Characterization of Electrical Stress of Natural Ester
Under Impulse Empirical Analysis
Muhammad Ameerul Ikmal Ahmad Mohd Taufiq Ishak
Taufek, Nur Darina Ahmad1, Siti Faculty of Engineering
Solehah Md Ramli, Nurul Huda Ishak National Defence University of
Faculty of Electrical Engineering Malaysia
Universiti Teknologi MARA Cawangan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Pulau Pinang mtaufiq@upnm.edu.my
Penang, Malaysia
1nurdarina9183@uitm.edu.my
Abstract— Transformer is an important component in
power system. Lightning impulse will cause an overvoltage that
will damage the transformer. Hence, transformer need an
insulation that can protect it and withstand lightning impulse.
Mineral oil (MO) was the most commonly used oil as liquid
insulation. Although MO provide an excellent performance in
transformer, it still gives bad impact due to it low flash point,
fire point and not biodegradable. Virgin coconut oil (VCO)
offer a great potential for replacing MO as an insulating in
transformer due to it high flash point, high fire point and
biodegradable. This project presents the examination of
breakdown voltage of both oil at both polarity, with and
without copper particle, and at thermal aging and before
thermal aging. Test conducted under uniform field sphere-
sphere with lightning impulse voltage. Breakdown test were
conducted according to ASTM 3300 standard for lightning
impulse by using rising method. For thermal aging process, oil
sample being heated at 100 °C for 100 hours. BDV for negative
polarity was higher compared with positive polarity. Influence
of thermal aging and void contamination shows that there was
reduction in BDV of oil sample. Result shows that, although
BDV for VCO under all condition is lower compared with MO,
but it is still comparable and acceptable.
Keywords— Impulse voltage test, virgin coconut oil, mineral
oil, particle, thermal aging
I. INTRODUCTION
Transformer oi one of the most important equipment in
electrical power system. Ehen the transformer is damage,
they will be many problems arise from it. For instances
companies will lost some of it profit from energy that being
supply to its customer and the companies also need to pay
the repairing cost of the transformer. Basically, causes for
transformer damage is mostly by overvoltage when it being
subjected to lightning impulse [1].
There were several important materials that use as
insulation to protect the power transformer for example
pressboard, oil and paper [2]. Oil in transformer act as lie a
cooling agent, electrical insulation and information carrier
[3-4]. Currently, mineral oil (MO) is oil that being used in
the transformer for insulation and it being used for many
years already. This because MO has many benefits for
example good cooling performance, price for MO is low,
good performance for long period and other [5]. MO
performance is good as insulation in transformer but it still
gave bad effect towards the environment because it is not
biodegradable and also will run out one day since it non-
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE
Nor Asiah Muhamad
School of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering
University of Science Malaysia
Penang, Malaysia
norasiah.m@usm.my
renewable source. Therefore, to find the solution for this
problem, studies on vegetable oil (VO) has being carried out
as an alternative to replace MO.
VO is a renewable resource because it come from natural
resources. VO is more environmental friendliness due to its
properties that biodegradable and high fire point. Most of
studies use coconut oil (CO) to compare it performance with
MO. CO can be obtain by extracting of mature coconut
kernel. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is different from CO and
the different is on how it being extracted or produced.
Usually, coconut oil is refined coconut oil that undergone the
process of refined, bleach and deodorized (RBD), while
virgin coconut oil (VCO) is from most natural processing
which no artificial filtering or expeller used [5]. Studies that
been carried out to study the performance of VCO as oil
insulation in the transformer under lightning impulse is still
lacking.
Transformer is always in condition where its temperature
is high and unconditionally will lead to thermal aging of the
oil insulation after some period. Thermal aging can affect the
lifetime of transformer. For most of the time, transformer
breakdown is causes by overheated that come from overload
of an operation, dielectric heating, oxidation process that will
lead in rust, high temperature and others. Mostly thermal
aging of oil insulation happens due to high temperature of
transformer. This condition will cause transformer lifetime
become shorter and reduces the performance for transformer
insulation [6]. Aging of oil and paper in transformer
indirectly will produce moisture, particles and others [7].
Mostly, breakdown voltage (BDV) of oil insulation that
occur in transformer is affected by particle like cellulose and
copper.
According to M. Hussain slide [8]. Lightning is one of
the natural phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere. When
there are two cloud that have opposite charge which positive
and negative charge are strike which each other, it will
produce a lightning. Other than that, lightning also can occur
