Modeling of water tree degradation in underground polymeric power cable using time domain reflectometry method

Cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) is a one of the insulation materials in polymeric power cable. They are usually used in underground medium voltage cables. These cables are exposed to a significant risk of premature ageing and failure of polymeric cable. One of that phenomenons is water treeing. In this project, water tree has been modeled using MATLAB simulation while PSpice software was regarded as an experimental model. Time domain reflectomerty (TDR) is applied as a method to investigate the degradation and location due to the water tree. Five different geometries of cables with varied in two different length will be measured in this study. The simulation results show the wave propagation characteristics such as attenuation and velocity are important parameters as a benchmark to analyze the signals generated from PSpice software. Moreover, in experimental model shows that the water tree can be defined by implemented the TDR method. It was found that the error percentage of simulation results and calculations is 9.06%