A comprehensive analyses of aging characteristics of oil-paper insulation system in HVDC converter transformers

This paper investigates the dissolved gases evolution in transformer oil under combined DC/AC electrical-thermal stress. Dissolved gases detected in transformer aged insulation oil reveal that oil under AC electric field combined with thermal stress can produce more dissolved gases than oil under DC electric field with thermal stress but less than the gases produced in oil under distorted AC or combined AC/DC voltage stress. This is attributed to the divergent migration properties of the charged components under different types of electric fields. To further understand this behavior, carrier recombination coefficient is proposed to explain the oil DGA results under various aging stresses. Results show that diagnostic parameters such as breakdown voltage, oil interfacial tension, and moisture content in pressboard should be used along with DGA results in order to accurately diagnose the insulation condition within converter transformers that impose a combined AC/DC voltage stress on the insulation system.