Investigation of Dielectric Strength of Transformer Oil Based on Hybrid TiO2/Al2O3/MoS2 Nanofluid Using Taguchi and Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

ABSTRACT Transformers play a vital role in transmission and distribution systems, still 75% of the transformers fail because of inappropriate dielectric insulation. Almost a century alone, mineral oil and vegetable oil were used as insulation and coolant, but they failed because of extra power requirement. After the introduction of nanofluids, massive research work has been carried out to improve the thermal and dielectric characteristics of transformer oil. In this work, a novel approach has been used to investigate dielectric strength by adding hybrid nanoparticles TiO2/Al2O3/MoS2 with 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, and 0.1 volume percentage in transformer oil with 16 different combinations based on Taguchi L16 orthogonal array. The dielectric strength was measured for transformer oil on the basis of the design matrix and a statistical analysis was done to predict the best combination of parameters. ANOVA also showed that the weight percentage of TiO2 and Al2O3 had a significant effect on dielectric strength. Further, the second-order quadratic equation was developed to predict the best suitable combination of nanoparticles using Response Surface Methodology. The predicted results revealed that the TiO2 had a significant effect on dielectric strength.