I E E E Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 N o .

5, October 1990 989

REVIEW

Water Treeing in Polyethylene Cables

E. F. S t e e n n i s
N. V. KEMA, Arnhem, The Netherlands

F. H. K r e u g e r
Technical University Delft, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT
This review discusses water tree growth in polyethylene cable
insulations. The characteristics of water trees, the effect of
aging parameters on water tree growth and the possible mech-
anisms of growth are considered, emphasizing vented tree de-
velopment in polyethylene insulating materials. Moreover, test
methods and measures to reduce water treeing are discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION a fan. It is generally accepted that water trees reduce the

1.1 HISTORY
H E introduction of extruded cables in the second half
T of this century was accompanied by the idea that
water or water vapor would not affect the electrical prop-
erties of the cable. Therefore, the cables were not provid-
ed with water or water-vapor impervious outer sheaths,
often a PVC (polyvinyl chloride) outer sheath over the
ground screen was chosen, while a metal sheath was in
most cases absent. Unlike cable practice in Japan and
Europe, in the United States extensive lengths of extrud-
ed cables have been installed without any plastic outer
sheath.
The discovery of degradation of polyethylene ( P E ) by
the combined action of water and electric stress was pub-
lished by Miyashita and presented a t the Electrical Insu-
lation Conference in Boston 1969 [ l o l l . Soon this kind
of degradation was called ‘water treeing’ [152]. A water
tree is defined as a diffuse structure in a dielectric insu-
lating material with a n appearance resembling a bush or
electric breakdown stress level of a n insulating material.
Miyashita observed water trees in the stator windings
of submersible motors of which the wires were coated with
P E . Subsequent publications of Tabata et al. [152] and
Vahlstrom [162] described the early experience with water
trees in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and crosslinked
polyethylene (XLPE) insulated cables. After 5 yr of ser-
vice experience, these cables showed failures that could
be related to water treeing.
Continued publications of different authors describe
many aspects of water treeing in polymeric insulating ma-
terials. Review-type publications are given in Table l. It
was found for instance, that water treeing, or more or less
similar tree creation, could occur in all polyolefins. There
was much discussion about the water tree susceptibility
of different types of insulating materials. Filled insulat-
ing materials such as ethylene propylene rubber (EPR)
have the advantage of opacity, but these materials are
suspected as well, since close examination showed water
trees also in them.

0018-9307/90/1000-989$1.00 @ 1990 IEEE

990 Steennis et al.: Water Treeing

In 1984 Shaw e t al. [136] estimated the total cable LIST OF SYMBOLS
length harboring water trees to be about 300000 km.
A area m2
c concentration
1.2 PE INSULATION C, specific heat
c' osmolarity
D dielectric displacement
LDPE was often applied as an insulating material for E electric stress
extruded cables. Nowadays, most polyethylene extruded E , electric stress in the original unaffected
insulation
cables have XLPE insulating materials. Other types of
E, electric stress in the vented tree
P E are medium-density polyethylene (MDPE) and high- E.t axial electric stress in the tip of the vented
density polyethylene (HDPE) used for sheath production tree
in modern cable technology. EPt axial electric stress i n the polyethylene
adjacent t o the t i p of the vented tree
E p d radial electric stress in the tip of the v/m
Polyethylenes, (CHz-CHa), , are very long macromole- vented tree
cules. The CH2 groups are strongly joined by bonds of E,, Young's modulus Pa
the shared electron valence type. The ends of the differ- F,, force N
ent chains contain methyl (-CH3) or vinyl (-CH=CH2) h parameter of length, length of vented tree m
groups. k' thermal conductivity J/Ksm
unit-normal vector
The mechanical properties of the different polyethylenes pressure N/m2
are mainly determined by the density of these materials. heat dissipation W/m3
The density in turn is strongly related to the molecu- charge C
lar length and the number and length of side chains per parameter of place, radius m
macro molecule. This is illustrated in Table 2. gas constant 8.31 J/Kmole
time S

P E is a thermoplastic: the upper operational temper- temperature K

ature is limited to % 70°C. By crosslinking of the macro- Tg glass transition temperature K
molecules the operational temperature is increased to % T, melting temperature K
90 'C. In XLPE the macro molecules are incorporated in To temperature of t h e original unaffected K
insulation material
a network in which the effective molecular weight has be-
T, temperature in the vented tree
come infinite. A schematic representation of XLPE chains
e strain
is presented in Figure 1.
c p permittivity of the polyethylene
Table 1. E. permittivity of t h e vented tree
Review-type publications on water treeing. q5 angle
n relative permittivity
n. relative permittivity of the vented tree
path
year author number of reference number p density k/m3
references in this paper U mechanical stress Pa
U, stress in radial direction Pa
ut stress in tangential direction Pa
1977 Wiersma 32
22 ny yield strength Pa
1978 Eichhorn
U, ultimate strength Pa
1979 Kiss 38
1980 Nunes et al. 89 c, electrical conductivity of the vented tree (nm)-'
1983 Dissado et al. 43 II osmotic pressure N/m2
1984 Bernstein 46
227 The polymer, either crosslinked or not, is semi-crystal-
1984 Shaw et al.
147 line, which means that it is partly crystalline and partly
1989 Steennis
amorphous. The crystalline part shows a folded regime of
1990 Nicholls et al. 130
macromolecules organized into platelets with dimensions
strongly depending on the production process. Usually
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 No. 5, October 1990 QS1

Table 2. Platelets can be grouped to spherulites, varying in size

Relation between density and number and length from x 3 to x 700 pm. Indeed, etching procedures some-
of side chains for LDPE and HDPE (After [l?]). times revealed a kind of superstructure [lo, 30,97,105,
110, 112,117,163], although the results are suspect since
Polvethvlene LDPE HDPE most of the etching procedures produce artifacts which of-
~ _ _ _
ten are misinterpreted [lo]. Moreover, long macromolecu-
density [g/cm3] 0.91-0.94 0.95-0.965 les and the existence of many branches, as in LDPE, re-
duce or even suppress the superstructure. Examples of
average molecule length 1500-3500 7000-14000 complete suppression of superstructures in LDPE are giv-
en by Patsch et al. [120], Mandelkern et al. [88], Capaccio
number of side chains 20-40 < 5 et al. [28] and Ross et al. [126]. This is illustrated in Fig-
[/lo00chain atoms] * ure 3: an electron micrograph of LDPE cable insulation
is given with a magnification factor of 40000. Crystalline
length of side chains 2-5 < 4 and amorphous regions have been revealed, superstruc-
[number of atoms1 * tures have not been found.

* The mechanical behavior of P E is mainly determined

Occasionally there is a side chain with an
by the amorphous regions. In a thermoplastic such as PE,
average molecule length
the intermolecular Van der Waals forces play an impor-
tant role. Although Young’s modulus E,, is high, x 500
MPa a t room temperature, considerable chain flexibility
H H H H H H H H H H or micro-Brownian motion exists. The actual mechanical
I I I I I I I I I I
- c - c - c - c - c - C - c - c - c - c - behavior of P E as a function of temperature T depends
I I I I I I l l 1 on the values of the glass transition temperature Tq and
H H H H H H H H H
the melting temperature T,. A schematic presentation
H H H H H H H H H is given in Figure 4. Above T,, LDPE will melt if it is
I I I I I I I I I
- c - c - c - c - c -
I I I I I
c - cI - c I - c I- c -I not crosslinked, while XLPE behaves like a rubber-like
H H H H H H H H H H
substance.

Figure 1. On the basis of Figure 5, which shows a typical stress-

Molecular structure of XLPE, bond angles are not strain curve for P E , some important mechanical param-
indicated. eters are discussed. For small stresses, uniaxially applied
to the bulk polymer, the stress-strain relation shows a
Hookean behavior with e = E,,€, where E,, is the
Young’s modulus, U the applied stress and E the strain.
The strain is here defined as the length of the elongation
divided by the initial length.

