1544 L. V. Badicu et al.

: Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition Based on dc and ac Conductivity

1070-9878/12/$25.00 2012 IEEE
Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition
Based on dc and ac Conductivity

L. V. Badicu, B. Gorgan, L. M. Dumitran and P. V. Notingher
University Politehnica of Bucharest
313 SplaiulIndependentei Street
Bucharest, 060042, Romania

ABSTRACT
Due to the increase of electrical energy consumption, the power transformers are loaded
beyond nameplate rating. The degradation of their insulation systems is intensified and the
dielectric properties are worsened. Therefore, the interest of asset managers, regarding the
condition of their transformers is a very important topic. Electrical conductivity is strongly
influenced by the high operating temperatures and catalysis products (water, gases, acids)
that appear as a result of oil and paper degradation reactions during transformer operation.
The present paper is focused on an experimental study regarding the influence of water,
acids and gases (hydrogen, acetylene, ethylene, methane etc.) resulted from degradation
processes on electrical conduction phenomena of mineral oil. For that, the frequency/time
variation curves of ac/dc conductivity for different concentrations of water, acids and gases
are drawn. Finally, the correlation between ac and dc conductivity and the possibility to
assess the ageing state of the mineral oil based on these quantities are analyzed.
Index Terms Mineral oil, conduction phenomena, electrical conductivity, dielectric
response function.

1 INTRODUCTION
POWER transformers are one of the most important parts
of equipment from the electrical grid, due to their operational
role, on one hand (step-down or step-up transformer), and to
financial reasons, on the other hand [1-4]. The operating
transformers are subjected to thermal, electrical, mechanical
and environmental stresses, which especially affect their
insulation systems, leading to their failure and further to
transformer failure.
Premature shut-down of a transformer produces important
losses to both manufacturers and electrical consumers.
The effective maintenance strategies must allow lowering
the operations that are not necessary, as well as finding the
optimal moment in time for the transformer to be taken out of
service in a controlled way. The maintenance plans are
established based on the results of monitoring diagnostic
factors, which are related to power transformers condition.
The diagnostic factors are chemical, electrical, mechanical,
thermal etc. Nowadays, condition monitoring and diagnosis of
transformers are based more and more on the electrical
properties of their insulation systems, which play an important
role in terms of life expectancy of these assets [5-6]. Mineral
oils used in transformers are stable only at lower temperatures,
their stability being determined by the energy of C-C, C-H
simple or double links. At higher temperatures, these links are
split in a series of compounds based on carbon and hydrogen.
Thus, the decomposition may be the source of new
hydrocarbons (CH
4
, CH
2
, C
2
H
6
, C
2
H
4
) as well as of other
secondary products, namely acids, CO, H
2
and even water.
Moreover, the resulting products from the depolymerisation
process of the paper (CO, CO
2
, H
2
O, H
2
, CH
4
) also accelerate
the degradation reactions of the mineral oil.
The secondary products resulted from oil and paper
degradation water, gases, and acids influence the ageing
processes of mineral oils, by creating direct chemical links
(oxidation) with their molecules. The oil oxidation reaction
starts with the formation of hydro-peroxides, from which
result oxides and ketones. Next, carboxylic acids and other
soluble or insoluble substances are formed and have a negative
effect on the oils properties. The kinetic of oxidation reaction
depends on the chemical structure of oil, on the oxidation
conditions (temperature, pressure, contact surface with air)
and on the presence of oxidation promoting or inhibiting
substances [7-8].
The oil oxidation favors the creation of acids, which, on
one hand, are dissociated in water increasing the H
+
ions
concentration and, on the other hand, increasing the
water absorption capacity of the oil. That is the reason
why water solubility in oil is higher in the case of
degraded oils. Water can be found in oil, depending on its
concentration, in three forms: dissolved water (creates
physical links with oil molecules), linked water (creates
chemical links with oil molecules) and free water. Water
solubility in mineral oil depends on temperature, but also
on the concentration of aromatic hydrocarbons and polar Manuscript received on 13 January 2012, in final form 1 June 2012.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 19, No. 5; October 2012 1545
molecules (controlled concentrations through refining
process) etc. [9].
According to IEC standards (60076-7), the insulation
systems degradation process is an irreversible chain of
reactions, under the action of several stress factors. The most
important stress factors affecting the mineral oil condition are
the temperature, moisture, oxygen (and acids, which appear
after the degradation reactions inception of paper and oil). The
stress factors activity can be assessed by electric diagnostic
factors (electrical conductivity, loss factor,
absorption/resorption currents, partial discharge etc), and
chemical diagnostic factors (gases concentration, number of
solid particles, total acidity number TAN).
In the present paper, the electrical conductivity is used in
order to assess the mineral oil condition and to evaluate the
ageing state. According to IEC 60422:2005 the limit values (at
20 C) of electrical conductivity are 250 pS/m for power
transformers with a nominal system voltage below 170 kV and
50 pS/m for power transformers with a nominal system
voltage above 170 kV. The reason why the electrical
conductivity of mineral oil was chosen as a diagnostic factor is
explained below.
It is known that, for the paper-oil insulation, the parameter
which reflects the dielectric losses contains two terms, a term
proportional with the imaginary part of complex susceptibility

