Published Paper Details:

This work is completed to study the dielectric characteristics of blend of rice bran and sunflower oil. The unprocessed oil composition of 4:1 ratio of rice bran oil and sunflower oil is filtered using filter paper. The oil is heated to remove air bubbles and to remove impurities. Breakdown voltage test is conducted to check the breakdown voltage of the mixed oil using BDV kit. Tan delta test is performed by applying ac voltage to a test cell of known gap measuring the total current flow through the oil and separating and comparing the reactive and resistance portion of the current passing through the oil. The volume resistivity and dielectric constant of the oil is measured using Tan delta test. Dielectric test alone cannot determine the strength of the insulator oil hence an impulse test is performed to determine the ability of insulation to withstand transient voltages. In the AC breakdown study, RBO has the highest breakdown voltage for both test setups. PO is the second-best in AC breakdown voltage while MO shows the lowest breakdown voltage among oil samples. The percentage difference between using BAUR oil tester and BHT AC generator setup is between 4% and 10% at a 2.5 mm gap distance which is comparable for both types of equipment. For various gap distances studies, the breakdown voltage is increased with the increase of gap distance between the electrodes, for all oil samples. The Weibull distribution of MO, PO and RBO has well fitted with the fitting line of AC breakdown data. From the Weibull distribution, the empirical withstand voltages equations with gap distances of PO and RBO are derived.