Liquid Dielectrics Technical Committee
Technical Committee Chair
Issouf Fofana
Aims and Strategic Objectives
This committee focuses on coordinating technical activities and communicating knowledge concerned with use and evaluation of liquid dielectrics. The evaluation of liquids includes assessment of long-term performance capabilities as well as of health, safety and environmental hazards associated with the use of liquids in electrical equipment. The greatest challenges are related to the applications of new insulating liquids and the need for methods to assess the condition along with the improvement of the liquid efficiency by chemical admixtures and or application of readily biodegradable liquids.
Nanofluids are expected to play an important role in the next industrial revolution. This relatively new class of fluids is now the subject of intense research activity. Still, many scientific locks need to be unlocked before applications in power equipment can be developer. The theoretical and practical developments with special emphasis on potential problems and engineering solutions in using these liquids in electrical equipment are also of concern. Even though much is known on the fundamental aspects on liquid dielectrics degradations, there is much information left to gather to improve our basic knowledge. This will be achieved by arranging special sessions at DEIS meetings, organizing workshops, generating review articles, and publishing special issues in the journals of DEIS.
Background
Dielectric liquids are used as impregnating medium for solid insulation (paper and film) and as insulating and cooling materials in various electrical equipment on the transmission and distribution networks: transformers (power, rectifier, traction, furnace, potential, current, instrument, etc.), resistors, reactors, capacitors, cables, bushings, circuit breakers, tap changers, thyristor cooling in power electronics, etc.
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Videos of insulating oil stability testing under electrical discharge (ASTM D6180).
Streamers propagation to breakdown in insulating oil.
Recent Activities
A special session on synthetic and natural esters in TSO – DSO transformer applications was held during the Int. Conf. on Diel. Liquids (ICDL) 2019, held in Roma (Italy).
Current Activities
Due to the significance and importance of liquid dielectrics in electrotechnology, this Technical Committee is being re-vitalised and plans are afoot to move it forward over the next years. TC members are actually involved in the development/improvement or these standards:
- Collaboration in the Revision of the ASTM D-971-2: WK64753 – Standard Test Method for Interfacial Tension of Oil against Water by the Ring Method
- Collaboration in the Revision of the ASTM D-D1934: WK68457 – Standard Test Method for Oxidative Aging of Electrical Insulating Petroleum
- Collaboration in the development of ASTM WK46195 – New Standard Specification for Less-Flammable Synthetic Ester Liquids Used in Electrical Equipment
- Collaboration in the development of ASTM WK68133 – Standard Test Method to Measure the Oxidation Stability of Natural and Synthetic Ester Liquids by Oxidation Induction Time (OIT) Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry
- Collaboration in the development of ASTM WK65707 – New Standard for Partial Discharge Inception Voltage Measurement (PDIV) of Insulating Liquids Using Plane and Needle Electrodes
- Collaboration in the development of IEC TC14 DTR 60076-26 – Power Transformers – Part 26: Functional requirements of insulating liquids for use in power transformers
- Collaboration in the development of the IEC 63012 – Unused modified or blended esters and mixtures with esters for electrotechnical applications
- Collaboration in the development of the IEC 62975 – Use and maintenance guidelines of natural ester insulating liquids in electrical equipment
Future Plans
Organizing a Special issue on Liquid Dielectrics in IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation.
Committee Membership and Affiliations
| No. | Name | Role | Affiliation |
| 1. | Issouf Fofana | Chair | University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Canada |
| 2. | Pawel Rozga | Vice-chair | Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland |
| 3. | Mohan Rao Ungarala | Secretary | University of Quebec at Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Canada |
| 4. | Yazid Hadjadj | Member | National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada |
| 5. | A. Beroual | Member | Ecole Centrale Lyon, Lyon, France |
| 6. | Abderrahmane Zouaghi | Member | Hydro Quebec, Varennes, Canada |
| 7. | Russell Martin | Member | M&I Material, Manchester, UK |
| 8. | Jinesh Malde | Member | M&I Materials, Suwanee, USA |
| 9. | Yves Bertrand | Member | EDF, Les Renardières, France |
| 10. | Massimo Pompili | Member | La Sapienza, Roma, Italy |
| 11. | Luigi Calcara | Member | La Sapienza, Roma, Italy |
| 12. | Alan Sbravati | Member | Cargill Bioindustrial- Global Dielectric Fluids Technology, USA |
| 13. | Kevin Rapp | Member | Cargill Bioindustrial- Global Dielectric Fluids Technology, USA |
| 14. | Mariela Rodriguez | Member | Hydro Quebec, Varennes, Canada |
| 15. | Edward Casserly | Member | Ergon Refining, Inc., Jackson, USA |
| 16. | Juan C. Acosta | Member | Ergon Refining, Inc., Jackson, USA |
| 17. | Feipeng Wang | Member | Chongqing University |
| 18. | Xuewei Zhang | Member | Texas A&M University, Kingsville, USA |
Contact details for further technical committee information
Prof. Issouf Fofana: [email protected]