Fundamental Research on the Application of Nano

Dielectrics to Transformers

Rongsheng Liu, Leif A.A. Pettersson, Tommaso Auletta, Olof Hjortstam

ABB AB, Corporate Research
Västerås Sweden
Rongsheng.liu@se.abb.com

Abstract- Nanotechnologies have potential to be used in experimental works. Selected nanoparticles were added into
transformer industry in enhancing material properties which transformer mineral oil. Breakdown voltage, streamer
may lead to a compact design of transformer and reduced propagation velocity, permittivity, electrical resistivity and
manufacturing cost. In this publication, breakdown physics in dissipation factor were measured and compared. A hypothesis
nanofluids is studied for transformer insulation liquid. Several is proposed, which digs into the causes why the breakdown
types of nanoparticles were selected and added into mineral oil. voltage of transformer oil is increased with the addition of a
Breakdown voltage, streamer propagation velocity, oxidation certain nanoparticles. Furthermore, findings show that the low
stability, permittivity, electrical resistivity and dissipation factor probability values of breakdown of mineral oil can be
were measured and studied. Results show that the dielectric
increased with the addition of some nanoparticles. Certainly,
properties of a modified liquid are strongly influenced by the
type of the nanoparticles added. With the addition of one type of
the study is so far for a purpose of understanding. A few issues
nanoparticles, the breakdown voltage of the liquid is much are still to be explored, such as, sedimentation problems,
increased while the streamer propagation velocity is reduced. oxidation stability, as well as moisture absorption.
With the addition of another type of nanoparticles, the degree of
scatter of breakdown data is improved, and thus the low
probability value of breakdown is increased. The latter will
increase the reliability of the insulation system or saying that
there is a potential to increase the design values of the insulation
system. A charging dynamic model is discussed. A trend has been
seen from this study that nanofluids have potential for being used
in transformer insulation liquid.

I. INTRODUCTION
Mineral oil/cellulose insulation system is very reliable
evidenced by their successful use in transformer industry over
the last 100 years. For the latest development, such a system
has been used in over 1000 kV UHVAC (ultra high voltage
alternating current) and ± 800 kV UHVDC (ultra high voltage
direct current) transformers (Fig. 1). However, with the use of a
mineral oil/cellulose insulation system, the mismatch between
the liquid permittivity (2.2) and the solid one (saying, 3.6~4.5)
has been an issue which might limit the compact design of a
transformer since the liquid was stressed much more than the
solid at ac and/or impulse voltages. On the other hand, the
breakdown strength of the liquid is originally lower than that of
the solid. It was reported that the breakdown strength of
mineral oil can be increased with the addition of magnetite
nanoparticles [1, 2]. However, the fluid is un-transparent, and
the long term oxidation stability is an area which needs to be
further improved. During recent years, other types of
nanoparticles were also introduced. It was reported, such as,
that the breakdown properties of mineral oil were improved by
the addition of TiO2 nanoparticles [3, 4]. It is a common sense
that nano-dielectrics have potential to be used in transformer
industry in enhancing material properties. In this paper,
dielectric properties of nanofluids are studied on the basis of
Fig. 1. An UHVDC 800 kV converter transformer
II. EXPERIMENT
A. Colloidal Fluid Formulation
Commercial mineral oil was used as base fluid. Nanofluids
were formulated with the blend of the mineral oil with selected
nanoparticles of magnetite (Fe3O4), maghemite (Fe2O3), zinc
oxide (ZnO), aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and silicon dioxide
(SiO2), respectively. The average size of the nanoparticles was
in the range of 5 to 20 nm in diameter. Surfactant techniques
were used to form a coated shell on the nanoparticles. The tails
of the surfactant molecules repel one another for ensuring some
distance between the particles in order to prevent them from
agglomeration. The colloidal fluids were processed in vacuum
before test.
B. Oxidation Stability Study
In seeing the ability of the colloidal fluids to withstand
oxidation under thermal stress and in the presence of oxygen

