Characterisation and degradation studies of ABC insulation materials

Aerial bundle cable (ABC) systems are increasingly employed for domestic power supply resulting in the need to investigate the long term performance and properties of the overall system. In this study it has been attempted to characterise different XLPE materials, particularly various silane and peroxide crosslinked low density polyethylene samples and to analyse the fundamental processes occurring during the thermal and UV degradation of these materials. It was found that the two materials differ in relation to the mechanical properties, melting characteristics and network properties of the XLPE, with silane XLPE being generally a more heterogeneously crosslinked material than peroxide XLPE. Various degradation studies revealed that this fundamental difference may also influence the mechanism of the degradation. Silane XLPE was shown to be more sensitive to the degradation and to degrade fundamentally in a more heterogeneous manner than the peroxide XLPE