An Analysis and Verification on Deterioration Patterns of Faulted Cables for Resolution of Product Liability Conflicts

In order to examine the causes of faulted cables under the operation of product liability(PL) law, it was necessary to database the patterns of faulted cables in materials for electric conductivity and insulation. Accurate analyses such as external and surface analysis were performed for the faulted cables and the over-current was given to copper wire used as a cable conductor for verifying the causes of accidents and a pilot experiment for accident patterns was conducted. Meanwhile, the study performed an experiment for the accident patterns of insulation materials in a state of over-voltage using the cables identical to the faulted cables. Through the reconstructed experiment for the cable, the dielectric breakdown by over-voltage took place and it demonstrated the same form as the faulted cable. Therefore, it has been assumed that the causes of faulted cable would be the dielectric breakdown by product defects due to the dissatisfaction of cable insulation performance for the standards of IEC 60502-1 and IEC 60811-1, rather than the accidents by over-current. These results would be used as scientific data in the event of PL conflicts of electric facilities in Korea in the future.