Insulating Oil

insulating oil

[′in·sə‚lād·iŋ ‚ȯil]

(materials)

A chlorinated hydrocarbon, such as trichlorobenzene, mixed with fluorinated hydrocarbons, whose high dielectric strength and high flash point allow it to be used in switches, circuit breakers, and transformers as an insulator and cooling medium. Also known as electrical oil.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Insulating Oil

 

(also electrical oil), a highly refined petroleum oil or, less often, a synthetic or vegetable oil that is used to insulate and cool electrical equipment, for example, transformers (seeTRANSFORMER OIL), capacitors, or cables. Insulating oils are distinguished by high dielectric strength (up to 25 megavolts/m) and have a resistivity of the order of 10¹⁰–10¹² ohm-cm.

In the 1970’s, the world production of insulating oils amounted to about a million tons per year of petroleum oils and about 50,000 tons per year of synthetic oils.

REFERENCES

Krein, S. E., and R. V. Kulakova. Neftianye izoliatsionnye masla. Moscow-Leningrad, 1959.
Lipshtein, R. A., and M. I. Shakhnovich. Transformatornoe maslso, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1968.
Shakhnovich, M. 1. Sinleticheskie zhidkosti dlia elektricheskikh apparatov. Moscow, 1972.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

insulating oil

A type of oil used within the enclosure of a transformer, switch, or other electric device, for insulating and cooling purposes.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.