when object on earth have a connection with negative cloud.
Impulse is defined as unidirectional voltage that rise quickly
until it reaches a peak value and after that it decrease slowly
to zero. Commonly impulse voltage was used to test the
breakdown of high voltage due to lightning. Insulation is an
important component in the transformer because failure in
insulation will lead to failure in transformer also. Therefore,
impulse test need to be conducted to test the ability of
transformer to withstand the lightning impulse.
 Polarity (negative and positive) can affect the
breakdown voltage of transformer oil. At non-uniform field
with needle-sphere test. The breakdown voltage was found to
be 50% higher for negative polarity than a positive polarity
at short breakdown times. Electrons are generated in the
liquid and attracted to positive point of electrode and the
conducting channel are formed as result of ionization. While
negative space charge is formed in front of the needle,
reducing the field gradient and impending the injection
further electrons, meaning that higher applied voltage are
required to cause breakdown [9]. Usually there an obvious
polarity effect, where negative polarity have a higher
breakdown voltage compare to positive polarity [10]. By
referring ASTM D3300, this concept was mostly used in
non-uniform field, so there has very little or no effect on the
breakdown strength of an oil in uniform field due to it
symmetrical configuration. However, by comparing two
uniform field test that being conducted by N. I. A. Katim, M.
T. Ishak and etc, where one by using positive impulse while
another one used negative impulse [3-4]. There are some
different in breakdown voltage result for the insulation oil.
Breakdown voltage at negative impulse are higher for both
oil, while at positive impulse breakdown voltage are lower
[2-3].
During the operational phase transformer, high
temperature and oxidation will make the transformer oil
undergo degradation. Due to aging in insulating oil, physical
and electrical properties of the oil will be effected. Lifetime
of the oil insulation also will effected [11]. Aging of
insulation oil has being discussed in “Analysis of Physical
and Electrical Characteristic Transformer Oil Insulation
During Accelerated Thermal Aging Experiment and Its
Lifetime Estimation Using Arrhenius Law and Breakdown
Voltage Test” paper [6]. In this paper, the accelerated
thermal aging of transformer oil was conducted by increasing
the temperature at different time. Transformer oil are heated
at 100°C for 168 hours, 115°C for 95 hours and 125°C for 48
hours. To accelerate the oxidation process of thermal aging,
copper wire that acts as catalyst are added into the oil
sample. Result for physical characteristic of transformer oil
during accelerated thermal aging are analysed based on its
changes of colour. Higher level of thermal aging will result
in changes of colour to darker proportionally with time,
while the electrical characteristic is determined by
breakdown voltage test and it show that there was some
decrease in breakdown voltage.
(a) (b)
(c)
Fig. 1. a) Naphthene chain structure; b) Aromatic chain structure;
Since c)
1891 crude
Paraffins oilstructure
chain has been [6].used for transformer oil
as
insulation oil. Compose of a little sulphur and hydrocarbons
produce crude oil. Based on hydrocarbon chain, crude oil
main compound can divide into three group which is
paraffin, naphthene and aromatic. Fig. 1 shows naphthene,
CnH2, has a circle bond structure that consist of 14 carbon
atoms with 3 circle and 6 carbon atoms. Fig. 3 shows
paraffin, CnH2(n+2), can be category as saturated
hydrocarbon fraction with low boiling point. Aromatic can
divide into 2 group that each contain 6 carbon atoms as
shown in Fig. 2. 2 groups is mono-aromatic and poly-
aromatic. Hydrocarbon fraction of aromatic is the most
dangerous because it has a high boiling point and easily
dissolved in the seawater [6].
Meanwhile, according to “Physicochemical properties of
virgin coconut oil extracted from different processing
methods” journal [12]. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) can be
obtained by extracting fresh and mature kernel of coconut
meat. VCO can extracted either with use of heat or without
heat, it does not lead to alteration of oil. There are several
methods to produce VCO where it divided into two which is
wet and dry. In dry method, moisture in the coconut
meat/kernel was removed by heating it in under some
conditions. Meanwhile, the kernel was not under goes drying
process in wet method. In dry method, oil was obtained by
drying the kernel under controlled heating and subsequently
pressed mechanically. Wet method can be divided into
chilling and thawing, enzymatic and fermentation.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Sample Preparation
1) Filtering
(a)
(b)
Fig. 2. (a) Samples of virgin coconut oil, (b) mineral oil
Fig. 2 represents sample that used in the experiment are
virgin coconut oil (VCO) and mineral oil (MO). Both sample
are obtained by buying it at the oil company. Both sample
need to undergo filtering process by using filter paper with
0.2 µm for it pore size. Next, the filtered samples were dried
in oven for two days at 85 ºC. Then, sample were rested for C. Test Method
24 hours at room temperature before test for impulse.

