Understanding the influence of ambience on thermal ageing of natural ester liquid

Ambience during thermal ageing of ester liquid has a high impact on corona inception voltage (CIV) under AC and DC voltages. The CIV is high with ester liquid thermally aged in nitrogen ambience and is the least with air aged. CIV is high under negative DC voltage followed by positive DC and AC voltages. CIV reduces with increase in harmonic voltage and the reduction is predominant with harmonic voltages with higher total harmonic distortions. Corona activity radiates ultra-high-frequency (UHF) signal with its dominant frequency at 1 GHz. Phase-resolved partial discharge analysis carried out using UHF signal indicates that corona discharges occur at the peak of the voltage waveform. The magnitude of discharges is less in thermally aged liquid but the number of discharges increases. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicates the formation of carbonaceous particles with thermal ageing. Thermal ageing of ester liquid causes to form new chromophoric moieties causing red shift of absorption band in ultraviolet-visible spectra. Fluorescence spectroscopy traces the characteristic variations due to thermal ageing, which can be adopted for condition monitoring.