In the linear region of the stress-strain curve instan-

10 nrn
Figure 2.
The PE structure in the nanometer range (After [12]).
the thickness is x 10 nm, they are generally several p m
wide and long. Between the platelets are interconnecting
chains and chain ends which form part of the amorphous
regions. The structure of the P E on this nm scale is shown
in Figure 2.
taneous recovery is possible. The molecule chains are
partially uncoiled and coiled again. At the yield point
slippage of the chains will result in incomplete recovery.
The stress at this yield point is called the yield strength
e,. Finally, fracture of the bulk polymer will be reached
a t the ultimate strength U,,. Some typical data for LDPE
and HDPE are given in Table 3.
As all polymers, P E is rather susceptible to effects of
time. Important time effects are
1.creep: a t a constant stress the deformation or strain
slowly increases,
2.’relaxation: a t constant strain the required stress slowly
decreases,
go2 Steennis et al.: Water Treeing

Table 3. Typical tensile properties for PE.

polymer LDPE HDPE

density’ [g/cm3] ~0.92 ~0.95

crystallinity’ [%I = 55 =90
Young’s modulus’ [MPa] 200-400 600-1500
Yield strength’ [MPa] 10-20 25-50
Ultimate strength‘ [MPa] 15-25 25-55
elonaation to fracture2 1%1 400-700 100-600

’) according to [17]
)’ according to (1291

3. internal friction: a t dynamic loading mechanical ener-
gy is converted into heat.
Time effects are of importance a t moderate or high stress
levels. At lower stress levels these effects are hardly found
and therefore complete recovery is possible a t lower stress-
es.
Stress cracking or brittle fracture is a n important phe-
nomenon that may lead to complete degradation of the
polymer. It starts as a localized phenomenon a t a lo-
cation where a critical stress is present. Stress cracking
occurs in the brittle region at low temperatures and/or
under alternating stresses during long times intervals.
Fracture is not found under repeated loading conditions
as long as the imposed stress remains below a certain
endurance limit. This limit is about 1/5 of the static
ultimate strength.
A liquid which is capable of dissolving or swelling the
polymer promotes cracking. Measures to reduce stress
cracking are e.g.
1. increasing the molecular weight (fewer chain ends and
therefore fewer micro-cracks)
2. the use of copolymers (the mechanical properties are
improved by the combined effects of the various poly-.
mers).
1.2.1 CROSSLINKING
Figure 3.
Electron micrograph of LDPE cable insulation.
Crystalline and amorphous regions are visible.
Spherulites have not been found.
radicals produce acetophenone and methyl radicals. The
methyl radicals in turn give methane and carbon radicals
in the polymer chain by removing hydrogen in a limited
number of places. It is also possible that the free radi-
cals produce cumyl alcohol and radicals in the polymer
chains directly. Finally, the carbon radicals of (different)
chains combine to crosslinks [3]. In some production lines
crosslinking occurs with the aid of steam a t temperatures
between 200 and 220°C and a pressure of 1.6 to 2 MPa
[120,157]. This process is called steam curing. Towards
the end of the process the cable insulation enters the cool-
ing section where a fairly rapid temperature reduction is
achieved.
Today most cables are not cured with steam, but by
using hot nitrogen. This suppresses the creation of mi-
crovoids considerably, as will be shown. Such a process
is called dry-curing. Cooling is performed by using gas
or water. Therefore, this process is subdivided into ‘dry-
cured dry-cooled’ and ‘dry-cured wet-cooled’. The meth-
od of cooling has a minor influence on the creation of
microvoids.
Two of the three major chemical residues of the dicumyl
peroxide-curing process are cumyl alcohol and acetophe-
none. These products will eventually diffuse out of the
insulation. The rate of diffusion depends on the tempera-
ture, the temperature gradient and barriers (e.g. sheaths).

There are several methods of crosslinking. Often a
dicumyl peroxide-curing agent is used. Here the dicumyl
peroxide, added to the polymer compound, is activated
immediately after extrusion in a special tube at high tem-
perature and high pressure. By thermal energy the per-
oxyde is split into two chemical free radicals. These free
An essentially different method of crosslinking is silane-
curing. In this method, curing does not take place direct-
ly after extrusion, but in a separate production step. In
the one-shot silane-curing process a silane compound is
grafted onto the PE chains during the extrusion. Af-
ter extrusion the cable is slowly cooled in a water-filled
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 No. 5, October 1990 993

cooling trough. Curing takes place afterwards by putting be collected in the amorphous regions of the polymer. If
the extruded cable on a reel in a water tank at 85'C. these substances are polar, clustering may take place in
The immersion time for medium-voltage cables ranges be- existing voids. Sometimes, for instance if supersatura-
tween one and five days, depending on the insulation tion occurs, cavities will be created. Smaller voids and
thickness. In this tank the silane groups are coupled cavities have dimensions comparable to the dimensions of
chemically under the influence of the water vapor in the the interlamellar regions, in most of the XLPE insulating
insulation. Methanol is also found as a residue. The materials the largest voids and cavities have diameters
amount of residual products is much smaller than the of x 10 pm. In exceptional cases, however, much larger
amount of these products in the peroxide-curing process- voids are found, with diameters of M 500 pm.
es.
n 10r
a The creation of most of these microvoids is attribut-
v
ed to water vapor or other gases which, during the rapid
k cooling of the melt, are prevented from diffusing out of the
8- insulation. As a result, supersaturation, in particular of
Is,
- water during steam-curing, is inevitable and microvoids,
filled with gases and/or water, will be created. The ap-
6- proximate sizes and densities of the cavities/voids have
been measured for typical production processes and are
T9
given in Table 4 [3,4,57,68]. In this Table the effect of
4 I I
, the method of crosslinking on the presence of microvoids/

. '0"'- .'
the insulation during crosslinking, in combination with
A schematic modulus/temperature curve for
the cooling procedure afterwards.
LDPE and XLPE (after [1331).
40
Supersaturation and void creation will usually occur
in the center region of the insulation. The inner and
outer regions will cool down and solidify first, thereby
suppressing further diffusion of gases out of the center
region of the insulation. Such void concentrations are
usually visible as halos in the insulation of steam-cured
20 HDPE
cables.

LDPE

'"oLv
1.2.3 WATER IN PE

012 Oi4 0:s 018 1:O

strain
1(2
6 (m/rn)
Figure 5.
Typical stress-strain curve for PE (After [77]).
1.2.2 VOIDS AND CAVITIES
As defined here, voids are filled with gases only, and
cavities are filled with liquids and/or solid materials.
It is generally assumed that during production, water,
impurities and residual products from crosslinking will
1.14
' Owing to its non-polarity, PE surfaces are hydrophobic
until oxidized. Some water in the P E , however, cannot
be excluded. Polar substances in the insulating material
are capable of attracting water. It is known [65,148] that
XLPE at a temperature of 20'C absorbs < 100 ppm of
water. The amount of water absorbed depends strongly
on the temperature, as shown in Figure 6. As was stat-
ed in Section 1.2.2, supersaturation temporarily results
in high amounts of water, mainly collected in already ex-
isting microvoids, or in newly produced microcavities. It
WAS found in several cases that most of this water has
diffused out of the insulation after several years of service
aging [148].

P
994 Steennis et al.: Water Treeing

Table 4. Concentration, size a n d volume of voids in PE as a function of t h e curing process.

curing method void concentration maximum void size void volume/

PE volume

number/mm3 Pm %

stearn* 105-1o6 30 0.7-7

dry* o4
10~4.1 15 0.OO 7-0.4
silane (one-shot)* =io4 15 ~0.07
uncured** =io5 13 =0.005

* After [19], as observed in 10 cm3 insulationvolume chosen at random, the void volume-PE volume ratio
is based on a void diameter of 5 pm.
** After [57], the void volume-PE volume is based on a void diameter of 1 pm.