978-1-4577-0986-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

423
and a copper catalyst, oxidation stability test was made on
selected colloidal fluids at the temperature of 120 °C with IEC
61125B as reference.
C. Dielectric Property Experiments
Lightning impulse (LI) breakdown test was performed in a
needle/sphere electrode system based on IEC 60897 (Fig. 2). In
order to avoid any magnetic field influence, the needle
electrode was made of brass. The diameter of the needle was
1.5 mm and the tip radius of the needle was 40 µm. The sphere
electrode was a steel ball with a diameter of 12.7 mm. Step-up
method was used in getting the breakdown voltage value of a
fluid. A procedure of test is as follow: Filled the test cell with
the nanofluid processed. A lightning impulse (1.2/50 µs)
voltage was applied to the needle electrode, while the sphere
electrode was grounded after passing through a current
measurement circuit. An initial voltage of about 50% (or
higher) of expected breakdown voltage was selected. After
applying the initial selected voltage the voltage is increased in
steps until breakdown occurred. One impulse was applied at
each voltage level allowing a minimum of 1 minute between
two successive impulses. A breakdown mean value was
obtained from the average of at least 5 breakdown tests.
Furthermore, an over voltage test was carried out. A voltage
higher than the mean breakdown voltage was selected and
applied to the needle electrode once at one voltage level and
then increased the voltage in steps until a wished over voltage
level was reached, where a streamer fast event was often
observed. Voltage values and the waveforms of breakdown
voltage impulses were recorded from which time to breakdown
and the average streamer propagation velocity was obtained.
Weibull diagram was used for the analysis of the data of
breakdown.
On selected colloidal fluids, dielectric spectroscopy method
was used in measuring the frequency response of permittivity,
electric resistivity and dissipation factor (measurement
equipment used: insulation diagnostics system IDA 200).
Test Cell HV Electrode
(Stainless Steel)
φ15
mm
Brass Needle
Test (Tip: 40 µm)
Liquid
φ44 mm
185 mm
Sphere Electrode
φ22 (Steel: φ12.7 mm)
mm
Stainless Steel
1Ω
Fig. 2. A needle/sphere system for impulse breakdown test
424
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Results of Oxidation Stability Study
Oxidation stability gives general information on the life
expectancy of the fluid tested. Total acidity (oil-soluble acidity
+ volatile acidity) and sludge are collected according to IEC
61125B and related method. Study shows that mineral oil itself
revealed very good oxidation stability, however the oxidation
stability of colloidal fluids was very much influenced by the
nanoparticles and the surfactants used. Table I shows the
experiment results with magnetic nanoparticles as an example.
The induction period (time until start of rapid oxidation, when
the total acidity supposed higher than 0.28 mg KOH/g) was
over 300 hours at 120 °C for mineral oil. For the fluid added
with magnetic nanoparticles, the induction period was about
100 hours with the use of surfactant O. With the use of a
modified formula (surfactant S), the induction period can be
increased to more than 160 hours showing the promising
possibility of the colloidal fluids.
TABLE I. OXIDATION STABILITY SHOWING BY INDUCTION PERIOD
Induction period (hours)
Mineral oil based magnetic fluid
100
with surfactant O
Mineral oil based magnetic fluid
with surfactant S
166
Transformer mineral oil 300
B. Results of Impulse Breakdown Tests
A theory was recently developed in order to explain the
difference observed between the dielectric characteristics of
transformer oil and transformer oil-based nanofluids [2].
According to the theory, the charge relaxation time constant τr
and the charging time constant τpc of conductive nanoparticles,
such as magnetite (τr=7.47×10-14 s, τpc=7.79×10-10 s), in
transformer oil were much faster than the microsecond time
scale involved in streamer development in transformer oil. The
significant dynamics in the electric field and thermal
enhancement in highly electrically stressed nanofluids were
due to field ionization just as in transformer oil. Streamer
propagation was hindered because the charging of low
conductive nanoparticles by electrons in the ionization zone
changed fast electrons into low mobility negatively charged
nanoparticles that modified the electrodynamics in the oil and
slowed the propagation of positive streamers. On the other
hand, [3, 4] reported that the breakdown voltage of transformer
oil can even be improved with the addition of insulative TiO2
nanoparticles. The relaxation time constant of TiO2
nanoparticle is in the order of 77 s, which is extremely long,
implying that more mechanisms of breakdown are expected.
Nanoparticles might act as scattering obstacles and trap sites in
the charge carriers’ paths.
Table II shows the mean breakdown voltage of tested
colloidal fluids. Generally speaking, with the addition of the
nanoparticles, the breakdown voltage at positive polarity held
the level about the same as or even higher than that of the base
oil while at negative polarity the breakdown voltage values
 2.5
have a tendency to decrease. More detail analysis shows that
Al2O3
the type of the nanoparticles as well as their coating chemistry (2.01)
SiO2
(1.85)

will strongly influence the breakdown voltage results. Figs. 3 2.0

Mineral Oil
(1.77)

and 4 show streamer velocity in the different fluids at positive

Streamer Velocity (km/s)

and negative impulse respectively. All the values of the
streamer velocity are within a range between 0.5 km/s and 2.5 1.5

km/s which are classified as the 2nd mode streamer [5]. It is Fe3O4
(0.97)
ZnO
(1.05)