(parameter which evaluates the polarization losses) and a

term based on the steady-state conductivity of the insulation
system
0
(parameter which evaluates the conduction losses):

/ ) ( ) (
0 0
' ' ' '
+ =
r

(1)

where = 2f is the angular frequency of the electric field and

0
is the vacuum permittivity [10, 11].
Because mineral oil is a non-polar dielectric, the term
dependent on the imaginary part of the complex susceptibility
becomes negligible, and consequently the polarization losses
are negligible compared to the conduction losses. Therefore, it
can be said that practically the entire amount of losses
developed inside the mineral oil exists because of the
conduction phenomena [12]. From this point of view, the
electrical conductivity is an important diagnostic factor for the
assessment of mineral oil condition.
In the studies [13-17], the power transformers insulation
systems condition using dc conductivity is analyzed. In this
paper, a study concerning ac and dc conductivity of mineral
oil samples contaminated with water, acids and gases is
presented. At the end, a correlation between ac and dc
conductivity is also shown.

2 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTION OF LIQUIDS
The electrical conduction of a dielectric liquid is due to the
movement of the positive and/or negative ions (which appear
as a result of impurities dissociation), ionized liquid molecules
and free electrons. Moreover, the solid particles in suspension
can also participate to the conduction phenomenon [18]. The
dissociation phenomenon of the impurities depends on both
physico-chemical structure of the liquid and liquid permittivity
value. The dissociation constant K
d
can be characterized by
the equation [18]:

(

=
+
+
) (
ln exp
-
-
0 0
r r kT
q q
C K K
r
d

(2)

where K
0
and C
0
represent material constants, q
+
, q
-
, r
+
, r
-
are
the charges and the radius of the formed ions, T is the
temperature and
r
is the relative permittivity of the liquid, and
k is the Boltzmann constant [18]. The increase of T and
r

favors the dissociation process of the impurities, which
implies the increase of charge carriers concentration.
The electrical conductivity of a liquid that contains n
species of charge carriers can be determined with the equation:

=
=
n
j
j j j
M q N
1

(3)

where N
j
, q
j
and M
j
are the concentration, the electrical charge
and, respectively, the mobility of j type charge carriers [18].
The mobility of a charge carrier M
j
can be expressed by:

T
D k
M
j j
j

=

(4)

) / exp( T B A D
j j j
=

(5)

where D
j
is the diffusion coefficient, A
j
, B
j
and K
j
are constants
which characterize the charge carrier of type j [19-21].
If a dc voltage is applied between two electrodes submerged
into the liquid, an absorption current i
a
(t) appears (Figure 1),
which has four components:

) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( t i t i t i t i t i
c ss p i a
+ + + =
(6)

where i
i
(t) is the capacitor charge component, i
p
(t) is the
polarization component, i
ss
(t) is the space charge component
and i
c
(t) is the steady-state conduction component [22].


Figure 1.General form of time variation of absorption i
a
(t) and resorption i
r
(t)
currents.
1546 L. V. Badicu et al.: Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition Based on dc and ac Conductivity
If the capacitor is short-circuited at t = t
c
, a resorption
current i
r
(t) can be measured, which has three components
(equation (7)).

