Study on Bubble Evolution in Oil-paper Insulation
during Dynamic Rating in Power Transformers
Meng Gao, Yuqin Ding, Tonglei Wang, Tao Wen, Qiaogen Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment
Xi’an Jiaotong University
Xi’an, P.R. China
Abstract—Solid insulation tended to absorb moisture during
the operation and maintenance of oil-immersed transformers,
which could be dangerous to the apparatus especially under
rated conditions. As had been researched, wet insulation could
lead to bubble effect in turn-to-turn insulation when the
temperature in transformer increased rapidly. Primarily, this
paper investigated the degradation of dielectric strength caused
by gas bubbles generated from oil-paper insulation. This paper
mainly focused on clarifying the evolution of thermal bubble
formation. The experimental platform consisted of an oil-paper
insulation system, and an adjustable heating system was
established to study the influence of water and gas content on
bubble evolution temperature. Results showed that the gas
content and moisture content in the paper could significantly
affect inception temperature of bubble formation, which could
well explain the high probability of bubble evolution in old and
wet oil-impregnated transformers. Then, a mathematical model
was founded to calculate the bubble evolution temperature
considering the solubility of gas and moisture in transformer oil
at a certain temperature. Finally, based on the above results, this
paper provided a strategy for managing the risk of insulation
failures in oil-immersed transformers caused by thermal bubbles
in dynamic rating conditions.
Keywords—bubble evolution; oil-paper insulation; dynamic
rating; power transformers
I. INTRODUCTION
Bubble effect usually appeared in moistened cellulose
insulation, which could lead to partial discharge or even
insulation breakdown in oil-paper insulation systems[1]. In the
1980s, researchers believed that it was the moistened paper
insulation with high temperature which ejected bubbles into the
oil[2]. To avoid the bubble evolution in windings, standard IEC
60076-7 set a limit of 160 in hottest point during dynamic
ratings of oil-immersed transformer[3]. However, it was
considered that the temperature of bubble evolution could be
much lower in wet oil-paper insulation systems[4-8].
According to the theory of liquid boiling, a balance existed
between the internal and external pressure on the boundary
layer of the bubble[9-11]. Pressure Pi Inside the bubble mainly
resulted from the vapor pressure of gas components; external
978-1-5090-2354-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
pressure Po consisted of outside atmospheric pressure and static
pressure of the insulating oil. The surface tension ı was caused
by intermolecular forces of liquid on the gas-liquid boundary.
The relation between differential pressure and surface tension
could be expressed as:
2σ
Pi − Po = (1)
r
Where r denoted the equivalent radius of the bubble. Thus,
only when the total external pressure was caught by saturated
vapor pressure in a bubble, could the bubble exist in liquid. It
should be emphasized that saturated vapor pressure of pure
water at 100 was about 101.32kPa, fairly close to standard
atmospheric pressure[12]. When temperature went down, the
vapor pressure dropped rapidly. However, previous researchers
showed that water vapor could lead to bubbles at the
temperature below 100 . In this case, the pressure in bubbles
maintained by water vapor could hardly overcome the
atmospheric pressure, let alone meet the criterion of bubble
existence. In this perspective, the conclusion drawn in previous
researches that phase transition of overheated water directly
leads to bubble effect seemed contrary to physical laws. In this
paper, we mainly focused on the influence of moisture and gas
content on bubble inception temperature. Based on the
experimental data, a mathematical model was set to explain the
variation of bubble evolution temperature with moisture and
gas content in the paper.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The test sample was a copper conductor with controllable
heater and Pt100 probe embedded in it, which was wrapped
with Kraft paper to be similar in construction with the winding
of transformer considering of the heat transfer and the moisture
migration. The outer diameter of the conductor was 12mm and
the total thickness of the insulation paper was 0.4mm. The
power of the heating systems could be up to 200W, while the
Pt100 probe has an accuracy of ±0.1 and a dynamic response
over 3 /s, which was sufficient to meet the requirement in
temperature measurement. The moisture content in Kraft paper
was varied using a humidity chamber, and the insulation oil
was dried and degassed in an oven for 24h continuously.
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Fig. 1. The sketch of experimental setup.