e
L
W e
4
0 e
3
e
102: e
e
e
e

1 0 " ' ' ' ' 50

I ' ' ' ' 100
I Figure 7.
I I
temperature ( " C )
Figure 6.
Saturated water content (in p p m ) for XLPE as a
function of temperature (in "C) (After [65])
2. MORPHOLOGY OF WATER
TREES
2.1 INTRODUCTION
ATER trees are diffuse structures in polymer insu-
W lating materials resembling a bush or a fan, growing
in many different kinds of polymers under the action of
water (vapor) and a n electric field. Water trees weak-
en the insulation and especially large water trees can be
150
I '
Vented tree initiated from a void in t h e semicon-
ducting screen; t h e void a n d void content is shown
in Figure 0 .
considered as dangerous, since these trees can initiate in-
sulation failures.
Trees can be made permanently visible using different
dyes. A well known and generally accepted dyeing pro-
cedure is given by Larsen [86] and Shaw and Shaw [136].
2.2 SHAPE
A distinction must be made between two different types
of.water trees [24,148]. These types are the 'bow-tie tree'
and the 'vented tree'. This distinction is based on the
location where these trees start growing: vented trees
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation
Figure 8.
Electron micrograph of the void in Figure 7, crys-
tallization of various species.
Figure 9.
Typical vented tree grown from the semiconduct-
ing inner screen into the insulation of a 10 kV
XLPE cable.
are initiated a t the insulation surfaces, bow-tie trees are
initiated in the insulation volume. Such a distinction is
important since both types show a completely different
growth behavior.
This review is focused on vented trees because these
trees are more dangerous under service aging conditions
than bow-tie trees.
For several reasons the study of vented trees is more
difficult than that of bow-tie trees. The concentration
of vented trees is often low compared to the concentra-
tion of bow-tie trees, and at the beginning of growth,
Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990 995
the propagation rate of vented trees is lower than that
of bow-tie trees (in a later stage of growth the opposite
is true). Consequently, the study of vented trees is more
time consuming than the study of bow-tie trees. For these
reasons many publications contain information on bow-
tie trees only. In some other cases a distinction between
both types of water trees has not even been made: only
the description ‘water tree’ has been used. In this review
the generic description ‘water tree’ will be used only if
bow-tie trees as well as vented trees are under considera-
tion.
Figure 10.
Vented tree grown from the graphite outer screen
into the insulation of a 10 kV XLPE cable.
2.3 VENTED TREES
The vented tree is defined as growing from the insulat-
ing material boundaries to the other side of the insulation,
predominantly in the direction of the electric stress.
The origin of vented tree initiation in many cases is
difficult to find. However, it is sometimes mechanical
damage to the cable insulation. Scratching the insulation
for instance may initiate treeing. Another origin of vent-
ed tree initiation can be an irregularity in the semicon-
ducting screen where it is in contact with the insulation.
QQ6
I1 00 pm
Figure 11.
v‘ented trees, bent near the insulati on outer sur-
frice. These trees were found in the insulation of
a service aged steam-cured 10 kV X LPE cable.
An example of a vented tree, initiated a t the boundary
area of a void, located in the semiconducting inner screen
against the insulation surface, is shown in Figures 7 and
8 [148]. Crystallization of various species (containing Si,
S and Ca) did occur in the void. It is assumed that these
species were dissolved in the water during aging. The
vented tree was grown in a 10 kV XLPE cable insula-
tion which has been aged under service conditions for 8
yr. Muller [106], among others, found that in most cas-
es vented trees at the conductor side in the insulation
of full-scale steamcured cables were initiated a t inhomo-
geneities in the inner semiconducting layer. For the ini-
tiation these examples show that apart from water and
electric stress also chemical species in the water (or semi-
conducting screens) and/or electric stress enhancements
may play an important role.
When aged under moderate service conditions (< 4
kV/mm), a vented tree grown from the outside of the
insulation is sometimes pencil-like. Trees grown from the
inside have branches that spread a little further, although
each distinct branch of a large vented trees is also pencil-
like. Typical vented trees are presented in Figures 9 and
10. In a few cases, vented trees, bent near the insulation
surface, have been observed by the authors. An example
is shown in Figure 11.
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
In a n insulating material which is fairly water tree sus-
ceptible, vented trees can reach the other side of the in-
sulation (in 10 kV cables = 4 mm thick) in about 7 yr.
It has been found that this type of water tree has been
responsible for many cable failures. In Figure 12 a vented
tree is presented; here also part of a breakdown channel
is visible.
Figure 12.
Vented tree grown from the semiconducting inner
screen into the insulation. A part of the small
breakdown channel is visible. marked 1.
2.4 BOW-TIE TREES
The other type of water tree is the bow-tie tree. Bow-
tie trees are defined as initiating in the insulation volume.
These trees grow in opposite directions, along the elec-
tric field lines. Exceptions can be found, in some cases
the growth direction has been bent: Karakelle et al. [71]
assumed that this is a consequence of frozen-in mechan-
ical stresses. However, Karakelle could also show that
this typical growth direction was apparently not affected
by the flow pattern that existed in the melt a t the time
crosslinking occurred.
The initiation spots are often clearly visible using nor-
mal optical microscopy. An example is given in Figure 14.
It is generally assumed, and it has been proven in some
cases, that these spots contain impurities [137]. Normal-
ly the growth of bow-tie trees is strongly reduced after a
certain time. The total length is restricted and therefore
this kind of water tree is seldom the origin of cable break-
down. There are indications that the length of bow-tie
 IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation
Figure 13.
Typical bow-tie trees grown in the insulation of a
10 kV XLPE cable.
trees is related to the size of the location containing the
impurities.
The transformation of a bow-tie tree, formed close to
the insulation surface, into a vented tree was once report-
ed by Naybour [lll].A collection of typical bow-tie trees
in the XLPE insulation of a 10 kV cable is given in Fig-
ure 13. A further enlargement of one of these bow-tie
trees is presented in Figure 14.
2.5 VOIDS AND CHANNELS IN
WATER TREES
Apart from the already existing voids or cavities in the
PE, extra void/cavity creation occurs occasionally in a
water tree. Collections of such voids are found sometimes
in the trunk of vented trees. Near the tip of the vent-
ed tree such microvoids are rarely found [28]. If vented
trees have been grown under rather extreme aging con-
ditions, for instance by applying high electric stresses of
- 30 kV/mm, some of these microvoids may become in-
terconnected by micro channels [28]. In a gas permeation
experiment, Cross et al. [32] showed that the diameter of
Vol. 25 N o . 5 , O c t o b e r 1990 997
Figure 14.
Bow-tie tree, total length 200 pm. This bow-tie
tree was initiated from one of t h e impurities in
the insulation.
the supposed channels, penetrating throughout the insu-
lation, must be < 1 pm. Microscopic investigations of the
tip of a water tree did not even reveal open channels in
the n m range [28].
2.6 WATER CONTENT OF WATER
TREES
Water trees contain water. If this water is evaporated
e.g. by heating, it is known that the tree will absorb water
again if the insulation is exposed to water or water vapor
aft erwards.
Meyer [99] measured the amount of water in vented
trees grown from water needles. The electric stress near
the water needle tip was very high, a t least 60 kV/mm.
998 Steennis et al.: Water Treeing

Meyer found that near the tip of the water needles, the
vented tree contained 10% water (of the vented tree vol-
ume). He assumed that the water had been collected
primarily in the microvoids. Such voids are expected to
be the result of the high initiation stresses applied. Mey-
er also found that a t a certain distance from the water
needle, where the electric stress is much more moderate,
the amount of water was about 1 t o 2% (of the vented
tree volume).
Apart from clustering of water in voids, some water is
probably molecularly dispersed in other parts of the tree.
Water molecules can be found a t any place where polar
groups are attached to P E [125,126,127].
= loor
?! *1
of the aging time. The largest trees observed are present-
ed and not the mean length of the trees, since the largest
trees correspond to electrical degradation of the insula-
tion. After 11300 h, breakdowns did occur in cable No. 1
probably as a consequence of the large vented trees. This
cable was withdrawn from further aging.
This accelerated aging test shows the typical behavior
of water tree growth. After an initial rapid growth within
the first 3000 h, the length of bow-tie trees does not seem
to increase any more. The length of vented trees increases
continuously for most cable insulating materials. After
approximately 12000 h of aging, the lengths of both types
of trees correspond well to the general picture of tree
lengths in the insulation of service-aged cables after 6
to 13 yr.