) ( ) ( ) ( ) (
'
t i t i t i t i
ss dp d r
+ + =

(7)

where i
d
(t) is the capacitor discharge component, i
dp
(t) is the
depolarization component and i
ss

(t) is the space charge

component.
If i
i
(t) = i
d
(t), i
p
(t) = i
dp
(t) and i
ss
(t) = i
ss

(t), the conduction

current i
c
(t) can be written:

c r a c
I t i t i t i = = ) ( ) ( ) (

(8)

and the dc conductivity
dc
can be calculated with the
equation:

A
d
U
I
c
dc
=
0

(9)

where d is the distance between the electrodes, A is the
electrodes area and I
c
is the conduction current.
Generally, i
p
(t) i
dp
(t), i
ss
(t) i
ss

(t) and the dc conductivity

is:

A
d
U
t i t i
t
r a
dc

=
0
) ( ) (
) (

(10)

and it has two components [25]:

) ( ) (
0
t t
v dc
+ =

(11)

where
0
is the steady-state component of dc conductivity and
corresponds to the conduction current I
c
, while
v
(t) is the time
variable component of dc conductivity (which becomes zero
for a long measurement time t) corresponding to the i
p
(t) and
i
ss
(t) currents.
Assuming that the time for the voltage application T
c
is
sufficiently long, so that f(t + T
c
) 0, the dielectric response
function of the liquid f(t) might be calculated, like in case of
the solid dielectrics, based on the resorption current i
r
(t)
[23]:

0 0
) (
) (
U C
t i
t f
r
~

(12)

function which, in the case of mineral oil, can be
approximated by:

c t a t f
b
+ = ) (
(13)

where a, b, c are coefficients resulted from (12).
The function f(t) allows the calculation of some diagnostic
factors with regard to the frequency domain, respectively, the
components of the complex relative permittivity
r

,
r

and the
loss factor tg:

}
+
+ =
0
'
) cos( ) ( 1 ) ( dt t t f
r


(14)
}
+
+ =
0 0
0 ' '
) sin( ) (

) ( dt t t f
r

(15)

'
' '

tg
r
r
=

(16)
Currently, there are no experimental set-ups, which permit
to separate the electric conduction phenomena losses from the
electric polarization losses. For this reason, the term L
1

=
0
/
0
was added in equation (15) [11]. Thus, the first term
L
1
from equation (15) is related to the conduction losses while
the second term L
2
is related to the polarization losses.
The components of complex conductivity ( ' o , " o ) can be
calculated based on the components of complex relative
permittivity [24-25]:

) ( ) (
) ( ) (
'
0
' '
' '
0
'
e = e
e = e
r
r
(17)

It must be noted that due to the non-polar character of the
mineral oil, the real part of the complex relative permittivity

and the imaginary part of the complex conductivity

do
not offer relevant information with respect to the degradation
state of the oil [26].
As dc conductivity
dc
(t), the ac conductivity

() has two
components [25]:

) ( ) (
' '
0
'
v
+ = (18)

where
0

is the steady-state component (independent on

frequency), while
) (
'
e o
v
is the component dependent on the
electric field frequency.

3 EXPERIMENTS AND SAMPLES
The experiments were carried out using mineral oil samples
with 8 ppm initial water content. The samples were subjected
to a degassing treatment and contaminated with different
gases, water and naphthenic acid. In order to examine the
reproducibility of the results, each measurement has been
performed on three identical samples.
The characteristics of the used mineral oil samples are
presented in Table 1. The samples AH have been prepared
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 19, No. 5; October 2012 1547
in the laboratory, while the samples I were taken out from a
transformer with the rated power of 400 kVA which was in
service for 25 years. In order to obtain oil samples with an
acidity number of TAN = 0.19 mg KOH/g oil, a volume of
125 l naphthenic acid was added to a volume of 170 ml
mineral oil, while for a TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g oil, a volume
of 375 l was added to the same oil volume (170 ml).
For determining the ac and dc conductivities, the Dirana
monitoring system was used [27]. Time domain experiments
have involved absorption and resorption currents
measurements applying a dc voltage (U
0
= 200 V) for 3600 s.
With respect to frequency domain spectroscopy, the time
variable applied voltage was U = 100 V peak. The frequency
took values between (1 mHz and 1 kHz).
The experiments were done at ambient temperature (25 C)
and at 90 C (1 C), according to standards IEC 60247 and
IEC 61620. A climatic chamber has been used in order to
ensure the permanent control of the environmental humidity.
The samples water content was determined by Karl Fischer
method (coulometric titration) and the acidity number was
determined with Methrom - 702 SM Titrino titrator according
to [28].
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 WATER CONTENT INFLUENCE

