ISBN: 978-1-4799-8903-4 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on the Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials (ICPADM)
A New Method of Aging Assessment for XLPE
Cable Insulation Based on Dielectric Response
Ji Liu, Daning Zhang, Cao Bin, Ling Huang
State Key Lab. Breeding Base of Dielectrics Engineering
Harbin University of Science and Technology
Harbin, China
liuji@hrbust.edu.cn
AbstractIn order to solve the problem of permanent
damage caused by the traditional tensile strength test in
insulation ageing assessment of XLPE (extrude low-density
polyethylene) cables, this paper presents a new method of aging
assessment for XLPE cables insulation based on
ultra-low-frequency dielectric response measurements. On the
basis of equivalent circuit, the measurement algorithm of
dielectric response is analyzed, whereafter, the calculating
formulas of dielectric parameters are obtained. In addition,
XLPE cables samples were carried on accelerated thermal ageing
under laboratory conditions. It is shown from the results that
dielectric dissipation factor increases obviously at lower
frequency range with the increasing aging time. The total FDS
(frequency domain spectroscopy) curves shift towards the high
frequency regions with the increase of test temperature. The
minimum value of dielectric dissipation factor for XLPE cable
samples is almost the same at different test temperatures and
certain ageing time. Therefore, the minimum value of dielectric
dissipation factor in frequency domain can be used as the
reference criterion of insulation ageing status. The new dielectric
response assessment method presented in this paper could be
used as non-destructive ageing evaluation criterion of XLPE
cables.
Keywordsdielectric response; dielectric dissipation factor;
ageing criterion; insulation assessment.
I. INTRODUCTION
Dielectric response analysis can be used for exploring the
interaction between arbitrary electric field and samples or
devices, which is depended on measuring dielectric parameters
of non-metallic materials in a wide range of frequency. The
dielectric spectrum curves including lots of molecular
structure, bound and moving charge information are sensitive
to the molecular interactions and have become an efficient tool
to the study of solid dielectric system in the macroscopic,
mesoscopic and microscopic level [1-4].
Dielectric response analysis includes time domain and
frequency domain methods. The FDS (frequency domain
spectroscopy) method is widely employed since dielectric
dissipation factor of cable insulation is always the most
important evaluation parameter. Frequency response analyzer
has been applied to Novocontrol's and Salatron's industrial
systems due to their economy and sensitivity [5-6]. Royal
Institute of Technology (KTH) and ABB company spend
978-1-4799-8903-4/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE
560
Yantao Gao, Xiaojing Li
Daqing Electric Power Bureau
Heilongjiang Electric Power Company Ltd.
Daqing, China
several years developing high voltage dielectric spectroscopy
analyzer for XLPE cable measurement in the range of 100Hz
to get reliable results [7].
Nowadays, researchers generally focus on the treeing
discharge of XLPE insulation, which is initiated by the
moisture inside polyethylene insulation. P. Werelius carries out
dielectric spectroscopy diagnosis of water tree deterioration in
medium voltage cables and propose on-site diagnostic criterion
of water tree from about 200 sets of field data and laboratory
tests [8]. T. K. Saha theoretically investigates the dielectric
response law of the water tree based on dynamic finite element
model of electric field and presents specific model applied to
explain the dielectric response characteristics of various types
of trees [9].
It was already known that non-polar dielectric had a very
low dissipation factor up to very high frequencies. Therefore,
polyethylene has dielectric properties that are quite different
from oil-paper insulation. Traditional on-site measurements,
such as loss factor at power frequency or dc conductivity of
XLPE cables, often provide contradictory results [10]. Test
results of partial discharge in XLPE cables can explain some
faults due to defects, nevertheless, which cannot estimate the
aging degree in quantity [11-12]. In summary, the research
