Partial discharge behavior of mineral oil based nanofluids

A previous study showed that both mineral oil based nanofluids with 0.01% silica mass fraction and with 0.1% fullerene mass fraction have a higher AC breakdown strength than mineral oil. Breakdown occurs following discharge initiation and propagation in the oil. The breakdown strength value alone provides little information on the discharge process. Therefore, it is important to investigate the details of the discharge mechanisms in mineral oil and in nanofluids. Hence, this study focuses on the partial discharge (PD) behavior of mineral oil, silica and fullerene nanofluids. The total charge, voltage and pulse shape were recorded with the help of a high bandwidth PD measuring system. The discharge mechanism in mineral oil appeared to depend strongly on the polarity of the applied DC voltage. Under positive DC voltage, the silica and the fullerene nanofluids show increased inception voltage and a reduction of the total discharge magnitude compared to the reference mineral oil. Under negative polarity, inception voltage and discharge magnitude of the nanofluids and the reference mineral oil are virtually the same.