TRANSFORMER OIL TERMINOLOGY

MAINTENANCE :

Objective : Maximize system availability to the desired level with a criteria of safety and
economy.

After maintenance, condition should improve.

Judgment.

One should exercise practical approach.

Example of fire and substation operator.

Give clear cut instructions with reasoning part.

Example of D.G. Set oil cup.

Example of wiring piping belting.

Example of Moorty.

Example of Vasai Khadi/Canal.

Routine Maintenance.

B. D. Maintenance

Preventive maintenance/ Planned maintenance/ Scheduled Maintenance/ Time based

Maintenance.

Predictive Maintenance/ Condition based Maintenance.

Corrective Maintenance.

Opportunity Maintenance.

Do not adopt make shift method.

Haste in maintenance is waste in production.

Example of maintenance manager’s excuse.

Secret of good maintenance is perfection and attention to details. If you attend to minor
defects, major breakdowns never arise.

TRANSFORMER OIL TERMINOLOGY:

Improper use of word transformer oil like Dalda Ghee.

Why to know terminology.

Practicing Engineers, jargon of wordings - IS 335

Basic Function of Oil

Engineers’ concern
Controlled temperature - cooling

Three modes of heat transfer.

Insulating oil - about 90% used in transformer - hence named transformer oil.

Insulating property

Should not interfere with any part. Therefore must be completely free from dirt, fibres,
moisture and other solid matter.

Dust, dirt and moisture are enemies of electricity, remove them.

Should be stable against oxidation - working temperature 90 deg. C

Right viscosity and thermal conductivity to be an efficient coolant.

Should not have a tendency to dissolve any matter.

Operating Engineer would perhaps be knowing standard values for these terms but
often wonders what it means in practical life.

Understand significance of terms.

Understand their monitoring method and ageing characteristics.

It should have many properties which cannot be defined in one sentence.

Example of commercial Bania.

Specific gravity of oil is 0.85 to 0.89 at 27 degree C.

FLASH POINT :

By some reason temperature of machine increases upto a point where oil emits
excessive vapour and when mixed with air, ignitable mixture can cause flash on
application of small pilot flame.

Two method for safeguarding machine and oil - controlled temperature and use of oil
which does not emit vapour at that temperature. Value - 145 deg. C minimum.

POUR POINT :

Lowest temperature as a multiple of three deg. C when starts flowing.

At lower temperature oil can freeze hindering formation of conventional current hereby reducing
cooling ability of oil. May block Buchholz Relay operation. Must remain mobile - must have and
retain viscosity. Value - minus 30 deg. C. maximum ( As per latest IS 335 it is minus 6 deg. C).
VISCOSITY :

In absence of cold ambient, the self-resistance of oil restricts its movement - flow time
as low as possible. Measures of this resistance defined as viscosity of oil. Time required
to flow through long capillary. Higher viscosity can slow down movement of moving
parts like C.B. and tap changers of transformers. It should be low. Value - max. 27
centistokes at 27 deg. C.

NEUTRALISATION VALUE :

Also known as Acidity.

Oil derived from crude petroleum can have acids in it, which is detrimental to oil and
reduces to some extend dielectric strength of oil.

Acid not only is responsible for corrosion but can form insoluble sludges which can clog
and hamper to cooling system and hence to neutralize effect of oil. Unit - mg. of KOH
per gram of oil. For new oil - 0.02. (max. value for new oil is 0.05 mg. of KOH/gm. of
oil). For transformer in service, it could be 0.5 Beyond 1.0, it should be discarded.

Filtering oil -- can be reduced by fuller’s Earth process.

CORROSIVE SULPHUR :

Some transformers age faster than others. One of the reasons is excessive corrosion of
metal parts due to presence of sulphur, which might not have eliminated at the time of
manufacture.

Standard recommends freedom from sulphur.

SLUDGE LEVEL AT HIGH TEMPERATURE :

Use of oil at high temperature forms asphaltenes - this compound blankets heat-
generating parts and creates resistance to uniform heat distribution.

Radiator cooling efficiency further increases temperature, which increases deterioration

- cumulative process.

Compound known as sludge.

Process is known as Oxidation.

Resistance to process is Oxidation stability.

Sludge value indicates deterioration rate of oil.

DIELECTRIC STRENGTH :

Moisture present in oil - free, suspended or dissolved affects performance of

transformer.

Dielectric strength of oil is the voltage in KV at which breakdown occurs in

transformer oil.

Test procedures and value (As per IS 6712).

Test procedures and value.

Oil with requisite dielectric strength may not be good enough.

12.7mm to 13.0mm sphere diameter for gap of 4 +/- 0.02mm.

S.C.I should be more than 20 mA. above 15 KV. It is limited to 1 Amp. max.
40 KV for 1 minute.
30 KV for one minute for oil in drum.
It should be increased to 40 KV for one minute before transferring to electrical
equipment.

P.F. (tan delta) and resistivity are of more importance.

POWER FACTOR:

Referred as tan delta OR dielectric dissipation. This gives the exact method of
evaluation of dielectric degradation.

This property responds to improper manufacture of oil and indicates soluble varnishes,
resins and moisture.

P.F is the ratio of power dissipation in oil to VA in oil when subjected to sinusoidal wave.

Measured at 50 Hz. and corrected at 20 deg. C.

Ir/Ic or Vr/Vc is the oil P.F.

