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The aim of this study was to perform precision measurements of the frequency-temperature dependences of the loss angle tangent of the liquid-solid composite with the FDS Dirana meter. The composite consisted of heavily moistered oil-impregnated pressboard. The moisturization of the pressboard occurred in a manner as close as possible to the process of wetting the insulation in power transformers to a moisture content of (5.0 ± 0.2) wt. %. This value of moisture content was chosen because exceeding this value can lead to transformer failure. The measuring temperature range was from 293.15 K (20 °C) to 333.15 K (60 °C), with a step of 8 K. The measuring frequency range was 0.0001 Hz to 5000 Hz. It was observed that the shape of the frequency dependence of the loss angle tangent for a moisture content of 5.0 wt. % does not depend on the value of the measuring temperature. An increase in temperature leads to a shift of the waveforms into the higher frequency region. This is associated with a decrease in the relaxation time, and its value depends on the activation energy. It was found that a good fit of the waveforms, simulated by Dirana, to the actual tgδ waveforms obtained at temperatures between 293.15 K (20 °C) and 333.15 K (60 °C) requires the introduction of temperatures, higher than the actual insulation temperatures, into the program. It was found that estimating the moisture content for different temperatures using Dirana soft-ware for insulating an oil-impregnated pressboard produced large discrepancies from the actual content. Better results were obtained after an adjustment requiring manual temperature correction towards higher, compared to measured, temperatures. The moisture content estimated after correction by the Dirana meter ranges from of 4.5 wt. % to 5.7 wt. % and increases almost linearly with increasing measuring temperature. The average moisture content estimated by the Dirana meter for all measuring temperatures is 5.1 wt. % and is close to the actual content (5.0 ± 0.2) wt. %. The uncertainty of the estimate is ±0.43 wt. % and is more than twice as high as the true value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the complex operation conditions in a power transformer, an oil-impregnated pressboard (OIP) simultaneously suffers from thermal, electrical, and mechanical stress. Since most research studies have paid much attention to thermal or electrical aging of OIPs, this paper analyzes the effects of long-term mechanical vibrations on cellulose degradation in OIPs under simultaneous multi-stress. The aging experiments were firstly conducted at 130 °C, with a DC electric voltage of +6 kV, vibration amplitude of 10–50 μm, and vibration frequency of 100–300 Hz. The finite element analysis (FEA) of the pressboard vibration model was then performed on Abaqus to investigate the time–frequency domain characteristic parameters of compressive stress on the pressboard under varied vibration frequencies and amplitudes. The FEA results reveal that compressive stress on the pressboard in a multi-stress aging experiment coincided with the axial compressive stress on the insulation spacers in an SZ-50000/110 transformer. Moreover, combined with the degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose, the effects of long-term vibration on cellulose degradation are reflected in two ways: the increase in compressive stress on the pressboard generates more links available for degradation, while more high frequency harmonic components in compressive stress accelerate the reaction rate in cellulose degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dielectric response measurement is widely used to characterize oil/oil-impregnated pressboards in order to evaluate the condition of transformer insulation. Insulation systems with oil can exhibit voltage dependence at low frequencies. This is due to the limited number of mobile charges in the liquid, rather than to the dielectric relaxation processes that may, in some cases, be of more interest to study. This work investigates the voltage-dependent properties of oil/oil-impregnated pressboards under ac voltages with regard to the complex permittivities. Frequency-domain spectroscopy (FDS) measurements are made with a dc voltage added to the ac voltage stimulus. Considered influences are the voltage amplitudes and polarity as well as the dependence on temperature. Properties of the space-charge polarization in the oil and oil-impregnated pressboard are calculated and discussed based on the dc-biased measurements. It is seen that using the dc bias in the FDS measurements of oil/oil-impregnated pressboard can significantly decrease the voltage dependence of the results that are caused by ion drift and consequent depletion of ions from the bulk liquid. Based on the dc-biased measurements, the complex permittivity due to the linear and nonlinear polarization can be separated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the characteristics and kinetics of cellulose degradation in oil-impregnated pressboard (OIP) under simultaneous thermal-electrical-mechanical stress accelerated aging. Thus, the multi-stress aging experimental setup is designed and established. OIP multi-stress aging experiments are performed at 130 °C, a DC electric voltage of +6 kV, vibration