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is the vacuum permittivity [10, 11].
Because mineral oil is a non-polar dielectric, the term
dependent on the imaginary part of the complex susceptibility
becomes negligible, and consequently the polarization losses
are negligible compared to the conduction losses. Therefore, it
can be said that practically the entire amount of losses
developed inside the mineral oil exists because of the
conduction phenomena [12]. From this point of view, the
electrical conductivity is an important diagnostic factor for the
assessment of mineral oil condition.
In the studies [13-17], the power transformers insulation
systems condition using dc conductivity is analyzed. In this
paper, a study concerning ac and dc conductivity of mineral
oil samples contaminated with water, acids and gases is
presented. At the end, a correlation between ac and dc
conductivity is also shown.
2 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTION OF LIQUIDS
The electrical conduction of a dielectric liquid is due to the
movement of the positive and/or negative ions (which appear
as a result of impurities dissociation), ionized liquid molecules
and free electrons. Moreover, the solid particles in suspension
can also participate to the conduction phenomenon [18]. The
dissociation phenomenon of the impurities depends on both
physico-chemical structure of the liquid and liquid permittivity
value. The dissociation constant K
d
can be characterized by
the equation [18]:
(
=
+
+
) (
ln exp
-
-
0 0
r r kT
q q
C K K
r
d
(2)
where K
0
and C
0
represent material constants, q
+
, q
-
, r
+
, r
-
are
the charges and the radius of the formed ions, T is the
temperature and
r
is the relative permittivity of the liquid, and
k is the Boltzmann constant [18]. The increase of T and
r
favors the dissociation process of the impurities, which
implies the increase of charge carriers concentration.
The electrical conductivity of a liquid that contains n
species of charge carriers can be determined with the equation:
=
=
n
j
j j j
M q N
1
(3)
where N
j
, q
j
and M
j
are the concentration, the electrical charge
and, respectively, the mobility of j type charge carriers [18].
The mobility of a charge carrier M
j
can be expressed by:
T
D k
M
j j
j
=
(4)
) / exp( T B A D
j j j
=
(5)
where D
j
is the diffusion coefficient, A
j
, B
j
and K
j
are constants
which characterize the charge carrier of type j [19-21].
If a dc voltage is applied between two electrodes submerged
into the liquid, an absorption current i
a
(t) appears (Figure 1),
which has four components:
) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( t i t i t i t i t i
c ss p i a
+ + + =
(6)
where i
i
(t) is the capacitor charge component, i
p
(t) is the
polarization component, i
ss
(t) is the space charge component
and i
c
(t) is the steady-state conduction component [22].
Figure 1.General form of time variation of absorption i
a
(t) and resorption i
r
(t)
currents.
1546 L. V. Badicu et al.: Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition Based on dc and ac Conductivity
If the capacitor is short-circuited at t = t
c
, a resorption
current i
r
(t) can be measured, which has three components
(equation (7)).
) ( ) ( ) ( ) (
'
t i t i t i t i
ss dp d r
+ + =
(7)
where i
d
(t) is the capacitor discharge component, i
dp
(t) is the
depolarization component and i
ss
(9)
where d is the distance between the electrodes, A is the
electrodes area and I
c
is the conduction current.
Generally, i
p
(t) i
dp
(t), i
ss
(t) i
ss
=
0
) ( ) (
) (
(10)
and it has two components [25]:
) ( ) (
0
t t
v dc
+ =
(11)
where
0
is the steady-state component of dc conductivity and
corresponds to the conduction current I
c
, while
v
(t) is the time
variable component of dc conductivity (which becomes zero
for a long measurement time t) corresponding to the i
p
(t) and
i
ss
(t) currents.
Assuming that the time for the voltage application T
c
is
sufficiently long, so that f(t + T
c
) 0, the dielectric response
function of the liquid f(t) might be calculated, like in case of
the solid dielectrics, based on the resorption current i
r
(t)
[23]:
0 0
) (
) (
U C
t i
t f
r
~
(12)
function which, in the case of mineral oil, can be
approximated by:
c t a t f
b
+ = ) (
(13)
where a, b, c are coefficients resulted from (12).
