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INVESTIGATION ON DISTRIBUTION XLPE CABLE JOINT FAILURE MODES AND

DETECTION

Conference Paper · September 2018

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 INVESTIGATION ON DISTRIBUTION XLPE CABLE JOINT
FAILURE MODES AND DETECTION

Cao Hongyan
SP Group, Singapore, 349277
hongyan@spgroup.com.sg

Abstract

This paper first investigates the XLPE cable joint failures in the past decades in SPPG, and try to identify the root
cause of failures by dissection of joints in workshop. It focuses on the aftermath of water ingress joints at different
voltage levels, manufactural imperfections, age-related deterioration, mechanical damage and workmanship. The
failure mechanisms are interpreted and practical approaches are recommended to prevent similar occurrences.

As for the PD detected joint, the dissection is to evaluate and identify the link between PD severity and the defects.
The incipient fault detection procedures for the respective failure modes, such as by in-service and off-line PD
detection, insulation resistance measurement, tangent delta measurement at VLF voltage and TDR, are developed.
The practical experience over the past ten years has shown great improvement on cable health condition
assessment and applied in cable condition-based replacement strategies. It has improved the cable joint installation
quality and made significant contribution to improve the network performance.

Keywords:

XLPE, Joint Failure Mode, Dissection, Partial Discharge (PD), Insulation Resistance (IR), Very Low Frequency
(VLF), Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR)

1. Introduction

Cable joint failure is one of the main causes of failures in the 22kV and 6.6kV distribution network. In SPPG,
about 10% of distribution cables are approaching or close to its designated life span. This percentage continues to
rise as current cable replacement programme cannot catch up with the ageing population. The gradually aged
cables or sections of the circuits have much higher failure rate than the later installed batches or sections.

Taped cable joints were used in the 6.6kV network in the early years, which were constructed manually in the
field. Poor workmanship and water ingress were the main causes of failure for this type of category. Higher failure
rate was mainly due to quality of workmanship of cable jointers during site installation. In order to reduce the
dependency of this tapping skill, EPDM pre-molded joints are then recommended and gradually used in the
distribution network.

For investigation into the root cause of the failed joint, the joints were usually recovered and dissected in the cable
workshop. The common joint failure modes are due to water ingress, manufacture imperfection, in service
degradation and cable jointer workmanship in assembling.

The dissections showed that most of the joint failures were caused by water intrusion in a wet environment of
direct buried cable networks in Singapore. The source of water ingress is not from joint body itself, but the cracks
of cable jacket which might be far away from joint and were normally caused by mechanical damage.

The dissections also found that the water effect on cable joint is different at 22kV and 6.6kV levels. For 22kV
joints, interface tracking caused by water intrusion is a common source of cable breakdown. The moisture-caused
failure in joint is similar to the flashover of contaminated outdoor insulator, which always associated with
detectable PD signals at operation voltage. As for 6.6kV, the leakage current caused the heating effect on the
insulation. The main cause of the breakdown is thermal runaway without detectable PD signals.

To prevent blackout and supply interruption, it is important to monitor and locate potential fault joints as quickly
as possible before it becomes jeopardy to the network. It needs to have a proactive strategy to use condition
monitoring techniques to address this issue. Therefore, SPPG introduced the cost-effective routine methods for

1
incipient faults detection by in-service and off-line PD detection techniques, by means of power quality
monitoring system, VLF tangent delta measurement and TDR based fault location methods [1] [2] [3].

The practical experience over the past ten years has made significant contribution to the improvement of SAIDI
and SAIFI in Singapore.

2. Distribution cable joint failure modes

It is known that the main failure mechanisms for XLPE insulation materials are: thermal breakdown, water treeing,
treeing caused by internal partial discharges and tracking caused by external arcing or surface discharging [4]. As
for the joint failure, the situation may be quite different from the insulation for the different structure of joints.

Over the past decades, all failed cable joints or many joints detected with PD, were dissected in SPPG’s Cable
Workshop to investigate the root causes of the failure or the PD sources. The main root causes are categorized as
water ingress by cable jacket damage, OEM quality of the joints, age-related deterioration of the insulation,
workmanship on site assembling and combination of the above defects.

