Insulation of Electrical Cables

(with Problems and Solutions) - Conductors,

Insulation, Extra High Voltage Cables, Grading
of Cables

INSULATION OF CABLES
Here's a general introduction to the concepts which will be introduced in
this tutorial

Electric cables generally have 3 essential parts

1. Conductor to transmit power

2. Insulation, a medium to avoid direct contact with earth or other
objects
3. External protection against mechanical damage, chemical
damage or electro-chemical attack, fire or other dangerous
effects.

CONDUCTORS

Copper conductors have been extensively used for cables. But late
aluminium is being replaced for the same. Number of wires are used to
make into a strand in-order to obtain flexibility.
Apart from flexibility other uses are

1. Easy to handle
2. Less liable to break or kink
3. Risk of conductor breaking through the dielectric can be
reduced
Wires in stranded conductor are twisted together to forms lays and
also the successive layers are stranded in opposite direction. If one layer
is right handed lay, then the next layer will be left handed lay.
Standard stranding is done with 6 wires around 1, 12 around 6, 18
around 12, and so on. These conductors specifications are expressed as
19/0.1. The number ‘19’ above represents number of strands and the
number ‘0.1’ represents diameter of each strand. Sometimes these
specifications can be given as 3/20, which means a cable has 3 strands
and number 20 represents gauge of strand used.
 INSULATION

Requirements of insulation

1. High insulation resistance

2. High dielectric strength
3. Good mechanical properties (tenacity and elasticity)
4. Immune to chemicals around it
5. Non Hygroscopic (Di-electric strength decreases very much
with moisture content)

INSULATION MATERIALS AND PROPERTIES

I. Vulcanized rubber

Rubber used in

i. Natural form :- absorbs moisture readily and gets

oxidized into resinous material and hence loses insulating
properties
ii. Mixed with sulphur and chosen ingredients :- When
the mixture is subjected to particular temperature, it
changes to vulcanized rubber. It doesn’t absorbs moisture
and has better insulation properties than natural rubber,
elastic and resilient
Expected electrical properties of rubber insulation are

1. High break down strength

2. High insulation resistance
Insulation strength of vulcanized rubber is so good for lower
voltages and its radical thickness is limited due to mechanical
consideration.
Expected physical properties of rubber insulation are

1. Withstand normal hazards of installation

2. Trouble free service

Vulcanized rubber insulated cables are used for low power applications
like

a. Wiring of houses
 b. Buildings
c. Factories

Two main groups of synthetic rubber material are

i. General purpose synthetics which have rubber like properties

ii. Special purpose synthetics which have better properties than
rubber
e.g. fire resisting and oil resisting properties

Four main types of rubber

i. Butyl rubber
ii. Silicon rubber
iii. Neoprene
iv. Styrene rubber

i. Butyl Rubber: The processing of butyl rubber is similar to that of

natural rubber except that butyl rubber is subjected to continuous
temperature of 85oC whereas for natural rubber it is 60o. Current ratings
for butyl rubber and paper or PVC insulated cables are approximately
same. This compound can also be manufactured such that it has low
water absorption and also has possibilities for a non-metallic sheathed
cable suitable for direct burial in the ground.
ii. Silicon Rubber: is mechanically weak and needs external
protection but has high heat resistant properties (can be operated above
150oC.
Raw materials used: sand, marsh gas, salt, coke and magnesium.

Neoprene: is polymerized chloro butadiene. Neoprene does not

iii.
have good insulating properties and is used upto 660V a.c, but has
very good fire resisting properties and therefore can be
extensively used as a sheathing material.
iv. Styrene Rubber: is used both for insulating and sheathing of
cables which has properties similar to natural rubber

II. Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)

Polymer derived from acetylene


Produced in different grades depending on polymerization

process
 Compounded with plasticizer which makes it plastic over a wide
range of temperature to use in cable industry
 PVC material has many grades which depends on plasticizer.
PVC is inferior to vulcanized in respect of elasticity and insulation
 resistance.

i. General Purpose Type: used for sheathing and as an insulating

material. In this compound, monomeric plasticizers are used. V.R
insulated PVC sheathed cable is not good to use. Due to monomeric
plasticizer which volatilizes at 80-100oC, these compounds become stiff.
ii. Hard Grade PVC: Less amount of plasticizer than general purpose
type. These are used for high temperature for short duration of time but
not for low continuous temperature.
iii. Heat Resisting PVC: By making use of polymeric plasticizers, it is
possible to operate cables continuously at 100oC.

PVC compounds are more costlier than rubber compounds.

Polymeric plasticized compounds are more expensive than mono meric
plasticized ones. PVC is more useful than rubber where the environment
contain oxygen, oils, alkalis and acids as PVC is inert to these things.

III. Polythene

 Used for high frequency cables

 Thermal dissipation properties are better than those of
impregnated paper
 Impulse strength compares favourably with an impregnated
paper- insulated cable
 Max operating temperature- 100oC
 Inert to chemicals reactions as it does not have double bonds
and polar groups
 Polythene can be cross linked only through special condition
e.g. by irradiating polythene with electrons

Cross linked polythene:

 Polythene has limited use because of low meting point

 By cross linking the molecules, new material is produces which
does not melt but carbonizes at 250oC to 300oC.
 Properties of cross linking such as change of tensile strength
and better temperature stability.
 Many irradiation techniques are developed which involves high
energy radiations and procedure is expensive

IV. Impregnated Paper

 Depending upon operating voltage, suitable layer of paper is

lapped on the conductor
 It is then dried by the combined application of heat and
 vacuum.
 This is carried out in a hermetically sealed steam heated
chamber.
 Temperature of 120oC-130oC before vacuum is created.
 After cable is dried, an insulated compound having the same
temperature as that of the chamber is forced into the chamber.
 All the pores are filled with this compound.
 After impregnation, the cable is allowed to cool under the
compound so that the void formation due to compound
shrinkage is minimized.
 After this metal sheath is applied

