E3S Web of Conferences 185, 01070 (2020) http://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202018501070
ICEEB 2020

Mechanical Performance Test and Analysis of DC Charging Cable

for Electric Vehicles
Lin Li, Zhiyong Xiao and Guiping Lu
Beijing Institute of Technology, ZHUHAI

Abstract：The mechanical performance of the cable is directly related to the electrical performance of the
cable, and even affects the safety, reliability and durability of the whole charging process. Electric vehicle
charging cable is different from the traditional wire and cable, which has higher requirements for the
mechanical properties of the cable. In this paper, the tension test is carried out on the insulation or sheath of
the cable. By observing the phenomenon of "slipping" and "end breaking" in the process of the test, the
structure of the flat push collet is optimized. It can be seen from the comparative test analysis that the
improved chuck mechanism has a great effect on improving the test accuracy and reliability

1 Introduction
With the development of electric vehicle, the 2 Mechanical property test of cable
performance of charging cable as a basic component insulation
plays an important role in the whole charging process[1].
The mechanical performance of the cable is directly 2.1 Specimens
related to the electrical performance of the cable, and
even affects the safety, reliability and durability of the The specimens are three kinds of insulating core
whole charging process. Electric vehicle charging cable materials of PVC/C insulation mixture type, at least five
is different from the traditional wire and cable, which has of which are used for mechanical property test before
higher requirements for the mechanical properties of the aging. A sufficiently long sample segment is cut from
cable. At present, China's mechanical property test each tested insulated wire core sample, and the sampling
standards are based on two sets of standards GB/T length is required to be 100mm. All test pieces were
2951-2008 and GB/T 17650-1998, there are few methods stored in a cool place at room temperature (23 2°) at
for the mechanical strength test of the finished cable, least to avoid the influence of aging caused by sunlight.
only a new method for swing test and extrusion test is The samples are copper conductor taken from the core
given. samples, and the position is marked in the middle of each
The release of relevant standards provides test sample with an interval of 25mm for the extender to
methods and theoretical support for the research of identify the relevant position of the test.
mechanical properties of electric vehicle charging cable. The outer diameter and thickness were measured with
Also, the performance index obtained from the standard optical instruments, and the contact pressure shall not
test is suitable for the reference of cable performance exceed 0.07𝑁⁄𝑚𝑚 . The thickness error shall be less
analysis, which is the key to the excellent performance of than 0.01mm, and the width error shall be less than
the feedback cable. So, it is very important to verify the 0.04mm. Two sections of circular inner surface and
applicability and improvement of the standard method. stranded conductor are selected, and the relevant
In this paper, according to “The general test method thickness data of three test pieces are shown in Table 1:
for insulating and sheathing materials of cables and
optical cables”, the tensile test is carried out on the Table 1. Charging cable sample
insulating or sheathing materials of cables. This paper
analyzes the phenomena of "slip" and "end break" in the Specimen type Blue 1 Red 2 Green 3
process of experiment, optimizes the structure of flat Circular Circular
Stranded
section profiles internal internal
push chuck, and improves the precision and efficiency of surface
conductor
surface
experiment. thickness
0.895±0.01 0.933±0.01 0.855±0.01
（mm）
outer diameter
4.288±0.04 3.836±0.04 3.695±0.04
（mm）

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 185, 01070 (2020) http://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202018501070
ICEEB 2020

2.2 Analysis of test data

The extensometer transmits the real-time tension value
collected to the industrial computer, and extracts the
maximum tension after processing. At the same time, the
distance between the two marked lines is measured on
the same test piece.
(1) Calculation formula for tensile strength[2]:
Fb
 (1)
A
Fb ——Maximum tension，Unit: Newton（N）, Measure
according to the standard and round to 2 decimal places.
A——Cross section area，Unit：Square millimeter( mm 2 ),
Measure according to the standard and round to 2
decimal places.
Fig.1 Specimen mounting diagram (2) Calculation formula of elongation at break[2]:
L2  L1 (2)
This test is based on the electronic universal testing t   100%
L1
machine (model utm4204) developed by Shenzhen
sanshizong company. According to the standard, when L1 ——Distance between marker lines before stretching,
the non self tightening collet is used to clamp the test Unit:millimeter(mm). Measure according to the standard
piece, the total spacing between the control collets is and round to 2 decimal places.
about 85mm, and then the extensometer is evenly L2 ——Distance between marker lines after stretching，
clamped on both ends of the test piece to ensure the
spacing is 25mm. The clamping test piece was centered Unit:millimeter(mm). Measure according to the standard
between two chucks as much as possible. The effect of and round to 2 decimal places.
clamping the test piece before the test is as shown in According to Eqs (1) and (2), relevant data collected
Figure 1. by Material Test 4.1 platform was substituted to obtain
relevant data. The relevant data of three types of
insulation test pieces of blue, red and green are arranged
as shown in Table 2.
Table 2. Data sheet of tensile test

