2017 2 nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Engineering Applications (AIEA 2017) ISBN: 978-1-60595-485-1 Influence of Impurity Concentration on Insulation Strength of Insulating Oil under Different Voltage Types CHEN LIANG, HENG WU, YUANLONG LI and LEIFENG HUANG ABSTRACT Converter transformer is the key equipment of high voltage direct current transmission system. The insulating performance of transformer oil is quite sensitive to nonmetallic and metallic particles originating from the process of installation and operation of converter transformers. As to the high electrical field, the particle easily leads to partial discharge and breakdown in transformer oil. This paper construct the AC/DC composite experiment platform. And the breakdown voltages of transformer oil with different carbon particle diameter or concentration level are investigated at AC, DC and combined AC and DC voltage, respectively. The influence of carbon particle diameter, concentration and voltage type on the breakdown strength of insulating oil are obtained. The experimental results showed that the breakdown voltage of insulating oil with carbon particle approximately comply with Waybill distribution. The voltage type has a significant influence on the breakdown voltage of insulating oil. The breakdown voltages are decrease under AC voltage, combined AC and DC voltage and DC voltage. With the diameter and concentration of carbon particle increase, the breakdown voltage of insulating oil will decrease. The analysis result shows that the carbon particle will form carbon particles bridges, and which will affect the breakdown voltage of insulating oil. KEYWORDS Converter transformer, insulating oil, carbon particle, breakdown strength, Waybill distribution, bridge. INTRODUCTION As the key component of HVDC system, converter transformer has been affected by AC/DC composite voltage over a long period of time [1]. During transformer operation process, a lot of solid suspended impurity particles are often produced in the Chen Liang, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China; 516067194@qq.com Heng Wu, China Southern Power Grid, Guangzhou 510663, China;13922706725@163.com Yuanlong Li, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China; 13883957738@163.com Leifeng Huang, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China; 13883957738@163.com 457
insulating oil. These solid suspended impurity particles can be aggregated into the high electric field region due to the interaction of the AC/DC electric fields, resulting in a de-crease in the insulation performance. Compared with AC transformer, the impurity particles will be affected by DC voltage, and there will be a great difference in the movement of impurity particles, which will lead to obvious difference of break-down voltage of insulating oil [2]. Therefore, it is necessary to study the cause of the failure of the transformer oil insulating caused by solid impurity particles under AC/DC voltage. The related research shows that the type and content of solid particulate impurities in insulating oil and the external electric field environment are the key factors that affect the breakdown strength of insulating oil [4]. During the operation of the transformer, over-heating faults, partial discharges and some discharge accidents are inevitable, these accidents will lead to a large number of free carbon particles in insulating oil. When the concentration of carbon particles reaches a certain amount, it will have a significant impact on the breakdown strength of insulating oil. At present, domestic and foreign scholars have done a lot of research on insulating oil metal particles and non-metallic fiber particles, however, there are few studies on carbon particles generated in insulating oil. To sum up, the research of solid particles in insulating oil is mainly focused on AC voltage, and the breakdown characteristics of DC and AC/DC compo-site voltage are lack of relevant research. This paper mainly analyzes the influence of car-bon particles in insulating oil on breakdown strength of insulating oil. In the experiment, the breakdown voltage of insulating oil under different carbon particle concentration and voltage type was measured respectively. And the influence of voltage type and particle concentration on breakdown voltage of insulating oil is analyzed. Combined with Maxwell conductivity equation and impurity bridge theory, the theoretical analysis of the breakdown voltage of insulating oil is theoretically analyzed, o get the action mechanism of carbon particles to insulating oil. EXPERIMENTAL SAMPLES AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS Experimental samples In the experiment, Kara may mineral insulating oil was used as basement, mineral insulating oils with different concentrations of impurities are obtained by adding solids particles. Insulating oil is filtered by a filter membrane with a pore size of 0.8μm. Ensure that the filtered oil samples meet the pure oil standard specified by CIGRE, that is, the amount of impurity particles in oil samples greater than 5 m per 100ml is not more than 300. Experimental equipment In this experiment, the influence of carbon particles on breakdown strength of insulating oil was studied under AC/DC voltage of 1:1. According to the type of experimental voltage, an experimental device for the breakdown of insulating oil as shown in Fig. 1 is constructed. The function generator model used in the experiment is BNC645, and observe the voltage change on the two electrodes of the oil cup by an 458
