Influence of water content on the electrical properties of insulating vegetable oil-based nanofluids

Vegetable insulating oils are fire-resistant and environment-friendly liquid dielectrics. In recent years, magnetic nanoparticle has been used to enhance the breakdown strength of insulating oil. This paper presents the relationship of the solved water content in insulating vegetable oil-based nanofluids with time variation. The influence of solved water content on the electrical properties of insulating vegetable oil-based nanofluids was investigated. This paper presented a new type of nanofluid by adding Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle into insulating vegetable oil. The main electrical properties of insulating vegetable oil-based nanofluids were measured and compared with those parameters of vegetable oil. Water content which solved in nanofluids was varied from 50 to 400 ppm respectively. The observed results indicated that the water content play an important role on electrical properties of insulating vegetable oil-based nanofluid. When the content of the solved water in the nanofluid is under 300 ppm, it can be seen that the solved water have little effect on the electrical properties of nanofluids. When the content is above 300 ppm, the electrical properties of nanofluids were drastically reduced.