work mainly focus on dielectric properties at power frequency
or high frequency. It should be stressed that dielectric
properties at low- and very low-frequency must take into
consideration, which is obvious to assess aging process of the
dielectric material used in power cables.
This paper mainly demonstrates dielectric response
measuring algorithm and dielectric parameters calculating
formula. A non-destructive ageing evaluation criterion of
XLPE cables is obtained from the test results of dielectric
dissipation factor by means of accelerated thermal ageing of
cable samples under laboratory conditions.
II. AGEING PARAMETERS CALCULATION OF XLPE CABLES
A. Equivalent Circuit Model
An equivalent circuit model of dielectric is shown in Fig. 1.
In Fig. 1 is high frequency capacitance between the
electrodes, is steady resistance between two electrodes,
and each branch with series of and represents a
relaxation polarization process.
 ISBN: 978-1-4799-8903-4 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on the Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials (ICPADM)
idepol
C1 C2 Cn
C R0
Uc
R1 R2 Rn
Fig. 1 Equivalent circuit model of dielectric.
If applied voltage is sinusoidal excitation, complex
capacitance can be calculated according to complex
admittance . Without external electric field, XLPE cable samples are
C (1)
The real part and imaginary part of complex capacitance
are shown respectively.
Dielectric dissipation factor tan is calculated as
follow.
tan
It is obtained that frequency is directly relevant to complex
capacitance and complex permittivity when other parameters
are known.
B. Test System
Measurement principle and field test connection are shown
in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3. In DSP control system, the analog signal
is converted into digital signal by measuring impendence at
specific frequency and voltage amplitude. The values of
capacitance, permittivity and loss factor in frequency can be
obtained by (2) to (4).
The XLPE cables are wrapped in aluminum foils with length
of 1.0m, which is acted as measuring electrode. There is also a
2.0cm width aluminum foils used as protecting electrode with
a gap of 1.0cm apart from measuring electrode edge. Cable
samples are suspended within a temperature controllable oven.
Considering significant memory feature in experimental data,
the test samples should be short-circuit and grounding
half-hour before test to ensure samples back to the initial state.
Fig. 2. Measurement principle
Fig. 3. Connection diagram.
heated in oven for ageing continuously. Oven temperature
maintained at 1351, with 8 hours heating time and 16 hours
cooling time everyday. Two group of samples are heated up to
120 hours and 240 hours respectively. After ageing test, XLPE
cable became more dark significantly, toughness reduced and
bending cracks in the two ends of cables.
(2)
III. TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
(3) A. Effect of ageing degree on FDS curves
In Fig. 4, dielectric dissipation factor tan of different aging
time are numerically calculated in accordance with (4), then
plotted as a function of frequency. The curves with different
colors represent the dielectric loss of samples under different
(4) ageing time and temperature, including 30, 50 and 80.
As shown in Fig. 4, for the same test temperature, the
dissipation factor curves of samples ageing with 240 hours are
totally locate above the curves ageing with 120 hours.
As known that the dielectric loss is comprised of
conduction loss and relaxation loss, the relaxation loss can be
neglected in high frequency region. Relaxation loss is only
built in low frequency, which results in increasing relaxation
loss. As shown in Fig. 4, the tan increase with the reduction
of frequency.
The values of capacitance are almost constant at three
temperature levels of ageing samples with ageing time of 120h,
as shown in Fig. 5. The capacitance values of 240h ageing
samples are higher than that of ageing samples at 120h, and
the values increase obviously as the frequency decreased
when frequency f is lower than 1.0Hz.
Fig. 4. FDS curves at different ageing time.
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 ISBN: 978-1-4799-8903-4 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on the Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials (ICPADM)

