Investigations on mustard oil for its suitability as insulating fluid in transformers

The power transformers are vital components in the transmission system. In transformers, mineral oil based insulating fluids are used which are non-biodegradable, therefore disposing the aged mineral oils is very challenging. From the last few years, the power utilities all over the world have started exploring biodegradable insulating fluids as alternatives to currently available mineral oil based insulating fluids. The insulating oil is characterized by the properties such as high breakdown voltage (BDV), high flash point and low pour point among others. The vegetable oils which have some good physical, chemical and dielectric properties are sunflower oil, canola oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, olive oil and mustard oil. Except for mustard oil, good literature is available for various thermal, dielectric and aging tests on these oils. Various researchers have demonstrated that adding nanoparticles to base fluids can enhance thermal properties of insulating oils and also increases life of kraft paper or press board (used in transformers) compared to mineral oils. The present investigation is to determine the effect of temperature on the BDV of mustard oil based nanofluids. In the present work Al₂O₃ (size <; 50nm) nanoparticles are used to prepare mustard oil based nanoinsulating fluids. The prepared nano fluids had been tested for its BDV strength at different temperatures.