Bridging in contaminated transformer oil under DC and AC electric field

Abstract

There are two experimental set up have been established to investigate the bridging effect between two electrodes with different potentials under ac and dc voltages. This paper will explain the full details of the experimental setup and the results. These experiments carried out on pressboard particles under three different levels of ac and dc voltages. Several contamination levels have been investigated. Optical images of particle accumulation have been recorded along with associated conduction current measurement during experiments. At higher voltages the rate of bridge formation is increased along with an associated current increase. The major differences between ac and dc bridges are the shapes of the particle accumulation. The bridge formation rate for ac is slower than dc.