2.1 Water ingress and surface tracking

When the XLPE cable jacket damaged somewhere along the cable, such as in Figure 1, the water or moisture
dissolved with mineral constituents or ions at the high-pressure underground will seep into the steel tape armor
and travel along the PVC inner sheath to the joints. When the inner PVC sheath is damaged, such as Figure 2, the
water will go to the joint directly through the core copper tape screen to joint. If the sealing of cable joint become
deteriorated over time, the water will gradually intrude into joint.

The phenomena are usually observed during the dissection of failed pre-molded joint. When the water with ions
migrates along the interface of XLPE insulation and rubber body of pre-molded joint, “tracking” on the surface
of XLPE insulation will take place. Deteriorated interface over time with imperfect insulation surface will cause
the eventual failure of the joint.

Figure 1: Cable jacket was damaged by others

Figure 2: Inner PVC sheath was damaged by others

“Tracking” of XLPE insulation, known as surface discharge is one of the main causes of failure of cable joint. It
often appears on the boundary surface of some solid and liquid dielectrics with air or any other gases [4],

The reason for surface “tracking” is due to the presence of tangential component of electric field, refer to Figure
3, along a diagonal interface between the EPDM joint body and XLPE insulation, where the semiconductor layer
has been stripped. Inside the joint, the concentric conductor of a coaxial cable is abruptly terminated, the field

2
intensity at the point of termination becomes very high. High intensity of electric field is at the end of out-
semiconductor.

To smooth and relieve the electric intensity around the cable sheath in the pre-molded joint, EPDM stress cone is
introduced. And the interface between joint body and XLPE insulation should be clean and contact tightly.
Silicone grease is used to fill the gaps in the interface. The grease-filled interface is relatively weak as compared
to the solid dielectrics of the cable and stress cone. If the pressure of the stress cone on the cable XLPE insulation
is insufficient, or if the cable XLPE insulation surface is not even, scratched, residual semi-con layer or not clean,
the interface will break down easily.

Normally surface tracking is associated with the following phenomena [4]:

A conducting film across the surface of the dielectric, the tangent component of electric field. The conducting
film is usually a form of contaminations; such as salt or mineral component depositions along with moisture
intrusion.

A mechanism by which the creepage current through the conducting film is interrupted when the discharges occur.
Under this condition the field component at the location on the surface may exceed the electric strength of the
medium. The surface discharges attack the C-H bonds polymers, such as XLPE insulation and EDPM materials,
then erode the insulation. It results in the formation of conducting carbonaceous tracks on the surface of the
dielectric.

The tangent
component of
electric field

Figure 3: Cable joint cross section showing possibility of internal and surface PD

As an example, when moisture ingresses a joint in Figure 3, the moisture films on the surface dry out intermittently
due to the heating effect of the surface leakage current. The amount of contamination increases together with the
surface leakage current till the Joule heating in the layer dry out locally and initiating partial breakdown between
the receding edges of the wet film. This cycle is continued till complete breakdown of insulation.

Figure 4 shows the “tracking” of XLPE on the surfaces of a failed three-phase 22kV joints. The direction of the
tree-like channels indicates the spot where breakdown was initiated. The color of XLPE insulation change from
apparent white to yellow is the evidence of heating cum progressive of “tracking”.

Tracking in the
interfaces of XLPE and
pre-mounded joint
body

Figure 4: XLPE insulation surface tracking results in cable joint failure

3
2.1.1 22kV joint water ingress

In 22kV XLPE network, water ingress causes “tracking”, or PD could be detected and located by in-service and
off-line PD detecting techniques.

The “tracking” inside sometimes generate a kind of self-clearing incipient single phase-to-ground fault. It could
last for an unpredictable duration before developed into a permanent fault.

Power Quality Monitoring Systems (PQMS) and numerical protective relays are widely installed in SPPG. This
incipient fault can be recorded by PQMS in the Main Station. The incipient fault waveforms generally show within
one transient cycle each time. Mostly in one quarter cycle before returning to normal as shown in Figure 5. At the
same time, the earth fault indictors (EFI) in protection system will flag out without the operation of overcurrent
protective relays [3].

Figure 5: The incipient cable joint failure recorded by PQMS in 22kV network

2.1.2 6.6kV joint water ingress

Not all water ingress joints can cause tracking before breakdown, sometimes PD may not occur. It is observed
that PD signals are difficult to be detected at the currently recommended voltage levels in international standards
by specific testing methods for the 6.6kV water intrusion joint. The possible reason is that the operating voltage
is not enough to cause “tracking” on the surface of XLPE insulation, and the recommended testing voltage cannot
initiate detectable PD signal on site.

