What are the common causes of cable aging? The most direct cause of wire and cable aging failure is insulation breakdown and breakdown. Many factors can reduce the sensitivity of insulation. According to the actual operation experience, it can be summarized into the following situations.


1) Reasons for cable aging: external force damage. From the analysis of the operation situation in recent years, especially in Haipudong, where the economy is developing rapidly, a considerable number of cable faults are now caused by mechanical damage. For example: when the cable is laid and installed, the construction is not standardized, which is easy to cause mechanical damage; when the civil construction is carried out on the directly buried cable, it is also easy to damage the wiring. l Sometimes if the damage is not serious, it will take months or even years for the damaged part to completely decompose and cause a failure. Sometimes serious damage may lead to short circuit failure, which directly affects the power plant and the safe production of power plant.


2) Reasons for cable aging: The insulation is damp. This is also common and usually occurs at cable joints in direct burial or drains. For example, substandard cable splices and prefabricated splices in wet climates can allow water or steam to enter the splices. Over time, water branches will form under the action of the electric field, gradually destroying the insulation strength of the cable and causing failure.


3) Reasons for cable aging: chemical corrosion. Cables buried directly in areas with acid and alkali effects tend to corrode the armor, lead or outer sheath of the cable. The protective layer is subjected to chemical corrosion or electrolytic corrosion for a long time, which makes the protective layer fail and the insulation is reduced. Cable failure. Chemical: Corrosion of cell cables is quite severe


4) Reasons for cable aging: long-term overload operation. In overload operation, due to the thermal effect of the current, the conductor inevitably heats up when the load current passes through the cable. At the same time, the skin effect of the electric charge, the eddy current loss of the steel armor, and the dielectric loss will also generate additional heat, which will increase the temperature of the cable. During long-term overload operation, excessive temperature will accelerate insulation aging and damage the insulation. Especially in hot summer, the temperature rise of the cable often causes the weak insulation of the cable to be broken down first, so in summer, there are especially many cable failures.


5) Reasons for cable aging: cable connector failure. The cable joint is the weakest link in the cable line, and the cable joint failure caused by the direct failure of personnel (poor construction) often occurs. In the process of making cable joints, if the original mesh of the joint is not under pressure or insufficiently heated, the insulation of the cable head will be reduced, resulting in accidents.


6) Reasons for cable aging: environment and temperature. The external environment and heat source of the cable can also cause the cable temperature to be too high, insulation breakdown, and even explosion and fire.


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