Polarization and Depolarization Current Characteristics of Natural Ester Impregnated Pressboards with Different Periods of Impregnation

This paper represents the polarization and depolarization current (PDC) characteristics of natural ester impregnated pressboards with different impregnation period. The pressboard specimen were prepared as a rectangular shape (the length and the width are 120 mm as well) and thickness dimension of the pressboard in the experiment was approximately 1.6 mm. The pressboards were dried up in the vacuum oven with temperature at 80°C for 12 hours under 200 mbar pressure. In addition, these pressboards were divided into 3 groups according to the impregnation periods. The 1^st group, the pressboard was non-impregnated with natural ester. The 2^nd and 3^rd group, the pressboards were impregnated at 60°C for 8 and 16 hours, respectively, under 200 mbar pressure-controlled condition. The plane-plane electrodes inserted with the specified number of the pressboard specimens were prepared. These electrodes were installed in the test cell filled with the natural ester. A 24 kV AC Voltage was applied to the test cell for 3 months. At the end of the first month, half of the pressboard samples was token from the test cells. Then, the PDC characteristics of these natural ester impregnated pressboards were investigated. At the end of the third month, another half of the pressboard samples was token from the test cells to perform PDC measurement also. It was found that the PDC values of the pressboards with longer period impregnation process were lower than these of the pressboards with longer period impregnation process. Besides, the PDC values of the pressboards experienced with longer electric field stress period (3 months) were higher than these of the pressboards experienced with shorter electric field stress period (1 month).