Figures 2 and 3 present the variations of the dc conductivity
(equation (10)), for mineral oil samples, A, D and F, as a
function of measurement time at the two temperatures (25 and
90
o
C). At T = 25
o
C, the electrical dc conductivity of oil is not
significantly influenced by the increase of water content (Figure
2). For these concentration values (like samples A, D and F),
water is completely dissolved in oil (the molecules of the two
mediums being connected through the hydrogen molecules) and
no longer has the initial physical properties [29].
In Figure 2, for t< 200 s, the lowering tendency of
conductivity with water content can be noticed. For such a
short period, the dissolved water molecules might block the
charge carriers migration under the electric field action,
leading to a temporary decrease of conductivity for samples
with higher water concentration.
On the other hand, for t< 40 s the dc conductivity curves
slightly increase over the measuring time (Figure 2). An
explanation might be that the amount of added water increases
the oil relative permittivity and consequently the dissociation
phenomenon leading to the increase of charge carriers
concentration.
For t > 40 s the dc conductivity curves decrease due to
neutralization and recombination phenomena of charge
carriers.

Figure 2. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for oil samples with
different water contents c
w
: 1 c
w
= 8 ppm (A); 2 c
w
= 20 ppm (D);
3 c
w
= 30 ppm (F) (TAN = 0.03 mg KOH/g, T = 25 C, U
0
= 200 V).

1 10 100 1000
1x10
-11
5x10
-11
5x10
-12
1 2
3
D
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y


(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)

Figure 3. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for oil samples with
different moisture contents c
w
: 1 c
w
= 8 ppm (A); 2 c
w
= 20 ppm (D);
3 c
w
= 30 ppm (F) (TAN = 0.03 mg KOH/g, T = 90 C, U
0
= 200 V).

The conductivity increases with the increase of the
temperature (Figure 3) due to the intensification of the
dissociation phenomena (equation (2)) and to the growing of
the charge carriers mobility.

4.2 CARBOXYLIC ACIDS INFLUENCE
Due to oil degradation, important quantities of acids
(formic, naphthenic, acetic etc.) - quantified by the total
acidity number TAN [28] can appear.
Figures 4 and 5 present the time variation curves of the dc
conductivity
dc
(t) at T = 25
o
C and T = 90 C, for the samples
A, B and C. It can be seen that the dc conductivity
dc
(t)
increases with TAN number regardless the measurement
temperature.

Table 1. Oil samples characteristics.
Samples A B C D E F G H I
Water content c
w
(ppm) 25 C 8 8 8 20 20 30 30 30 22
Acidity number TAN (mg KOH/g oil) < 0.03 0.19 0.57 < 0.03 0.58 < 0.03 0.57 0.57 0.16
Hydrogen content c
h
(ppm) - - - - - - - 2500 -
Acetylene content c
a
(ppm) - - - - - - - 100 -
1548 L. V. Badicu et al.: Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition Based on dc and ac Conductivity
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
1x10
-13
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
1
3
2
D
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)

Figure 4. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for oil samples with
different acidity numbers TAN: 1 TAN < 0.03 mg KOH/g (A);
2 TAN = 0.19 mg KOH/g (B); 3 TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g (C) (c
w
= 8 ppm,
T = 25 C, U
0
= 200 V).

10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
1x10
-11
5x10
-11
5x10
-12
2
3
1
D
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y


(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)

Figure 5. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for oil samples with
different acidity numbers TAN: 1 TAN < 0.03 mg KOH/g (A);
2 TAN = 0.19 mg KOH/g (B); 3 TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g (C) (c
w
= 8 ppm,
T = 90 C, U
0
= 200 V).