amplitude of 10−50 μm and vibration frequency of 100–300 Hz. The aging characteristics of pressboard and oil are then measured, including the degree of polymerization and aging by-products (i.e., furfural, moisture, acidity and dissolved gas). Investigations on aging characteristics reveal that thermal stress is still the dominant factor of cellulose degradation, while electrical and mechanical stresses serve as aging acceleration factors. The simultaneous thermal-electrical-mechanical aging of OIP is 10-24% faster than the single thermal aging. Moreover, the kinetics of cellulose degradation is also proposed to predict the bond scission fraction of cellulose with a goodness-of-fitting over 0.97. Finally, the correlations between the parameters in the kinetics of cellulose degradation and mechanical stress reveal that the increase of vibration amplitude generates more weak and amorphous links available for degradation, while the increase of vibration frequency accelerates the reaction rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an advanced technique for calculating activation energy of oil-impregnated pressboard through dielectric response current measurement under switching impulse voltage at different temperatures. The proposed technique analyzes the measured impulse voltage and current signals to formulate its equivalent circuit at different temperatures. The equivalent circuit parameters are utilized to determine the shifting of ac conductivity curve along frequency axis with variations in temperatures. Based on the shifted ac conductivity curves at different temperatures, the corresponding activation energy of the insulation is estimated. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is investigated through a few laboratory prepared test samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to perform precision measurements of the frequency-temperature dependences of the loss angle tangent of the liquid-solid composite with the FDS Dirana meter. The composite consisted of heavily moistered oil-impregnated pressboard. The moisturization of the pressboard occurred in a manner as close as possible to the process of wetting the insulation in power transformers to a moisture content of (5.0 ± 0.2) wt. %. This value of moisture content was chosen because exceeding this value can lead to transformer failure. The measuring temperature range was from 293.15 K (20 °C) to 333.15 K (60 °C), with a step of 8 K. The measuring frequency range was 0.0001 Hz to 5000 Hz. It was observed that the shape of the frequency dependence of the loss angle tangent for a moisture content of 5.0 wt. % does not depend on the value of the measuring temperature. An increase in temperature leads to a shift of the waveforms into the higher frequency region. This is associated with a decrease in the relaxation time, and its value depends on the activation energy. It was found that a good fit of the waveforms, simulated by Dirana, to the actual tgδ waveforms obtained at temperatures between 293.15 K (20 °C) and 333.15 K (60 °C) requires the introduction of temperatures, higher than the actual insulation temperatures, into the program. It was found that estimating the moisture content for different temperatures using Dirana soft-ware for insulating an oil-impregnated pressboard produced large discrepancies from the actual content. Better results were obtained after an adjustment requiring manual temperature correction towards higher, compared to measured, temperatures. The moisture content estimated after correction by the Dirana meter ranges from of 4.5 wt. % to 5.7 wt. % and increases almost linearly with increasing measuring temperature. The average moisture content estimated by the Dirana meter for all measuring temperatures is 5.1 wt. % and is close to the actual content (5.0 ± 0.2) wt. %. The uncertainty of the estimate is ±0.43 wt. % and is more than twice as high as the true value.

Due to the complex operation conditions in a power transformer, an oil-impregnated pressboard (OIP) simultaneously suffers from thermal, electrical, and mechanical stress. Since most research studies have paid much attention to thermal or electrical aging of OIPs, this paper analyzes the effects of long-term mechanical vibrations on cellulose degradation in OIPs under simultaneous multi-stress. The aging experiments were firstly conducted at 130 °C, with a DC electric voltage of +6 kV, vibration amplitude of 10–50 μm, and vibration frequency of 100–300 Hz. The finite element analysis (FEA) of the pressboard vibration model was then performed on Abaqus to investigate the time–frequency domain characteristic parameters of compressive stress on the pressboard under varied vibration frequencies and amplitudes. The FEA results reveal that compressive stress on the pressboard in a multi-stress aging experiment coincided with the axial compressive stress on the insulation spacers in an SZ-50000/110 transformer. Moreover, combined with the degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose, the effects of long-term vibration on cellulose degradation are reflected in two ways: the increase in compressive stress on the pressboard generates more links available for degradation, while more high frequency harmonic components in compressive stress accelerate the reaction rate in cellulose degradation.