The function f(t) allows the calculation of some diagnostic
factors with regard to the frequency domain, respectively, the
components of the complex relative permittivity
r
,
r
and the
loss factor tg:
}
+
+ =
0
'
) cos( ) ( 1 ) ( dt t t f
r
(14)
}
+
+ =
0 0
0 ' '
) sin( ) (
) ( dt t t f
r
(15)
'
' '
tg
r
r
=
(16)
Currently, there are no experimental set-ups, which permit
to separate the electric conduction phenomena losses from the
electric polarization losses. For this reason, the term L
1
=
0
/
0
was added in equation (15) [11]. Thus, the first term
L
1
from equation (15) is related to the conduction losses while
the second term L
2
is related to the polarization losses.
The components of complex conductivity ( ' o , " o ) can be
calculated based on the components of complex relative
permittivity [24-25]:
) ( ) (
) ( ) (
'
0
' '
' '
0
'
e = e
e = e
r
r
(17)
It must be noted that due to the non-polar character of the
mineral oil, the real part of the complex relative permittivity
do
not offer relevant information with respect to the degradation
state of the oil [26].
As dc conductivity
dc
(t), the ac conductivity
() has two
components [25]:
) ( ) (
' '
0
'
v
+ = (18)
where
0
dc
(t) for mineral oil samples with constant acidity
number(TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g oil) and different water and
dissolved gases concentration (C, E, G, H samples) and for
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
5x10
-11
5
4
1
2
3
D
C
c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)
Figure 6. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for C(1), E(2), G (3),
H(4) and I(5) samples (T = 25 C, U
0
= 200 V).
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
5x10
-11
2
3
5
1
4
D
C
c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)
Figure 7. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for C(1), E(2), G (3),
H(4) and I(5) samples (T = 90 C, U
0
= 200 V).
mineral oil samples from a transformer taken out of service
after 25 years (I samples).
If the samples have the acidity number TAN 0.03 mg
KOH/g oil, the water concentration has no significant
influence on the electrical conductivity (Figure 2). In case of
TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g oil, the conductivity is influenced by
the increased water content, even at ambient temperature
(Figures 6 and 7 - C, E, G samples). The combined action of
water and acid influences the value of the dc conductivity at
room temperature, but especially at 90 C. The main cause of
this phenomenon is, probably, the increase of H
+
ions, due to
acid molecules dissociation in the presence of water [7].
The conductivity
dc
(t) has been significantly increased
after the contamination of G samples with hydrogen and
acetylene (resulting the H samples). The values for the gases
contents were chosen close to the critical ones imposed by the
IEEE C57.104 in view to cause significant changes,
respectively c
h
= 2500 ppm and c
a
= 100 ppm.
For a realistic evaluation, the electrical conductivities of the
artificially aged samples (by controlled contamination with
water, acids and gases) were compared with the electrical
conductivity of the oil samples aged during transformer
operation (I samples, Figures 6 and 7). It can be seen that, for
the samples I, the quantity
dc
(t) takes very high values, even
though it has a water concentration lower than samples G and
H and its acidity number is lower than the admissible limits
imposed by IEC 62021. These differences may be due to the
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 19, No. 5; October 2012 1549
high concentration of charge carriers and solid particles found
in suspension in oil, which, together with the dissociation of
the oil and impurities molecules lead to a high conductivity
value of the samples I, especially at 90
o
C.
Figures 8 10 present the variation curves of ac
conductivity (
, both at 25
o
C (Figure 8) and at
90
0(25)
(for T = 25
o
C)
and
0(90)
(for T = 90
o
C) are obtained.
It can be seen that the ac conductivity takes important
values for higher temperatures.
10
-3
10
-1
10
1
10
3
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
1x10
-9
5 4 3 2 1
A
C
c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
(
S
/
m
)
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 8. Frequency variation of the real part of complex conductivity for the
samples C(1), E(2), G(3), H(4) and I(5) at T = 25
o
C.
10
-3
10
-1
10
1
10
3
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
1x10
-9
2 3 4 5 1
A
C
c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
(
S
/
m
)
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 9. Frequency variation of the real part of complex conductivity for the
samples C(1), E(2), G(3), H(4) and I(5) at T = 90 C.
10
-3
10
-1
10
1
10
3
10
-11
1x10
-10
1x10
-9
2
1
o
0
'
(90)
o
0
'
(25)
A
C
c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y
(
S
/
m
)
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 10. Frequency variation curves of ac conductivity at T = 25 C (1) and
T = 90 C (2) for samples I (c
w
= 22 ppm, TAN = 0.16 mg KOH/g).