.-
f 3. CHARACTERISTICS OF
5 80
.-
Y 701
WATER TREES
3.1 T H E VENTED TREE: AN
* 2 INS U LATl N G M A T ER IA L

starting the discussion of dielectrical proper-

0
B EFORE
ties, definitions should be given of ‘vented tree’ and
‘vented tree path’. The ‘vented tree’ represents the total
10 - region within which the tree can be observed ( p m to mm
0 @! I
-*I - 2
I scale), using the dyeing procedure described in [86,136].
~~~~

0 3000 6000 12000 24000

time (hours) The ‘vented tree path’ or ‘path’ relates t o the attacked
= vented tree P E only (the nm scale). The ratio of the volume of the
- = bow-tie tree
vented tree paths t o the vented tree certainly is much
Figure 15. smaller than 1, but upper and lower limits cannot be
Maximum length of vented trees and bow-tie trees estimated in general. There are several indications that
for five different cables as a function of the aging both the vented tree and the vented tree paths can be
time. considered as an insulating material.

2.7 TYPICAL GROWTH BEHAVIOR
OF WATER TREES
Many publications show that vented trees and bow-tie
trees have a completely different growth behavior. This is
illustrated in [147]. Five different medium-voltage cables
were aged for 24000 h in a water tank. The cables var-
ied in construction and in method of crosslinking. The
electric stress level a t the outside of the insulation was
3.9 kV/mm a t power frequency. The tap water in the
water tank was kept a t 30°C. The water contained small
amounts of NaCl (0.2 kg/m3) and HC1 (pH = 6). The
water was admitted under the sheath only. In Figure 15
the largest vented tree and the largest bow-tie tree as ob-
served in the samples are given for each cable as a function
Koo et al. [81] and Cross et al. [32] studied the dielectric
properties of a vented tree in a water needle experiment.
The change in capacitance between the water needle and
the opposite electrode was measured during the growth
of the vented tree a t a frequency of 1500 Hz. The capac-
itance variations were derived from a voltage change in a
resistor placed in series with the electrode. Afterwards,
in a model, the vented tree was replaced by metal or by
dielectrics with different permittivities. The resulting ca-
pacitance variations showed that the dielectric behavior
of a real vented tree differs strongly from that of a con-
ductor. Moreover, it was found that comparable voltage
variations in this model could be obtained if the water
tree was replaced by an actual material with a relative
permittivity K. M 6. To explain the measured permittivi-
ty, Cross assumed that water was collected in the many
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation
microvoids distributed over the vented tree volume. Cross
pointed out that in such a situation the observed increase
in the permittivity of the vented tree volume might be ex-
plained by using the multiphase dielectric mixture theory
(e.g. Tinga et al. [159]).
Boggs et al. [18] studied the micro-movement of vent-
ed trees in a water needle experiment. The trees were
not grown in PE but in silicone rubber under the appli-
cation of an electric stress a t different frequencies. Tree
movement has been observed by applying interferomet-
ric holography. Boggs found that the movement of the
trees was related to E' and therefore probably related to
Maxwell stresses. He also concluded that certain out-of-
phase movements of the tree in relation to the movement
of the needle tip would provide evidence that the vented
tree is not conductive.
Recently Ross et al. [126] measured the dielectric prop-
erties of a vented tree which had been grown under nor-
mal aging conditions in a full-scale XLPE insulated ca-
ble. The trees were saturated with water preceding to the
measurements. They found that the vented tree has the
properties of an insulating material with a permittivity
IE = 2.26 and a loss-factor of about ~ O X ~ Oat- 50 ~ Hz.
There are other observations confirming that a vented
tree is an insulating material
"4 axis of s y m m e t r y
4
I the water electrode is perpendicular to the water needle
f y-axis
0 1-
Figure 16.
Electric stresses near the tip of a vented tree path.
3.1.1 B R E A K D O W N C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S
If a vented tree path were a conductor, then such a
path, grown to the other side of the insulation, would
initiate thermal breakdown or initiate an electrical tree
followed by breakdown. However, it was found that in
most cases such long vented trees do not cause breakdown
a t stresses of 2 kV/mm or even higher (see Section 4.1 and
Figure 17).
In an experiment by Densley [33] electrical trees were
initiated in vented trees by inserting a needle. It was
Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990 909
5
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 7 0 80 90 100
t r e e size (% of insulation thickness)
- mean value
-- 95 % confidence bound
Figure 17
Relation between the breakdown stress level and
the water tree size.
found that the vented trees did not provide a more conve-
nient path t o the electrical trees or the breakdown chan-
nels than unaffected PE.
3.1.2 D I R E C T I O N OF V E N T E D T R E E
P ROPAG A T I O N
Vented trees and the related paths grow in the direction
of the electric field lines. High radial electric stresses a t
the tip of the vented tree path would, however, cause
the vented tree to fan out. This can be observed a t the
tip of a water needle, where the direction of growth near
surface. One of the many examples of this vented tree
growth behavior a t the needle tip is given by Filippini et
al. [46].
In Steennis [148] various electric stresses near the tree
tip are calculated for different vented tree tip radii. The
electric stresses were calculated for a range of permittiv-
ities and conductivities of the vented tree path. In Fig-
ure 16 the assumed electric stresses and the vented tree
path configuration are given. High radial electric stresses
of 30% of the axial electric stress a t the tip of the vent-
ed tree path (Epd/Ept= 0.3) can be expected for vented
tree paths with IC, 2 20, or ~ 2 . lo-*5 ~(am)-'. In such
a situation it is expected that the tree would fan out.
It is also shown that for IC, < 10 and cv < 1.3 x lo-'
(Gm)-' this ratio Epd/Ept is small. In that case vented
tree growth can be expected mainly in the direction of
the axial electric stress a t the tree tip. This conforms
1000
with the phenomenology where it is found that the direc-
tion of propagation of vented trees is mainly determined
by the local electric field lines of the original unaffected
PE. For moderate permittivities and conductivities, the
electric stresses become independent of the length of the
vented tree path: the influence is confined to a local area.
3.2 PHYSICAL/CHEMICAL
PROPERTIES (LOCAL)
3.2.1 INTRODUCTION
This Section discusses chemical and physical observa-
tions inside a water tree compared to observations outside
the tree. Studies are mainly carried out on vented trees
from needle tests, from scratched insulation slabs or from
full-scale cables.
3.2.2 INFRARED
Infrared (IR) measurements have been carried out by
several authors. Bernstein et al. [15] performed measure-
ments on model cables aged for 60 days at 4.6 kHz. After
drying the samples, metal ions from the solution were
detected a t 1130 cm-'.
Garton et al. [55] tried to find evidence for oxidation
in a water tree with FTIR. The insulation of model cable
was studied, aged a t a moderate electric stress level a t
1 kHz for 320 h a t 70°C. Garton was not able t o find
a typical oxidation product such as carbonyl. However,
he found absorptions at 600, 1100, 1160, 3550 and 3600
cm-', assigned t o ether and alcohol groups.
Abdolall et al. [l] were able to distinguish differences
in the IR spectrum between affected (in water tree) and
unaffected P E (outside water tree) in a range between 20
and 350 cm-' at a temperature of 4.2 K. Samples were
taken from a full-scale XLPE insulated cable. The dif-
ferences observed were attributed to various possible ef-
fects such as hydrogen bonding, strain or inhomogeneous
broadening, breakage of polymer chains, or effects due t o
crosslinking residual products.
Differences in the FTIR spectrum in a range between
500 and 2000 cm-' have been found by Yoshimitsu et al.
[173]. These investigators studied XLPE material with
an imbedded copper wire aged for up to 10 days a t 1
kHz. They found that in the tree-affected regions the CH2
groups lose their absorbance, but chemical species such
as hydroxyl groups and carbonyl groups gain strength
compared with the undegraded area.
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
Bamji et al. [ll]also examined regions with and with-
out water trees using FTIR. Different kinds of test spec-
imen were studied. Absorption was found a t 1160 (and
600) cm-l. Bamji did not attribute these absorptions
t o ether groups [55] but t o sulfate anions. The absorp-
tions a t 1600 cm-' are consistent with the presence of
carboxylate anions. Also in this particular experiment
the absence 6f carbonyl absorption is noticeable.
In 1987, a publication from Garton et al. [56] described
the observation of traces of oxidation. Trees have been
taken from service-aged steam-cured XLPE insulated ca-
bles. The difference in the carbonyl concentrations a t
1720 cm-' was E 15% of the overall level of oxidation
in the insulation. The results have been confirmed by
oxidative stability tests where it was found that the tree-
affected areas were much less stable than the areas not
affected by water trees.
Ross et al. [125] were also able to observe traces of ox-
idation in the vented trees of an accelerated-aged XLPE
cable insulation. The cable was aged for 24000 h, the
mean electric stress applied a t 50 HZ during aging was 4
kV/mm. Differences between the material inside and out-
side vented trees were found a t 1150, 1710 and 1720 cm-'
and assigned to hydroxyl groups and carbonyl groups, re-
spec tively.
Recently, Ross et al. [127] emphasized that carboxylate
groups, which have an absorption a t 1570 cm-', were
found in the vented trees of full-scale service-aged XLPE
cable insulations. These carboxylate groups can be re-
garded as end groups of the polymer interacting with wa-
ter. Such an interaction was also established in the 1000
to 1200 cm-' range, probably as a consequence of ionic
sulfur-oxygen groups.
3.2.3 ENERGY DISPERSIVE
SPECTROMETRY
Ross [127] observed with energy dispersive spectrome-
try sulfur and in some cases also silicon in vented trees
grown in full-scale service-aged cables.
3.2.4 ELECTRON SPIN RESONANCE
Electron spin resonance was applied by Dorlanne et al.
[38] and Crichton et al. [30]. They studied LDPE samples
from water needle experiments as well as XLPE samples
from full-scale cables. All samples were aged for up to 90
days a t frequency levels of up to 4 kHz. Both investigators
