Department of Electrical Engineering

Transformer oil
maintenance

KIE4013: High Voltage Engineering

Chapter outcomes
In the end of this chapter, students are able to:
 Explain different types of transformer oil
maintenance
 Identify transformer fault type
 Perform transformer oil breakdown strength test

2
What happen if no proper maintenance?
This condition can be avoided
by proper maintenance and
monitoring of transformer oil

3
 Functions of transformer oil
Function Descriptions
As coolant Prevent thermal overheating. Oil absorbs heat
from the core and the windings and transmits it.
As insulator Oil penetrates into and fills the space between
layers of insulation and windings.
As When fault occurs in oil, they cause oil chemical
diagnostic degradation. This provides information about fault
indicator type (moisture content, gas content, acidity).

4
 Mineral oil for transformer
 Composed of complex mixture of basic saturated
hydrocarbon (C and H) liquids, commonly used as
transformer oil.
Classes of Descriptions
mineral oil
Paraffinic Branched/straight channel, low water solubility and oxidation
products.
Naphthenic One ring structure with 6 members, better solvency than
paraffinic.
Aromatic 6 carbon atoms, alternating bonds, good electrical properties and
gas absorption, stable in oxidation.
H H2

C H2 C H2
H H
H H H H C C C C

C C C C
H C C C C H H H H2 C H2
C
H H H H H H2
Paraffinic Aromatic Naphthenic 5
 Mineral oil characteristics
Characteristic Definition Mineral oil
Viscosity Resistance to deformation/flow Low (kgs-1m-1)
Pour point Temperature at which it becomes Low (-6oC)
semi solid
Flash point Lowest temperature at which it High (140 °C)
can vaporize
Electrical Electric field which breakdown High (12 MVm-1)
strength can occur
Specific heat Amount of heat per kg required High (Jkg-1K-1)
to raise the temperature by 1oC
Thermal Ability to conduct heat High (Wm-1K-1)
conductivity
Impulse Electric field which breakdown High
strength can occur under impulse voltage
Arc quencher Ability to eliminate arc Good

6
Decomposition of mineral oil
 Mineral oils have many hydrocarbon molecules.
 Breaking of C-H and C-C bonds forms active H
atoms and hydrocarbon, which can combine with
each other to form gases (H2, methane, ethane,
etc.) or recombine to form new, condensable
molecules.
 Further decomposition leads to the formation of
products such as ethylene, acetylene and
hydrogenated carbon.
 Thermal decomposition of oil is due to exposed
to arc and conductor losses.

7
Purposes of oil test
 Objectives:
 To monitor the oil condition so that appropriate
action can be taken to prevent further damage to
transformer
 To ensure equipment can withstand power
frequency voltages or overvoltage
 To establish the suitability of the oil for further use
 Equipment must be tested at IEC and ASTM
specification.
 Available international maintenance for oil:
 IEC 60422 “Supervision and Maintenance Guide
for Mineral Insulating Oils in Electrical Equipment”
 IEEE C57.106 “IEEE Guideline for Acceptance and
Maintenance of Insulating Oil in Equipment”
 Test types: Physical, chemical, electrical
8
Oil breakdown strength testing

Portable Oil Test Set (available in UM High Voltage Lab)

9
Transformer oil test corrective actions
OIL PROPERTY CORRECTIVE ACTION
Dark color Change / Reclaim the oil
Low breakdown
Filter & Dry the oil
voltage
High water content Dry the oil
High acidity Change / Reclaim the oil
Low resistivity Change / Reclaim the oil
Low flashpoint Change the oil

Examples of action:
Remove from service Call manufacturer
Exercise extreme caution Continue normal operation
Analyze for individual gases Plan outage

10
Tasks of the Group
Find information about:
 Some physical tests on transformer oil
 Some electrical tests on transformer oil
 Some chemical tests on transformer oil
 Dissolved gas analysis (DGA)
 Key gas method
 Doernenburg ratio method (DRM)
 Roger’s ratio method (RRM)
 IEC 60599 method

11