Abstract
Electrical insulation is one of the most important part in a high voltage apparatus. Recently, researchers are interested in the environmental friendly vegetable oil from environmental viewpoint. Accelerated aging transformer insulating material in vegetable oil was compared to that of mineral oil. Accelerated aging oil samples produced in the oven at $140^{\circ}C$ for 500, 1000, 1500, 2000hours. And Real transformer insulation oils samples of vegetable oil and mineral oil were aged by thermal cycles repeating from $30^{\circ}C$ to $120^{\circ}C$. Samples were analyzed at 42, 63, 93, 143, 190, 240, 300 cycles. The mineral and vegetable insulating oils were investigated for breakdown voltage, water content, total acid number, viscosity, volume resistivity, insulating paper and oil permittivity, and dissolved gas analyses. The breakdown voltage of the vegetable insulating oil is higher than that found for the mineral oil; the accelerated aging progress decreased the breakdown voltage. The vegetable oil had a higher water saturation than the mineral oil; the vegetable oil has the superior water characteristics and breakdown voltage. And high viscosity of vegetable oil, care has to be taken, especially when designing the cooling system for a large transformer.
