AC and Lightning Impulse Breakdown Voltages of Natural Ester Based Fullerene Nanofluids

This paper is aimed at the variation of AC and lightning impulse (LI) breakdown voltages of samples enriched with fullerene (C
60
) nanoparticles (NPs) of natural ester, which stand out as an alternative to mineral oils. C
60
nanofluids with long-term stability and good dielectric properties are examined in this study on five samples for concentrations of NPs ranging 0.05 to 0.4 g/L concentrations. The AC and LI breakdown voltage measurements of each sample are repeated thirty times and the conformity of these measurements of the normal distribution is tested with the Shapiro-Wilk test. Conformity of all samples to normal distribution is accepted by this test and withstand voltages are calculated at 1%, 10% and 50% breakdown probabilities. The AC breakdown voltage performances of 0.3 and 0.4 g/L C
60
nanofluids are increased compared to natural ester. This increase rate is 5.1% and 7.8%, respectively. The withstand voltages at 1% and 10% breakdown probabilities increase by 20.2% and 13.2% compared to natural ester at 0.4 g/L C
60
nanofluid. 0.1 g/L C
60
nanofluid has 8.2% better performance than natural ester at LI breakdown voltages. Withstand voltages of 1% and 10% probability of this nanofluid are 6.5% and 7.7% higher than natural ester, respectively. These measurement results show that C
60
doped nanofluids can meet performance requirements in power system equipment with high power demands.