Accelerated aging to estimate life of short cable assemblies

In many practical apparatus, high voltage cables in the 10 to 50kV range are needed between modules. Such cables, in contrast to carefully designed coaxial lines with stress cones to minimize stress enhancements, may contain multiple wires, non-coaxial connectors, localized stress enhancements and non-homogeneous potting. Even with such short comings from the ideal, long life amounting to 5 to 10 or more years of operation is often desired. This paper considers practical cable assemblies and short time accelerated testing which can be employed to increase confidence that a particular design is adequate for needed service.