Breakdown Voltage Measurement of High Voltage Transformers Oils Using an Active Microwave Resonator Sensor

Authors: Ahmed A. Al-Mudhafar, Ali A. Abduljabar, Hayder Jawad Albattat

Abstract:

This work suggests a microwave resonator sensor (MRS) device for measuring the oil’s breakdown voltage of high voltage transformers. A precise high-sensitivity sensor is designed and manufactured based on a microstrip split ring resonator (SRR). To improve the sensor sensitivity, a radio frequency (RF) amplifier of 30 dB gain is linked through a transmission line of 50Ω. The sensor operates at a microwave band (L) with a quality factor of 1.35 × 105 when it is loaded with an empty tube. In this work, the sensor has been tested with three samples of high voltage transformer oil of different ages (new, middle, and damaged) where the quality factor differs with each sample. A mathematical model was built to calculate the breakdown voltage of the transformer oils and the accuracy of the results was higher than 90%.

Keywords: Active resonator sensor, oil breakdown voltage, transformers oils, quality factor.

References:

[1] Y. Du et al., “Effect of semiconductive nanoparticles on insulating performances of transformer oil,” IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 770–776, 2012.
[2] J. Hao, M. Dan, R. Liao, and J. Li, “Effect of moisture on particles accumulation and oil breakdown characteristics in mineral oil and natural ester under non-uniform DC electrical field,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 101785–101794, 2019.
[3] D. H. Fontes, G. Ribatski, and E. P. Bandarra Filho, “Experimental evaluation of thermal conductivity, viscosity and breakdown voltage AC of nanofluids of carbon nanotubes and diamond in transformer oil,” Diam. Relat. Mater., vol. 58, pp. 115–121, 2015.
[4] M. Koch, M. Fischer, and S. Tenbohlen, “The breakdown voltage of insulation oil under the influences of humidity acidity particles and pressure,” in International Conference APTADM, 2007, pp. 26–28.
[5] E. Gockenbach and H. Borsi, “Performance and new application of ester liquids,” in Proceedings of 2002 IEEE 14th International Conference on Dielectric Liquids. ICDL 2002 (Cat. No. 02CH37319), 2002, pp. 203–206.
[6] W. Paper, “The Effect of Moisture on the Breakdown Voltage of Transformer Oil,” Vaisala, vol. 1, pp. 1–4, 2011.
[7] A. Razzaq, H. Zainuddin, F. Hanaffi, R. M. Chyad, H. Abdul Razak, and A. A. Latiff, “Measurement of ester-based transformer oil aging using tapered single mode-multimode-single mode fiber structure,” Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 559–564, 2020.
[8] H. Hamzah, A. A. Abduljabar, and A. Porch, “High Q Microwave Microfluidic Sensor Using a Central Gap Ring Resonator,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 68, no. 5, pp. 1830–1838, 2020.
[9] A. A. Al-Mudhafar and R. A. Malallah, “High-Precise Microwave Active Antenna Sensor (MAAS) formulated for sensing liquid properties,” Sensors Actuators A Phys., vol. 341, p. 113567, Jul. 2022, doi: 10.1016/J.SNA.2022.113567.
[10] A. A. Abduljabar, D. J. Rowe, A. Porch, and D. A. Barrow, “Novel microwave microfluidic sensor using a microstrip split-ring resonator,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 679–688, 2014.
[11] A. A. Al-Mudhafar, A. A. Abduljabar, and H. J. Albattat, “High Sensitive Microwave Microfluidic Sensor Based on Split Ring Resonator for Determination Liquid Permittivity Characterization.”
[12] K. Chang and L.-H. Hsieh, Microwave ring circuits and related structures, vol. 156. Wiley Online Library, 2004.
[13] A. A. Abduljabar, X. Yang, D. A. Barrow, and A. Porch, “Modelling and measurements of the microwave dielectric properties of microspheres,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 63, no. 12, pp. 4492–4500, 2015.
[14] A. A. Wahhab, A. A. Abduljabar, and H. J. Albattat, “Microstrip Stopband Split Ring Resonator For Microwave Microfluidic Sensing,” Al-Qadisiyah J. Eng. Sci., vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 74–79, 2020, doi: 10.30772/qjes.v13i2.632.
[15] L.-F. Chen, C. K. Ong, C. P. Neo, V. V Varadan, and V. K. Varadan, Microwave electronics: measurement and materials characterization. John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
[16] A. S. Khan, Microwave engineering: concepts and fundamentals. CRC press, 2014.
[17] Z. Abbasi and M. Daneshmand, “Contactless pH measurement based on high resolution enhanced Q microwave resonator,” in 2018 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium-IMS, 2018, pp. 1156–1159.
[18] Al-Mudhafar, A.A., Malallah, R.A. New star-fractal antenna devised as wireless sensor of the permittivity characterization measurement of Na2SO3 solutions. Microsyst Technol (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-022-05363-z