detected metal ions from the solution in the water trees,
even beyond the visible part of the water tree [30].
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990 1001

3.2.5 DIFFERENTIAL SCANNING trees themselves had been completely dissolved. This ex-
CALORIMETRY periment shows that the chemical changes assumed above
do not result in crosslinking of the tree-affected material.
Differential scanning calorimetry was applied by Bamji
et al. [ll].Trees have been studied in samples taken from 3.2.10 STAINING
service-aged XLPE insulated cable. It was not possible
to find a difference in melting endotherms between re-
gions containing water trees and regions without these Abdolall et al. [l]colored (most probably) vented trees
trees. This indicates that heating during or after water from a full-scale XLPE insulated cable after drying of the
tree growth is of minor importance. insulation for 12 h a t 95'C. For the staining experiment
many different solvents were used. The revisibility re-
sults show that, with a few exceptions, only solvents with
3.2.6 X-RAY ANALYZES
an OH-group a t the end of a molecule made the trees
strongly visible again after a few days.
Sletbak et al. [137] detected metal ions and sulfur in
the branches of strongly colored bow-tie trees. These ele- 4. CHARACTERISTICS OF
ments could also be detected as a fraction of the impuri-
ties located a t the initiation site. The bow-tie trees were
THE TREE INFESTED CABLE
grown in a XLPE slab for up to 790 h a t a frequency of DIELECTRIC
50 Hz. Bamji et al. [ll] detected metal ions in a vent-
ed tree using X-ray techniques. The vented trees were
4.1 ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
taken from a full-scale XLPE insulated cable, aged under
service conditions.
N this Section the electrical properties of the bulk insu-
3.2.7 dc ARC I
lation such as breakdown stress level, loss-factor, resis-
tivity and partial discharges, will be discussed. Studies in
this field have mainly been performed on LDPE or XLPE
dc Arc measurements, performed by Bamji et.al. [ll], insulating materials which have been aged under service
again show metal ions in vented trees. Moreover, Garton conditions in most cases for a few years. In general, wa-
et al. [56] clearly demonstrated the existence of apprecia- ter trees (bow-tie trees as well as vented trees) cause a
ble amounts of sodium, calcium, aluminum and silicon in reduction of the 50 HI, 0.1 Hz, dc or impulse breakdown
the tree-affected regions of the insulation of service-aged stress level. This has been observed by many workers [52,
XLPE insulated cables. 58,60,69,78,79,95,143,144,146,147,155]. In the studies
by Franke et al. [52] and Matsuura [95] et al. (1987) in-
3.2.8 OXYGEN PLASMA ETCHING dications are given of a relation between the size of the
water tree and the 50 Hz breakdown stress level.

A reduced oxidative stability of water trees in rela-
tion to the unaffected surrounding P E was found by Ross
[127].
3.2.9 HEAT-TREATMENT
Muller et al. [lo71 carried out some unusual experi-
ments with LDPE slices in which vented trees were pre-
sent. In an initial experiment slices were heated for 160 h
a t 135°Cand 20 h a t 190°C.In both cases it was found that
the optical structure of the water tree was unchanged.
Even after recrystallization of the material by cooling the
melt, the structure was not changed. Chemical changes
in a water tree are assumed, stabilizing the structure. In
a second experiment untreated slices were dissolved in xy-
lol. It appeared that not only the P E but also the water
In 1986 this relation was demonstrated [146]. More
than one hundred medium-voltage cable pieces have been
subjected to a 50 He breakdown test. Special techniques
allowed the energy dissipated in the breakdown channels
to be reduced. In this way the cause of breakdown could
be established for several cases; examples are given in
Figures 12, 18, 19. When a vented or bow-tie tree was
found, its size was measured. The relation between water
tree size and the corresponding breakdown stress level is
presented in Figure 17. The breakdown stress level is de-
fined as the arithmetic mean value of the electric stresses
during breakdown in the inner and the outer region of
the insulation. The main conclusion is that vented trees
as well as bow-tie trees weaken the insulation. Moreover,
it 'is shown that there is a clear relation between the size
of the water trees and the electric breakdown stress lev-
el. Finally, it appears that water trees crossing the entire
1002
Figure 18.
Vented tree (marked 1) grown from t h e inside of
cable insulation. During the breakdown test not
only a breakdown channel (marked 3 ) was creat-
ed, but a n electrical bow-tie tree (marked 2) was
also initiated i n the tip of the water tree.
Figure 19.
Vented tree (marked 1) grown from t h e inside
of cable insulation. Again, a breakdown channel
(marked 3 ) was created during the test, but also
a n electrical bow-tie tree (marked 2) was initiated
in the tip of the water tree .
insulation do not cause immediate breakdown under st:r-
vice conditions. Such insulating materials often still ha.ve
a breakdown stress level above the service stress level of
PZ 2 kV/mm.
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
The breakdown stress of cable insulation can be re-
stored by drying the insulation: a breakdown stress of
up to a t least 50% of the original level can be obtained
[76]. However, water trees do not actually disappear. As
soon as water or water vapor is present, this water will
be absorbed and consequently the breakdown stress level
reduces again:
4.2 LOSS FACTOR (BULK
IN S U LATlO N )
Several investigators reported an increase in the loss
factor of cable insulation containing water trees: Bahder
et al. [7], Tanaka et al. [155], Franke et al. [52], Karner et
al. [72] and Fukagawa et al. [54]). The study of Fukagawa
showed this increase to be related to insulating materials
already having a rather low breakdown stress level; it is
possible therefore that these particular insulating mate-
rials may contain rather large water trees.
Other investigators also tried to find a relation between
a change in the loss factor of the bulk insulation and the
presence of water trees. The loss factor has been stud-
ied for power frequencies (Kirkland et al. [79], Naybour
[112], Srinivas [144]) and frequencies between 0.01 and
10 Hz (Swingler et al. [151]). In these publications it is
reported that such a relation was not found. Naybour
tried to explain these different findings. He found that
poor conductivity of the conducting screens of the cables
involved can also be an explanation for an increase of the
loss factor.
4.3 RESISTIVITY (BULK
IN S U LAT I0N )
Water trees do not affect the resistivity of the insulation
of a cable as has been reported by Kirkland et al. [79] and
Karner et al. [72].
In contrast, a reduction of resistivity was observed by
Bahder et al. [7] and Wojtas [168]. In Wojtas’s study the
insulation was aged with a dc voltage, making the results
suspect. As far as very large water trees are concerned, a
reduction of the insulation resistance was found by Taba-
t a et al. [153], Tanaka et al. [155], Srinivas et al. [143]
and probably also Fukagawa et al. [54]. These results can
explain the observed increase of the loss factor described
above.
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1900 1003

4.4 PARTIAL DISCHARGES A N D

ELECTRO-LUMINESCENCE

The growth of water trees is normally not attended by

detectable partial discharges. This was found by Bahder
et al. [7], Kirkland et al. [ 791, Bamji et al. [9, 111 and
Steennis [148] a t a noise level of approximately 0.1 pC.

Optical experiments were performed by Nitta [114] and

Bamji et al. [ll]. In water needle experiments both in-
vestigators tried to find light emission in front of growing
vented trees. Nitta was able to observe the emission of
light. However, the light phenomena observed in this nee-
dle experiment in all probability originated from mecha-
nisms which are not related to vented tree growth under
moderate aging conditions. This is illustrated by Bamji
in a similar experiment. The electric stress applied a t
the needle tip in the experiment carried out by Bamji
was much lower than in Nitta’s experiment. Bamji did
not succeed in observing any light emission during tree
growth, not even with the aid of a photomultiplier and
lens system. Moreover, he was unable to detect partial
discharges a t a detection level of 0.05 pC. T h e experi-
ment performed by Bamji indicates that neither low mag- Figure 20.
nitude partial discharges nor electro-luminescence (emis- Electrical bow-tie tree (marked 3) initiation in the
sion of light by phosphorescent substances) occurs during branch of a vented tree (marked 1). The inclusion
the growth of vented trees. (marked 2) from which the electrical tree was ini-
tiated is indicated.
However, under certain circumstances the water tree 3. a vented tree path is a ‘poor’ insulating material, the
can initiate an electrical tree, for instance when there breakdown stress level is lower than that of the sur-
are overvoltages. After initiation of electrical treeing, rounding material.
breakdown of the insulation cannot be excluded. Such
a mechanism has been described by Tabata et al. [152] Figure 20 shows an enlargement of the initiation sites of
and Gronefeld et al. [60]. electrical trees, grown from the branches of a vented tree.
It is shown that a large amount of impurities is present.
Steennis [148] showed electrical bow-tie trees grown The photograph indicates that the electrical trees were
from the branches of a vented water tree. Such electri- initiated a t such inclusions.
cal trees were initiated during breakdown voltage tests
a t electric stresses much higher than those applied dur- 5. EFFECT OF OPERATING
ing service conditions. An example is shown in Figures
18 and 19. It is assumed that the cause of initiation of
VA RIA BLES
these electrical trees is perhaps the site where a vented 5.1 EFFECT O F ELECTRIC STRESS
tree path crosses a field-disturbing inclusion, such as an
impurity or a void. This is based on the following:
INT ENSlTY

5.1.1 VENTED TREES

1. the electric stress in the vented tree path is of the same
order of magnitude as in the unaffected surrounding
P E (Section 3.1),
2. there is always a great number of inclusions in the P E
and consequently also in the vented tree path. En-
hancement of the electric stress can be expected a t
many of these inclusions,
The development of vented trees is clearly affected by
the electric field strength. An increase of the electric
stress intensity leads t o a n increase of the length of vent-
ed’ trees according to Bernstein et al. [15], Yoshimura et
al. [174], Srinivas et al. [143], Filippini et al. [45], Hossam
1004 Steennis et al.: Water Treeing

Eldin e t al. [64], Naybour [112] and Muller [106]). An in- 5.1.2 BOW-TIE TREES