The proposed study compares the electrical, thermal and mechanical performances of thermally aged cellulose pressboard material impregnated in mineral oil, synthetic ester fluid and mixed oil. The electrical insulation characteristics of oil‐impregnated pressboard (OIP) are studied by means of surface discharge inception voltage (SDIV) using an ultra‐high frequency technique and surface potential measurement analysis. It indicates that OIP aged in mineral oil has higher surface potential due to higher charge trap density compared to that of the mixed oil and synthetic ester fluid. Mechanical and thermal characteristics of the aged OIP are studied by means of tensile strength measurement and thermo‐gravimetric analysis, respectively. The change in the chemical composition of OIP is studied by means of laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy, which indicates lower plasma temperature with mineral oil‐based OIP indicating higher degradation state. To further understand the microscopic structure of the thermally aged OIP in different oils, scanning electron microscopy and X‐ray diffraction studies have been performed. The pressboard thermally aged in synthetic ester fluid and the mixed oil has better electrical, thermal and mechanical properties as compared with the pressboard aged in mineral oil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is still a lack of effective means of observation for electrical trees in opaque materials, which hampers experimental and theoretical research on the growth of such trees in the oil-impregnated pressboards of power transformers. This presents a great obstacle to the accurate diagnosis and prediction of partial discharge (PD) defects. This paper describes a method to monitor the growth process of electrical trees in pressboards based on solution of the inverse problem for the electrostatic field. The three-dimensional structure of the carbonized branches is reconstructed from the positions of PDs. Each PD is located by the charge remaining in the material. This charge is calculated from the electric field intensity or potential at some points in the field using the mirror image method and solution of the inverse problem for the electrostatic field. The electric field intensity is measured using an array of metal strips near the zero-potential border while PDs are occurring. High-voltage PD experiments are performed on oil-impregnated pressboard strips to verify the feasibility of the method. From the results of these experiments, the accuracy of PD site location is found to be as good as 0.35 mm in the χ direction (the horizontal coordinate), which is sufficient to describe the general structure of electrical trees in oil-impregnated pressboard. The movement of the PD positions indicates the growth process of tree branches. The calculated positions and lengths of the branches are consistent with observations of carbonized tracks after the pressboard has been torn open. The results obtained here will be of benefit to establishing a real-time monitoring method for three-dimensional reconstruction of electrical trees to reveal their internal growth mechanism in opaque materials such as oil-impregnated pressboards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The insulating performance of oil-impregnated pressboard decreases due to partial discharges (PDs). Although methods of pressboard life assessment and its dependency on PD have been extensively investigated, little is known about the microscopic process and the physical mechanism of PD-induced pressboard failure. This study investigated the electrical aging characteristics of pressboard from the perspective of physico-chemical analysis. Pressboard samples were treated with the chosen numbers of PDs to induce electrical aging and the chemical composition of the PD-treated pressboard was analyzed. The results revealed the generation of carbonyl groups and the consumption of hydroxyl groups on the surface of the pressboard after PD treatment. These groups were generated by the cracking of the C2-C3 and C1-O bonds in the pyran ring, and the oxidation of hydroxyl group in cellulose molecules, respectively. Subsequently, the effect of PDs on the surface topography of the pressboard was examined. The results showed that the surface roughness of the pressboard changed with a "U-shaped" trend under the influence of PDs, first decreasing and then increasing immediately after. In addition, "micro pits" were found on the surface of the pressboard. Breakdown of the pressboard happened when a micro pit grew to a critical depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transformer oil-based