Fig. 2. Bubbling phenomenon with temperature-cycling
insulation, W%=5.4%.
As is shown in Fig. 1, the test sample was immersed in
processed oil with an N2 blanket in a highly transparent
Plexiglass vessel. Between the vacuum pump and the vessel, a
pressure regulating valve was set to keep the vessel pressure at
a stable state. Below the vessel, a gas-liquid isolation cylinder
was introduced to control the liquid surface height.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
A. Influence of moisture content
First of all, we made combinations of processed oil and
Kraft paper with 5.4% water content in mass. The bubble
phenomenon and the variation of temperature in paper and oil
were shown in Figure 2. The bubble began to appear at a
Fig. 3. Bubbling phenomenon with temperature-cycling in dry
insulation, W%=1.4%.
conductor temperature of 78.1 , and the number of bubbles
increased faster with the rise of temperature before 80 min.
The heating power was 35.06 W. As to the evolution speed,
bubble amount was about 20 per second. When the paper
surface temperature gradually increased, bubbles began to
appear at both the edge and the surface of the paper. And with
the increase of conductor temperature, the diameter of bubbles
began to enlarge and the amount began to increase.
As was shown in Fig.3 ˈ bubbles appeared at a higher
temperature under the condition of 1.4% moisture content in
the paper. In the experiment, the number of bubbles was much
less, and diameter was small. After that, the bubble effect
seemed not that violent anymore with the continuous increase
of temperature.
B. Influence of gas content
In the experiment, we changed the gas content in a paper-
oil system with the pressure regulating valve. And the test
sample was sealed in the vessel at a fixed gas pressure for 12h
before the experiment.
in dry In Fig.4, Tsteady stood for the steady temperature of the
conductor, corresponding to the heating power. At a certain
vacuum pressure, the evolution temperature dropped with the
increase of Tsteady. That meant faster temperature rise was
conducive to the bubble formation. It was more important that
the gas content related to bubble formation, which could be
easily drawn from the figure. Based on the above results, we
set a model to explain the phenomenon.
C. Modeling
Insulating paper in the transformer were usually made from
wood pulp. As to its microstructure, a large number of
interwoven exists in and on the surface of the paper, where lies
in a narrow, long capillary. As to fig.5, a small amount of
water and gas molecules that is attached to the capillary wall
after degassing. However, when the temperature rises, the
locked water molecules moves out of its location thermally and
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Fig. 4. Bubble evolution temperature vary with gas content, W%=2.4%.
vaporize, which was call phase change. The vaporized water
push the oil in the capillary out, and its volume grows rapidly.
Pin = Pvap + Pgas
Pvap = 107.97 −1668.2/(T + 228)
nRT
Pgas =
V
πd2
V = V0 + x (5)
4
Supposing the gas expansion process was the quasi-static
process. Thus, saturated vapor pressure Pvap could be
considered as the partial pressure of water vapor at temperature
T, as was shown by equation (3). Symbol n stood for the
molecular weight of the gas, and gas partial pressure Pgas
according to the laws of thermodynamics at temperature T. At
the beginning of the expansion process, the gas volume was V0,
and enlarged to Vt after a period of t. Capillary axial was
displacement x. The formula (6) was as follows:
nRT (6)
+ 107.97 −1668.2/(T + 228) = P0 + Pliq
πd2
V0 + l 1582, 1979.
4 [3]
Where the inside pressure of the bubble was made up of
two parts: one for the partial pressure of the gas and the other
for saturated vapor pressure from moisture in the paper under
rated temperature. It had to be emphasized that the latter one
was related to W% in actual conditions, thanks to which the
inception temperature of bubble effect could be influenced by
the moisture content in the paper.
IV. CONCLUSION
The experiment platform was set up to study the influence
of the moisture and the gas content on the bubble evolution
temperature. The experiment results could show that both
moisture and the gas content had a huge impact on the bubble
Fig. 5. Structure of the capillary in a single fiber.
(2)
(3)
(4)
Fig. 6. Model of pressure balance in the capillary.
evolution temperature. The model was drawn from the basic
rule, which took both water vapor and gas content into
consideration. By the calculation method provided in paper, the
evolution temperature could be obtained.
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