crease of the concentration of vented trees was observed

tric stress intensity. Enhancement of the electric stress

One can measure the time needed for a vented tree
to reach a certain length if the electric stress is dou-
bled. Most of the studies show that the reduction in
time is approximately a factor 2 (Filippini, Hossam El-
din, Yoshimura and Muller). These studies all deal with
water needle experiments. Bernstein [ 151 and Srinivas
[143] tested cables with scratched insulation surfaces a t
moderate electric stresses. Here, a reduction factor be-
tween 2 and 7 was found. As in these cases only a few
was found to increase the rate of propagation in experi-
ments carried out by Bulinski et al. [26] and Yoshimura
et al. [175]. The opposite effect was observed by Sletbak
et al. [137].
5.2 EFFECT O F FREQUENCY
5.2.1 VENTED TREES GROWN UNDER ac
STRESS CONDITIONS

;= 80-
E related to the frequency of the electric stress. To study
0 this subject, water needles were used by Yoshimura et al.
M
[174], Favrid et al. [41], Filippini et al. [44], Pays et al.
70- 120 days [123]. Yoshimura found a linear relation between growth
L
m and frequency in a range of 200 Hz to 3 kHz. The to-
4
0 tal test time in this case was 5 h, which is rather short.
~ 6 0 - Longer tests were performed by Favrie et al. [41] and
0 Filippini et al. [44]. These tests show an optimum tree
-0
growth between 4 and 8 kHz.

From these data it can be concluded that vented tree

growth increases a t higher frequencies. However, above
4 to 8 kHz the propagation rate appears t o decrease. As
a result of the different growth conditions during these
I I I I
50 85 125 170 tests it is hardly possible to make an accurate predic-
tion of the propagation rate a t a certain frequency level.
applied voltage a t 70 " C (V/mil)
Figure 22 therefore only gives a rough picture of the re-
Figure 21. lation between the propagation rate of vented trees and
Effect of the electric stress on the vented tree frequency.
propagation rate (After [15]). Note: 1 mil = 25.4
pxn and 100 V/mil = 3.94 kV/mm 5.2.2 BOW-TIE TREES GROWN UNDER ac
STRESS CONDITIONS
Figure 21 illustrates the relation between the electric
stress applied and the time required for a vented tree to Bow-tie tree growth in different types of P E was stud-
grow to a certain length [15]. ied by Bahder et a1 [8], Sletbak et al. [137] and Yoshimura
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation
1 10’ io2 io3 io4 io5
frequency (Hz)
Figure 22.
Graph showing roughly the relation between the
vented tree propagation rate and the frequency.
et al. [175]. Bahder used model cables and Sletbak full-
scale cables; in the experiment carried out by Yoshimura
a blunt needle has been applied. The electric stress in all
experiments was moderate. At higher frequencies accel-
eration of initiation and growth was found. An optimum
frequency was not given.
5.2.3 WATER TREES GROWN UNDER
SIMULTANEOUS APPLICATION OF ac AND
dc STRESS
Pays et al. [123] studied the tree propagation rate in
a frequency range of approximately 20 Hz to 10 kHz. In
this experiment water treeing was studied under ac stress
as well as under simultaneous ac and dc stress conditions.
The results of ac plus dc stress were the same as if only
ac stress had been applied. The type of water trees found
in these experiments has not been described. However, in
general these results confirm the results presented by oth-
er investigators: in this frequency range the propagation
rate increases with increasing frequency. Different types
of P E were studied. The aging time of this experiment
was not given.
5.2.4 WATER TREES GROWN UNDER dc
STRESS CONDITIONS
If the results described above for moderate electric
stresses are extrapolated to very low frequencies, hard-
ly any tree growth is to be expected. This is confirmed in
the literature. Water tree growth a t dc voltage has been
studied by Franke et al. [51], Yamada et al. [170] and
Vol. 25 No. 5 , O c t o b e r 1990 1005
Pays et al. [123]. The results were obtained from tests on
model LDPE insulated cables [51] or full-scale XLPE in-
sulated cables [170] under the application of high electric
stresses. Pays et al. [123] studied trees in LDPE plates
and vented trees in a needle experiment. The electric
stresses varied from 10 t o 100 kV/mm for the cable and
plate experiments, while in the needle test the electric
stresses were much higher.
The shape of water trees grown under dc stress con-
ditions differs from that of common water trees grown
under ac stress conditions. It was reported that water
trees grown under the application of a dc stress have a
remarkably narrow structure, while vented trees as well
as bow-tie trees only grow in one direction. Consequently
the bow-tie trees have only one plume. Franke observed
that during the growth of the water trees under the appli-
cation of a dc stress the negative copper electrode became
black. It is assumed that this is a n indication of the pres-
ence of an electrochemical process. Pays did not find any
tree growth, with one exception: in the plate experiment
once a tree-like structure was observed.
There are reasons t o suspect results of tests with dc
stresses: Very high electric stresses have been applied in
order to initiate and grow these trees, and the shape of
the trees differs from that of water trees grown under
ac conditions. Perhaps there are different mechanisms of
(initiation and) growth for trees grown under the appli-
cation of high dc stress and those trees grown under the
application of ac stress.
5.3 EFFECT O F TEMPERATURE
The effect of the temperature on water tree growth
can be considered as rather complex. It is thought to
depend on the temperature level, temperature gradient,
temperature load pattern, water diffusion coefficients and
moisture absorption of the insulation as well as the oth-
er cable components. In one of his experiments, Muller
[lo61 found that as a consequence of a high conductor
temperature the relative humidity level of the insulation
at the conductor side was low. Moreover, it is well known
that cycling the temperature may lead to oversaturation
of water in certain regions of the cable insulation.
5.3.1 VENTED TREEING AT CONSTANT
TE M PE RATU RE
Several publications discuss vented tree growth at con-
stant temperature levels, without a temperature gradient
over the insulation. Most of the tests were carried out
1 006 Steennis et al.: Water Treeing

in water baths on LDPE or XLPE insulation. The test
models applied are needle samples by Fourni6 et al. [50],
sandwich models with inserted wire by Yoshimitsu et al.
[172,173] or more or less full-scale cables by Tabata et
al. [153] and Srinivas et al. [143]. From these studies it
can be concluded that the concentration of vented trees
increases and the length of vented trees decreases if the
temperature of the insulation is 2 50°C. Between 20 and
50°C there are conflicting views. Excluding the results
of the needle tests [50], the most favorable temperature
range for water tree growth to be 30 to 50”c [143,
1531.
5.3.2 VENTED TREEING AT CYCLING
T E M P ERATURE
Sletbak et al. [139], Bulinski et al. [27], Marsh et al. [89]
and Muller [lo61 studied the effect of cycling the temper-
ature of the conductor and the outer screen. In most
cases there was a temperature gradient over the insula-
tion during the experiment. Sletbak, Marsh and Muller
used full-scale cable and Bulinski model cables. The du-
ration of the different tests was < 1000 h. The outlines
of the different experiments are summarized in Table 5.
Table 5.
Cycling temperature and moisture conditions re-
garding the study of vented treeing.
Muller was not able to find a statistically justified differ-
ence in vented tree growth for steam-cured cables after
aging with cycled temperatures, compared to the same
cables after aging a t a constant temperature level. With
respect to the concentration of these trees, Bulinski noted
that temperature cycles reduced it strongly.
5.3.3 BOW-TIE TREES
The development of bow-tie trees has been studied by
Naybour [lll],Sletbak et al. [139], Bulinski et al. [27],
Fredrich et al. [53] and Marsh et al. [89]. Fredrich showed
that bow-tie tree growth is enhanced at higher temper-
atures. In his experiment the temperature of the water
outside the insulation of the full-scale cable was fixed at
40 or 90°C or cycled from 5 to 9O’C. The conductor con-
tained water, but was unheated. In this particular study
the water at high temperatures was oxygen enriched, but
it was stated that this could have hardly any influence on
the tests; the amount of oxygen in the water a t low tem-
perature would have been even higher. Aging was carried
out a t moderate stress levels for < 1000 h.
Naybour observed an increase of the concentration of
bow-tie trees if the temperature of the water bath was
increased from 35 to 80’C. The other aging parameters
-
were chosen fairly moderate. Tests have been carried out
on full-scale dry-cured cables for 2000 h.

temperature temperature The experiments by Marsh, Bulinski, Sletbak and Miil-

conductor [“C] outer Screen [“cl Reference ler already have been described in Section 5.3.2. Test re-
(dry or wet) (wet) sults match the findings of Fredrich and Naybour. Slet-
bak assumed that the increased bow-tie tree growth dur-
90 55 [I391 ing cycling of the temperature is a result of supersatura-
55-90 55 tion of water in the insulation during the unloaded part
20-90 20-55 of the temperature cycles applied.
90 (wet) 55
55-90 (wet) 55 5.4 EFFECT OF MECHANICAL
STRESS
90 50 ~ 9 1
20-90 20-50
20 20 A mechanical stress can be imposed on an insulation.
It can also be present in the insulation after cooling from
20-70 20-70 ~ 7 1 the extruded melt. Tanaka et al. [154] studied the rela-
20 20 tion between internal mechanical stresses and water tree-
ing. Slices were taken from several full-scale (crosslinked)
70-80 20-30 I1 061 LDPE insulated cables aged in different ways. By count-
ing the number of isochromatic lines on a polarization
photograph in a cross-section of the insulation, the me-
In general, one can conclude from these experiments ch,anical stresses were estimated. It was found by Tana-
that the growth of vented trees from the outer screen ka that bow-tie trees and vented trees are concentrated
is hardly affected by these variations in test conditions. in regions under higher mechanical stresses. Mechanical
I E E E Transactions on Electrical Insulation
stresses between 1 t o 8 MPa were observed in the insu-
lation. This is high, but not destructive as described in
Section 1.2. Such mechanical stresses may result from
the production process or from cable installation. One
year later Prigent et al. [124] found water trees in LDPE
samples concentrated a t locations with high mechanical
stresses. However, Prigent’s evaluation is purely qualita-
tive.
More recently, results were published by Tu and Kao
