Drying of Already Impregnated Oil - Paper Insulation

L'ubomir M. Nikoloski, Damjan D. Hristovski Faculty of Electrical Engineering University "Sts Kiril & Metodlj" Skopje, Macedonia The properties of oil-paper insulation depend on the properties of both components, the paper and oil, and also of the technology of preparing. Cellulose paper is mostly used for this kind of insulation, because of its low price. Cellulose is natural polymer with macromolecules composed of 2000 to 3000 glucose rings, tied with oxygen bridges. The macromolecule of cellulose are cross tied with OH groups, so that they form crystal domains called micelles. Cellulose comes in the form of thin fibers and the fibers are composed of micelles and separate molecules of cellulose. In that way, every material based on cellulose is very porous with micrometers. Such a capillaries of 10-1 to structure has enormous internal surface and attracts water molecules. Paper at room temperature could contain up to 9% of condensed and absorbed water. In the process of preparing good oil-paper insulation, the condensed and absorbed water from the paper has to be eliminated, and all capillaries be filled with good quality impregnation oil. This is done with the use of elevated temperature and high vacuum during definite time. This technology was much researched many years ago especially in Germany [I], and an optimum in quality was obtained. For instance, according to literature data [2], best results are obtained when the water content in the paper is less then 0,1%. In that case, good dried paper impregnated with good quality mineral oil could have tg6 = 2.5*10'3, p=5*1Ol2 [Q m] at 25OC, and AC breakdown voltage more than 70 kV at the probe of 1 mm. Such a quality is obtained using temperature up to 12OOC and 10-1 Pa at drying of the paper. The duration of the drying depends of the thickness of the insulation because it is a process of diffusion and could be several days.
Aging And Regeneration Of Oil Paper Insulation

Abstract
It is well known that the paper - oil insulation is so prepared, that the paper installed in the high voltage apparatus is first dried up with the influence of high vacuum and elevated temperature. Then, under vacuum the paper is impregnated with oil. Sometimes, the high voltage apparatus with oil - paper insulation, after a short period under working conditions loses his good dielectric properties because of high content of moisture. This is mostly because of penetration of atmospheric water in the apparatus. Now, it is interesting to know if there is possible to dry such an apparatus and how. In this paper we describe the experiments carried out on a model of the oil paper insulation with high water content in the paper. The insulation is dried up with influence of high vacuum and elevated temperature during some time. The results show that such drying on a model is possible. The needed vacuum, temperature and time for drying the model are presented and discussed. The experiments on real apparatus are planned, but not presented in this paper.
Introduction

The oil-paper insulation is of great importance from the very beginning of electrical engineering. It is also most important kind of electrical insulation in high voltage today, due to very good insulation properties and low price. Most typically this insulation is present in capacitors and cables. Here the ratio of paper to oil is high. The oil fills only the gaps between the layers of paper and all micro spaces in the paper. The ratio paper to oil is lower in instrument transformers for high voltage, and much lower in power transformers. Nevertheless, because the main components in all these apparatus are paper and oil, they have some common properties, and the results from the research done in this work could be applied to all kinds of oil-paper insulation.

Figures 1 and 2 show the relation between the most important quality parameters, namely the power loss

(0-7083-3580-5) 1996 IEEE Annual Report - Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, San Francisco, October 20-23, 1996

factor tgS and specific resistivity p versus water content w. It is well known that the oil-paper insulation under working conditions undergo complex slow process of aging. In that process, the content of gases and water in oil increases. The water goes

ig.1: The relation between power loss factor and vater content.[4]

ig.2: The relation between specific resistivity and vater content 141
We have started our experimenls on regeneration first by taking away the old oil from the instrument transformer, and then apply high vacuum (cca 5 mbar) on the apparatus in its own housing for some time, and filling the apparatus under vacuum with new, good quality mineral oil. Such a method could only give suppressing of partial discharges, but the values for tg6 and Riz were regularly slightly worse, irespectively of the time under vacuum. Obviously, the water content was not lowered, but slightly risen, supposedly because of the short contact with the atmosphere during the manipulation. We concluded that heating is necessary during the process of regeneration.
Experiments On Models

also in the paper, as it is always an equilibrium of Ihe

water content between both phases. Even greater danger for the quality of the oil-paper insulation is when water comes from the atmosphere because of poor sealing of the apparatus. In that case the apparatus insulation loses its good quality prematurely which is indicated in the lowering of the insulation resistance Riz and rising its power loss factor tg6 . Also the higher level of partial discharges is a sign of altered and moistened insulation. The laboratory for high voltage at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering Skopje,Macedonia, has worked on the diagnostic of instrument transformers for high voltage with oil-paper insulation in on-site measurements for many years. We have found many apparatus with poor values of tg6 and insulation resistance, even when such apparatus were not much time in service. This was obviously caused by bad sealing and entrance of atmospheric moisture. There arose a question if such an apparatus could be "repaired" or dried and impregnated again. For this reason we called this problem "drying of already impregnated oil-paper insulation". There are known methods for insulation regeneration for power transformers which give sufficient results [ 5 ] . But instrument transformers differ from the power transformers since the ratio oiYpaper in the latter is not so big, and the paper layers are relatively thick.

During his staying at the High voltage Institute, University of Hannover, Germany, the first author made some experiments of drying already impregnated oil-paper insulation on models. The aim of the experiments was to jind answers to the following questions: -how high should be the temperature in the process of drying? -How low should be the pressure in drying? -How long should the process of drying last? The value of power loss factor was chosen as a criterion for water content (according to fig.1) and was measured during the experiment. The measurement was made with Shering bridge with 1000 V and 50 Hz.