oscilloscope connected to the resistor divider in real time, and record the breakdown voltage of the insulating oil. signal input BNC 645 Function generator TREK 50/12 High voltage power amplifier High voltage output 400 M Ω Resistance divider 400 k Ω Oil cup Oscilloscope Figure 1. Wiring diagram of insulating oil. Figure 2. The plate-plate test electrode system. Breakdown test system Experimental oil cup reference ASTM D877 standard inspection of the oil breakdown voltage of the electrode structure [14]. The electrode structure is shown in Fig.2, and the electrode system consists of a plate-plate electrode. Experimental method The experimental procedure refers to the experimental standard of ASTM D877 [7], and use continuous boosting method, which is at the compression rate of 2kV / s the breakdown voltage of insulating oil with different impurity concentration is tested under AC, DC and AC / DC of 1:1. In order to obtain sufficient experimental data for statistical analysis to ensure the effectiveness of experimental data, for each impurity concentration sample, 3 sets of samples were tested at each voltage type, and each group tested 6 breakdown voltage, a total of 18 breakdown voltage [8]. Considering the effect of the electric field near the electrode on the dispersion of carbon particles in the insulating oil after each breakdown, after each oil sample breaks down effectively, an electromagnetic mixer is used to stir the oil samples, and power off, waiting for 1-2min to oil recovery uniform state. 459
THE ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Waybill model checking The experimental results are analyzed by using the two parameter Waybill distribution model [9], the expression of the two parameter Waybill distribution model is shown in formula (1), t is the parameter, α is the scale parameter, and β is the shape parameter. F t t 1 e (1) Fig. 3 is a Waybill distribution test of the breakdown voltage of an insulating oil containing carbon particles under AC/DC of 1:1. From the data shown in the figure, in the Waybill probability value, insulation oil breakdown voltage data points are basically distributed in a straight line on the upper and lower sides. Therefore, the breakdown voltage data of insulating oil satisfy the assumed condition of Waybill distribution. That is, it can be considered that the breakdown voltage test data of the insulating oil containing impurities can obey the Waybill distribution. The same experimental results are also observed at AC voltage and DC voltage. Influence of voltage type on breakdown voltage of insulating oil containing carbon particles The experimental data of 18 breakdown voltages under each experimental condition were fitted by Waybill, and the scale parameter α of Waybill is used as the eigenvalue of the breakdown voltage. Fig. 4 shows the breakdown voltage distribution of insulation oil containing carbon particles under AC and DC composite voltages. Figure 3. Waybill probability plot of breakdown voltage of insulating oil contaminated with carbon particles at AC/DC=1. 460
(a) C1 (b)c2 461
(c)c3 Figure 4. The breakdown voltage of insulating oil at three voltage type. According to the data in figure, the breakdown voltage of insulating oil decreases with the increase of carbon content in insulating oil for 3 kinds of carbon particles. It is found, in each concentration of carbon particles, that the breakdown voltage of the insulating oil is the highest under the AC voltage, and the breakdown voltage of the insulating oil is the lowest under the DC voltage, and the insulation oil is in the middle under the AC/DC composite voltage. DISCUSSION Effect of particle concentration on breakdown voltage of insulating oil According to the experimental results in Fig. 4, the effect of carbon particle concentration on the breakdown voltage of insulating oil is obvious. This phenomenon can be explained by the following theory. The carbon particles move under the electric field and gathered in the high electric field. The gathered carbon particles will affect the electric field distribution nearby, resulting in greater electric field distortion. This phenomenon will lead to more prone to discharge in weak insulation part of transformer, even carbon particles will gather to form impurity bridges. With the increase of the concentration of carbon particles in the insulating oil, more carbon particles will converge in the high electric field region under the electric field, these carbon particles converge along the field lines to form Impurity Bridge. The increase of the concentration of carbon particles has promoted the formation of impurity bridges, insulating oil is more likely to form impurities bridge, leading to more prone to partial dis-charge, eventually leading to a drop in the break-down voltage of the insulating oil. The experimental results can also be explained by Maxwell's solid-liquid mixture conductivity equation. The equation for calculating electrical conductivity of insulating oil containing carbon is shown in equation (2) 462
