) test procedures in
order to understand the breakdown voltage and partial discharge characteristics of
vegetable oils such as corn oil and palm oil under both virgin and thermal aged
conditions. This paper presents a comparative assessment of the PD characteristics of
thermal aged natural ester fluids with respect to mineral oil. Time and frequency domain
analysis of PD pulse at both needle-plane and rod-plane electrode configurations are
studied. Statistical analysis of PD pattern is also carried out. This analysis collects the
typical PD patterns from natural ester fluids in order to find its suitability for power
transformer and electric power apparatus applications.
Index Terms Dielectric fluid, vegetable oil, breakdown strength, partial discharge,
frequency spectrum, statistical analysis, power transformer.
1 INTRODUCTION
MINERAL oils are the conventionally used dielectric
fluids for electrical insulation and heat transfer in electric
power apparatus such as power transformers, capacitors, etc
[1]. The major trouble faced with mineral oil is that it is
poorly biodegradable and if any leakage occurs, it could lead
to serious contamination of soil and waterways.
Extensive studies were carried out for the past two decades
to find a suitable alternate natural esters (vegetable oils) for
electrical applications [2-15]. Vegetable oils have the
advantages of high biodegradability, fire safety and are
readily available. Transformers filled with vegetable oil were
already tested successfully at different voltage levels [2,3].
Manuscript received on 12 October 2013, in final form 13 December 2013,
accepted 14 February 2014.
DOI 10.1109/TDEI.2014.004430
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S. Chandrasekar and G. C. Montanari: Analysis of Partial Discharge Characteristics of Natural Esters as Dielectric Fluid
2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Commercially available corn oil, palm oil and mineral oil
were used for the experimental studies. Initially, the oil
samples were thermally treated for 48 hours in the laboratory
in order to remove any moisture content present in the oil.
Since detection of aging effects of transformer liquid
insulation may take a long time, accelerated thermal aging
was performed in the laboratory. Oil samples were exposed to
extreme temperature conditions for pre-fixed periods of time
in order to evaluate the change in dielectric and thermal
characteristics at elevated temperatures. In the thermal aging
process, the oil samples were kept in a temperature controlled
oven for 15 days, 30 days and 45 days at 150C and were
taken out for experimental studies. In order to understand the
influence of copper windings during thermal aging and to
simulate the actual conditions inside a transformer, some oil
specimens were added with piece of copper during aging
process. Unless otherwise mentioned, the results reported in
this paper for thermal aged oil samples are without copper.
The following experiments for evaluating the electrical
breakdown strength, viscosity and partial discharge
characteristics were carried out for both unaged and thermally
aged oils in the laboratory.
2.1 BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE (BDV) TEST
The electrical breakdown strength of a liquid insulating
medium can be derived from its breakdown voltage (BDV)
value. BDV test was carried out as per IEC 60156 standard.
3 BREAKDOWN STRENGTH
TEST RESULTS
It is important to understand the correlation between the
dispersion of breakdown voltages between the mineral oil and
natural ester fluids in order to estimate the safety margin
while designing the insulation of electric power apparatus.
Breakdown strength of a liquid dielectric medium is a
statistical quantity which depends on the physio-chemical
properties, impurities and particles present in the medium
during test. In this work, two parameter Weibull distribution
is used to fit the breakdown voltages. Table 1 shows the oil
samples used for the BDV test together with the thermal aging
descriptions.
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(a)
(b)
Description
Mineral oil unaged
Mineral oil thermally aged for 30 days
Mineral oil thermally aged for 45 days
Corn oil unaged
Corn oil thermally aged for 30 days
Corn oil thermally aged for 45 days
Palm oil - unaged
Palm oil thermally aged for 30 days
Palm oil thermally aged for 45 days
(c)
Figure 3. Distribution of breakdown voltage values of oil samples at 2.5 mm
gap distance of electrodes (a) unaged (b) 30 days thermal aged (c) 45 days
thermal aged.
1254
S. Chandrasekar and G. C. Montanari: Analysis of Partial Discharge Characteristics of Natural Esters as Dielectric Fluid
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 7. Partial discharge pattern obtained for rod-plane electrode
configuration of unaged (left) and 30 days thermally aged (right) oils
(a) mineral oil (b) palm oil (c) corn oil. Test voltage 25 kV.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 10. Partial discharge pattern obtained for needle-plane electrode
configuration of unaged (left) and 30 days thermally aged (right) oil
specimens (a) mineral oil (b) palm oil (c) corn oil. Test voltage 35 kV.
1256
S. Chandrasekar and G. C. Montanari: Analysis of Partial Discharge Characteristics of Natural Esters as Dielectric Fluid
(a)
(b)
(a)
(b)
Figure 12. Partial discharge pulses and corresponding frequency spectrum
obtained for rod-plane electrode configuration of palm oil (a) unaged
(b) 45 days thermally aged without copper. Test voltge 25 kV.
(c)
Figure 11. Partial discharge pattern obtained for needle-plane electrode
configuration after 45 days of thermal stress, without copper (left) and with
copper (right) (a) mineral oil (b) palm oil (c) corn oil. Test voltage 35 kV.
(a)
(b)
Figure 13. Partial discharge pulses and corresponding frequency spectrum
obtained for needle-plane electrode configuration of palm oil (a) unaged
(b) 45 days thermally aged without copper. Test voltge 25 kV.
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(a)
(a)
(b)
Figure 15. Mean value and 95% confidence intervals for the shape parameter
(a) Beta positive and (b) Beta negative from PD amplitude distribution under
different aging conditions. Rod-plane configuration.
(b)
Figure 14. Partial discharge pulse repetition rate obtained for needle-plane
electrode configuration (a) unaged (b) 45 days thermally aged oil samples.
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S. Chandrasekar and G. C. Montanari: Analysis of Partial Discharge Characteristics of Natural Esters as Dielectric Fluid
6 CONCLUSIONS
(a)
(b)
Figure 16. Mean value and 95% confidence intervals for the (a) skewness
positive and (b) skewness negative from PD amplitude distribution under
different aging conditions. Rod-plane configuration.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TechImp SpA is gratefully acknowledged for providing
some of the testing apparatus for this research project.
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Figure 17. Mean value and 95% confidence intervals for the Nw from PD
amplitude distribution under different aging conditions. Rod-plane
configuration.
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