seen that mineral oil revealed streamer velocity of the average 1.0
values of about 1.8 km/s for both polarities. The streamer
velocity values of the nanofluids are generally lower than that
of the mineral oil at negative polarity. However, for positive 0.5
Fluids
polarity, the streamer velocity of nanofluids is lower than that
of mineral oil when conductive nanoparticles (Fe3O4 and ZnO) Fig. 3. Streamer velocity at positive impulse breakdown voltage
were involved but is about the same when insulative
nanoparticles (Al2O3 and SiO2) were involved. Furthermore, 2.5

the degree of data scattering of the nanofluids are generally less

than that of the mineral oil. The above findings have positive Mineral Oil Al O SiO
2.0 2 3

impact on the potential application of nanofluids. In the (1.77) 2

(1.45) (1.38)

Streamer Velocity (km/s)

manufacture of a transformer, it is the low probability value of ZnO
(1.31)

breakdown that is of importance for being a design criterion. A 1.5

Fe O
3 4

trend has been seen from this study that the low probability (1.01)

value of breakdown of transformer mineral oil can be improved

1.0
with the addition of certain nanoparticles. Figs. 5 and 6 show
breakdown voltage and streamer velocity of mineral oil in
comparison with formula modified nanofluids. 30 breakdown 0.5
Fluids
points were made at positive impulse for each type of the
fluids. The mean breakdown voltage value of the mineral oil is
Fig. 4. Streamer velocity at negative impulse breakdown voltage
between the two nanofluids. The nanofluid T has a mean
breakdown voltage value of 136.46 kV which is over 30%
0.99
higher than that (103.74 kV) of the mineral oil although the
0.90
mean breakdown voltage value of the nanofluid W is about the
0.63
same as that of the mineral oil. On the other hand, the 0.50
Weibull Probability Distribution

experiment does show that the low probability values (0.1% 0.30
and lower) of breakdown of the both nanofluids are higher than Mineral Oil Nanofluid T
that of the mineral oil. The mean value of the average streamer 0.10
Positive LI Standard
velocity of the mineral oil is 1.90 km/s, which is higher than Mean (KV) deviation (kV)

those of the nanofluids (1.02 km/s and 1.21 km/s for the Mineral Oil
Nanofluid W
103.74
99.23
17.23
5.28
Nanofluid W

nanofluids W and T respectively, Fig. 6). Nanofluid T 136.46 33.0

0.01

TABLE II. MEAN BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE IN NEEDLE/SPHERE

GEOMETRY WITH AN ELECTRODE GAP DISTANCE OF 25 MM
0.001
Positive Negative 10 100
(kV) (kV) Breakdown Voltage (kV)

Transformr mineral oil +98.77 -156.56

Fig. 5. Weibull distribution of positive LI breakdown voltage
With addition of 2 Gauss Fe3O4 +112.53 -127.9
2.5
Positive LI Standard
With addition of Al2O3 of Mean (km/s) deviation (km/s)
+87.3 -136.16 Mineral Oil 1.90 0.16
0.1425% by volume Nanofluid W 1.02 0.15
Nanofluid T 1.21 0.13
With addition of ZnO of 2.0
+95.46 -102.67
0.0475% by volume
Streamer Velocity (km/s)

With addition of SiO2 of 0.04%

+90.11 -156.42 1.5
by volume Mineral Oil

1.0

Nanofluid T

0.5
Nanofluid W

0.0
Fluids

Fig. 6. Streamer velocity at positive impulse breakdown voltage

425
C. Results of Overvoltage Acceleration Test 25

From breakdown physics point of view, the 3rd and 4th

modes of streamers that are dangerous may result in electrical 20

Streamer Velocity (km/s)

breakdown. The 3rd (with a propagation velocity of 10~30 2 Gauss Ferrofluid

km/s) and 4th mode (with a velocity of about 100 km/s) 15

streamers are commonly called fast streamers or streamer fast
event. Although theoretical works have been carried out in
explaining the breakdown phenomena in nanofluids, much 10

more efforts are needed in getting a better understanding as Breakdown Voltage

Mineral Oil

well as the improvement of results [2, 3]. Fig. 7 shows an 5

of Mineral Oil

overvoltage acceleration test and compares the streamer

propagation velocity of mineral oil with mineral oil-based
0
ferrofluid (filled with Fe3O4 nanoparticles). The breakdown
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
voltage of the ferrofluid is higher than that of the mineral oil. Breakdown Voltage
LI Voltage (kV)
The average streamer velocity of the ferrofluid is in the order of the Ferrofluid

of 1 km/s which is almost 50% lower than that of 2 km/s of the

Fig. 7. Dependence of streamer velocity on positive impulse voltage
mineral oil at the breakdown voltage. It is evident that it is the
lower streamer propagation velocity of the ferrofluid that is the 25
main cause which lifted the breakdown voltage. However, with
the increase of the application voltage, a cross point was 2 Gauss Ferrofluid