Moreover, the conductivity increase is more important for
TAN values close to the maximum admissible limit (0.5 mg
KOH/g oil according to IEC 62021). One of the reasons why
the dc conductivity
dc
(t) increases with the acidity number
might be the high volume of acid (in comparison with water,
for instance) which must be added to get a desired value of
TAN. The samples C(0.57 mgKOH/g oil) was obtained
combining 170 ml mineral oil and 0.375 ml naphthenic acid,
which means, an acid concentration value around 2200 ppm in
the tested oil. At 90 C the dc conductivity takes also higher
values for higher values of TAN. In this case, the increase of
conductivity is more obvious when TAN is close to its limit
value, as well (according to IEC 62021).

4.3 THE SIMULTANEOUS INFLUENCE OF WATER,
ACIDS AND GASES
During transformer operation, the stress factors act
simultaneously and the resulted degradation process is
strongly influenced by the temperature. For this reason, it is
important to know the electrical conductivity evolution under
the simultaneous action of water, acid and gases. Figures 6
and 7 show the time variation curves of the dc conductivity

dc
(t) for mineral oil samples with constant acidity
number(TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g oil) and different water and
dissolved gases concentration (C, E, G, H samples) and for
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
5x10
-11
5
4
1
2
3
D
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)

Figure 6. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for C(1), E(2), G (3),
H(4) and I(5) samples (T = 25 C, U
0
= 200 V).

10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
5x10
-11
2
3
5
1
4
D
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
Time (s)

Figure 7. Time variation curves of the dc conductivity for C(1), E(2), G (3),
H(4) and I(5) samples (T = 90 C, U
0
= 200 V).

mineral oil samples from a transformer taken out of service
after 25 years (I samples).
If the samples have the acidity number TAN 0.03 mg
KOH/g oil, the water concentration has no significant
influence on the electrical conductivity (Figure 2). In case of
TAN = 0.57 mg KOH/g oil, the conductivity is influenced by
the increased water content, even at ambient temperature
(Figures 6 and 7 - C, E, G samples). The combined action of
water and acid influences the value of the dc conductivity at
room temperature, but especially at 90 C. The main cause of
this phenomenon is, probably, the increase of H
+
ions, due to
acid molecules dissociation in the presence of water [7].
The conductivity
dc
(t) has been significantly increased
after the contamination of G samples with hydrogen and
acetylene (resulting the H samples). The values for the gases
contents were chosen close to the critical ones imposed by the
IEEE C57.104 in view to cause significant changes,
respectively c
h
= 2500 ppm and c
a
= 100 ppm.
For a realistic evaluation, the electrical conductivities of the
artificially aged samples (by controlled contamination with
water, acids and gases) were compared with the electrical
conductivity of the oil samples aged during transformer
operation (I samples, Figures 6 and 7). It can be seen that, for
the samples I, the quantity
dc
(t) takes very high values, even
though it has a water concentration lower than samples G and
H and its acidity number is lower than the admissible limits
imposed by IEC 62021. These differences may be due to the
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 19, No. 5; October 2012 1549
high concentration of charge carriers and solid particles found
in suspension in oil, which, together with the dissociation of
the oil and impurities molecules lead to a high conductivity
value of the samples I, especially at 90
o
C.
Figures 8 10 present the variation curves of ac
conductivity (

) with the frequency of the electric field for the

samples C, E, G, H and I. It can be seen that, for a high acidity
number (0.57 mg KOH/g oil), the increased water content
(from 8 ppm for samples C to 30 ppm for samples H) leads to
the increase of the quantity

, both at 25
o
C (Figure 8) and at
90

C (Figure 9). The growing tendency is much more obvious

at low frequencies of the electric field and at 90
o
C. This
increase is due to the increase of contaminants concentration
and the intensification of the dissociation phenomenon
catalyzed by the naphthenic acid.
Figure 10 shows frequency variation curves of the ac
conductivity

() (equation (17)) at 25 C and 90 C for

samples I. By extending the curves until the intersection with
the vertical axis, the steady-state values

0(25)
(for T = 25
o
C)
and

0(90)
(for T = 90
o
C) are obtained.
It can be seen that the ac conductivity takes important
values for higher temperatures.