nanofluid-impregnated pressboard (NIP) with TiO 2 nanoparticles has been previously shown to exhibit substantially higher AC breakdown strength than that of pure oil-impregnated pressboard (OIP). In this study, OIP and NIP with TiO 2 nanoparticles were prepared and experiments on DC breakdown strength of were performed. It was found that NIP possesses higher resistance to DC breakdown strength than that of OIP. To reveal the working mechanism, a pulsed electro acoustic (PEA) device was used to measure the space charge accumulation and dissipation characteristics in OIP and NIP. The results show that the density of deep level traps in NIP is visibly reduced owing to the addition of TiO 2 nanoparticles and homopolar space charge accumulation on both sides of NIP is suppressed. Moreover, the charges injected from electrodes into NIP under DC voltage is also restrained owing to the increase of the Schottky potential barrier. Thus, the DC breakdown performance of NIP is considerably improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressboard is the main building material of a power transformer winding structure. Through‐thickness compression behaviour of pressboard has a direct influence on the transformer winding clamping pressure. Being a cellulose based polymeric material with a porous structure, the through‐thickness compression behaviour of pressboard is highly non‐linear. Also, the mechanical properties of pressboard are moisture, temperature, and ageing status dependent. However, information on the exact behaviour of the through‐thickness compressibility of pressboard under typical operating conditions of a power transformer has not been well documented in the literature. This has posed difficulties in developing reliable techniques to detect loose clamping conditions in power transformer windings. This study presents the results of laboratory measurements on the effect of moisture, temperature and ageing on the through‐thickness compression behaviour of oil‐impregnated pressboard. From the measured results, it was found that the compressibility of pressboard could increase with increasing temperature, ageing and moisture ingress. It was also found that moisture and ageing tend to exaggerate the thermal softening of pressboard. Subsequent finite element analysis confirmed that transformer clamping pressure has significantly altered with the pressboard condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the creeping discharge characteristics on mineral oil-impregnated pressboard (OIP) under combined AC and DC voltages. The creeping discharge behavior at various voltage levels to failure were analyzed using partial discharge (PD) measurements, camera observations, and electric field simulations. It was found that the creeping discharge distribution was significantly influenced by the DC component, and it was difficult to induce failure even on OIP with high moisture under combined AC and DC voltage. The flashover along the free-oil boundary layer above the OIP during creeping discharge occurred much more easily under combined AC and DC than under AC voltage, and the quality of the oil was important to avoid flashover. These differences were attributed to the combined influence of the electric field distribution under DC and space charge accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main insulation of converter transformers consists of transformer oil and oil-impregnated pressboard. Under operating conditions, the valve-side winding of the converter transformer is subject to DC voltage components. Therefore, studies on the characteristics of oil-impregnated pressboard conductivity are necessary. In this paper, the temperature, moisture and electric field dependency of pressboard conductivity are investigated based on a specially designed three-electrode experimental chamber, which allows for a variation in temperature ranging from 25 °C to 120 °C and an electric field strength ranging from 0 to 30 kV/mm. The experimental results show that, within the experimental conditions, the conductivity of oil-impregnated pressboard increases exponentially with increasing moisture and temperature. High moisture and temperature will increase both the carrier concentration and carrier mobility, which explains the exponential correspondence. Furthermore, the electric field dependency of the conductivity is more obvious for wet pressboard than for dry pressboard. Protons in the wet pressboard are more easily accelerated by the electric field than the impurity ions in the oil of the dry pressboard, which leads to an obvious electric field dependency of the wet pressboard conductivity.

