Correlation of furan concentration and spectral response of transformer oil-using expert systems

Furans are the major degradation of insulating study in transformer oil. Hence, the concentration of furans in oil can be used as a good indicator of study deterioration. Furan concentration in transformer oil is currently measured using high-performance liquid chromatography or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Both methods provide accurate and reliable results in detecting furan concentration. However, the two methods need very expensive equipment and take a long time to perform the test on oil samples that should be chemically treated before conducting the test. Moreover, both methods require an expert to perform the test and to interpret its results. This study introduces a novel technique for detecting furan concentration in transformer oil through measuring oil spectral response. The ultraviolet-to-visible spectral response of transformer oil can be measured instantly with relatively cheap equipment and does not need an expert person to conduct the test. Results show that there is a good correlation between oil spectral response and its furan contents. The study introduces two approaches using expert systems to estimate the relationship between furan concentration and spectral response of transformer oil; they are gene expression programming and fuzzy logic.