Influence of Combined Electrothermal Aging on Dielectric and Thermal
Properties of HVAC XLPE Cable
Abstract
To explore the influence of electrothermal aging on the properties of
HVAC XLPE cable during its actual operation, two circuits of 110 kV XLPE
cable were subjected to a combined electrothermal accelerated aging test
for 180 days. The test voltage was set at 95 kV and the test temperature
was set at 90 ℃. One circuit of cable adopted constant temperature aging
mode and the other circuit adopted periodic thermal cycle aging mode.
The dielectric property of the cable is diagnosed by dielectric
spectroscopy measurement, and the thermal property is diagnosed by
thermal parameters measurement. Combined with Fourier infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
measurements, morphological changes of the insulation under different
electrothermal aging modes are analyzed to construct the correlation
with the dielectric and thermal properties. The results show that
short-term electrothermal constant temperature aging mode effectively
enhances the dielectric and thermal properties of the cable by modifying
spherulites’ morphology and migrating small polar compounds; short-term
electrothermal cycle aging mode also enhances the thermal properties of
the cable due to the drop in small polar compounds. However, different
distributions of small polar compounds and crystal interfaces in the
insulation lead to extreme distortion in electric field distribution.