Value should be as low as possible to ensure non-presence of moisture, polar

compound or other soluble impurities.

Higher P.F. results in higher heating, corrosion and water - faster rate of oxidation.

This test provides protection against inferior oil - cannot be achieved by measuring
dielectric strength. Values (Range), 0.001 to 0.003 at 90 deg. C, Could be as high as
0.1

For voltages above 145 KV, if it exceeds 0.2 %, oil needs replacement. For voltages
below 145 KV, tan delta can be 1.0%. If it increases, resistivity decreases. Best way is
to compare with previous readings. Deviation should not be more than 20%.

Measuring instruments should be perfect. Example of 650V grade wire for 5 KV megger.

SPECIFIC RESISTANCE:

Also known as Resistivity:

Out of every ten transformers that burn, reasons remain unknown for atleast nine. The
operating engineer can make a guess based on available data derived from post fire
condition. One reason of short circuit - Oil could have started conducting because of
presence of water or perceptible material which reduces resistivity by contaminating oil.

Resistivity is defined as the ratio of D.C. potential per cm. to current density in amperes
per cm. square. Value 700 Gigaohm cms. at 90 deg. C. In service transformer oil can
have value as low as 13 Gigaohm cms. It should not be less than 0.1 Gigaohm cms.

Resistance is temperature dependent.

Example of megger value.

S.K. VALUE :

Manufacturer some times uses conventional acid treatment and sulphuric acid to
produce good quality transformer oil from base stock. S.K. value is therefore increase in
volume of sulphuric acid when a particular test sample is added.

INTERFACIAL TENSION:

Sludge in oil affects the heat transferability of oil, which makes it important to assess the
sludge formation rate in oil.

Oil gets contaminated due to dissolution of varnish etc

The property of oil, which can detect above things, is termed as interfacial Tension.

The force necessary to detach planner ring of platinum wire from the surface of liquid of
higher surface tension that is upward from the water - oil surface.

It is measured in N./mt. (Newton/mt.) OR Dynes/Cms.

Value - New oil - 50
Used oil - 20 If drops below 14, oil should be replaced.

IS 10028 (Transformer Maintenance)

Part I -- Selection
Part II -- Installation
Part III -- Maintenance

TEST FOR CRACKLING (TEST FOR FREE WATER) :

DISSOLVED GAS ANALYSIS:

OIL RECONDITIONING:
STATIC ELECTRIFICATION OF TRANSFORMER OIL:

When insulating oil flows through insulation ducts in power transformers, charge
separation occurs at the interface of paper and oil. As a result the insulating oil and the
surface of the solid materials become charged and dielectric breakdown is possible
within the oil or at the interface of insulating materials. At least dozen field failures of
large forced oil cooled power transformers has been found. These failures were not
attributed to any specific transformer design or type of oil.

Colour of Transformer Oil Oil Quality Class

Pale Yellow Good Oil

Yellow Proposition A Oil
Bright Yellow Marginal Oil
Amber Bad Oil
Brown Very bad Oil
Dark Brown Extremely Bad oil
Black Oil in and disastrous condition

The useful information about the trend of change in the oil (can be known from its colour
and odor).

Cloudiness in oil may be due to suspended moisture or sediments such as iron oxide or
sludge.
 Dark Brown coloured oil may indicate the presence of dissolved asphaltenes.

A Green colour indicates the presence of dissolved copper compounds and a rapid
deterioration of oil may be expected.

Acrid acid smell indicates the presence of volatile acids which can cause corrosion.

The mineral hydrocarbon oil obtained from raw petroleum, degrades through various
processes :

Oxidations

Oxidation process begins when a small quantity of oil combines chemically with the
dissolved oxygen in the oil (from air) resulting the formation of traces of organic acids.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is liberated predominantly during oxidation.

OIL BREAKDOWN:

The direct breakdown of oil by arcing results in cracking of oil. The aeromatic content of
the oil breaks down into simple hydrocarbons gas and hydrogen. Acetylene and
Methane are major constituents. Other hydrocarbon gases may also be liberated due to
cracking.

Permissible concentrations of dissolved gasses.

Gas Less than 4 years in 4-10 Years in More than 10 years in

service (PPM) Service (PPM) service (PPM)

Hydrogen 100-150 200-300 200-300

Methane 50-70 100-150 200-300
Acetylene 20-30 30-50 100-150
Ethylene 100-150 150-200 200-400
Ethane 30-50 100-150 800-1000
Carbon Monoxide 200-300 400-500 600-700
Carbon Dioxide 3000-3500 4000-5000 9000-12000
DIELECTRIC STRENGTH OF OIL

(A)12.7 to 13 mm dia balls

Gap between two balls - 4 mm ± 0.02 mm

12.7 to 13 mm dia

4 mm gap

(B) 13 mm wide 36 mm dia

Gap between two balls - 2.5 mm
13 mm

36 mm dia

2.5 mm gap

Short circuit current should be more than 20 m.a. above 15 kV. It is limited to 1.0 Amp max. In
both the cases, withstand time is one minute.

Oil should withstand

30kV for one minute for oil in drum

40kV for one minute for oil in equipment.

D.S. of oil should be increased to 40 kV for one minute by filtration before transferring to
electrical equipment.

Permitted water content (in PPM) :-

Up to 145 kV > 145 kV

New Oil 20 15
Oil in service 35 25