10
-3
10
-1
10
1
10
3
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
1x10
-9
5 4 3 2 1
A
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 8. Frequency variation of the real part of complex conductivity for the
samples C(1), E(2), G(3), H(4) and I(5) at T = 25
o
C.

10
-3
10
-1
10
1
10
3
1x10
-12
1x10
-11
1x10
-10
1x10
-9
2 3 4 5 1
A
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 9. Frequency variation of the real part of complex conductivity for the
samples C(1), E(2), G(3), H(4) and I(5) at T = 90 C.
10
-3
10
-1
10
1
10
3
10
-11
1x10
-10
1x10
-9
2
1
o
0
'
(90)
o
0
'
(25)
A
C

c
o
n
d
u
c
t
i
v
i
t
y

(
S
/
m
)
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 10. Frequency variation curves of ac conductivity at T = 25 C (1) and
T = 90 C (2) for samples I (c
w
= 22 ppm, TAN = 0.16 mg KOH/g).

Table 2 shows the values of steady-state components of dc
(
0
) and ac conductivities (
0

), at 25 C and 90 C, for
samples I. It can be noticed that, for f = 1 mHz, the differences
between the values of
0

and
0
are relative small, regardless
the temperature values.
Consequently, at low frequencies,

(f0)
0

dc

(t ) =
0
, respectively:

) ( lim
'
0
0
f
f
o = o


(19)

Table 2. The values of steady-state components of dc (
0
) and ac (
0

)
conductivity.
Temperature (C)
0
(pS/m)
0

(1 mHz)(pS/m)
25 (C) 18.6 19.6
90 (C) 48.8 53.6

4.4 LOSSES EVALUATION BASED ON DC
CONDUCTIVITY
Keeping in mind that the ac conductivity

depends on
r

(equation (17)) and that, at small frequencies

(f) tends to
0

(equation (19)), it results that, for small frequencies (e.g. 10
-3

Hz), the imaginary part of complex relative permittivity
' '

rsf

can be calculated using the steady-state component of dc
conductivity
0
[27]:

0
0 ' '

=
rsf

(20)

Table 3 presents the values of
' '

rsf
at frequency of 1 mHz,
obtained by direct measurement on one hand, and
calculation(using equation (20)), on the other hand. It can be
noticed that the calculated quantity
' '

rsf
takes different values
than its measured values.
The main cause of these differences is due to the fact that,
at frequency of 1 mHz, the
0

value is slightly different from

0
value.
1550 L. V. Badicu et al.: Assessment of Transformer Mineral Oil Condition Based on dc and ac Conductivity
Table 3. The measured and calculated values of quantity
' '

rsf

Samples A B C D E F G H I
' '

rsf
measured (1 mHz, 25 C)
5.1 19.5 25.4 11.6 58.0 14.3 67.3 178.2 288.1
' '

rsf
calculated (1 mHz, 25 C)
3.5 18.4 36.8 11.8 64.9 9.4 77.4 314.2 257.4
' '

rsf
measured (1 mHz, 90 C)
33.6 104.6 189.9 85.1 239.2 176.6 384.1 625.3 950.1
' '

rsf
calculated (1 mHz, 90 C)
41.6 118.2 209.6 98.2 263.3 194.1 368.8 502.0 877.1

For frequencies lower than 1 mHz, probably
0

0
, and the
differences between calculated
' '

rsf
and measured
' '

rsf
are smaller.
The dielectric response functions f(t) were calculated based
on the resorption currents (equation (12)) for the samples A and
I at ambient temperature. The time variation curves of these
functions have been fitted using equation (13). The coefficients
of the above equation are presented in Table 4.
Using equation (15), the values of the imaginary part of
complex relative permittivity were calculated, for frequency of
1 mHz. According to this relation, the contribution of the
conduction and polarization losses to the total dielectric losses
(reflected by
' '

rsf
) in oil can be determined. Table 5 presents the
values of the imaginary part of relative permittivity
' '

rsf
, of the
term related to dielectric losses due to conduction phenomena
(L
1
=
0
/
0
, equation (15)) and the term related to dielectric
losses due to the polarization phenomena (L
2
=
}
+