Average Streamer Velocity (km/s)

discovered, which shows that the transition voltage to fast 20

event in the ferrofluid is lower than that in the mineral oil. With
voltage being increased to higher than 1.5 times of the 15
breakdown voltage, the streamers in the ferrofluid are
transferred from the 2rd mode to the 3rd mode streamers, while
for the mineral oil the transition comes at a voltage higher than 10
3.5 times of its breakdown voltage (Fig. 8). Further theoretical Breakdown of Mineral Oil
development is needed in order to explore better the cross-point Mineral Oil
5
phenomenon as well as the fast event results.

D. Results from Dielectric Response Measurements 0

There are more areas of interest to be focused regarding the 0.5 1.0
Breakdown of
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

study of the application of nano dielectrics to transformers. Ratio of Application Voltage to Breakdown Voltage
the Ferrofluid
Dielectric response measurements show that the permittivity,
electric resistivity and dissipation factor of nanofluids could be Fig. 8. Dependence of streamer velocity on ratio of positive impulse voltage
greatly affected with the addition of nanoparticles. Figs. 9, 10 to breakdown voltage
and 11 show the dielectric spectra over a frequency between 1000
0.001 Hz and 1000 Hz for mineral oil and a mineral oil-based
nanofluid. At the power frequency of 50 Hz, permittivity of the
Real Part of Complex Permittivity: ε'

Nanofluid Z (100 °C)

mineral oil and the nanofluids is about the same. However,
with the decrease of frequency, the permittivity value of the Nanofluid Z (25 °C)
nanofluid increases further in comparison with the mineral oil 100

showing that additional polarization mechanism exists for the

nanofluid (Fig. 9). For the resistivity spectrum, the resistivity
values of the nanofluid are generally lower than those of the
mineral oil at both room temperature and the elevated 10
temperature up to 100 °C (Fig. 10). It appears that charge
Mineral Oil
carriers and their mobility made more contributions to the (90 °C)
conduction processes in nanofluid than in the mineral oil. With
the consideration that there are more charge polarization and Mineral Oil (20 °C)
conduction processes in the nanofluid than in the base mineral 1
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
oil, it might be understandable that the dissipation factor of the Frequency (Hz)
nanofluid is higher than that of the base oil over all of the
measured frequency (Fig. 11).
Fig. 9. Permittivity of fluids over frequency

426
 1014 the base oil. At positive impulse, streamer propagation velocity
Mineral Oil (20 °C) of nanofluids is lower than that of the mineral oil with the
1013 addition of conductive nanoparticles of Fe3O4 and ZnO, and is
about the same as the base oil with the addition of insulative
1012 nanoparticles of SiO2 and Al2O3. For the negative impulse, the
Resistivity (Ω•m)

Mineral Oil (90 °C) breakdown voltage of nanofluids is lower than that of the base
1011 fluid with the addition of the conductive nanoparticles while
Nanofluid Z (25 °C) the impact is less with the addition of the insulative
1010 nanoparticles. Streamer propagation velocity of nanofluids is
generally lower than that of the base oil.
109

Nanofluid Z (100 °C)

With the addition of conductive Fe3O4 nanoparticles into
108 mineral oil, a cross-point on streamer mode transition was
found in comparison with the base oil. With increasing the
107 application voltage to higher than about 1.5 times of the mean
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 breakdown voltage, streamer propagation velocity in the
Frequency (Hz)
nanofluid was observed to have transferred from 2nd mode
streamer with a velocity of about 1 km/s to 3rd mode streamer
Fig. 10. Electric resistivity of fluids over frequency
with a velocity of about 20 km/s. For mineral oil, the transition
1000 came at about 3.5 times of the mean breakdown voltage, which
is a much higher voltage than the transition voltage in the
100 Nanofluid Z (100 °C) nanofluid. Efforts are needed in creating further breakdown
theory as well as experiment work in order to understand and
10 improve the dielectric properties of nanodielectrics which is a
Dissipation Factor

pretty new area of research.

1 Nanofluid Z (25 °C)

Mineral Oil REFERENCES

0.1 (90 °C)
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0.001
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IV. CONCLUSIONS
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Potential exists for the application of nanodielectrics to “Preparation and breakdown strength of TiO2 fluids based on
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lightning impulse voltage. Degree of breakdown data scattering
can be reduced. The low probability values (lower than 0.1%)
of breakdown of modified fluids can be higher than those of

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