*Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
**Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
***Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Coimbatore Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
Online published on 14 October, 2016.
Liquid insulating fluids are used to offer the electrical insulation and cooling medium in high voltage power transformers. Due to this reason, traditionally used mineral oil (transformer oil) is mostly widely used for many decades. By taking into consideration about the impact of mineral oil on the environment and availability of resource, the majority of the research works are paying attention towards environmental friendly natural fluids (vegetable oil) as alternate liquid insulating fluids in high voltage applications. In this paper, some of the nearby available natural esters such as sunflower oil, rice bran oil, Canola oil and Sesame oil are considered for analyzing their suitable characteristics to replace mineral oil. For this analysis, oil samples are tested for breakdown voltage, flash point, fire point, viscosity, interfacial tension, water content and acidity. From the analysis, it reveals that investigated natural esters have enhanced properties than that of mineral oil.
Breakdown voltage, flash point, fire point, interfacial tension, natural ester, mineral oil
