Thermoelectric aging of cable grade XLPE

Many data have been reported relating to the electrical endurance of polymers. These data show that the performance is reduced by electrical and thermal stressing in wet conditions. In many present applications however, the cables function in their dry state since they include an effective moisture barrier. Thus it is important to also obtain information for endurance tests in dry environments. In this study a series of experiments have been performed which are designed to expand the time-scale of the available dry endurance data. The data reveal clear evidence of curvature. The electrokinetic endurance model yields the closest fit over all the data compared with either the inverse power law or the thermodynamic model.