1540 L. Ying and C.

Xiaolong: A Novel Method for the Insulation Thickness Design of HV XLPE Cable Based on Electrical Treeing Tests

A Novel Method for the Insulation Thickness Design

of HV XLPE Cable Based on Electrical Treeing Tests
Liu Ying and Cao Xiaolong
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi’an Jiaotong University
Xi’an 710049, China

ABSTRACT
Electrical treeing endurance behavior of XLPE cable insulation was investigated by
application of AC voltages on specimens with a pin-plane electrode system. The needle
inserted has a tip radius of 10 μm, and the pin-plane distance is 2 mm. The relation
between applied voltage and tree initiation time, when plotted in a log-log coordinate,
could be approximated by three straight lines, and an electrical threshold stress of about
100 kV/mm was deduced from it in the low field region. The voltage endurance coefficient
obtained from tree initiation time increased with higher cumulative probability in the
constant voltage method, but altered little with the ramping-up rate of step voltages
applied in the step-constant voltage method. The treeing breakdown time gave a smaller
value of this coefficient, compared with tree initiation. The XLPE insulation of a taping
mould joint was tested to be more voltage withstanding than a cable body, for its higher
voltage endurance coefficient, 18.6 to 13.8, and slower tree growth, 0.53 to 0.62 mm in 20
minutes. The electrical field for cable insulation design could be connected with tree
initiation stress by a field enhancement factor, and this allowed the insulation thickness of
a 110 kV XLPE cable to be determined with the value of 12 to 13 mm. It is shown that the
insulation design of HV XLPE cables could be safely achieved by the characteristic
parameters determined from electrical treeing test.
Index Terms - XLPE cable insulation, AC voltage, tree initiation, voltage endurance
coefficient, electrical threshold stress.

1 INTRODUCTION samples included 17 impurities, 6 protrusions and no voids,

NOWADAYS extruded insulation has largely superseded
paper-insulated cables at voltages up to and including 150 kV
for new installations, and a new generation of ‘slim-design’
HV cables is being developed, with similar design stresses to
those seen in EHV XLPE systems. Recently XLPE has also
become the insulation of choice for many utilities for EHV
transmission circuits [1].
For cable design, determination of insulation thickness is
one of the key points, and this relies on the firsthand
knowledge about electrical aging properties of XLPE material.
Traditionally, the accelerated electrical aging tests are
breakdown tests, which are laborious and costly. Since the
tree-like breakdown phenomena in XLPE insulation has
become an ever-increasing serious problem for HV and EHV
cables, it is looking promising to investigate the short and
long term electrical aging properties by treeing endurance
characteristics of insulating materials [2].
In the development of insulation for 500 kV XLPE cable,
it was found that the starting points of 23 breakdown
Manuscript received on 19 August 2013, in final form 3 January 2014,
accepted 2 February 2014.
and that metallic impurities were present in all cables tested
[3]. To simulate defects leading to local field enhancement,
such as impurities and protrusions, treeing has been widely
studied using polymer blocks into which a metallic or semi-
conducting needle electrode was inserted [4]. Research
showed that treeing in polyethylene could be regarded as a
prelude to breakdown, and for thin or high-stressed layers,
dielectric breakdown was dominated by the inception rather
than the formative or propagation stage of electrical trees [5-
6]. Ishibashi conducted treeing tests using XLPE cable
samples with a needle inserted form the insulation shield as
well as cable samples with artificial protrusions in conductor
shield, and found that the test data from these two models
were dotted in one curve, and that the tree inception stresses
obtained by cable samples were almost equal to those
obtained by XLPE block samples. Besides, tree inception
voltages of block samples were observed to decrease with
increasing temperature, in a similar way to breakdown
strengths of XLPE cables [7]. Tanaka presented the voltage-
tree initiation time characteristics of polyethylene with a
needle molded, which was in a very similar shape and trend
with the aging curve obtained by breakdown test [8].
SHUVALOV designed the insulation thickness for a 220 kV

