Investigations of furanic derivatives in transformer oil using ultra-violet light absorption property

Power transformers are one of the critical components in power system. Insulation plays a promistic role in determining the lifetime of transformers. Insulation used in transformers is of solid and liquid insulation. Solid insulation like kraft paper, press board on degradation process generates furanic derivatives such as 5-methyl furan, 2-acetyl furan, 2-hydroxymethyl furan and 2-furaldehyde. Traditionally, the presence of furanic compounds in transformer oil is determined using high-sperformance liquid chromatography. An effort has been made to estimate the presence of furanic derivatives using artificial neural network (ANN) with the aid of ultra-violet-visible light absorbance property. In ANN system, Levenberg Marquardt back propagation optimisation technique is used to determine the furanic derivatives in transformer oil. Degree of polymerisation of insulation paper and percentage tensile strength of paper remaining has been examined.