Influence of Combined Electrothermal Aging on Dielectric and Thermal Properties of HVAC XLPE Cable

To explore the influence of electrothermal aging on the properties of HVAC XLPE cable during its normal operation, two circuits of 110 kV XLPE cable were subjected to a combined electrothermal accelerated aging test for 180 days. The test voltage was set at 95 kV, and the test temperature was set at 90 °C. The constant temperature aging mode was adopted for one circuit, and the periodic thermal cycle aging mode was adopted for the other circuit. The dielectric property of the cable was diagnosed with dielectric spectroscopy measurement, and the thermal property was diagnosed with thermal parameters (thermal capacity and thermal resistance) measurement. Combined with Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements, morphological changes in the insulation under different electrothermal aging modes were analyzed to construct the correlation with the dielectric and thermal properties. The results show that the short-term electrothermal constant temperature aging mode effectively enhances the dielectric and thermal properties of the cable by modifying spherulite morphology and migrating polar compounds; the short-term electrothermal cycle aging mode also enhances the thermal properties of the cable due to the drop in small polar compounds. However, different distributions of polar compounds and crystal interfaces in the insulation lead to extreme distortion in the electric field distribution.