Influence of aging on oil degradation and gassing tendency for mineral oil and synthetic ester under low energy discharge electrical faults

The intent of this work is to understand the influence of low energy discharge electric faults in mineral oil and synthetic esters on liquid degradation and gassing tendency at different aging conditions (based on acidity values). A low energy discharge electric fault has been created by continuous discharge of 9 kV for five hours on the liquid surface using a suitable laboratory setup. Liquid degradation is reported by adopting UV spectroscopy, turbidity, and particle counter measurements. The gassing tendency is understood by dissolved gas analysis using Duval’s triangle and Duval’s pentagon methods for mineral oil and non-mineral oils accordingly. It is observed that the influence of low energy discharges on liquid degradation is higher in mineral oils than synthetic esters. The fault gasses in mineral oil are involved with electrical and thermal faults accompanied by stray gassing whereas only partial discharge activity is noticed for synthetic esters. Importantly, the existence of low energy discharge faults like corona discharges will involve a generation of excess high molecular weight products as compared to low molecular weight products that are soluble in liquid volume