This kind of joints failure could be due to heat breakdown. With the increase of contaminants and leakage current
on the surface, the heat will cause the deterioration of insulation. However, it is possible to detect the weak joint
by leakage current, loss factor, tangent Delta, insulation resistance measurement. The lower insulation resistance
and unbalance insulation resistances among three phases reflects the water ingress in the cable insulation. The
water intrusion can cause the impedance changes in the vicinity of joint, TDR can then be used to localize the
lower insulation segment [2].

2.2 Poor quality joint body

The poor-quality joints include impurities or contaminations in insulation materials, micro cavities or voids,
micro-cracks in insulation and delamination in interfaces. These imperfections will initial PD and lead to eventual
breakdown within the joint. The electric field inside an air-filled void is higher than that in the insulation by a
factor equal to the relative permittivity of the insulation material.

Figure 6 illustrates a 22kV pre-molded joint with many voids inside the EPDM insulation layer. The defect was
not detected during the manufacture process in the factory, but PD was detected in the joint by off-line testing on
site.

4
 Figure 6: Voids in cable joint insulation caused PD

2.3 Deterioration in service

Deterioration of cable joint insulation and grease is caused by overloads, defects or weak spots in the insulation.
Heating the surface of dielectric by high and uneven concentrating electric fields also produce chemical
degradation that further breakdown the insulating material. Figure 7 is an example of heating with chemical
reaction to the of silicone grease in a pre-molded joint.

Figure 7: Silicone grease deteriorated by electrical and chemical heating

2.4 Poor installation workmanship

The poor workmanships are normally referring to the bad practice of cable jointer in constructing the joint.
Common inadequacies are irregular semiconductor cutting, scrapes of XLPE insulation surface, leftover of foreign
materials, poor connection of conductors in transition joint, cavities between the insulation interfaces and the
taped insulation. Figure 8 to Figure 10 are some examples of joints with poor installation workmanship, in which
PD was detected.

Paper left
inside a joint

Figure 8: Industrial cleaning paper left in the joint

Figure 9: The irregular semiconductor layer

5
 Figure 10: Taped joint insulation with many voids

Figure 11 shows bad contact between the metal ferrule and conductor, which can be caused by poor workmanship
of installation, incorrect use of tools or wrong apparatus. These errors give rise to high contact resistance and
heating in joint. The elevated temperature accelerates the aging process and make the insulation become brittle.

Figure 11: Poor conductor connector caused heating and insulation color changed

2.5 Damage by mechanical pressure

Mechanical stress of joints is derived in the form of compression, tension, bending, vibration and impact. When
a large mechanical pressure in the material occurs with high electric field strength, this may cause delamination,
micro-cracks, mechanical deformation of the material, especially in soft material like polyethylene, and all these
defects lead to PD possibly and initiate the incipient fault.

Mechanical pressure damages in cable joints can be classified into operational damage or external damages.
Operational damage resulted from overload or short-circuit. It can cause bending of the cable conductor and
shifting the components within the joint. Common observation is separation of the extruded XLPE insulation and
pre-molded joint body in interfaces.

External damage of joint body is typically occurred by soil movement or loading by heavy vehicles which is
shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12: The joint was damaged to crack by mechanical stress

3. Field detection and prevention methods

The above-mentioned defectives in joints likely cause PD when the cable is in service. The high frequency PD
signals will travel along the cable and spread to the nearby network and equipment. It is possible to detect PD
signals and locate the joint at substations far away from the joint by in-service and off-line tests. The most

6
convenient positions for detecting PD signals are the cable terminations at the switchgear panels and that of
transformers.

Both in-service PD detection and off-line testing methods are effective to pick up incipient fault joints and weak
insulation sections around the water ingress joints. Table 1 lists the detection and prevention methods for
respective incipient failures.