V. Protective Coverings
 Cotton braid is applied over the insulated conductor and is then
impregnated with a compound which is water and weather
proof.
 Rubber insulated cables are covered with a lead alloy sheath
and is used for fixed installation inside or outside buildings
 By armouring the cables with steel tapes or galvanized steel
wires, cables are protected against mechanical damage.
 If at all armouring is necessary, non magnetic materials should
be used. This reduces the losses but they still remain quite
large.
 Steel tape is the cheapest material for armouring a cable and is
useful for damage against direct blows or abrasion.
 Galvanized steel wires are used for longer length and suitable
where longitudinal stress is involved.
 Lead sheaths are used where cables are subjected to
vibrations.
 Both lead and aluminium sheaths are prone to corrosive attack
which maybe caused by chemical, bacteriological and/or
electrolytic action.

The electric material surrounds the conductor and we know that

every dielectric material has certain dielectric strength which, if
exceeded, will result in rupture of the dielectric. In general the
disruptive failure can be prevented by designing the cable such that the
maximum electric stress (which occurs at the surface of the conductor)
is below that required for short time puncture of the dielectric. In case
the potential gradient is taken a low value, the overall size of the cable
above 11kV becomes relatively large. Also, if the gradient is taken large
to reduce the overall size of the cable the dielectric losses increase very
much which may result in thermal breakdown of the cable. So a
compromise between the two has to be made and normally the value of
working stress is taken about one-fifth of the breakdown value for
design purpose.

Electrostatic Stress in Single Core Cable - discussed in detail in

the tutorial document provided at the end of the page.

GRADING OF CABLES
Grading of cable is meant the distribution of dielectric material such that
the differences between the maximum gradient and the minimum is
reduced, thereby a cable of same size could be operated at higher
voltages or for the same operating voltage a cable of relatively smaller
size could be used.

Two methods of grading:

1. Capacitance grading where more than one dielectric material is

used
2. Intersheath grading where the same dielectric material is used
but potentials at certain radii are held to certain values by
interposing thin metal sheaths.

Single core cable with three materials

Let the dielectric strength and working stress of this material be

G1, G2, G3 and g1, g2, g3 respectively
Our objective is find out the locations of these materials with
respect to the conductor of the cable. We can’t keep them
anywhere we like. There must be some criterion; otherwise the
results of grading may be offset.
There are two possibilities (discussed in detail in the tutorial
 document provided at the end of the page).

i. The factor of safety for all the materials be same, thereby the
working stress of the various materials different.
ii. The same working stress for different materials

An auxiliary transformer is used to maintain the metal sheath and the

power conductor on certain potentials; thereby the stress distribution is
forced to be different from the one which it would be without the
intersheaths. The objective now here is to show that the gradient with
intersheath will be smaller than the gradient without intersheath for the
same overall radius and the operating voltage. Since a homogeneous
material is being used, the maximum values of the stress at various
intersheaths is same.

INSULATION RESISTANCE OF CABLE (discussed in

detail in the tutorial document provided at the end
of the page)
The usual load current flows through the core of the cable whereas
leakage current flows radially from the conductor to the sheath through
the dielectric material.
It can be seen that resistance of core is directly proportional to length of
the cable whereas leakage resistance is inversely proportional to the
length of cable.

CAPACITANCE OF CABLE (this topic has been

discussed in detail in the tutorial document
provided at the end of the page).
Capacitance of single cable

A single core cable has 2 electrodes, the core of the cable and sheath.
Insulator behaves as dielectric material, thus a cable is in effect an
electrostatic capacitor.
Let λ be the charge per unit length. By definition capacitance is the ratio
of the charge on one of the electrodes to the potential difference
between the electrodes.
Capacitance of cables is important than the overhead line because of
nearness of the conductors to one another and earthed sheath. And also
permittivity of dielectric material is higher than that of air.

Capacitance of a 3-Core Cable

If the dielectric is uniform between core and the sheath, it is possible to

calculate the capacitance of the 3 core cable. But practically it is not so,
therefore, capacitance is desirable to find by measurements. In a 3 core
cable, sheath is at earth potential and the three conductors at supply
potentials. 3 capacitances are formed between, sheath and conductors
and other 3 between conductors forming total 6 capacitors. (this topic
has been discussed in detail in the tutorial document provided at
the end of the page).

Here are some of the problems solved in this tutorial :

Problem : Determine the economic overall diameter of a 1-core cable

metal sheathed for a working voltage of 85kV if the dielectric strength of
the insulating material is 65kV/cm.
Problem : A conductor of 1cm diameter passes centrally through a
porcelain cylinder of internal diameter 2cms and external diameter 7
cms. The cylinder is surrounded by a tightly fitting metal sheath. The
permittivity of porcelain is 5 and peak voltage gradient in air must not
exceed 34kV/cm. Determine the maximum safe working voltage.
Problem : The capacitance of a 3-core cable lead sheathed cablel
measured between any two of the conductors with sheath earthed is
0.19µF per km. Determine the equivalent star connected capacity and
he kVA required to keep 18kms of the cable charged when connected to
20kV,50Hz supply
A single core lead covered cable is to be designed for 66kV to earth. Its
conductor radius is 0.5cm and its three insulating materials A,B,C have
relative permittivities of 4, 2.5 and 4.0 with maximum permissible
stresses of 50, 30 and 40kV/cm respectively. Determine the minimum
internal diameter of the lead sheath. Discuss the arrangement of the
insulating materials.