DOI 10.1109/TDEI.2014X.004250
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 4; August 2014 1541

cable based on the long term working stress deduced from inserted into the sample to serve as the HV electrode, and the
the life curve for HV XLPE cable insulation by tree conductor screen of the cable was used as the ground
initiation tests on block samples [9]. electrode. The pin-plane distance was controlled to be (2±0.2)
There is no universal standard for the accelerated electrical mm. Figure 1 shows the prepared samples and pin-plane
aging life tests of insulating materials yet. In the engineering electrode system. Samples were prepared in a controlled way,
design of XLPE cables, it is a common way to extrapolate trying to avoid mechanical stresses and voids in needle tip
voltage endurance data from high voltage to obtain estimates region. More details can be found in [12].
of low voltage life on the basis of so-called inverse power
law, and parameters are determined on the conservative side
to compensate for the uncertainties in this process.
There is an argument that from a microscopic point of view
the material degradation mechanism could be different for
treeing and breakdown, but I do not intend to get into a
discussion on it here. The breakdown of a XLPE cable is
believed to occur on a weak point of the insulation, and
treeing is a local micro-breakdown phenomenon around the
needle, which is introduced to artificially produce a weak
point. Since so many points of similarity between treeing and
breakdown characteristics have been presented, and the short
and long term electrical aging properties of some insulating
materials have been represented successfully by their treeing Figure 1. The samples and pin-plane electrode system. Parameters of the
endurance characteristics, treeing test may open a window for needle electrode include: trunk diameter ф=1 mm, point angle θ=30 °,
curvature radius of the tip r=10 µm.
us to investigate the electrical aging life of XLPE cables. In a
treeing test, the whole process from tree initiation, to growth, It was reported that when the tip radius of a needle
till breakdown can be monitored, and some other tests, such as electrode was smaller than 10 μm, especially than 7 μm, the
partial discharge measurement and electroluminescence electric field around its tip became unstable, and the
detection, can be carried out at the same time [10-11]. This is calculated values of apparent field deviated remarkably from
helpful to provide more details about electrical aging of the actual ones [4,7]. However for large needle tips, the low
insulating materials than before. stress will cause the tree initiation time unacceptably long for
In this paper, electrical treeing tests were performed on test. Based on above, the tip radius of needle electrode was
XLPE insulation specimens of 110 kV AC cables, and the chosen to be 10 μm.
times for electrical trees to initiate under different voltage
2.2 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
levels of power frequency were recorded and statistically
analyzed. Based on the voltage-time data, two important Prepared samples were mounted in a test container filled with
parameters for cable insulation design were determined, silicone oil, to prevent external discharges or flashover, and to
namely the electrical threshold stress and voltage endurance increase samples transparency for a better observation of
coefficient. The calculated value of voltage endurance electrical trees within. With a digital micro-imaging system
coefficient was influenced by the evaluation method adopted, consisting of a microscope, a charge coupled device (CCD)
the cumulative probability for tree initiation time camera, a transmitted light source and a personal computer (PC),
determination, and the source of life time data, from tree the samples could be observed in real time, and pictures be taken
initiation or breakdown. In the last part, the insulation at an interval of 1 s. The experimental setup is shown in Figure 2.
thickness of a 110 kV XLPE cable was designed by the
critical stress and voltage endurance coefficient, respectively,
and the results were highly consistent. The preliminary work
in this paper indicates the feasibility of using treeing tests to
take place of breakdown tests for electrical aging evaluation
and cable insulation design.

