Silica Gel Breather of Transformer

Silica Gel Breather of Transformer

Whenever an electrical power transformer is loaded, the temperature of the transformer insulating oil increases, consequently the volume of the oil is increased. As the volume of the oil is increased, the air above the oil level in conservator will come out. Again at low oil temperature; the volume of the oil is decreased, which causes the volume of the oil to be decreased which again causes air to enter into conservator tank.
The natural air always consists of more or less moisture in it and this moisture can be mixed up with oil if it is allowed to enter into the transformer. The air moisture should be resisted during entering of the air into the transformer, because moisture is very harmful for transformer insulation. A silica gel breather is the most commonly used way of filtering air from moisture.
Silica gel breather for transformer is connected with conservator tank by means of breathing pipe.

Construction of Silica Gel Breather

The silica gel breather of transformer is very simple in the aspect of design. It is nothing but a pot of silica gel through which, air passes during breathing of transformer. The silica gel is a very good absorber of moisture. Freshly regenerated gel is very efficient, it may dry down air to a dew point of below -40oC. A well maintained silica gel breather will generally operate with a dew point of -35oC as long as a large enough quantity of gel has been used. The picture shows a silica gel breather of transformer.

Working Principle of Silica Gel Breather

Silica gel crystal has tremendous capacity of absorbing moisture. When air passes through these crystals in the breather; the moisture of the air is absorbed by them. Therefore, the air reaches to the conservator is quite dry, the dust particles in the air get trapped by the oil in the oil seal cup. The oil in the oil sealing cup acts as barrier between silica gel crystal and air when there is no flow of air through silica gel breather. The color of silica gel crystal is dark blue but, when it absorbs moisture; it becomes pink.

When there is sufficient difference between the air inside the conservator and the outside air, the oil level in two components of the oil seal changes until the lower oil level just reaches the rim of the inverted cup, the air then moves from high pressure compartment to the low pressure compartment of the oil seal. Both of these happen when the oil acts as core filter and removes the dust from the outside air.