Elongation at b tensile
Parameter Thickness Outer diameter maximum force
strength
reak
Unit mm mm % N/mm2 N
Specimen 1 0.895 4.288 242.1135 12.9763 123.803
1# 2 0.897 4.287 256.5645 13.5276 129.065
3 0.894 4.288 249.6856 13.8884 132.448
4 0.895 4.289 236.1023 14.0745 134.293
5 0.894 4.288 245.5783 13.3423 128.762
maximum 0.897 4.289 256.5645 14.0745 134.293
1 0.933 3.836 204.7335 18.1429 138.331
2 0.933 3.836 173.2756 16.8752 128.664
Specimen 3 0.934 3.838 183.6445 17.5014 133.455
1# 4 0.932 3.835 192.3580 18.7736 143.152
5 0.933 3.835 198.1883 18.2074 138.793
maximum 0.934 3.838 204.7335 18.7736 143.152
1 0.855 3.695 246.5734 15.8076 120.583
2 0.857 3.694 245.7545 15.3464 117.064
Specimen 3 0.854 3.695 243.8356 15.4072 117.531
1# 4 0.855 3.696 244.7736 15.3876 117.435
5 0.854 3.695 245.7682 14.8793 116.245
maximum 0.857 3.696 246.5734 15.8076 117.531
strength and elongation at break requires at least 4 valid
3 Problems data, otherwise the test shall be repeated[4]. However, in
the actual use of wedge-shaped chuck and push chuck,
According to GB/T 2951.11-2008[3] "Measurement the phenomenon of "slipping" and "end breaking" are
method for mechanical properties of insulating and easy to appear, which can not effectively clamp the test
sheathing materials", the results of any test piece pulled piece, so that the test fails.
at the collet shall be voided. The calculation of tensile

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E3S Web of Conferences 185, 01070 (2020) http://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202018501070
ICEEB 2020

"Slip": refers to the sliding between the test piece From the force-displacement curve obtained in the
and the bayonet, even falling out of the block at one end experiment, it can be seen that the force displacement
(as shown in Fig.2). This phenomenon causes the test to curve presented by each sample is relatively discrete.
fail and the test piece to be scrapped. The residual Combined with the displacement of the abscissa and the
condition is shown in Fig.4 for specimens numbered "1", force data of the ordinate, it can be judged that the failure
"8" and "9". This phenomenon often occurs in the second test process is extremely unstable.
half of the test, when the specimen has undergone In the case of "end breaking", the curve will soon fall
significant plastic deformation. back at a smaller displacement. At the same time, the
"End break": means that the test specimen is pulled failure phenomenon of "end breaking" in two stages can
off from the flush end of the collet at one end in the early be judged by the radian when falling back. In the "elastic
stage of the test (as shown in Fig.3). In this case, the test stage" fracture, the curve fall back radian is large. In this
results of any test specimen are invalid. As shown in the stage, except the ductile fracture can not be recovered,
test pieces with serial numbers "2" to "7" in Figure 3.14, the load can be recovered after withdrawing, which
the test pieces did not undergo stretch whitening, that is, mainly occurs in the displacement of 30mm. During the
the test pieces were scrapped before they were still in the "plastic stage" fracture, the curve fall back radian is small.
elastic stage or the yield stage. In this stage, the specimen has undergone elastic-plastic
deformation. After the load is removed, part of the curve
can be recovered, mainly distributed between 83mm and
126mm displacement. This two stages can not reflect the
real performance of the material.
When "slip" occurs, there is no difference between
the curve in the initial and intermediate stages, that is, it
can smoothly go through "elastic stage" and "plastic
stage". However, with the increase of tensile load, the
specimen began to slide between the clamps, specifically
at the displacement of 111mm, the curve had obvious
fluctuations.
So when the test piece appears "slip" and "end
trimming" phenomenon, the degree of dispersion of the
tensile curve generated by the feedback is large, which
brings great error to the test results, and the real
Fig.2 Failure figure of “slip” mechanical properties of the material can not be tested.

4 Improvement of test chuck

4.1 Comparison of clamping effects

Fig.3 Failure figure of “end break”

Fig.4 Failure specimen chart

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E3S Web of Conferences 185, 01070 (2020) http://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202018501070
ICEEB 2020

parts according to its function. The upper part is the

clamping and alignment function structure, mainly
composed of plum handle, rotatable support rod with
centering hole and bolt. The lower part is the pre
tightening and positioning function structure, mainly
composed of guide rod, spring, clamp block and bayonet.
As shown in Fig. 8, it is a new type of chuck
produced by trial production. The main material is #45
steel. According to the method given in the standard, the
test is carried out on UTM4204 electronic universal
testing machine, and the control test is carried out with
the flat push type chuck. All the test pieces used are a
batch of insulating materials of the same model and
specification. The only difference is that the length of the
test piece used for the new chuck is 200 mm, not 100 mm
as specified in the standard.

Fig.5 FEM diagram of direct clamping

Read the relevant literature and learn that there is another

way of winding clamping [5-7]. Use SolidWorks
software to carry out three-dimensional modeling of the
main structure and import it into the simulation finite
element analysis plug-in to simulate two kinds of
clamping effects, as shown in Fig. 5 and Fig.6.