2 EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 SAMPLE PREPARATION
All samples came from the insulated core of a new 110 kV
AC XLPE cable, with an insulation and conductor screen
layer of 15.5 and 0.5 mm respectively. After the removal of
the conductor and insulation screen, the hollow cylinder was
cut into circular or semi-circular discs of 5 mm thick. A steel
needle, with a tip of (10±1) µm in curvature radius, was Figure 2. The experimental setup.
1542 L. Ying and C. Xiaolong: A Novel Method for the Insulation Thickness Design of HV XLPE Cable Based on Electrical Treeing Tests
3 MEASUREMENTS
3.1 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Three forms of voltage were used in this experiment,
including progressive, step and constant voltages. After the
voltage application, the samples were photographed every 1 s,
to determine when an electrical tree appeared or treeing
breakdown happened. With the microscope it was possible to
observe a tree with length down to 20 μm. The time interval
between voltage application and tree initiation or treeing
breakdown was called tree initiation time or treeing
breakdown time respectively.
The samples were divided into groups of 10. After the
treeing test of one group, it followed the statistical treatment
of the time data recorded.
3.2 ACCELERATED TEST UNDER 400 HZ
Power frequency voltages of 50 Hz were used in this
experiment. Nevertheless when the voltage is low, tree
initiation time will be rather long, even up to thousands of
hours. In order to accelerate the test, a procedure sometimes
used is to increase the frequency of applied voltage. The tree
initiation time tp at power frequency fp is often derived from
the initiation time th at the test frequency fh by means of the
following relationship:
f h tp
 (1)
f p th
The validity of this relationship has been proved, so long as
the test frequency fh is no more than 10 times fp [13-14]. After
some exploratory tests, an acceleration frequency of 400 Hz is
used in this project, which can shorten the test time under low
voltages to one-eighth of the original.
3.3 STATISTICS
The guiding principle for statistical analysis of electrical
insulation breakdown data has been given by IEEE, which is
also applicable to treeing test data [15]. Among known
distributions, Weibull statistics is commonly used for the
analysis of electrical tree growth data, and it has also been
used in this paper.
Suppose the tree initiation time data fit the 2-parameter
Weibull distribution, the expression for the cumulative density
function for this 2-parameter Weibull distribution can be
described as:
 t 
F (t )  1  exp  ( )   (2)
  
