11' xeedings of the 5thInternational Conference on

Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials

M a y 25-30,1997, Seoul, Korea

03P15

Thermal Aging Behavior of

the Oil-impregnated Paper at I60 "C
Zheng Dianchun Lu Baomin yuan Li* Zheng Dianwang**
*Harbin Univ. of Sci. Techn. Harbin 150040 P.R.C
* * JiaMusi Univ. of Eng.Techn. P.R.C

ABSTRACT: The load change of locomotive

transformer used in the electric rail road is not
smooth and regular. Its overload coefficient is also
changeable,sometimes might be either zero or up to
3.0. The situation could cause the partial
temperature rising in the transformer, extremely,
the temperature, in short time, can be higher than
140 C , even might reach 160 C . It brings about

the thermal aging of oil-impregnated paper at 160 "C is

introduced, including the experiment approach , data
some useful results and curves.
treating method

new problems to the insulation of the transformer.

Despite of having enough experience standard in
the IEC which has been admitting, yet the thermal
aging behavior of higher than 140 SC about oilimpregnated paper has not substantial experiment
law to be abided by the designer and manufacturer.
In this paper, some information is published about
thermal aging characteristic of the oil-impregnated
paper at 160 "C.

mechanics and so on. The power transformer in its

service is undergone the thermal aging. Meanwhile,
because of some active metals existing, which is like
catalysis, the aging is accelerated, the chemical
reaction is simultaneously happened, then the large
molecule chain of the paper fibre is split and the degree
of the ploymerization is declined, companying with the
discomposition of paper fibres, some harmful gasses
are emitted into the oil, thus, impured oil is also
impregnated the paper fibres, it is aggravated the aging
procedure,till the insulating structure is brokendown.
Another hand, overloading , incorrecting
connection , system failure and so on, they might
cause the partial over-heat. The sludge, which is split
particle of the oil, could
product of fibre molecules

1. Introduction
The researching work about insulating behavior of
the oil-impregnated paper has gained lots of useful
results upto now, but it is not completely enough to
design insulating structure of high voltage apparatus.
Just in case, the electrical equipment operating
temperature rises higher than 140 "C or even 160 C ,
although the situation is occationally appeared, it might
cause some terribly troubles.
Therefore, it is essential to study the characteristic of
the insulating materials at 160 "C . At present,
however, there is not enough basical theory and
experiment results to demonstrate the behavior of the
oil-impregnated paper at the situation, both IEC
standard and some country criterions only have a few
expressions about that. In this article, the behavior of

2. Thermal Aging Mechanism

The aging about oil-impregnated paper is related to
many factors.For example, the temperature rise of the
apparatus operation
the moisture of the paper
fibre , partial discharge and viberation of the

be desposited on the winding surface, the oil viscosity

is increased, it can also resist heat smoothly send out
through the oil. So the thermal aging of the oilimpregnated paper, specially higher than 140 C , is
important, should be taken the matter seriously.

3. Experiment Approach
To get the behavior of the thermal aging about oilimpregnated paper, the experiment should be suitable
for near real operating condition of the high voltage
apparatus. In this test, the oven is employed to simulate

0-7803-2651-2 0 1997 IEEE

256

the hot-point temperature of the transformer windings.

The thermal aging of the oil-impregnated paper could
be shown as follows:
a. declined ratio of the mechanical strength;
b. decreased average degree of the polymerization;
The end-point criterion of the experiment means that
insulating function of the oil-impregnated paper has
been lost, the phenomenon might be obviously shown
under the experiment. Generally speaking,as average
degree of polymerization is declined to 200, it is
thought that the mechanical strength of the insulating
material has been dropped to the zero. In this time, the
insulating material is not used. Before the experiment,
the specimens which are peeled off from the
tnansformer windings are pre-treated according to the
transformer manufacture technology and IEC standard,
vacuum dehydration and vacuum immersed oil, and the
specimens are put into the experiment container which
is sealed to prevent container's oil from gushing out,
then these test containers are put into the oven. There
are six containers, each contains 12 specimens, a
specimen is 15cm long. Both the test standard and
aging period are referred to the public of the IEC611.
In the light of predetermined experiment period,
regularly fetching container from test oven, after being
taken from the container, the specimen's strength is
measured and gotten their mean values, furthermore,
these specimens are ground into paper pulp, then
measure their degrees of polymerization. So can the
mechanical strength and degree of polymerization be
gained from the experiment specimens which undergo
different thermal periods and finally could get the law
which both mechanical strength and degree of
polymerization relate to the thermal aging time at 160
"C .

