Experimental Study of the Compatibility of Insulating Oil in Transformers

Abstract

Compatibility between the transformer oil and construction material should be considered in real transformer operation for equipment safety. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of the two types of naphthenic transformer oil and self-developed hydrogenated transformer oil by means of aging experiment with solid component of transformer, for instance, construction material, rubber seals, insulating varnish and insulating paper. It was suggested that the hydrogenated transformer oil performed much better in all of the compatibility tests, while the naphthenic transformer oil delivered detrimental results in rubber seal, paper degradation test and insulating varnish test. In addition, thermal stability experiment of the oil also indicated the better performance of hydrogenated oil than the naphthenic oil. This research study not only suggested the better compatibility of hydrogenated oil, but also provided the theoretical data for the potential use of hydrogenated oil in transformers.