September 2013

Myth Busters the Cable Diagnostic version

Myth #1 : VLF is destructive. This is a half-truth because VLF is NOT destructive per-say but it can be used in a destructive manner (as can ANY voltage source, DC, 50 Hz, Damped Oscillations). A destructive test is when the desired outcome of the test is to produce a failure of the device under test (DUT) at any weak (damaged) points in the device. In underground cables (UC) this is usually achieved by using a test voltage (DC/VLF/30-300Hz etc) higher than the rated voltage but much less than the maximum design voltage. Myth #2 : Withstand testing can be performed with damped oscillations. This is another half-truth and an example of the expression one swallow does not make a summer. Simply because repeated application of a damped oscillation can be shown to break down insulation of carefully chosen laboratory test samples, this does not prove that the technique is successful nor that it is efficient. Much more effort is required to prove the general case, establish test voltages and times etc. Myth #3 : Insulation Resistance testing is a good diagnostic. Ir testing was a useful diagnostic when no other diagnostics were available but its usefulness has been superceded by modern diagnostic techniques. Soon after Ir was proposed, refinements were already considered such as the step-voltage and polarisation index tests to try and overcome the shortcomings of the Ir test. The IEEE 400-2012 guide confirms this in Appendix I. Myth #4 : No partial discharges (PD) mean no problems. The absence of PD activity is definitely a good sign but it is important to understand the limitations of PD. Water trees do not produce D activity until electrical trees are formed normally shorty prior to failure. Noise levels may mask PD and PD emissions may be attenuated during transmission along the cable. Even if PD is detected there is currently insufficient data for the maintenance engineer to determine an appropriate course of action. Myth #5 : It is possible to measure the severity or locate the position of water damage in a cable. I am not aware of any technology that can accurately do this other than to try and isolate the problem to be within the body of the cable or from an accessory. I would welcome any literature from readers that proves otherwise for the case of field testing. Myth #6 : A sinewave is pure and a cosine wave is sinusoidal. Untrue There is equipment that is sold on the market as sinusoidal that, when viewed on an oscilloscope from the HV output (not via the filtered LV terminal) is shown to be far different from what an engineer might consider to be sinusoidal. The term pure sinusoid was thus introduced to separate the different classifications of equipment. Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is a measure of the purity of a sinewave and typically this should be less than 31% for good repeatability and diagnostic measurement (although not suitable for audio reproduction !!). A cosine wave is actually a trapezoidal wave with some overshoot at the voltage transitions Myth #7 : A cosine wave system can energise longer cables or test at higher voltages. Theoretically this is true but ultimately the design of the product determines the length of cable that can be energised so read the datasheets carefully to understand the ability of the device to energise the DUT at the required voltage. This is a favourite area of manipulation for vendors who deliberately quote specific operating points and often mix RMS and peak voltage definitions. Myth #8: The Hamon approximation for Tan Delta works in the field. The Hamon approximation is a mathematical solution to determine dielectric losses from DC measurements. The problem is how to perform this accurately and repeatably in the field. We do not know of a single customer using this technique successfully to perform this kind of diagnostic measurement. Myth # 9 : If it can be done in the lab then it must work in the field. Carefully controlled laboratory measurements are quite a different proposition to field measurements. Laboratory experiments are the starting point for all technologies but it proof of concept in the laboratory does not equal proof of operation in the field.

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Did you know ????? The model of an ideal cable is a large capacitance in parallel with
a large resistance representing the losses within the cable. For a cable that has aged, some of the damage is modelled using a series RC circuit that is in parallel with the ideal electrical model. At steady state this damage cannot easily be measured by any DC methods but with an ac test voltage the current in the damaged leg of the circuit can be measured. E&OE

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