y=IgN,
x=t,
then regression equation:
y=a+bx
(1)
where, N-degree of polymerization,
t-aging time,
a , b-constant of the regression equation.
According to the experiment data, could get:
a=2.807,
b=-0.00 15
thus
(2)

y=2.807-0.0015~
and the relatad coefficient:
F-0.999

from(2),if degree of polymerization N is 200, which is

taken as the end-point criterion, then, the lost efficacy
time t of the specimen is 332h, the curve which relates
N to the t is drawn as fig. 1. q;qiIiarly, the curve which
is shown relationship between mechanical strength and
aging time could be also given as fig.2.

2.3-

222.1 2

7XlOOqh)

fig. 1 Relation of degree of polymerization

4.Results and Discusion

Original value of oil-impregnated paper should be
gotten by a suitable way before experiment. Through
careful measurement, the original degree of
polymerization, N is 1226 and the mechanical strength
P is 74.4 MPa, which are mean values. After thermal
aging experiment, many data are gotten, then some
abnormal ones are cut out by the Grubbs Distribution,
and using the regression analysis, suppose:

to aging time

That specimen value before experiment is compared

with its experimented value is significant. It is said that
the remaining percentage of the mechanical strength
definited as:
e = ~ mx 100% (3)
where, A-strength after thermal aging;
B-strength before thermal aging.
Therefore, the 8 is also used to judge the specimens

257

aging level, as usua1,when 8 is 15 - 20%, it is

thought that specimen has lost its insulating function.
Compared mechanical strength with degree of

'-1

1.8-

1.7- A
1.6-

5.

;;;
1.5-

1.1 -

1-

0.9 I

3x100t@I;

fig.2. Relation of mechanical strength

to the aging time.

p4

3
fig.3

' 7 S'x1"7

Relation of mechanical strength

to the degree of polymerization

polymerization, the P-N curve is given as fig .3, under

95% degree of confidence, the regression equation:
(4)
P=29.8+0. ION

258

related coefficient:
~0.987
confidence region :
2S=4.9MPa
From above all, declination of mechanical strength is
corresponded with the decreasing of degree of
polymerization, the P demonstrates specimens
macrostructure and the N is reflectionof the
specimen's microcosmic. The equation (4)shows the
relatonship between P and N at 160 "C.

Conclusion

Formulae (2). (3). and (4) precisely describe the

thermal aging behavior of the oil-impregnated paper at
160 C , these results are very important and valuable.
For the locomotive transformer, as it possesses large
over-load coefficient, its winding temperature of the
hot-point is often upto 160 C , the higher the partial
temperature of windings, the faster the insulating aging.
Therefore, these results not only make up the blank at
this temperature value, but also might help someone to
design the locomotive transformer as well as other high
voltage apparatus. Above-mentioned results are only
preliminary achievements and other researching works
are being continued.

Reference
[ 1 3 T.W.Dakin "eletrical insulation deterioration
treated as a chemical rate phenomenon,"AIEE Trans,
V01.67. pp. 113-112, 1948
[ 2 1 W.A. Summer, G.M. stein and A.M. Lockie,
"Life expectancy of oil-immersed insulation
structures,"AIEE Trans. Vol. 72, pp. 924-930,Oct.
1953.
[ 3 1 T.W.Starr and H.S. Endicott, "progressive stress
A new accelerated approach to voltage endurance,
"IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst. Vol. 80, pp. 515-522,
Aug. 1961.
[ 4

[ 5

IEC pub. 61 1

Lucian0 simoni "A new approach to the

voltage-end vlage endurence test on electrical

insulation," IEEE Trans. vol. EI-8, N0.3, Sept.1973.