where t is the tree initiation time,  is the scale parameter,  is
the shape parameter, and F(t) is the probability of tree
initiation at a time less than or equal to t. Place the n time data
in order from smallest to largest and assign them a rank from
i=1 to i=n, F(i,n) can be determined by Ross function [16]:
i  0.44
F (i , n )   100% (3)
n  0.25
3.4 VOLTAGE ENDURANCE COEFFICIENT
Early in the 1930s, researchers analyzed the relationship
between the applied voltage and life time of test samples, and
established equation (4), which is often referred to as the
inverse power law and widely used in the assessment of
electrical aging life of XLPE cables [17].
t  C V  n                                                    
where t is the life time of samples, C is a constant depending on the
material and environmental conditions, V is the applied voltage,
and n is the voltage endurance coefficient of the test material or
structure. In a double logarithm coordinate diagram there would be
a linear relationship between applied voltage and life time, and the
value of n is thus the negative reciprocal of the line slope. This is
called the constant voltage method in this paper.
It is necessary to state that not all data from aging
experiments agree with equation (4). Any deviation from it
indicates changes in the aging mechanism and thus changes of
n. In the whole time range, the voltage endurance line may be
straight or curved. In the latter case, its trend can often be
approximated by a few straight regions [18].
Suppose a cumulative effect exists in the process of
electrical aging, under the same cumulative aging, the data
from the progressive or step voltage test can be related to
those from constant voltage test by the following formula:
tp
n  1                                                     
tc
where tp and tc is the sample life time in the progressive or
step and constant voltage test, respectively, for the same value
of stress. This idea is put forward by Simoni, and it is helpful
for quick determination of the voltage endurance coefficient
[19]. It is called the step-constant voltage method.
3.5 ELECTRICAL THRESHOLD STRESS
According to equation (4), the V-t line should be straight on
log-log graph paper. As a matter of fact, this line may tend to
become horizontal with decreasing voltage, suggesting a
limiting voltage Vt below which electrical aging becomes
negligible. This limit is called the threshold voltage. If the line
approaches a threshold voltage, Vt, other models have been
proposed, among them equation (6) are widely used [18].
t  C   (V  Vt )  n (6)
Due to the fixed structure and size of the specimen and
electrode system, the electrical threshold stress Et is then
determined accordingly.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 VOLTAGE–TIME CHARACTERISTIC
Electrical treeing tests were performed under constant
voltages of power frequency, except for the one under 5 kV,
which was an accelerated test under 400 Hz. The data of tree
initiation time and applied voltages are listed in Table 1,
where suspended data are marked with “S”.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 4; August 2014 1543
Table 1. Tree initiation time under different levels of constant voltage. Value of nt is calculated to be approximately 10.3 in the
Voltage time region of minutes, 5.8 in hours, and nearly 40.8 in
Tree initiation time (min)
(kV) days. This indicates that if the electrical field is close to a
16.0 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.30, 0.35, 0.45, 0.45 certain critical value, extremely long time for tree initiation
14.4 0.15, 0.50, 0.50, 0.60, 0.65, 0.70, 0.75, 0.80, 1.05, 1.05
12.8 0.70, 1.10, 1.35, 1.40, 1.50, 1.90, 2.70, 3.50, 3.90, 10.5
can be expected. If the whole time range is divided into two
11.2 0.50, 1.50, 2.15, 4.40, 5.70, 11.5, 13.5, 18.5, 21.5, 29.5 sections as in [8], then the coefficients obtained are 7.6 and
10.1 1.00, 3.00, 4.00, 6.00, 18.0, 20.0, 22.0, 24.0, 31.0, 48.0 40.8, very close to the test data of 7 and 47 obtained from
8.0 6.00, 17.0, 43.0, 70.0, 71.0, 77.0, 93.0, 98.0, 166, 166 S the voltage-tree initiation time characteristic of polyethylene
6.0 48.0, 104, 240, 254, 256, 307, 320, 626, 626 S , 626 S
720, 2160, 2880, 4320, 6480, 7200, 12240, 18000,
with a needle molded.
5.5
20880, 23040 Generally speaking, the relationship between voltage and
11520, 161280, 218880, 230400, 357120, 506880, tree initiation time in Figure 3 has a fairly close resemblance
5.0
506880 S , 506880 S , 506880 S , 506880 S
to the V-t curve from traditional breakdown test [15, 18].
Table 2. Weibull parameters of tree initiation time data under different levels They both can be divided into three sections, each fitted by a
of constant voltage. straight line, and the slope changes in a similar trend. More
Weibull parameters specifically, they both have a first part with a low slope,
Voltage corresponding to dielectric sporadic breakdowns under high
(kV) Scale parameter Correlation
(min)
Shape parameter
coefficient stress caused by some impurities, a middle region with a
16.0 0.31 2.4 0.99 steeper slope, corresponding to wearing breakdowns under
14.4 0.77 2.7 0.94 medium stress, and finally a further tendency to become
12.8 2.92 1.3 0.92 horizontal, corresponding to erosion damages under low
11.2 11.7 0.9 0.99
10.1 19.5 1.0 0.98
stress.
8.0 95.7 1.3 0.97 Therefore, since the initiation of electrical trees in XLPE
6.0 405 1.5 0.96 cable is usually regarded as a form of micro breakdowns, it
5.5 10882 1.0 0.99
5.0 678123 0.9 0.95 should have a specific relationship with the macro
breakdown happened in corresponding dielectrics. This
The time data in Table 1 were statistically analyzed, and provides the theoretical basis to perform the aging test and
some relevant parameters obtained are shown in Table 2. life evaluation by electrical treeing endurance of insulating
Please notice that the correlation coefficient of each data set in materials.
Table 2 is no less than 0.92, which testifies that the
experimental data fit a 2-parameter Weibull distribution. 4.2 DETERMINATION OF ELECTRICAL THRESHOLD
The scale parameter in Table 2 is the time expectation for STRESS
an electrical tree to initiate under the cumulative probability of The three sets of test data under 6.0, 5.5 and 5.0 kV are
63.2 %. In a log-log coordinate, the relationship between tree fitted by equation (6), and it provides the threshold voltage for
initiation time and applied voltage is depicted in Figure 3, electrical tree initiation as the following:
where the discrete dots are original test data, and the straight
lines are obtained by data fitting in different regions. Vt  3.45 kV
nt  14.8

Assuming no space charge, the static electrical field Et at

the needle tip for the voltage Vt of 3.45 kV is calculated to be
about 103 kV/mm using the formula (7) below:

Figure 3. Relationship between tree initiation time and voltage applied.
As shown in Figure 3, V-t characteristic of XLPE samples
is not in a straight line, but a ‘Z’ shape curve. In the whole
voltage range, its trend could be approximated by three
straight lines, indicating three different values of the voltage
endurance coefficient. nt is used here instead of n, to
distinguish the coefficient derived by electrical treeing test
from that by traditional breakdown test.
2Vt
Et  (7)
4d
R ln(1  )
R
where R is the curvature radius of needle tip, 10 μm, and d is
the distance between needle and plane electrode, 2 mm.
It is reported that the critical field for charge injection in
polyethylene material is about 100 kV/mm [20-21]. Electro-
luminescence is a clear evidence for the occurrence of space
charge effects in tree initiation, and combined electro-
luminescence and space charge measurements have shown
that the onset fields for both effects to be in the range of 100
kV/mm [4, 22]. However, recent space charge measurements
have indicated threshold fields for charge injection with much
lower values as well. Based on the test and calculation, the
electrical threshold stress for tree initiation in XLPE cable
1544 L. Ying and C. Xiaolong: A Novel Method for the Insulation Thickness Design of HV XLPE Cable Based on Electrical Treeing Tests
insulation is determined to be 100 kV/mm in this project,
which is also the onset field for the acceleration of tree growth
in XLPE insulation [10].
4.3 DETERMINATION OF VOLTAGE ENDURANCE
COEFFICIENT
4.3.1 CONSTANT VOLTAGE METHOD
Under the application of a progressive voltage with a ramp-
up of 90 V/s, the tree initiation voltage Vi of ten samples are
shown in Figure 4, and the voltage, nearly 16 kV,
corresponding to the cumulative probability of 63.2 %, is
taken as the expected initiation voltage V0.
Figure 4. Tree initiation voltage at progressive voltage test.
The voltages V0, 0.9V0, 0.8V0, and 0.7V0, namely 16.0 kV,
14.4 kV, 12.8 kV and 11.2 kV, are chosen as the four voltage
levels for constant voltage test. The tree initiation time ti for
samples under each voltage level V can be determined at
different cumulative probabilities, namely 10 %, 63.2 %, 80 %
and 99 %. Based on that, values of nt will change accordingly,
as shown in Figure 5, where in a double natural-logarithmic
coordinate, the V-t curves are all straight lines.
(a) 10 %, nt =5.6 (b) 63.2 %, nt =10.3
(c) 80 %, nt =11.3 (d) 99 %, nt =13.8
Figure 5. V-t curves and nt under different tree initiation probabilities.
The figures above show that the lines all have a high degree
of fitting. The value of voltage endurance coefficient tends to
increase along with the increase of tree initiation probability.
In the electrical treeing test, it is recommended to determine ti
at a high cumulative probability. In this way, the randomness
in tree initiation caused by some unexpected defects and
cracks around the needle electrode can be largely reduced, and
the obtained nt can serve as a reliable indicator for the
electrical performance of the test sample.
4.3.2 STEP-CONSTANT VOLTAGE METHOD
By using the step-constant voltage method in tree initiation
test, two sets of data are shown in Table 3. It can be seen that
the difference in rising rate of the step voltage applied, one at
1 kV per 30 min and the other at 250 V per 2.5 min, do not
make much difference in the values of nt obtained, with 13.8
compared to 13.1.
Although the tree initiation tests carried out in high stress
region give a constant voltage endurance coefficient, as in
Figure 5, it is remarkably different from that in the medium or
low stress region, as shown in Figure 3. This has been
attributed to the different dominant mechanisms for tree
initiation, commonly accepted as dielectric breakdown in high
stress and erosion in low stress region, and it causes some
difficulties in application.
Compared to the constant voltage method, the step-constant
voltage method is recommended here for the determination of
voltage endurance coefficient, because of the stable result it
can provide. By using the step-constant voltage method, the
tree initiation time data under both a step or progressive
voltage and a corresponding constant voltage has to be tested.
Under the step or progressive voltage, since the voltage
increases from 0 to a high level for tree initiation, the aging
characteristic of insulation samples would contain all the
features under low, medium and high electrical stress, so as to
fully reflect the voltage endurance properties of the material
under test. From this point of view, tree initiation is required
to happen in the high voltage region during application of the
step-constant voltage method. That is why 13.1 will be taken
as value of nt in this experiment.
In all above, electrical tree resistance of samples is studied
by tree initiation time. Traditionally, sample life is defined as
the time period from voltage application to final breakdown.
So for comparison, time data for sample treeing breakdown is
also used for analysis, as shown in Table 3. The voltage
endurance coefficient nt is now calculated to be 10.1, much
smaller than the value of 13.8 derived from tree initiation test
with the same step voltage.
Under a constant voltage, trees in samples will grow into
three types, including bush tree, branch-pine tree and branch
tree, whose growth rates differ a lot. The bush trees grow very
slowly and in a stagnant period, they hardly grow forward.
The existence of the stagnation makes breakdown time for
bush trees quite long, resulting in a large tc and a small nt.
Because of the large variance caused by different tree shape
on breakdown time, tree initiation test is preferred for the
evaluation of voltage endurance coefficient.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 4; August 2014 1545

