Requirements of insulation

1. High insulation resistance

2. High dielectric strength
3. Good mechanical properties (tenacity and elasticity)
4. Immune to chemicals around it
5. Non Hygroscopic (Di-electric strength decreases very much with
moisture content)

INSULATION MATERIALS AND PROPERTIES

I. Vulcanized rubber

Rubber used in

i. Natural form :- absorbs moisture readily and gets oxidized into

resinous material and hence loses insulating properties
ii. Mixed with sulphur and chosen ingredients :- When the
mixture is subjected to particular temperature, it changes to
vulcanized rubber. It doesn’t absorbs moisture and has better
insulation properties than natural rubber, elastic and resilient
Expected electrical properties of rubber insulation are

1. High break down strength

2. High insulation resistance
Insulation strength of vulcanized rubber is so good for lower voltages and its
radical thickness is limited due to mechanical consideration.
Expected physical properties of rubber insulation are

1. Withstand normal hazards of installation

2. Trouble free service

Vulcanized rubber insulated cables are used for low power applications like

a. Wiring of houses
b. Buildings
c. Factories

Two main groups of synthetic rubber material are

i. General purpose synthetics which have rubber like properties

ii. Special purpose synthetics which have better properties than rubber
e.g. fire resisting and oil resisting properties

Four main types of rubber

i. Butyl rubber
 ii. Silicon rubber
iii. Neoprene
iv. Styrene rubber

i. Butyl Rubber: The processing of butyl rubber is similar to that of natural

rubber except that butyl rubber is subjected to continuous temperature of 85 oC
whereas for natural rubber it is 60o. Current ratings for butyl rubber and paper or
PVC insulated cables are approximately same. This compound can also be
manufactured such that it has low water absorption and also has possibilities for a
non-metallic sheathed cable suitable for direct burial in the ground.
ii. Silicon Rubber: is mechanically weak and needs external protection but has
high heat resistant properties (can be operated above 150oC.
Raw materials used: sand, marsh gas, salt, coke and magnesium.

iii.Neoprene: is polymerized chloro butadiene. Neoprene does not have good

insulating properties and is used upto 660V a.c, but has very good fire
resisting properties and therefore can be extensively used as a sheathing
material.
iv. Styrene Rubber: is used both for insulating and sheathing of cables which
has properties similar to natural rubber

II. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

 Polymer derived from acetylene

 Produced in different grades depending on polymerization process
 Compounded with plasticizer which makes it plastic over a wide range of
temperature to use in cable industry
 PVC material has many grades which depends on plasticizer.
PVC is inferior to vulcanized in respect of elasticity and insulation resistance.

i. General Purpose Type: used for sheathing and as an insulating material. In

this compound, monomeric plasticizers are used. V.R insulated PVC sheathed
cable is not good to use. Due to monomeric plasticizer which volatilizes at 80-
100oC, these compounds become stiff.
ii. Hard Grade PVC: Less amount of plasticizer than general purpose type.
These are used for high temperature for short duration of time but not for low
continuous temperature.
iii. Heat Resisting PVC: By making use of polymeric plasticizers, it is possible
to operate cables continuously at 100oC.

PVC compounds are more costlier than rubber compounds. Polymeric

plasticized compounds are more expensive than mono meric plasticized ones.
PVC is more useful than rubber where the environment contain oxygen, oils, alkalis
and acids as PVC is inert to these things.

III. Polythene

 Used for high frequency cables

  Thermal dissipation properties are better than those of impregnated
paper
 Impulse strength compares favourably with an impregnated paper-
insulated cable
 Max operating temperature- 100oC
 Inert to chemicals reactions as it does not have double bonds and polar
groups
 Polythene can be cross linked only through special condition e.g. by
irradiating polythene with electrons

Cross linked polythene:

 Polythene has limited use because of low meting point

 By cross linking the molecules, new material is produces which does not
melt but carbonizes at 250oC to 300oC.
 Properties of cross linking such as change of tensile strength and better
temperature stability.
 Many irradiation techniques are developed which involves high energy
radiations and procedure is expensive

IV. Impregnated Paper

 Depending upon operating voltage, suitable layer of paper is lapped on

the conductor
 It is then dried by the combined application of heat and vacuum.
 This is carried out in a hermetically sealed steam heated chamber.
 Temperature of 120oC-130oC before vacuum is created.
 After cable is dried, an insulated compound having the same
temperature as that of the chamber is forced into the chamber.
 All the pores are filled with this compound.
 After impregnation, the cable is allowed to cool under the compound so
that the void formation due to compound shrinkage is minimized.
 After this metal sheath is applied

V. Protective Coverings
 Cotton braid is applied over the insulated conductor and is then
impregnated with a compound which is water and weather proof.
 Rubber insulated cables are covered with a lead alloy sheath and is
used for fixed installation inside or outside buildings
 By armouring the cables with steel tapes or galvanized steel wires,
cables are protected against mechanical damage.
 If at all armouring is necessary, non magnetic materials should be used.
This reduces the losses but they still remain quite large.
 Steel tape is the cheapest material for armouring a cable and is useful
for damage against direct blows or abrasion.
  Galvanized steel wires are used for longer length and suitable where
longitudinal stress is involved.
 Lead sheaths are used where cables are subjected to vibrations.
 Both lead and aluminium sheaths are prone to corrosive attack which
maybe caused by chemical, bacteriological and/or electrolytic action.

