STATE OF WATER IN HYDROCARBON LIQUIDS AND ITS EFFECT ON CONDUCTIVITY

The humidity or the dissolved water in insulating oils influences cond uction and breakdown phenomena. The corrections between the amount of dissolved water and the electrical properties have been investigated. However, the effect of water has been based only on the total amount o f water because in the past there was no way to observe the state of w ater in oil in an electrical field. With the availability of Fourier t ransform infrared (FTIR) to characterize water clusters, the effect of water in transformer oil can be reassessed based not only on the amou nt of water, but also on the state of water. In this paper, IR spectra of water in several liquid hydrocarbons and conduction current were m easured at the same time. The selection of the liquid hydrocarbons was made on the basis of the degree of polarizability of the liquids. Bec ause of the water molecules combine with the polar structures by hydro gen bonding, the state of water depends on the polarizability of the o il. As a result, there is a difference in conduction phenomena dependi ng on whether water is free or combined with the polar structure of th e liquid.