Impacts of Water Within Transformer Oil on the Diffusion and Distribution Characteristics of Furfural by Molecular Dynamics

Furfural is an aging by-product of power transformer insulation paper.The concentration of furfural can be directly used as a tool to evaluate the aging extent of insulation paper.However,no universally acknowledged production mechanisms and distribution laws of furfural in oil-paper system have been obtained.Among various influential factors,water is considered to play an important but ambiguous role in effecting furfural's production rate and distribution.Therefore,four naphthenic mineral oil models,of which the water contents were set to 0%,1%,3% and 5% respectively,were constructed by means of molecular modeling.Molecular dynamics were performed on the models subsequently.By investigating interactions between furfural and ambient media,hydrogen bonding and diffusion phenomenon of furfural in oil,the microscopic mechanism of water influencing the diffusion and distribution characteristics of furfural in oil-paper composite system was revealed.Research results show water in transformer oil would significantly enhance oil's ability in absorbing furfural and improve solubility of furfural in oil as well.Moreover,water in transformer oil suppresses the free diffusion of furfural in oil which will exert native influence on furfural's homogeneous distribution in oil.