Investigation on the partial discharge characteristics of eco-friendly nanofluid insulation of corn oil nanofluid

The suitability of corn oil nanofluid as an insulation material is studied herein by analysing the partial discharge characteristics. Experiments are conducted on nano-silica modified corn oil at 0.01, 0.05, and 0.1 wt.% mass fractions. Electrode configurations are used to generate partial discharge (PD) sources such as corona discharge, internal discharge, and surface discharge. Partial discharge inception voltage dependency on electrode geometry is studied. Phase-resolved partial discharge analysis (PRPD) at various test conditions is done to understand the influence of live element geometry that causes PD in real-time operations, Weibull statistical analysis of PD parameters like scale parameter, shape parameter, skewness, and repetition rate is evaluated to understand the influence of nanofiller mass fraction in corn oil. The results illustrate that the addition of silica nanoparticles to corn oil has a significant influence on PD characteristics. The PRPD pattern analysis reveals information about the PD dependency on electrode configuration of the test condition. The addition of nanofillers in optimal concentrations without agglomeration can influence the PD characteristics to a certain degree. The test results may be inferred to suggest corn oil-based silica nanofluids as an alternative biodegradable liquid insulation.