0
) sin( ) ( dt t t f
,
equation (15)), at ambient temperature of 25
o
C. Thus, it can be
said that the term related to dielectric losses due to the electrical
polarization phenomena is negligible comparing to the term
related to dielectric losses due to the conduction phenomena. It
results that, for the evaluation of the dielectric losses in mineral
oil and for its condition assessment it is necessary to know
the steady-state component of dc conductivity
0
, which might
be an important diagnostic factor to assess the mineral oil
condition from power transformers.
Table 4. Function coefficients f(t).
Samples A (T = 25 C) Samples I (T = 25 C)
a 0.008374 0.002113
b -1.513 -0.5214
c 0.0000534 0.0001101

Table 5. Losses contribution by conduction (L
1
) and polarization (L
2
) to the
total losses reflected by
' '

rsf

Samples A (T = 25 C) Samples I (T = 25 C)
"
rsf
c

3.5 250
L
1
3.42 249.05
L
2
0.08 0.95
5 CONCLUSIONS
At ambient temperature, the steady-state component of dc
conductivity
0
is not strongly influenced by water content,
when the oil acidity number takes low values. The water
influence becomes important when the acidity number and the
concentration of oil gases take high values. Moreover, the oil
samples aged in service shows high values of
0
electrical
conductivity because of the high number of contaminants.
The condition of mineral oil might also be evaluated using the
ac conductivity, but at low frequency, the steady-state component
of ac conductivity
0

tends to the steady-state component of dc

conductivity
0
.
The steady-state component of dc conductivity
0
allows the
evaluation of the imaginary part of relative permittivity of the
mineral oil (related to the dielectric losses). This method is very
important for oil diagnosis, due to the large accessibility of
mineral oil dc conductivity measurement, which can be made
with non-substantial investment equipment, directly on in-service
power transformers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The work has been funded by the Sectoral Operational
Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 of the
Romanian Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection
through the Financial Agreement POSDRU/88/1.5/S/60203,
POSDRU/89/1.5/S/62557. Also, this paper has been possible with
a great contribution of Institute for Power Transmission and High
Voltage Technology University of Stuttgart.
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Laurentiu Viorel Badicu was born in Romania on
20 October 1984. He received the Dipl.-Eng.
degree in electrical engineering in 2008 and the
Ph.D, degree in electrical engineering at University
Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB), Bucharest,
Romania in 2011. His research interests include
ageing mechanisms of electrical insulation,
insulation systems testing especially cellulose-
based insulation and mineral oil.


Bogdan Gorgan was born in Romania, on 6
December 1985. He received the B.Sc. degree in
electrical engineering from the University
Politehnica of Bucharest (UPB) in 2009. At present,
he is enrolled for the Ph.D. degree sponsored by the
University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania. His
technical field of interest includes ageing
mechanisms of electrical insulation, insulation
systems testing, especially cellulose-based
insulation and mineral oil, power transformer lifetime modeling.


Laurentiu Marius Dumitran was born in Romania
on 1 March 1973. He received the M.S. degree in
electrical engineering from the University
Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania, in 1996, and the
jointly sponsored Ph.D. degree in electrotechnical
materials and physics from the University
Politehnica of Bucharest and the University Joseph
Fourier, Grenoble, France, in 2001.He is currently a
Lecturer in Electrical Engineering Faculty,
University Politehnica of Bucharest. His present research interests
include the electrical properties of dielectric materials, the
characterization of insulating systems, as well as the numerical and
experimental modeling of electrostatic separation and precipitation
processes.



Petru V. Notingher (M91) was born in Romania on
18 February 1946. He received the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in electrical engineering from the University
Politehnica of Bucharest (PUB), Bucharest, Romania.
He is a Professor in the Department of Electrical
Machines and Materials at the University Politehnica of
Bucharest and the Director of Electrical Materials
Laboratory of PUB. His research interests include
ageing mechanisms of electrical insulation, insulation
systems testing, electrical and water treeing, and materials (dielectrics,
composites). He has published over 340 scientific papers and books. Prof.
P.V. Notingher is a member of CIGRE.