Frequency Domain Spectroscopy of Pressboard Impregnated with Natural Ester under Thermal Stress

Abstract

One of the most popular insulating liquids is mineral oil, which is used in many high-voltage apparatuses, especially in transformers. For a few decades, the concept of the use of alternative insulating liquids has been presented. Natural ester is a vegetable-based insulating liquid. Pressboard is a type of electrical insulation paper made of cellulose. Frequency Domain Spectroscopy (FDS) has been used to assess the insulation characteristics such as oil-impregnated paper. In this paper, the FDS of pressboard impregnated with natural ester under thermal stress and pressboard impregnated with natural ester were studied. In the experiment, the pressboard test specimens were heated at 100 degrees Celsius in a vacuum oven for 48 hours to reduce the moisture. Then, the test specimens were impregnated with natural ester for 0, 8, 16, and 24 hours. After that, they were simulated with thermal stress by heating at 150 degrees Celsius in a vacuum oven for 0, 30, and 90 days. To analyze their dielectric integrity, FDS was performed by DIRANA. The test cell for solid insulation testing, according to JIS C2111 was prepared and used for the FDS experiment. The result shows that the characteristics of the natural ester-impregnated pressboard that had been subjected to thermal stress were slightly different when compared with the same impregnation time of the pressboard.