Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
I. Vulcanized rubber
Rubber used in
Vulcanized rubber insulated cables are used for low power applications like
a. Wiring of houses
b. Buildings
c. Factories
i. Butyl rubber
ii. Silicon rubber
iii. Neoprene
iv. Styrene rubber
III. Polythene
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.
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.
Let the dielectric strength and working stress of this material be G 1, 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.
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.
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).