[160]. They exposed a P E sample with a water needle to
a pressurized atmosphere. The pressure on all sides of the
sample was varied over a range between 0.1 and 3 MPa.
The test time was short, only 15 h. Tu and Kao found
that the initiation was faster, but growth of the vented
trees was slower if the pressure was increased.
Recently, Patsch et al. [122] found more evidence for
the influence of mechanical stresses. A bent full-scale 20
kV XLPE cable was aged for 5000 h at a voltage level of
24 kV. Patsch found that 90% of all the bow-tie trees were
created in the stretched zone (near the conductor where
the elongation was 10%) in contrast to 10% of the bow-
tie trees found in the compressed zone. This result shows
the effect of the mechanical stresses on the initiation rate
of bow-tie trees, however, does not inform about the ef-
fect of the mechanical stress on vented tree initiation and
especially vented tree growth.
5.5 EFFECT OF RELATIVE
HUM I D l T Y
There are a few studies dealing with the subject of wa-
ter treeing under different water-vapor conditions. Slet-
bak et al. [137,139] and Yoshimitsu et al. [172] showed
that the relative humidity of the air surrounding the spec-
imen and inside the specimen is relevant to water treeing.
Both found that water treeing becomes rare a t a rela-
tive humidity of 65 to 70% or less. Above this level the
concentration of bow-tie trees (Sletbak) or vented trees
(Yoshimitsu) increases if the relative humidity level is in-
creased. The studies do not give a relation between water
tree length and relative humidity. Also, the effect of liq-
uid water around the specimen compared to water vapor
with a relative humidity of 100% around the specimen
has not been studied.
The experiments were carried out on XLPE samples
or cables with electric stresses ranging between 4 and 20
kV/mm.
Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990 1007
5.6 EFFECT OF T H E CHEMICAL
NATURE OF T H E FLUID
5.6.1 N0N- WAT E RY S 0L U T ION S
Bahder et al. [8] studied the growth of vented trees and
bow-tie trees in normal cables with a LDPE or XLPE
insulation. T h e tests were carried out a t a frequency
level of 7.3 kHz and for a duration of 274 days. Flu-
ids surrounding the insulation were water and water with
CuSO4. Moreover, H o s t o p a p and ethylene glycol, both
easily penetrating the polymers, were used. In all cases
treeing in the insulation had the same appearance. From
this it can be concluded that water treeing is probably
a special case in a broader field of insulation degrada-
tion. Treeing has also been studied in a liquid paraffin
solution, which was chosen because of its extreme small
dipole moment. No trees could be observed but it must
be mentioned that the test duration was only 12 days.
All other studies mentioned below deal with water solu-
tions. The following subjects will be reviewed: type of
salts, salt concentration, electrode materials, acidity and
solubility.
5.6.2 TYPE OF SALTS
An indication that vented tree length is affected by the
type of salts dissolved in the water is given by Bamji et
al. [ll]. Bamji used XLPE samples in which water nee-
dles were made. A CuSO4 solution produced the greatest
tree growth, followed by a NaCl solution and finally by a
CaClz solution. No trees were observed in distilled water.
The test duration was 90 h, the frequency 1 kHz.
Ross [127] studied vented tree growth in similar test
objects. Aging lasted for x 1200 h. The upper electrodes
consisted of stainless steel, and several 1.71 mmol/l salt
solutions were used: NaCl, NazS04, CuC12, and CuSO4.
With the CuSO4 solution the longest trees were obtained,
whereas with NaCl l o x smaller trees were grown. The
other solutions yielded intermediate results.
5.6.3 SALT CONCENTRATION
Many investigators studied the growth of vented trees
in relation to the concentration of certain salt ions dis-
solved in water. The salt concentration can of course
be translated into the conductivity of the fluid. In most
cases NaCl and CuSO4 solutions were applied. It was
found that higher salt quantities enhance the vented tree
1008
propagation rate. Most of these investigators used wa-
ter needles in order to study vented trees: Ashcraft [4,
51, Yoshimura et al. [174], Filippini et al. [44,45], Hossam
Eldin et al. [64]. Test durations < 120 h were used at
<
frequencies 20 kHz.
The effect was confirmed for vented trees in model or
full-scale cables (Tabata et al. [153], Katz et a]. [75] and
Srinivas et al. [143]). Test durations in the related studies
were much longer, < 1 yr, while the frequency level was
50 HZ in [153] and in the kHz-range in [75,153]).
Fournid et al. [50] found the opposite effect in a 50
HZ LDPE needle test. Rye et al. [128] tried t o explain
Fournid ' s findings. They proposed that oxygen promotes
vented tree growth; moreover, it is known that the sol-
ubility level of oxygen is lower in a very strong solution
of salts. A combination of these facts could explain the
reduced growth of vented trees.
5.6.4 ELECTRODE MATERIAL
Fournid examined the effect of the electrode material on
vented tree growth. The fastest vented tree growth was
found if P t or Cu electrodes were used, followed by All
Fe and Pb. It is again suggested by Rye that the amount
of oxygen in the fluid affects the growth of water trees.
The amount of oxygen is lower with Fe or P b electrodes,
than when using P t and Cu electrodes.
Filippini [47] carried out similar tests with the same ex-
perience. The role of oxygen in water treeing is considered
here too. Filippini showed that oxygen formation a t the
electrode/liquid interface is not likely. He suggested that
the effect on vented tree growth is a consequence of ions
in the solution through metal corrosion. Filippini stated
that the actual mechanism causing the tree growth is not
clear. However, the role of the liquid and the interaction
of the liquid/insulation interface is important.
5.6.5 EFFECT O F ELECTROLYTE pH
The effect of pH has been studied by Ashcraft [4,5].
Ashcraft found that the vented tree growth is enhanced
a t high pH and decreased a t low pH. Solutions of hy-
drochloric acid in 0.01 N NaCl for water-needle experi-
ments in P E were used. The test duration was 24 h a t
a frequency of 8.5 kHz. Morita et al. [lo41 examined the
concentration of vented trees for a great variety of solu-
tions. Scratched LDPE films were tested for 7 days a t
a frequency of 3 kHz. Morita could not find a relation
Steennis et al.: W a t e r Treeing
between the concentration and pH of the solutions. How-
ever, a slight relation between the concentration and the
standard entropy of hydrated ions was found.
5.6.6 SOLUBILITY
A relation between solubility and initiation of water
treeing was found by Kat2 et al. [751. Vented trees have
been studied, which start a t the surface of scratched (cross-
linked) LDPE cable insulation in a test with a duration
of 13 days a t a frequency level of 7.8 kHz.
5.7 EFFECT OF INSULATING
MATERIAL AND ADDITIVES
5.7.1 VENTED TREEING IN NEEDLE TESTS
The water tree susceptibility of different types of in-
sulating material has often been studied in water needle
experiments. Studies with water needles in this specific
field have been carried out by Ashcraft [4,5], Isshiki et al.
[66], Kat0 et al. [73], Braun [25], McMahon [96] and Saure
et al. [130]. Ashcraft examined the growth rate of trees
a t 8.5 kHz for 24 h in polybutene, polystyrene, ethylene
propylene diene terpolymer rubber (EPDM), LDPE and
in XLPE. Tree growth in polybutene was extreme. The
slowest tree growth was found in freshly cured XLPE.
This was attributed t o crosslink residual products (main-
ly acetophenone). It was shown that acetophenone added
to P E is able to suppress water treeing in this material.
The retardant effect of crosslink residual products was
confirmed by Saure in a similar test, but a t a frequency of
50 Hz. Moreover, Saure found that an antioxidant, used
for the stabilization of'PE, had the opposite effect in this
test. Saure also found that silane-cured XLPE was less
water tree susceptible than peroxide-cured XLPE, which
matches the findings of van de Laar [85] and Kreuger et
al. [83]. In 1986 Dissado et al. [36] examined vented tree
growth under moderate aging conditions (6 kV/mm, 50
Hz, 30'C) in silane-cured and peroxide-cured (degassed)
XLPE slabs for a few thousand hours. In both materi-
als vented trees with a comparable average length could
be observed. In the peroxide-cured XLPE, however, the
scatter was much higher. These results give the impres-
sion that silane-cured P E is less susceptible to vented tree
development than peroxide-cured PE. However, none of
the investigators tried or could explain these findings.
Braun studied the growth of vented trees in dry-cured
XLPE, steam-cured XLPE, polystyrene and epoxy resin
a t 60 Hz for 100 days. No treeing was observed in epoxy
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1090
resin, the other materials showed about equal vented tree
development. It cannot be concluded that epoxy resin
is water tree resistant: other investigators also observed
water tree development in this material, e.g. Yoshimitsu
et al. [171].
Isshiki et al. [66] carried out research work which was
mainly intended to find the electric stress level a t which
various materials initiate water trees. The rate of prop-
agation was also studied. The total aging time for this
experiment was 12 days; the frequency 2 kHz. It was
found that the growth of vented trees is faster in soft ma-
terials. The materials PVC, LDPE, XLPE, ethylene vinyl
acetate copolymer, HDPE and polypropylene all showed
water treeing, while in polystyrene, polycarbonate and
nylon some kind of vented treeing was only observed when
high initiation stresses were used. In polystyrene, poly-
carbonate and nylon the trees observed can be considered
as suspect since other aging mechanisms may have been
introduced as a result of the high initiation electric stress-
es.
Kato et al. [73] suppressed the initiation of vented trees
in very short term needle tests on XLPE samples at 1.2
kHz. He uses a mix of different additives: ferrocene, silox-
ane oligomer and 8-hydroxy quinoline. The initiation re-
sistance observed was attributed to the combined action
of a migration of these additives to irregularities and a
deactivation of electrons and metal ions through'traps.
Another water tree inhibiting additive was presented by
McMahon [96]. This additive, dodecanol, has been tested
with water needles at different frequencies in P E samples
for 28 days. Moreover, the additive was used in full-scale
cables, tested for 220 days with a 9O'C conductor tem-
perature. It was found that the dodecanol concentration
stabilizes; this indicates that the water tree inhibiting ef-
fect observed could be effective over longer periods.
5.7.2 VENTED TREEING IN (MODEL)
CABLES
The development of vented trees in cables or model ca-
