Investigation and analysis of thermal aging of XLPE and PVC cable insulation materials manufactured in Saudi Arabia

The whole year around severe weather environment of the Kingdom adds tremendous factors in stressing cable materials and shortens their lifetime. The Kingdom petrochemical industries are striving to improve the quality of the plastic raw materials. On the other hand, cable industry has also made noticeable progress in the production of higher voltage level cables.;The proposed study will provide and conduct direct testing and investigation of thermal aging on widely used cable insulation materials (PVC and XLPE) to determine their endurance characteristics, Raw and manufactured insulation materials will be brought from major Saudi cable factories. Mainly, weight loss and electron spin resonance (ESR) spectral studies and analysis will be carried out to characterize and simulate the thermal stress to evaluate the quality and life-time of the insulation materials. The results of PVC and XLPE can be extended from life tests to the application of these materials for higher quality and to the improvement of cable materials. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).