Measurement and Analysis of Electrical Conductivity of Transformer Oil Based Nanofluid

In this paper, an attempt to evaluate the electrical conductivity of nanofluids based on transformer oil was made. For this purpose, several samples of nanofluids with different concentrations of dielectric silicon dioxide nanoparticles and conductive zinc nanoparticles were prepared. The dielectric permittivity and electrical conductivity were experimentally measured for the prepared nanofluids. After receiving the results of the experiment, a theoretical calculation was made using the well-known Nielsen expression for further analysis. The results of the calculation and the experiment were compared. The calculated and experimental values of the dielectric permittivity did not contradict each other. However, the discrepancy between the experimental values and calculated values of electrical conductivity was noted. An explanation was offered for the discrepancy between the calculated and experimental values. The main reason for the decrease in electrical conductivity in the experiment is presumably considered to be the adsorption of ions in the dielectric by particles.