f 1 3 2 / 1 (2) γ and γf are the electrical conductivity of carbon-containing particles and noncarbon-containing insulating oils, respectively; α=γp/γf represents the ratio of the carbon particles to the conductivity of the insulating oil; φ as a percentage of the volume of carbon particles. Because the conductivity of carbon particles is much larger than that of insulating oil, the formula (2) can be simplified into f 13 / 1 (3) The equation (3) shows that the conductivity of the mixed solution of insulating oil and carbon particles increases obviously with the increase of carbon content in the insulating oil, consequently, the breakdown voltage of insulating oil gradually decreases with the increase of particle concentration. Effect of voltage type on breakdown voltage of insulating oil The breakdown voltage of insulating oil containing carbon particles is obviously different from AC voltage, DC voltage and AC / DC composite voltage, it is considered that the influence of voltage type on breakdown voltage of insulating oil containing carbon particles is as follows: When the DC voltage acts, the carbon particles are subjected to an electric field force in the direction of the electrode, the aggregation process of carbon particles in high field areas will become easier. Therefore, with the increase of voltage, the insulating oil under the DC voltage is more prone to breakdown, which is consistent with the experimental results. When the AC voltage acts, the carbon particles will undergo periodic changes of the electric field, in this case, it is difficult to move the carbon particles toward the electrode. Compared with the DC voltage, the time of aggregation of the carbon particles in the high electric field region will increase obviously, and carbon particles are unlikely to form impurity bridges between the electrodes. As a result, the breakdown voltage of the insulating oil containing carbon particles under AC voltage is higher. When AC / DC composite voltage is applied, the phenomenon is between AC voltage and DC voltage. It is found that the DC voltage component in the AC / DC composite voltage will promote the movement of carbon particles toward the electrode, and then form impurity bridge, so the breakdown voltage of insulating oil is lower than that of AC voltage; As the DC component of the AC/DC composite voltage is relatively low compared to the case of pure DC, the formation of impurity bridges is slow, the break-down voltage of insulating oil is higher than that of DC voltage. 463
CONCLUSION During the operation of converter transformer, it is inevitable to be affected by solid particles and impurities. This paper studies the effect of carbon particles on the breakdown strength of insulating oil, and analyze the influence of the concentration of carbon particles and the type of voltage on the breakdown voltage of insulating oil. The conclusions are as follows: (1)Carbon particles have a significant influence on the breakdown voltage of insulating oil. With the increase of the concentration of carbon particles in insulating oil, breakdown voltage of insulating oil gradually decreases; the high concentration of carbon particles enhances the process of forming impurity bridges in the insulating oil, resulting in a reduction in the breakdown voltage of the insulating oil. (2)The voltage type has a great influence on the breakdown voltage of insulating oil containing carbon particles. The breakdown voltage of the insulating oil under the AC/DC composite voltage is between the AC voltage and the DC voltage, this phenomenon shows that impurity particles have a greater harm to the operation of the converter transformer than traditional transformer. Accordingly, the insulation oil maintenance and insulation design of converter transformer should be stricter. REFERENCES 1. Lu W., Ooi B.T. Optimal acquisition and aggregation of offshore wind power by multiterminal voltage-source HVDC [J]. IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, 2002, 18(1): 201-206. 2. Mahmud S., Chen G., Golosnoy I.O., et al. Experimental studies of influence of DC and AC electric fields on bridging in contaminated transformer oil [J]. IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics & Electrical Insulation, 2015, 22(1): 152-160. 3. CIGRE Working Group 17 of Study Committee 12. Effect of particles on transformer dielectric strength [R]. CIGRE, 2000. 4. Wang S.J., Shi J.L., Wang J.C. The Effect of a Macro-Particle on the Partial Discharge Property of Transformer Oil [J]. High Voltage Engineering, 1994. 5. Wang X., Wang Z.D., Noakhes J. Motion of conductive particles and the effect on AC breakdown strengths of esters[c]// International Conference on Dielectric Liquids (ICDL). IEEE, 2011: 1-4. 6. Krins M., Borsi H., Gockenbach E. Influence of carbon particles on the breakdown voltage of transformer oil [C]// International Conference on Conduction and Breakdown in Dielectric Liquids. Roma, Italy: IEEE, 1996: 296-299. 7. Mahmud S., Chen G., Golosnoy I.O., et al. Bridging phenomenon in contaminated transformer oi l[c]// International Conference on Condition Monitoring and Diagnosis. Bali, Indonesia: IEEE, 2012: 180-183. 8. Monitoring the Particle Pollution Degree of 500kV Transformer's Insulation Oil [J]. Transformer, 1999. 9. Lai C D, Xie M. Stochastic ageing and dependence for reliability [M]. Springer Science & Business Media, 2006. 10. Asano K, Choi C, Kamiya M, et al. The behavior of a spherical particle under non-uniform electric field in silicone oil[c]// Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, 2000 Report Conference on. IEEE, 2000: 73-76 vol.1. 11. Birlasekaran S., Darveniza M. Micro-discharges from particles in transformer oil [J]. IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation, 1976, 4(EI-11): 162-163. 12. R. Liao, Y. Lin, P. Guo, et al. The Effects of Insulating Oil Replacement upon Power Transformer Condition Assessment [J]. Electric Power Components & Systems, 2015, 43(17): 1971-1979. 464