1. Fixture connection 2.lock nuts 3.clamping 4.Plum handle

support rod 5.Bolt 6.Spring gasket 7.Back nut 8.Locating screw
9.Guide screw 10.Bayonet 11.Clamping block 12.Spring

Fig. 7 Structure diagram of winding collet

Fig.6 FEA diagram of winding clamping

Through theoretical and finite element simulation

analysis, the problem of stress concentration caused by
direct clamping can be avoided by winding the test piece
on the support rod for clamping, so as to avoid the
phenomenon of "end breaking" caused by extrusion
deformation. In order to verify the feasibility of the
winding clamping method, an auxiliary winding clamp
was made for testing. Fig.8 Winding collet prototype

4.2 Design of Clamping heads

As shown in Fig. 7, it is a schematic diagram of a new
type of winding chuck given in this design. The main
structure of the chuck is divided into upper and lower

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E3S Web of Conferences 185, 01070 (2020) http://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202018501070
ICEEB 2020

Fig.9 Horizontal pushing clamp

Table 3. Experiments 'Data Comparison

Horizontal pushing clamp New clamp

Parame- Elongation at Tensile maximum Parame- Elongation at Tensile maximum
ter break strength force ter break strength force
Unit % KgF/cm2 N Unit % KgF/cm2 N
1 0.0000 12.3738 86.539 6 276.9431 15.8526 90.361
2 262.9045 14.8970 88.608 7 278.1683 15.3737 89.590
3 111.4672 8.9436 76.315 8 277.8935 16.5961 92.753
4 265.7580 16.5115 92.747 9 277.9045 16.1270 91.608
5 274.5584 16.3115 92.596 10 278.8945 16.8544 93.114
maximum 274.7580 16.5115 92.747 maximum 278.0935 16.8544 93.114
In order to determine whether the new collet has an test of two collets.
impact on the test results, the extracted relevant data are (3)In terms of elongation at break, the value obtained
sorted out as shown in table 3 below. by using the new collet is larger than that by using the
According to the data in the table above, when the flat collet. This is because the specimen selected for the
flat push chuck test was used, the "slip" phenomenon new chuck is 200mm, and with the increase of material
occurred in the specimen with the serial number "1", modulus, it can naturally withstand a longer stretching
which showed that the curve fluctuated in the later distance during the stretching process.
section and then dropped. The specimen with serial
number "3" had a "end trimming" phenomenon, showing
that the curve suddenly changed abruptly during the rise. 5 Conclusion
In contrast, the use of the new chucks has ensured the It is verified by the prototype that the new type of
normal conduct of the test. Therefore, the curves of the winding collet can facilitate the correct clamping of the
failed test pieces are excluded for analysis, and the test piece, ensure that the stress of the test piece is even
remaining 8 tensile curves are concentrated, which is in during the test process, and solve the problems of "slip"
accordance with the characteristic curve of the insulating and "end breaking". The measured data is stable and has
material. little difference with the value measured when using the
(1)From the perspective of the maximum tensile force, specified chuck, which can ensure the accuracy and
except for the data of the failed test pieces with serial reliability of the test results. Moreover, it improves the
numbers "1" and "3", the rest of the data are concentrated success rate and efficiency of the test, and achieves the
between 88N-93N. It can be considered that the tension test results required by the standard. It provides an
value obtained by using the new type of collet test is improved method and reference for selecting mechanical
more stable than that of the flat collet. chuck to clamp the soft material samples of cable
 X -  
2

 Old 
2
 3.6842 (3) insulation and sheath for tensile test. Since the new collet
N is a non-standard part, the corresponding test method
should be improved simultaneously for the use of the
 X -  
2

 New   1.83
2
(4) collet.
N
 Old   New
2 2
(5) References
(2)From the perspective of tensile strength, there is
1. Tian Chaohe, Lu Chengyu, et.:Standardization
little difference in the data obtained from the successful

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E3S Web of Conferences 185, 01070 (2020) http://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202018501070
ICEEB 2020

analysis of electric vehicle charging cable. Electrical

industry (11), 60-63(2013).
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materials. Mechanical Industry Press. Beijing(2016).
3. GB/T 2951.11-2008.: General test methods for
insulating and sheathing materials of cables and
optical cables. China Standards Press. Beijing(2008).
4. Liu lang, Chen Ming, Guo Chunmei, et.: Study on
the fracture of PVC/MBS blends. Synthetic resin and
plastics 26(03), 26-28(2009).
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submarine high voltage photoelectric composite
cable. North China Electric Power University,
(2013).
6. Cao Yiyan.: Simulation of tensile mechanical
behavior of high strength composite cable. Material
development and Application32(05), 47-52(2017).
7. Li Linshu, Yang Jie, Hu Yongle,et.: FEM and
Simulation of bending of DC charging cable of
electric vehicle. Wire and cable(02),12-15 (2019).