The electric material surrounds the conductor and we know that every
dielectric material has certain dielectric strength which, if exceeded, will result in
rupture of the dielectric. In general the disruptive failure can be prevented by
designing the cable such that the maximum electric stress (which occurs at the
surface of the conductor) is below that required for short time puncture of the
dielectric. In case the potential gradient is taken a low value, the overall size of the
cable above 11kV becomes relatively large. Also, if the gradient is taken large to
reduce the overall size of the cable the dielectric losses increase very much which
may result in thermal breakdown of the cable. So a compromise between the two
has to be made and normally the value of working stress is taken about one-fifth of
the breakdown value for design purpose.

Electrostatic Stress in Single Core Cable - discussed in detail in the tutorial

document provided at the end of the page.

GRADING OF CABLES
Grading of cable is meant the distribution of dielectric material such that the
differences between the maximum gradient and the minimum is reduced, thereby a
cable of same size could be operated at higher voltages or for the same operating
voltage a cable of relatively smaller size could be used.

Two methods of grading:

1. Capacitance grading where more than one dielectric material is used

2. Intersheath grading where the same dielectric material is used but
potentials at certain radii are held to certain values by interposing thin
metal sheaths.
 Single core cable with three materials

Let the dielectric strength and working stress of this material be G 1, G2, G3
and g1, g2, g3 respectively
Our objective is find out the locations of these materials with respect to the
conductor of the cable. We can’t keep them anywhere we like. There must
be some criterion; otherwise the results of grading may be offset.
There are two possibilities (discussed in detail in the tutorial document
provided at the end of the page).

i. The factor of safety for all the materials be same, thereby the working stress
of the various materials different.
ii. The same working stress for different materials

An auxiliary transformer is used to maintain the metal sheath and the power
conductor on certain potentials; thereby the stress distribution is forced to be different
from the one which it would be without the intersheaths. The objective now here is to
show that the gradient with intersheath will be smaller than the gradient without
intersheath for the same overall radius and the operating voltage. Since a
homogeneous material is being used, the maximum values of the stress at various
intersheaths is same.

INSULATION RESISTANCE OF CABLE (discussed in detail in the

tutorial document provided at the end of the page)
The usual load current flows through the core of the cable whereas leakage current
flows radially from the conductor to the sheath through the dielectric material.
It can be seen that resistance of core is directly proportional to length of the cable
whereas leakage resistance is inversely proportional to the length of cable.

CAPACITANCE OF CABLE (this topic has been discussed in detail

in the tutorial document provided at the end of the page).
Capacitance of single cable

A single core cable has 2 electrodes, the core of the cable and sheath. Insulator
behaves as dielectric material, thus a cable is in effect an electrostatic capacitor.
Let λ be the charge per unit length. By definition capacitance is the ratio of the
charge on one of the electrodes to the potential difference between the electrodes.
Capacitance of cables is important than the overhead line because of nearness of
the conductors to one another and earthed sheath. And also permittivity of
dielectric material is higher than that of air.

Capacitance of a 3-Core Cable

If the dielectric is uniform between core and the sheath, it is possible to calculate
the capacitance of the 3 core cable. But practically it is not so, therefore,
capacitance is desirable to find by measurements. In a 3 core cable, sheath is at
earth potential and the three conductors at supply potentials. 3 capacitances are
formed between, sheath and conductors and other 3 between conductors forming
total 6 capacitors. (this topic has been discussed in detail in the tutorial
document provided at the end of the page).

Here are some of the problems solved in this tutorial :

Problem : Determine the economic overall diameter of a 1-core cable metal

sheathed for a working voltage of 85kV if the dielectric strength of the insulating
material is 65kV/cm.
Problem : A conductor of 1cm diameter passes centrally through a porcelain
cylinder of internal diameter 2cms and external diameter 7 cms. The cylinder is
surrounded by a tightly fitting metal sheath. The permittivity of porcelain is 5 and
peak voltage gradient in air must not exceed 34kV/cm. Determine the maximum
safe working voltage.
Problem : The capacitance of a 3-core cable lead sheathed cablel measured
between any two of the conductors with sheath earthed is 0.19µF per km.
Determine the equivalent star connected capacity and he kVA required to keep
18kms of the cable charged when connected to 20kV,50Hz supply
A single core lead covered cable is to be designed for 66kV to earth. Its conductor
radius is 0.5cm and its three insulating materials A,B,C have relative permittivities
of 4, 2.5 and 4.0 with maximum permissible stresses of 50, 30 and 40kV/cm
respectively. Determine the minimum internal diameter of the lead sheath. Discuss
the arrangement of the insulating materials.