179

The probes for experiments were prepared, each consisting of 12 foils of cellulose paper, 100 micrometers thick. They are circular in shape, with 90 mm diameter. Each foil has 0.785 grams, 12 foils having approximately 5 grams. The water content in the paper before the experiment was measured with Karl-Fisher method and was found cca (8-9)%, as the paper was in the delivery state. The impregnation of the paper was made with the new good quality mineral oil simply by soaking the paper foils in oil for 48 hours. The probes were then fixed with certain force between two A1 electrodes with Rogowski profile and put in special glass containers (fig.3) with capacity of approximately 2 L.

tg6 and pressure during the experiment was qualitative as on fig. 4. The initial rise of tg6 during the initial heating is due to rise of conductivity (analogous is steep decreasing of tg6 at the end of the experiment because of cooling the probe at room temperature). The value of power loss factor tg6 has index "b" for the beginning and index "e" for the end of experiment, and index "0" for room temperature and ' ' 8 ' for ' elevated temperature.

At

fig 4: Time dependence of the important parameter of the probe during drying The temperature was kept constant during the time interval At. The process of drying was many time repeated with the same probes, and at each new experiment the temperature was increased at higher level. The first experiment was carried out without heating which was quite ineffective, regardless of the time interval At. Sometimes, we have risen the temperature at higher level without cooling the probe at room temperature, and the final value of tg6 was measured at the end of the experiment. We have carried out the experiment in order to reach a value of tg6=1% or less at room temperature or a value close to it. The results of the experiments are presented in the tables below, which all follow the same pattern: tg6 at the beginning of the experiment
+

fig. 3: Containers with the probes: 1-fastener of the HV electrode; 2-cover; 3-HV measuring terminal; 4?astener of the HV electrode with spring; 5-glass wall; 5-HV electrode, Q=60 mm; 7-LV electrode @=60 am; 8 4 1 container with heating elements and .emperature sensor: 9-LV connection; 10-heater 3ower supply. The containers are with possibilities of applying high vacuum to the probes; heating and regulating the temperature; measuring power loss factor tg6 .The first container with the model was filled with oil during the process of drying, and the others two were without oil. The experiments should answer which method would be more effective in drying. In both cases the pressure during the drying in the container was 0.3 Torr, minimum attainable pressure with the used equipment. The power loss factor was measured before and after the experiment, and also during the experiment. The dependence on time of the most important parameters, namely, temperature, power loss factor
180

applied vacuum p, tem8 perature and time At

tg6 at the end of the experiment

The results are presented in the tables 1 and 2. From table 1 we can see that only at 9OoC we have a remarkable lowering of the tg6 at 2OoC from 9,9% to 5.2% (measured at 9OoC, tg6 is lowered from 73.5%

to 58.3%). This is not enough for good quality oilpaper insulation, but it shows in the first place that it is a possible method, if carried out during enough time. The results from table 2 show that drying without presence of oil is more efficient, which could be expected. It was shown also that only high vacuum without heating gives no lowering of tg6 and that means there is no lowering of water content. Here also temperatures below 9OoC are not efficient. The experiment on drying the probe without the presence of oil was also carried out with the third probe. This experiment has shown that during 28 hours at 9OoC the power loss factor tg6 was lowered from 29% to 3,4%.

1%

= 9,9%

tg6eb(at 8=4OoC) At=20 h 8=4O0C = 16.5% =0,3 Torr

= 44.5%

tg6ee(at0=400C)
= 16.5%

= 58,3%

Conclusions
The experiments described above show that drying of already impregnated insulation is possible, but high temperature is needed, and also high vacuum and sufficient time. The future experiments will be carried out on real objects. It is clear that the time is much longer for already impregnated insulation in comparison to new one. Also, the time needed for new insulation is directly proportional to the square of insulation (paper) thickness [4].We could also assume that this holds also for already impregnated insulation. Because our model has electrodes of circular shape with diameter 60 mm, the times At used in the experiments correspond to insulation thickness of 30 mm with real apparatus. The future experiments should also answer the question if there is any significant change of polymerization number of the cellulose during the process of during. If the answer is positive, it should also be considered how much is the paper artificially aged with the drying, which is the drawback of this method of drying. Table 2 gives some indications that aging takes place during the experiment. Namely, the power loss factor tg6 was lowered from 3,8% to 1.9% for only 18 hours at temperature of 9OoC, but at 100C we needed 139 hours to reduce the tg6 from 1.9 to 1.3. tg6eb(at0=2OOC) = 20% tg6eb(ate=200C)
= 3,8%

tg6eb(ate=2O0C) = 1,9%

robe without applied factors At=52 h 8=89OC p=0,3 Torr At=18 h 0=9OoC p=0,3Torr At=139 h 0=1oooc p=0,3Torr

resence of oil tg6ee 1% tg6ee(at0=200C) = 3,8% tg6~,(ate=20OC) = 1,9% tg6ee(atf3=200C) = 1,3%

Literature
[l] Wanser: ijber die trochung voii hochspannungskabeln in fein und hochvacuum, dissertat:ion, techn. hochschule Braunsweig

[2] M. Beyer, W. Boeck, K. Moller, W. Zaengel, Hochspannungstechnik, Springer 1986.

[3] L. Nikoloski et al: The relation between power loss factor and insulation resistance on ineasuring transformers in on site measurement, 1994 IEEE International Symposium on electrical insulation, Pittsburgh, PA USA, P.P. 62-65.
[4] GroRekatthiifer H. D. Der T'rocknungsprocess von papierisolationen und der einfld von restfeuchte auf die electrischen eigenschafren des impre gnierten dielectricums. Diss. Univ. Hannover 1973.

[5] Micafil, Technishe nachrichten: Hinweise zur iibenvachung und w a r t u n g von Leistungstransformatoren, NNN 50/4, Dez.1982. 181