Research on aged insulation of cables by stress is constantly being considered for reliable and stable power transmission of offshore wind farms. This study aimed to evaluate the insulation characteristic of aged XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) insulation for application of offshore wind farms. In this study, The XLPE insulation of cable was set as various mechanical strains. The XLPE insulation is exposed to the mechanical stress below yield strain of 5%, 10%, and 20%. Aged samples were tested by using the method of AC BDV (alternative current breakdown voltage), tensile strength, elongation, and SEM (scanning electron microscope) to obtain insulation characteristics. The experimental results show that the dielectric breakdown of the sample with a strain 20% was 50% lower than the unaged sample; thereby, demonstrating that the mechanical strain that occurred in the submarine cables can weaken the insulation characteristics. Therefore, mechanical strain should be monitored when laying and operating submarine cables for offshore wind farms.
We analyzed the correlation between breakdown voltage(BDV) of liquid nitrogen(LN2) and factors. The chosen factors affecting the breakdown are the diameter of electrode, gap length, temperature of LN2, and pressure of LN2. The BDV of LN2 was increased with increasing the diameter, the gap length and the pressure. And The BDV of LN2 was increased with decreasing the temperature. However, correlation coefficient was different from each other depending on the situation. The BDV exhibited a very high correlation coefficient of 0.92227 to dependence on the diameter. And a very high correlation coefficient of 0.94980 to dependence on the pressure under sphere(D 7.5 mm)-plane electrode. When the pressure is applied, sphere-plane electrode is the correlation coefficient was higher than that of the needle-plane electrode. It shows the dependence of a temperature coefficient of ?0.758290 ~ -0.39946 under needle-plane electrode.
In this paper, we study the insulating properties of the liquid nitrogen(LN2) including the thermal bubbles. The shape of the thermal bubbles in accordance with the current change was observed in the 77 K and 65 K LN2. According to the temperature of liquid nitrogen, bubbles were generated differently. The round shape of the bubble is occurred in 77 K LN2. But the layer shape of bubble is occurred in 65 K LN2. When the bubbles present, the dielectric strength of liquid nitrogen is low. However, the breakdown patterns were different according to the electrode arrangement. AC breakdown voltage(BDV) was lower than the DC BDV due to the influence of bubbles. Therefore, the design of a high-voltage superconducting equipments should consider the bubbles.