Table 1: The detection and prevention methods for respective incipient joint failures

Failure modes Detection/Prevention methods In-service/Off-line

Water ingress and surface PD detection by HFCT, TEV, UHF techniques, In-service
tracking, PQMS.
Manufacture imperfections PD location by OWTS/DAC and VLF diagnostic Off-line
Poor workmanship tests;
Replacement of the weak insulation section.
Improvement on the quality and workmanship
Water ingress and low IR, VLF diagnostic tests, by tangent delta Off-line
Natural deterioration measurement and TDR for weak insulation
location;
Replacement of the weak insulation section.
Damage Cable route inspection, In-service
Provide cable information to third parties

3.1 In-service PD testing

Water ingress caused arc tracking of surface of XLPE insulation will generate intermittent phase to earth fault
which will trigger PQMS to capture the abnormal waveforms. This is a warning that a possible joint failure may
happen within short period of time. PQMS abnormal warning will trigger an effective procedure to detect the fault
in service which was developed by author [3]. Various PD sensors, such as high frequency current transformer
(HFCT), capacitor coupler, transient earth voltage (TEV), ultrasonic and UHF sensors are used concurrently to
locate the PD fault joint.

3.2 Off-line PD detection

The offline PD detection is effective in 22kV cable system. The experience by using the OWTS/DAC and VLF
diagnostic tests has been reported in [1] [2] [5] [6].

As for the 6.6kV cable, the weak insulation is the main concern of the system. it is found that PD is seldom
detected for water ingress joint under the specific testing voltage recommended by standards [7] [8]. It is not
suggested to apply much higher voltage than the recommended value as the overstress may unnecessarily damage
the cable with different age sections.

A new diagnostic method utilizing Tangent Delta measurements under VLF Sinusoidal waveform and TDR
analysis for identifying the weak insulation with joints was developed. These diagnostic tests are carried on with
moderately increased voltages for relatively short duration [2].

The disadvantage of off-line test is that it needs to disconnect the circuit from the network and increase the testing
voltage which increase the risk of damaging the good portion of XLPE cable.

4. Conclusion

This paper first investigates the XLPE joint failures in the past decades in SPPG, and try to identify the root cause
of failures by joint dissections in workshop. The failure mechanisms are interpreted and practical approaches are
recommended to prevent similar occurrences.

As for the PD detected joint, the dissection is to evaluate and identify the link between PD severity and the defects.
The incipient fault detection procedures, such as by using in-service and off-line PD detection, insulation
resistance measurement, tangent delta measurement and TDR, are developed. The practical experience over the
past ten years has shown great improvement on cable health condition assessment and applied in cable condition-
based replacement strategies.

7
 5. References

[1] Cao Hongyan, Lim Liang Kuang, Yu Xingzhou, Chew Min Lip, “Experience on Condition Monitoring of
Underground Distribution Cables in Singapore Using Oscillating Wave Test System (OWTS),” CEPSI 2014,
Paper D.7, 26-30 October 2014, ICC Jeju, Korea.

[2] Cao Hongyan, Lim Liang Kuang, Lai Kai Xian, Chew Min Lip, Tan Yong Tee, “Condition monitoring of
distribution cables using Very Low Frequency diagnostic tests with Tangent Delta, Time Domain Reflectometry
and Partial Discharge measurements,” CEPSI 2016, Paper B.4, 23-27 October 2016, Bangkok, Thailand.

[3] Cao Hongyan, Lim Liang Kuang, Lai Kai Xian, Yu Xingzhou, “Investigation on the Incipient Self-Clearing
Faults in Distribution Cable by Power Quality Monitoring System and Online PD Detection”, B1-202, CIGRE
Session 2018, Paris, France.

[4] Ravindra Arora, Wolfgang Mosch, High Voltage and Electrical Insulation Engineering, IEEE Press, A John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication, 2011.

[5] Alexander Eigner, Kay Rethmeier, “An Overview on the Current Status of Partial Discharge Measurements
on AC High Voltage Cable Accessories”, IEEE Insulation Magazine, Vol. 32, No. 2, March/April 2016.

[6] Wally Vahlstrom, “Strategies for Field testing Medium Voltage Cables”, IEEE Insulation Magazine, Vol. 25,
No.5, September/October 2009.

[7] IEEE Std 400.3-2006, IEEE Guide for Partial Discharge Testing of Shielded Power Cable Systems in a field
environment.

[8] IEC 60502-2-2005 “Power cables with extruded insulation and their accessories for rated voltages from 1kV
(Um=1.2kV) up to 30kV (Um=36kV), Part 2: Cables for rated voltages from 6kV (Um=7.2kV) up to 30kV
(Um=36kV)”.

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