Statistical evaluation of water tree lengths in XLPE cables at different temperatures

Accelerated aging of two types of commercially produced medium voltage XLPE insulated cables was carried out under the combined stresses of three types consisting of ionic aqueous species, elevated electrical stress and temperature cycling. After 1000 h of aging, the water tree parameters were evaluated. Results show that external ionic species exert profound impact on the generation of bow tie and vented water trees, while impurities inherently present in the cable components also contribute significantly. Temperature cycling increases the bow tie trees by an order of magnitude, while morphology of insulation influences the level of water tree degradation. The water tree population and their lengths were subjected to Weibull and log-normal models of statistical distributions and the data were found to fit better on the log-normal model. For a better statistical inference, a computer based Monte Carlo simulation was devised and used to precisely discriminate the two models. Simulation results further confirm that both types of water trees fit better on the log-normal model. The most likely mechanism for water tree degradation is fatigue based and hence mechanistic by nature.