International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Dr. M. M. Abdul Kader Mohideen, Mr. M. Karthigeyan, Dr. S. R. Chitra
Abstract: The use of vegetable oil as an insulating fluid is becoming increasingly popular due to the mineral oil's qualities, which were first shown by researchers in 1995 [1]. Subsequent studies have demonstrated that a few nanoparticles, including graphene, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), titanium oxide (TiO2), aluminium oxide (Al2O3), and aluminium nitride (AIN), can increase the thermal conductivity of mineral transformer oil [2–8]. However, it is also recognised that there is a strong demand for mineral oil these days because it is used as a lubricating fluid in other industries including transportation. Mineral oil poses a threat to the environment and is a non- renewable resource that is running out every day and is predicted to run out entirely in a few decades [1]. In response to this issue, researchers are constantly testing vegetable oil as a mineral oil substitute for transformer insulation [9]. Due to their high flash point and renewable nature, vegetable oils were initially suggested as a liquid for transformer insulation [10]. Researchers also switched the foundation oil of the nanofluid from mineral oil to vegetable oil in accordance with the advances in nanotechnology [11–12]. Just one of the 29 research articles published in 2012 on the issue of nanofluids as transformer insulation liquids employed vegetable oil as the base fluid, according to the statistical analysis from Scopus (Figures 1 and 2). This demonstrates that in 2012, there was little interest in using vegetable oil-based nanofluid as a liquid for transformer insulation. According to the statistics, only three of the more than 60 works published in 2018 on the subject of nanofluid as transformer oil used vegetable oil-based nanofluid as the research material. This indicates that the field of study on this topic is still in its infancy and that its popularity is growing annually.
