Life Expectancy Estimation of Thermally Aged Cu Contaminant-Diffused Oil Impregnated Pressboard

Life expectancy of a thermally aged oil impregnated pressboard (OIP) in the presence of corrosive dibenzyl disulphide (DBDS) is studied in this work using a fast estimation method based on level of diffusion of Cu contaminant. Data from laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used as the degradation parameter. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is used for rapid evaluation of life expectancy at various temperatures. Aged OIP material is tested for its surface flashover breakdown strength and its thermal stability is studied by TGA and differential scanning calorimetry. Thermal activation energy is estimated using Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method and is agreement with isothermally calculated values. Aging law is derived and found to be nearly first order based on which temperature dependent life expectancy law is formulated. LIBS data of OIP collected from a failed transformer is considered to be end-of-life condition. Estimated life expectancy values using proposed fast method are compared with traditional long-aging evaluation and are in good agreement. Increase in corrosive DBDS concentration and change in aging medium using proposed method and are found to have a significant impact on life expectancy of the OIP insulation.