Table 2 shows the values of steady-state components of dc
(
0
) and ac conductivities (
0
), at 25 C and 90 C, for
samples I. It can be noticed that, for f = 1 mHz, the differences
between the values of
0
and
0
are relative small, regardless
the temperature values.
Consequently, at low frequencies,
(f0)
0
dc
(t ) =
0
, respectively:
) ( lim
'
0
0
f
f
o = o
(19)
Table 2. The values of steady-state components of dc (
0
) and ac (
0
)
conductivity.
Temperature (C)
0
(pS/m)
0
(1 mHz)(pS/m)
25 (C) 18.6 19.6
90 (C) 48.8 53.6
4.4 LOSSES EVALUATION BASED ON DC
CONDUCTIVITY
Keeping in mind that the ac conductivity
depends on
r
(equation (17)) and that, at small frequencies
(f) tends to
0
(equation (19)), it results that, for small frequencies (e.g. 10
-3
Hz), the imaginary part of complex relative permittivity
' '
rsf
can be calculated using the steady-state component of dc
conductivity
0
[27]:
0
0 ' '
=
rsf
(20)
Table 3 presents the values of
' '
rsf
at frequency of 1 mHz,
obtained by direct measurement on one hand, and
calculation(using equation (20)), on the other hand. It can be
noticed that the calculated quantity
' '
rsf
takes different values
than its measured values.
The main cause of these differences is due to the fact that,
at frequency of 1 mHz, the
0
0
value.
1550 L. V. Badicu et al.: Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition Based on dc and ac Conductivity
Table 3. The measured and calculated values of quantity
' '
rsf
Samples A B C D E F G H I
' '
rsf
measured (1 mHz, 25 C)
5.1 19.5 25.4 11.6 58.0 14.3 67.3 178.2 288.1
' '
rsf
calculated (1 mHz, 25 C)
3.5 18.4 36.8 11.8 64.9 9.4 77.4 314.2 257.4
' '
rsf
measured (1 mHz, 90 C)
33.6 104.6 189.9 85.1 239.2 176.6 384.1 625.3 950.1
' '
rsf
calculated (1 mHz, 90 C)
41.6 118.2 209.6 98.2 263.3 194.1 368.8 502.0 877.1
For frequencies lower than 1 mHz, probably
0
0
, and the
differences between calculated
' '
rsf
and measured
' '
rsf
are smaller.
The dielectric response functions f(t) were calculated based
on the resorption currents (equation (12)) for the samples A and
I at ambient temperature. The time variation curves of these
functions have been fitted using equation (13). The coefficients
of the above equation are presented in Table 4.
Using equation (15), the values of the imaginary part of
complex relative permittivity were calculated, for frequency of
1 mHz. According to this relation, the contribution of the
conduction and polarization losses to the total dielectric losses
(reflected by
' '
rsf
) in oil can be determined. Table 5 presents the
values of the imaginary part of relative permittivity
' '
rsf
, of the
term related to dielectric losses due to conduction phenomena
(L
1
=
0
/
0
, equation (15)) and the term related to dielectric
losses due to the polarization phenomena (L
2
=
}
+
0
) sin( ) ( dt t t f
,
equation (15)), at ambient temperature of 25
o
C. Thus, it can be
said that the term related to dielectric losses due to the electrical
polarization phenomena is negligible comparing to the term
related to dielectric losses due to the conduction phenomena. It
results that, for the evaluation of the dielectric losses in mineral
oil and for its condition assessment it is necessary to know
the steady-state component of dc conductivity
0
, which might
be an important diagnostic factor to assess the mineral oil
condition from power transformers.
Table 4. Function coefficients f(t).
Samples A (T = 25 C) Samples I (T = 25 C)
a 0.008374 0.002113
b -1.513 -0.5214
c 0.0000534 0.0001101
Table 5. Losses contribution by conduction (L
1
) and polarization (L
2
) to the
total losses reflected by
' '
rsf
Samples A (T = 25 C) Samples I (T = 25 C)
"
rsf
c
3.5 250
L
1
3.42 249.05
L
2
0.08 0.95
5 CONCLUSIONS
At ambient temperature, the steady-state component of dc
conductivity
0
is not strongly influenced by water content,
when the oil acidity number takes low values. The water
influence becomes important when the acidity number and the
concentration of oil gases take high values. Moreover, the oil
samples aged in service shows high values of
0
electrical
conductivity because of the high number of contaminants.
The condition of mineral oil might also be evaluated using the
ac conductivity, but at low frequency, the steady-state component
of ac conductivity
0