Study of the space charge measurement results on two kinds of extruded XLPE mini-cables

In this paper, space charge measurements were carried out on two kinds of cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) materials: one is a standard XLPE homopolymer, the other one is realized with high productivity compound. The measurements were performed on mini-cables at three different temperatures and two voltage levels in order to obtain information about the space charge trapping phenomenology. Conduction current measurements were also carried out to support the space charge results. It is found that the high-productivity material accumulates less space charge than the standard material at relatively higher temperature, when compared at the same voltage. Space charge and conduction current measurement results show that the threshold for space charge accumulation and for conduction of the high productivity material is more sensitive to the temperature.