Polymeric cable terminators under accelerated aging in a fog chamber

The authors present the results of fog chamber tests done to compare the contamination performance of 25-kV class outdoor polymeric cable terminators. The experiments were conducted in high-conductivity (≥ 1200 μs/cm) fog. The effects of weathershed material and design, method of stress relief, and experimental conditions on the contamination performance are discussed. It is shown that the weathershed material and design have a greater influence on the contamination performance than the method of stress relief. The results indicate that the method of stress relief does not improve contamination performance under normal operating stress. For terminators using good track-resistant materials, satisfactory performance can be obtained even with a 50% reduction in the leakage distance presently provided.