B. Thermal Aging with Copper

Thermal aging of an oil sample was conducted by
referring ASTM 1934 standard. There were two different
method used to prepare thermal aging for both samples. First
method pure MO and VCO were undergo thermal aging
without adding any impurities or contamination in the oil
sample. Second method both oil sample were added copper
wire with length of 20 cm as a contamination. After that,
place the container in the oven and heat the oil at temperature
100 ºC for 100 hours. Both type of oil sample undergoes this
(a) (b)
process for thermal aging. Hence, after the oil sample finish
the aging process, colour of the oil was observed.

(c)

Fig. 3: Heating oil sample in the oven.

Fig. 3 shows that oil sample in the container are placed

in the oven and then heated at temperature 100 °C at 100
hours for thermal aging.

(d)

Fig. 5. (a) Cylindrical test cell that filled with sample, (b) Experiment
setup, (c) Online monitoring system, (d) Test configuration for lightning
impulse [3]

Fig. 5 illustrates a circuit configuration for lightning

(a) (b)
Fig. 4. (a) Virgin coconut oil after aging, (b) Mineral oil after aging
Fig. 4 shows the thermal aging result of both oil sample
after taking it from the oven. VCO show not much changes
in it physical appearance compare to MO. Meanwhile, MO
show the colour changes from colourless to yellowish.
Colour for oil sample that have copper particle was a little
bit darker than pure oil sample.
impulse breakdown in quasi uniform field that follow
ASTM D3300. A cylindrical test cell with a 600 ml volume
is manufactured according to standard. Sphere-sphere
electrodes configuration with a gap distance of 3.8 mm is
used. The diameter of the sphere electrodes is 12.7 mm. The
breakdown voltage of VCO and MO are investigated using
negative and positive polarity of 1.2/50 µs lightning
impulse. A 8-stages CDYL-800kV/40kJ impulse generator
with a maximum voltage of 800 kV is used to deliver the
standard lightning impulse (1.2/50 µs). To limit the current
of breakdown arc, protect oil samples and electrodes,
current limit resistor 2.4 kΩ were added in the circuit.
Rising voltage method is used to determine the breakdown
voltage of sample.
 III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 6. Breakdown voltage for samples free from particle
Fig. 6 shows the result for BDV of MO and VCO that
has been tested before exposed to the thermal stress. The
sample also been examined in positive and negative
polarity. Overall, the reading for both polarity are quite
closed for MO but for VCO the negative polarity result drop
a little bit. Besides, for all samples thermal stress decreased
the BDV performance.
Fig. 7. Breakdown voltage of samples with particle
Fig. 7 represents the outcomes from samples that aging
together with copper. Three parameters have been included
in this experiment which is polarity, types of oil and thermal
aging. Mineral oil has a good BDV performance in both
polarity and same goes to the effect of thermal aging. Even
VCO result are quite lower from MO, it is still comparable
with MO result and standard.
Result shows that there not much effect of polarity in
BDV of both oil sample. Although result for negative
polarity show a higher BDV compare with positive polarity,
the different is not much and acceptable. Therefore, polarity
do not give much effect on BDV of oil insulation under
lightning impulse. Other than that, sample that has undergo
thermal aging process give a result where it BDV was lower
for all sample. Sample with particle and without particle
show a reduction of BDV when undergo thermal aging
process. This show that thermal aging process will reduces
the BDV of oil insulation in transformer.
IV. CONCLUSION
Breakdown voltage for VCO in lightning impulse is
slightly lower if compared with MO in all condition.
VCO performance was reasonably good because the
difference of BDV when comparing with MO is below
15 kV for all testing condition. Although the result for
VCO is slightly lower when comparing with MO, but its
still acceptable to apply it as oil insulation in transformer.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors like to express the gratitude to Universiti
Pertahanan Malaysia (UPNM) for providing equipment to
conduct the experiment and also to Universiti Teknologi
MARA Cawangan Pulau Pinang (UiTM) for the research
material and conducting an experiment.
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