Table 3. Test data from step-constant voltage method.

Step Voltage Constant Voltage nt
Test object Source of time data tp
Rate of rising tp (min) Voltage (kV) tc (min) ( nt  -1 )
tc
1 kV per 30 min 288.6 10.1 19.5 13.8
Tree initiation
Cable insulation 250 V per 2.5 min 114.5 11.6 8.1 13.1
Treeing breakdown 1 kV per 30 min 571.1 20 51.4 10.1
TMJ insulation Tree initiation 1 kV per 30 min 370.3 13.75 18.9 18.6

4.3.3 TESTS ON INSULATION OF TMJ
Tree initiation tests were performed on XLPE insulation
samples of a taping mould joint (TMJ), and the data are listed in
the last row of Table 3. Under the same experimental condition,
the voltage endurance coefficient is tested to be 18.6,
remarkably higher than that of 13.8 for main body of XLPE
cable. This result indicates a much stronger electrical treeing
resistance of the XLPE insulation from TMJ than cable body,
and it can be further testified by tree growth test. In 20 minutes
after tree initiation, tree branches in TMJ insulation samples
have an average length of 0.53 mm along the direction of
electrical field, whereas 0.62 mm in cable insulation.
With raw materials being the same, the difference is caused
by the manufacturing process. Compared to the extrusion
process of cable insulation, taping mould process can provide
a more compact insulation for the TMJ, so as to improve its
treeing endurance performance along the radial direction,
perpendicular to taping.
5 INSULATION THICKNESS DESIGN FOR
A 110 KV CABLE
5.1 BY THE LONG TERM WORKING STRESS
In section 4.2, the electrical threshold stress Et for tree
initiation in XLPE samples has been determined to be 100
kV/mm, and the long term working stress E∞ of the cable
insulation can then be connected with it by the field enhancement
factor kf at a microscopic defect causing tree initiation.
Here the field enhancement factor kf is related to the most
dangerous defect, in this case, a metal defect with the
maximum size allowed by Chinese national standard, 125 μm,
and a tip radius same as the needle inserted, 10 μm [23]. Thus
kf can be determined as the following [24].
1 1  1 1
  1.04 ，   ln   1.00
1  10 2  1 
125
1 1  1 
kf  1  ( ln  )  11.8
 2  1  2 1
This enhancement factor kf describes the distortion degree
of local field at defect tip compared to the global field of cable
insulation. Suppose the electrical tree will start from this most
dangerous defect to cause the final breakdown of whole
insulation, thus the working stress E∞ for cable design can be
obtained from Et by:
E 100
E  t   8.47 kV/mm (9)
kf 11.8
By taking the influence of temperature, mechanical force
and other uncertainties into consideration, the insulation
thickness d can be determined by the equation:
1.15  U 0 / 3  k1  k2
d  11.9 mm (10)
E
where U0 is the rated voltage of the cable, 110 kV; k1 is the
temperature factor, 1.2; k2 is a factor accounting for
mechanical force and other uncertainties, 1.15 [3, 9].
5.2 BY THE EXTRAPOLATION OF SHORT TERM
FIELD STRENGTH
In the engineering practice, it is a common way to design
the thickness of cable insulation by using the field strength of
1 hour, and in this case, voltage endurance coefficient is
adopted to account for the electrical aging effect. By testing
data in section 4.1, the electrical field to cause tree initiation
under 1 hour duration is estimated to be 250 kV/mm, and thus
the dielectric strength of cable insulation can be calculated as:
250
E1h   21.2 kV/mm (11)
11.8
In this case, an aging factor k3 has to be introduced to
establish the connection between 1 hour testing time and cable
design life. Based on the experimental results in section 4, an
integer value of 13 is taken for the voltage endurance