As we known, it is called low-frequency dispersion region

where 1 , and the cycle of applied voltage is close to
relaxation time in this region. When the temperature rise up,
low-frequency dispersion region shifts towards higher
frequency and the whole curves move into high frequency
range. Therefore, the decrease of the tan in high frequency at
high test temperature is caused by the curve shifting to the
high frequency region. At the same time, the relaxation time
decreases with the rising temperature, meanwhile, the rate of
relaxation could keep up with the changes under the
alternating electric field, and the relaxation loss thus decreases
with the increase of the test temperature.
The real part of the complex permittivity at different test
Fig. 5. Capacitances of XLPE cables at different ageing time.
temperatures in XLPE cable samples are shown as a function
The real part of complex permittivity in XLPE cable of frequency in Fig. 8.
samples with different ageing time are shown in Fig. 6. Real
part of complex permittivity of samples ageing at 240h
increase with decrease of the frequency with the frequency
range from 10-3Hz to 1Hz when tested at 50 and 80
respectively. XLPE is weakly polar material and its
polarization type is mainly the electronic displacement
polarization. The dipole polarization contributed little and its
relaxation time is very short which means that dipole
polarization can build up in relatively low frequency range.
Thus, the real part of complex permittivity and capacitance are
independent of frequency and the shape of the curve appears
horizontal.
B. Effects of testing temperature on FDS curves
Fig. 6. Real permittivity of XLPE cables at different ageing time.
The FDS curves of XLPE cable is shown in Fig. 7 with an
ageing time of 240h and different test temperature. It is shown
that the temperature has a great impact on tan, for example,
the tan increases from 0.011969 (measured at 30) to
0.10096 (measured at 50) at 0.01Hz. Since thermal motion
of molecules is very weak, and the establishment of dipolar
relaxation associated with the thermal motion is slow at low
temperature, the tan is thus relatively small at 30 .
Therefore, temperature is a key factor which must be taken
into account when using FDS method to determine the ageing
degree of the cable insulation.
In Fig. 7, the curves of tan shift upwards with the increase
of test temperature, and shift simultaneously towards the high
frequency region. As e 0
u / kT
( is the relaxation time, k is
Fig. 7. FDS curves at different test temperature.
Boltzmanns constant, u0 is the molecular activation energy),
the rotation ability for polar molecules will be enhanced with
temperature rise, and the dipolar relaxation polarization
associated with thermal movement will be built quickly. The
relaxation loss of high temperature contributes thus more than
that of low temperature at the same frequency. Therefore, the
tan grow exponentially with the increase of temperature.
For different test temperatures, the minimum value of tan
appears shifting towards higher frequency range. It is also
seen that the minimum value of tan is close to each other at
different test temperatures and has a decreasing trend as the
test temperature increase. Therefore, the minimum value of
tan in frequency domain can be taken as reference criterion
of insulation ageing condition.
Fig. 8. Real permittivity of XLPE cables at different test temperature.

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 ISBN: 978-1-4799-8903-4 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on the Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials (ICPADM)

When the test temperature increased, thermal motion of
molecules is more active, so that various kinds of polarization
have enough time to be built, which results in the growth of
the real part of the complex relative permittivity. The higher
test temperature, the more complete polarization process.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the work above, non-destructive evaluation
criterion of XLPE cable insulation ageing and related results
are suitable for laboratory as well as field measurement.
Different ageing degree of XLPE cable insulation is
sensitive to FDS spectrum, and dielectric dissipation factor
increases significantly with increasing ageing time at lower
frequency domain. The capacitance increase slightly and the
real part of the complex relative permittivity remains constant
when frequency is more than 1.0Hz.
[8] P. WereliusP. TharningR. Erikssonet alDielectric spectroscopy
for diagnosis of water tree deterioration in XLPE cables IEEE
Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical InsulationVol. 8, No. 1, pp.
27-42, 2001.
[9] T. K. SahaJ. H. YewP. Purkait, Experience with dielectric response
measurements on oil-paper insulated cablesThe 13th International
Symposium on High Voltage EngineeringDelftNetherlandsAugust
25-29pp.1-4, 2003
[10] W. S. Zaengl, Applications of dielectric spectroscopy in time and
frequency domain for HV power equipment IEEE Electrical
Insulation MagazineVol. 19, No. 6, pp. 9-22, 2003.
[11] E. Lemke, T. Strehl, S. Markalous, et al., Ultra-wide-band PD
diagnostics of power cable terminations in serviceIEEE Transactions
on Dielectrics and Electrical InsulationVol. 15, No. 6, pp. 1570-1575,
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[12] F. P. Mohamed, W. H. Siew, J. J. Soraghan, et al., The use of power
frequency current transformers as partial discharge sensors for
underground cablesIEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical
InsulationVol. 20, No. 3, pp. 814-824, 2013.

The impact of test temperature must be taken into account

in the diagnosis of XLPE cable insulation. The real part of
permittivity increases with the increasing test temperature
when the frequency is lower than 1.0Hz. The dielectric
dissipation factor enlarges with the increase of test
temperature, meanwhile, total test curves shift towards high
frequency region with the increasing test temperature. It is
found that the minimum value of dielectric dissipation factor
is nearly equal for a certain ageing time and regardless of the
test temperature, which can be taken as reference criterion of
insulation ageing condition.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This project was supported by the National Basic Research
Program of China (2012CB 723308) and Heilongjiang Natural
Science Fund (E201450/E070201). We wish to thank the Key
Laboratory of Engineering Dielectric and Its Application of
Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of
Dielectrics Engineering for their support.
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