Impulse breakdown superposed on ac voltage in XLPE cable insulation

This paper discusses tree inception and breakdown voltage characteristics of XLPE cable insulation subjected to impulse voltages superimposed on ac voltage. The tree initiation tests were performed on laboratory-molded specimens equipped with needle electrodes, whereas the breakdown tests were conducted on a full-sized cable. The impulse tree initiation stress was found to be dependent on the magnitude of the pre-applied ac stress and the relative polarities of the impulse and the ac peak at the instant of their superposition. Although the impulse polarity has an effect on the tree inception, the general behavior is that the tree inception stress always decreases with an increase of the pre-applied ac stress. This phenomenon is discussed in terms of the space charge effect and the influence of the impulse voltage application itself. The impulse strength of a full-sized cable insulation was found to be independent of the pre-applied ac stress as long as that stress did not exceed the operating stress of a 500 kV cable insulation. However, subjecting cable insulation to higher ac stresses before impulse application caused a reduction of its breakdown strength as compared with the insulation without ac prestressing