Enhancement of critical properties of pure and aged transformer oil using nanocomposites

Abstract

Power Transformers are one of the most critical component of power system in which transformer oil is used for both insulation and cooling purposes. Mineral oil plays a vital role in insulation system of the transformer. In transformer, withstand strength of insulation materials mainly depends on the properties of the transformer oil. In this work, Semiconductive inorganic nanocomposites of ceramic type are chosen for this investigation of electrical and physical property of mineral oil (Transformer oil). Nanopowders of Zinc Oxide (ZnO), Aluminium Oxide (Al <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> O <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> ) are combinedly added with the pure and aged transformer oil under various particle volume fractions to form nanocomposite fluids (NCF's). The electrical and physical properties like breakdown voltage, viscosity, flash point and fire point were measured at room temperature under ASTM and IEC standards. It was observed that breakdown voltage of pure and aged transformer oil shows improved results after the addition of nanocomposites with respect to increase in particle volume fractions.