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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Smart Grids
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2024.1476046
This article is part of the Research Topic Enhancing Resilience in Smart Grids: Cyber-Physical Systems Security, Simulations, and Adaptive Defense Strategies View all 7 articles

The Impact of XLPE Surface Defects on Electric Field and Breakdown Voltage

Provisionally accepted
Guanghua He Guanghua He 1Wei Zhang Wei Zhang 1*Ke Sun Ke Sun 1Jinlong Qi Jinlong Qi 2Jiahao Zhao Jiahao Zhao 1Jiayi Han Jiayi Han 1Xiaoshuai Zhu Xiaoshuai Zhu 1
  • 1 State Grid Wuxi Power Supply Company, Jiangsu, China
  • 2 CYG Electric Co., Ltd., Zhuhai, China, Zhuhai, China, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    During the construction of cable joints, three common defects may occur on the XLPE surface: scratches, moisture exposure, and adhered contaminated particles. To evaluate the impact of these defects on joint performance, this paper establishes a sheet model of XLPE insulation in cable joints to analyze the changes in the electric field under different defects and explore the influence of different defects on the electric field and breakdown voltage. Results of the study reveal that the electric field at the scratch site on XLPE produces severe distortion, being 1.6 times that of nonscratch areas. When exposed to moisture, the more conductive impurities present in the adhered contaminated water on the XLPE surface, the higher the conductivity of the contaminated water, thereby increasing its conductive performance and the electric field strength, which is 1.22-1.4 times that of the non-moist interface. When particles adhere to the XLPE surface, severe distortion occurs at the particle-interface electric field, approximately 1.5 times that of the defect-free interface. Scratches have the most significant impact on the electric field of XLPE insulation. Experimental results also demonstrate that the breakdown voltage without defects is 129.6 kV, while the breakdown voltage with scratch defects is 59.1 kV, moisture defects is 69.7 kV, and particle contamination defects is 59.2 kV, with scratches having the most significant impact on the breakdown voltage of XLPE insulation. These findings provide important insights into the influence of different defects on the insulation performance of cable joints.

    Keywords: Breakdown voltage, Cable, Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE), defects, Electric field strength

    Received: 05 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 He, Zhang, Sun, Qi, Zhao, Han and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wei Zhang, State Grid Wuxi Power Supply Company, Jiangsu, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.