coefficient. For a widely accepted design life, 40 years, of a
XLPE cable, the aging factor k3 and the insulation thickness d′
can be calculated by the following equations:
k3  13 40  365  24  2.67 (12)
1.15  U 0 / 3  k1  k2  k3
d   12.7 mm (13)
E1h
The two methods above give consistent results, with the
(8) insulation thickness of a 110 kV XLPE cable designed to be
12 to 13 mm. It is in line with the data presented by CIGRE
working group [25].
6 CONCLUSIONS
The initiation time characteristics of electrical trees in
XLPE treeing test samples were investigated under voltages
of 50 and 400 Hz as an acceleration frequency, to obtain key
parameters for voltage endurance performance evaluation of
insulating materials, and to determine the insulation
1546 L. Ying and C. Xiaolong: A Novel Method for the Insulation Thickness Design of HV XLPE Cable Based on Electrical Treeing Tests
thickness for a HV cable. Conclusions are obtained as
follows:
(1) The V-t curve obtained from tree initiation test has a close
resemblance to the electrical aging lifetime curve from
traditional breakdown test, indicating a specific correspondence
between the micro and macro breakdown properties of
insulating materials.
(2) When tree initiation time data under voltages of 6.0, 5.5 and 5
kV are fitted by the curve t  C   ( E  Et )  n , the electrical
threshold stress for tree initiation is determined to be 100
kV/mm, and the long term working stress for the 110 kV
XLPE cable insulation under testing is thus designed as 8.47
kV/mm.
(3) The step-constant voltage method is recommended for the
determination of voltage endurance coefficient, with tree
initiation happening in the high voltage region, to reflect the
overall electrical aging characteristics of test samples. For
XLPE cable insulation tested in this project, this coefficient is
13.1. The increased voltage endurance of TMJ insulation is
confirmed by the larger coefficient value compared to the
XLPE insulation of cable body.
(4) With the short and long term working stress, as well as the
voltage endurance coefficient determined by the tree initiation
test, the XLPE insulation of the 110 kV cable is designed as 12
to 13mm.
Although it seems feasible to design the XLPE insulation
thickness for a HV cable based on electrical treeing test, it is more
or less an empirical method, similar with the traditional aging life
assessment based on breakdown test. More details are still needed
for its theoretical fundamentals, as well as the electrical aging
mechanism of insulating materials.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Nature Science
Foundation of China under contract NSFC 51307131. The
authors would like to acknowledge BAI Hui, for his efforts in
the tree initiation experiments.
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Liu Ying (M’08) was born in Sichuan, China in 1976.
She received the B.Eng., M.Eng., and Dr. Eng. degrees
from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China in 1999,
2002 and 2006, respectively. She is currently a lecturer
in the Department of Electrical Engineering of Xi’an
Jiaotong University. She is engaged in the design of
insulation structures and measuring techniques of
electrical insulation. She is a member of CIGRE B1
TAG.
Cao Xiaolong (M’95-SM’98) was born in Shaanxi,
China in 1945. He received the Ph.D. degree from
Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1986. He is a Professor in
the Department of electrical engineering of Xi’an
Jiaotong University. His research interests include
dielectric materials and electrical cable technology. He
is a senior member of the IEEE Dielectrics and
Electrical Insulation Society, and a member of CIGRE
SC as well.