Reflection characteristics of water treeing insulation in medium voltage cables

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical model based on wave reflection of dual interfaces for studying the reflection due to water treeing in the cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulation of medium voltage cables. The model is expected to predict the reflection characteristics more accurately than that only considering reflection of a single interface. Experiments on a cable sample with mimic water trees are conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the presented model. The model can potentially be used to relate time-domain reflectometry (TDR) measurement results with characteristics of water treeing insulation in the cables.