Properties of water treed and non-treed XLPE cable insulation

Treed insulation from field aged cable is more prone to oxidation than non- treed regions, as observed by shorter oxidation induction times. This could be due to the treed region being already partly oxidized or due to contaminants within the treed regions acting as catalysts to oxidation. It is not known if the oxidation induction times vary from tree to tree, or whether eventual preferential oxidation of a treed region might lead to cable failure.