Transformers are filled with dielectric fluids, including mineral oil, silicone, natural esters (vegetable oil), synthetic esters, chlorinated fluids, and high-molecular-weight hydrocarbons.
Andy Shkolnik provides all the details.
Transcription:
What type of fluids are transformers filled with? They're filled with dielectric fluids and there are various common types. The most common that we see in our laboratory, about 80%, are mineral oil based. So these are oils of petroleum origin. They're refined from crude oil. They're vaguely like the motor oil you might put in your car engine, but they're not that similar because motor oil has a huge additive package and transformer oil is pretty fairly pure. Transformer oil usually only has one additive and that's an oxidation inhibitor. So mineral oil is very popular because it's been used for decades and decades. It works well. It's reasonably priced and that's why we see so much of it. Another fluid that we see is silicone fluid. So this is a produced material. You can think of the silicone spray that you might waterproof your boots or shoes.
So this is vaguely like that. It's just been purified and produced properly for electrical purposes. It has an advantage. It's one of the high fire point fluids, meaning it has a fire point of at least 300 Celsius. So it can be used in transformers that require the higher fire rating like indoors and and other such cases. One potential disadvantage of silicone fluid is it doesn't mix well with other fluids. So owners of silicone filled transformers if they ever have to top them off, have to make sure they top them off only with silicone fluid. Another fluid that's gaining very much in popularity recently are known as natural esters. These are basically made from vegetable oil. So natural ester is kind of the chemical name for vegetable oil. So some manufacturers make them out of soybean oil, others might use corn oil, but they're properly processed to be pure enough to function electrically.
They're gaining a lot in popularity because they're biodegradable and so that's good if you have a spill. And also they also are a fire point fluid with the 300 Celsius minimum. There's also synthetic cousins, these synthetic esters. Those we don't see very often, but they do have their purposes as well. They are used, for example, in diesel locomotive transformers. And so they have some specialty applications. There's also what are known as high molecular weight hydrocarbons. That's another class of fluid. The most popular was called R-Temp. It hasn't been made in about 15 years, but there's plenty of transformers out there containing R-Temp. You can think of that kind of fluid as also from petroleum oil, but it's much thicker, much more viscous and thereby it has the higher of 300 Celsius fire point so it can be used indoors.
So that's another option for the high fire point fluids. That leaves us with chlorinated fluids. There's not that many of them out there, but you can still find them. The one is askarel, which is more commonly known as the pure PCB fluid. That was banned. Its production was banned by Congress in the 70s, but there are still transformers with askarel fluid in them. The other chlorinated fluid that we see is known as wecosol. That was an original equipment Westinghouse product that was used in the 1980s and into the early 90s. And that actually is the same as dry cleaning fluid. It's just been, again, purified for electrical purposes. So those are all the main common dielectric fluids found in transformers.
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