The water molecule migration and aggregation behaviors in oil-impregnated pressboard are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations in combination with Monte Carlo molecular simulation technique. The free energy and phase diagram of H2O-dodecylbenzene (DDB) and H2O-cellulose mixtures are calculated by Monte Carlo technique combined with the modified Flory-Huggins model, demonstrating that H2O molecules can hardly dissolved with infinitesimal content in cellulose system at temperature lower than 650 K, based on which the oil/cellulose layered structure with water impurity representing three-phase coexistence in oil-impregnated pressboard are modeled and performed for molecular dynamics. The molecular dynamics of H2O/DDB/cellulose three-phase mixture simulating oil-paper insulating system with H2O impurity indicates that DDB molecules can thermally intrude into the cellulose-water interface so as to separate the water phase and cellulose fiber. The first-principles electronic structure calculations for local region of H2O/DDB interface show that H2O molecules can introduce bound states to trap electrons and acquire negative charges, so that they will obtain sufficient energy from applied electric field to break DDB molecular chain by collision, which are verified by subsequent molecular dynamics simulations of H2O−/DDB interface model. The electric breakdown mechanism under higher than 100 kV/m electric field is presented based on the further first-principles calculations of the produced carbonized fragments being dissolved and diffusing in DDB phase. The resulted broken DDB fragments will introduce impurity band between valence and conduction bands of DDB system, evidently decreasing bandgap as to that of conducting materials in their existence space. The conductance channel of these carbonized DDB fragments will eventually be formed to initiate the avalanche breakdown process by the cycle-feedback of injected charge carriers with carbonized channels.

In this study, we investigate the characteristics of creepage discharge on oilimpregnated pressboard under combined AC?DC voltage conditions using a sphereplane electrode configuration. In our experiments, we use four oil-impregnated pressboard samples subjected to different thermal aging time. Experimental results show that the creepage discharge inception voltage (CDIV) and creepage discharge flashover voltage (CDFV) are lowest under pure AC voltage and gradually increase with higher DC voltage components. Longer aging time may contribute to higher CDIV with low DC voltage components; however, with higher DC voltage components, the effect of aging time is less pronounced. The CDFV is not significantly influenced by aging time. The length of carbonized tracks and the development velocity of the creepage discharge increase and the endurance time decreases with longer aging time and higher DC voltage components. We divide the development of creepage discharge in aged pressboard into four stages according to changes in the discharge characteristic parameters. With longer aging time, characteristic parameters exhibit less fluctuation and development velocity exhibits greater sensitivity to the DC voltage component. Our experimental results demonstrate that the characteristics of creepage discharge are significantly influenced by the age of the pressboard and by DC voltage components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mineral insulating oil and pressboard are important insulation dielectrics in AC-DC converter transformers. Thus, it is very significant to understand the dielectric properties of the oil and oil-impregnated pressboard. In this paper, the influences of the temperature, field strength and aging on the resistivity of oil and oil-impregnated pressboard have been investigated. Samples used in the experiments are new oil, aged oil, pressboard immersed in new oil and aged oil respectively. The measuring device of resistivity was full of oil and isolated from outside. All samples were measured at temperature range of 25-80 °C under the electric field strength range of 2-10 kV/mm for oil and 3-30 kV/mm for oil-impregnated pressboard. The results showed that the resistivity of oil-impregnated pressboard decreased along with the increase of field strength and temperature. For all oil specimens and pressboard immersed in aged oil, the resistivity decreasing rate ( σ lgρ / σE ) along with electric field strength showed a downtrend with the increase of temperature; while, for pressboard immersed in new oil, the decreasing rate showed an uptrend with the increase of temperature. For oil, the resistivity reduction rate with aging (r) decreased along with the increase of field strength and temperature. For pressboard immersed in oil, the reduction rate with aging (r) showed an uptrend with the increase of temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main insulation of converter transformers consists of transformer oil and oil-impregnated pressboard. Under operating conditions, the valve-side winding of the converter transformer is subject to DC voltage components. Therefore, studies on the characteristics of oil-impregnated pressboard conductivity are necessary. In this paper, the temperature, moisture and electric field dependency of pressboard conductivity are investigated based on a specially designed three-electrode experimental chamber, which allows for a variation in temperature ranging from 25 °C to 120 °C and an electric field strength ranging from 0 to 30 kV/mm. The experimental results show that, within the experimental conditions, the conductivity of oil-impregnated pressboard increases exponentially with increasing moisture and temperature. High moisture and temperature will increase both the carrier concentration and carrier mobility, which explains the exponential correspondence. Furthermore, the electric field dependency of the conductivity is more obvious for wet pressboard than for dry pressboard. Protons in the wet pressboard are more easily accelerated by the electric field than the impurity ions in the oil of the dry pressboard, which leads to an obvious electric field dependency of the wet pressboard conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]