Natural ester, as a new environmentally green insulating oil, has been widely used in transformer. In an oil-immersed transformer, the normal aging, thermal failure, and discharge failure could easily lead to the decomposition of the oil-paper insulation system and produce different kinds of gases. Studying gas dissolution in natural ester and mineral oil could provide assistance in applying criteria to make a diagnosis of different kinds of faults in the transformer. In this paper, the molecular dynamics method was used to investigate the diffusion behavior of seven fault characteristic gases (including H2, CO, CH4, C2H2, CO2, C2H4, C2H6) in natural ester and mineral oil. The simulation parameters of free volume, interaction energy, mean square displacement, and diffusion coefficient were compared between the natural ester and mineral oil. Meanwhile, the influence of temperature on the diffusion of gas molecules in two kinds of oils was also analyzed. Results showed that the free volume, the interaction energy, and the relative molecular mass of gas molecules were the factors influenced by the diffusion of gas molecules in natural ester and mineral oil. The order of the diffusion coefficients of gas molecules in natural ester was as follows: H2 > CH4 > CO > C2H2 > C2H4 > CO2 > C2H6 and that in mineral oil was as follows: H2 > CH4 > CO> C2H2 > C2 H4 > C2H6 > CO2. By comparing the diffusion behavior of gas molecules in natural ester and mineral oil, it was found that the smaller free volume and higher interaction energy of gas molecules in natural ester were the major reasons for the gas molecules to be more difficult to diffuse in natural ester. The rising temperature could enhance the free volume and reduce the interaction energy between gas molecules and oil. The diffusion coefficient of gas molecules increased exponentially with the follow of temperature. However, the temperature didn't affect the ordering of diffusion coefficient, free volume, and interaction energy of gas molecules in natural ester and mineral oil.
Keywords: diffusion; gas molecules; mean square displacement; molecular dynamics; natural ester.