bles has been studied by several investigators: Katz et al.
[75], Bahder et al. [8], Srinivas et al. [142,143], Henkel et
al. [62], Kalkner et al. [69], Marsh et al. [89] and Fare-
mo [40]. Bahder investigated the difference in vented tree
growth between LDPE and XLPE insulated cables. He
found that LDPE insulated cables were more susceptible
to vented trees than XLPE insulated cables. The investi-
gations were carried out on full-scale cables aged for 8 yr
under service conditions. The difference observed can be
attributed, for instance, to the water tree retardant effect
1009
of crosslink residual products in the XLPE cable insula-
tion. Henkel and Kalkner [62] tested full-scale LDPE and
XLPE insulated cables for 250 days at 50 Hz. The cables
were pre-conditioned, causing evaporation of these residu-
al products. This evaporation resulted in even more rapid
vented tree growth in the XLPE insulated cables than in
the LDPE insulated cables. Katz tested pre-conditioned
model cables with a scratched inner surface for 15 days a t
7.8 kHz. He found only a small difference in the growth
behavior of vented trees in LDPE and XLPE insulated
cables.
The effect of crosslink residual products is also con-
firmed by Srinivas. In his experiments, model LDPE and
XLPE insulated cables with a scratched inner insulation
-
surface were tested for 20 to 150 days a t a frequency of
2 kHz.
Faremo studied vented tree growth in XLPE and some
filled ethylene-propylene rubbers. The materials were
preconditioned prior t o testing. T h e experiments were
carried out under rather extreme temperature conditions
and a t high electric stresses on press molded cups, in-
cluding plastic semiconducting screens. Faremo conclud-
ed that the growth rate of vented trees was about the
same in the different materials. These results are all the
more important since it has often been suggested that
water trees would not exist in ethylene propylene rubber.
5.7.3 BOW-TIE TREES
Bow-tie tree growth has been studied by Katz et al.
[74], Yoshimitsu et al. [171], Kalkner et al. [69], Marsh et
al. [89] and Faremo [40]. Katz and Faremo did not find
any difference in the growth of bow-tie trees between pre-
conditioned LDPE and XLPE insulated cables [74] or be-
tween XLPE and ethylene propylene rubber press molded
cups [40]. The experiments are described above in Section
5.7.2. Marsh [89] observed bow-tie trees in silane-cured
and in steam-cured P E insulated cables. The concentra-
tion and growth of bow-tie trees in the peroxide-cured ca-
bles was shown to be more significant than in silane-cured
cables. Marsh tested the full-scale cables for many years
under moderate aging conditions. In his experiments dif-
ferent temperature conditions were applied. Yoshimitsu
[171] reduced the bow-tie initiation rate successfully in
an epoxy by adding a surface active agent that makes
the hygroscopic substances (initiating bow-tie trees) hy-
drophobic. Kalkner [69] found a decrease in bow-tie tree
growth if a certain, not further described, additive was
used. The experiments by Yoshimitsu were carried out
on XLPE or epoxy resin films. A rather high electric
stress level of 40 kV/mm at 1 kHz for 63 h was applied.
Kalkner tested P E films a t 50 Hz for 130 days.
1010
5.7.4 EFFECT OF MORPHOLOGY OF THE
I NS U LAT ING M AT E RIA L
A few publications only discuss the growth of water
trees with respect to morphology-related parameters of
the insulation.
Morita et al. [lo31 varied the melt index (0.3 to 2 g/10
rnin), density (0.920 to 0.927 g/cm3) and related crys-
tallinity (72 to 76% from density) of LDPE and some
other materials. He was not able to find a relation be-
tween the growth of the water trees and these morpho-
logical parameters. No information is given as to whether
bow-tie trees or vented trees were observed. The insula-
tion was tested in a sandwich construction a t a frequency
of 50 Hz for 42 days.
Saure and Golz [130] studied vented tree growth in a
50 Hz water needle experiment. The melt index of the
LDPE and XLPE samples was varied over a wide range
(0.2 to 10 g/10 min). Also no relation could be observed
in this study. In the same kind of test, Golz [59] conclud-
ed that annealing the insulation resulted in extra vented
tree growth. The total effect, however, is small. Anneal-
ing was carried out in different ways, often at tempera-
tures > 1OO'C for 15 h. Crosslink residual products had
been removed by pre-conditioning from the P E samples.
Go18 attributed the effect observed to the increase of crys-
tallinity and therefore of free spaces in the insulation after
annealing.
Namiki et al. [110] also concluded that heat-treatment
of the material produced extra water tree growth. The
author studied the development of bow-tie trees in XLPE
sheets aged for 40 h a t a frequency of 50 Hz. Namiki as-
cribed this effect to an enhancement of the brittleness
of the insulation due t o higher crystallization. An ex-
planation for the enhanced water tree growth after heat-
treatment [59,110] could be the effect of the (further)
evaporation of crosslink residual products. Most results
indicate that there is no distinct relation between the
morphological parameters of the insulation such as melt
index, density or crystallinity and the growth of water
trees. Only a few studies are informative in this partic-
ular field and unfortunately none of these studies deals
with vented trees in full-scale cables.
6. SUMMARY
N summarizing the main characteristics of water trees
I and effects of operating variables regarding vented tree
growth, the following can be concluded.
Steennis et al.: Water neeing
Vented trees are more dangerous than bow-tie trees as
a result of the difference in growth behavior. Vented trees
are diffuse structures, growing in many kinds of polymers.
The vented tree probably contains about 1% water, be-
ing about 3 x the amount of water in freshly steam-cured
XLPE insulations and about 100 x the saturation level
of water in dry-cured and silane-cured PE. This water
is mainly concentrated in micro cavities and channels.
Apart from Clustering of water in voids, water is proba-
bly molecularly dispersed in the path of the vented tree.
Here water molecules can be found a t places with polar
groups attached to P E branches. Nevertheless the vented
tree can be considered as an insulating material.
A vented tree can be dried and rewetted. To make
the tree clearly visible different water-soluble dyes can
be used; decolorization of vented trees after dyeing has
never been reported. A high concentration of microvoids
is mainly found in the trunk of vented trees grown a t high
electric stresses. The branches of such vented trees also
become more pronounced. A vented tree grows mainly
in the direction of the original electric field. The growth
rate under service aging conditions ranges from M 20 to
M 500 pm per year.
Local measurements on tree-affected regions of the in-
sulation with different chemical and physical detection
methods show evidence of oxidation. The presence of dif-
ferent species like sulfate, carboxylate anions and metals
in the tree-affected regions has been established.
Bulk measurements on insulating materials with and
without vented trees show:
1. There is a relation between the size of vented trees and
the breakdown stress level.
2. One cannot exclude an increase of the loss factor and
a decrease of the dc resistance of insulating material
containing vented trees. However, results from differ-
ent investigators were not found to be reproducible.
3. At normal electric stresses the growth of vented trees is
not accompanied by measurable partial discharges. At
higher electric stresses electrical treeing may be initiat-
ed from the tip of the vented tree, eventually resulting
in a breakdown.
There are no fundamental contradictions between the re-
sults of tests where vented trees have been initiated in
a water needle experiment and vented trees initiated on
the surfaces of scratched or even unscratched insulations.
Most of the information justifies the conclusion that the
rate of propagation of vented trees is proportional to the
electric stress.
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation
There is hardly any vented tree growth under the ap-
plication of a dc stress. The vented tree propagation rate
increases a t increasing frequency; however, above 4 to 8
kHz the tree propagation rate decreases with increasing
frequency.
Vented tree growth is not really affected by tempera-
ture cycling. The role of a temperature gradient is im-
portant and rather complex. At constant temperature
level the most favorable temperature region for vented
tree growth appears to be 30 to 50°C.
To date, the relation between vented treeing and me-
chanical stresses is unclear.
At a relative humidity of the air surrounding the insu-
lation of < 70%, vented treeing becomes rare.
The chemical nature of the fluid surrounding the poly-
mer affects vented tree growth. There are several indica-
tions that the type of salt is related to vented tree growth;
NaCl and CuSO4 solutions are often used to speed up ag-
ing processes. Higher salt quantities will usually produce
more progressive growth. One test was made with fluids
other than water. This also resulted in some kind of tree-
ing, showing that water treeing is probably a special case
of treeing in general.
Vented tree growth is not only related to P E bu't can be
found in many different materials: polyolefins and epoxy
resins. The growth of these trees is clearly affected by
additives and crosslink residual products. Additives and
residual products are able to evaporate in most cases,
resulting in a reduction of this protective effect.
Morphological parameters such as melt index, crys-
tallinity and density probably do not affect the growth
of vented trees.
7. POSSIBLE MECHANISMS
OF GROWTH
7.1 INTRODUCTION
variety of mechanisms of bow-tie tree and vented tree
A growth has been postulated since water trees were
discovered. This important matter has been discussed
in detail a t a workshop meeting of EPRI in 1985 [24].
The most important mechanisms will be discussed in the
course of this Section:
1. capillary action,
2. osmosis,
Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990 1011
3. Coulomb forces,
4. dielectrophoresis,
5. thermal degradation,
6. partial discharges,
7. chemical degradation.
The main focus will be on the growth of vented trees,
because this type of water tree appears to be the most
dangerous one for medium-voltage extruded cable insula-
tions, as was stated before. The discussion of the mecha-
nisms of vented tree growth is preceded by the definition
of aging conditions.
Degradation is usually presented under extreme aging
conditions. It is obvious to expect a certain degradation
if, for instance, very high electric stresses are applied.
Moreover, it is not difficult to show this degradation in ex-
periments with water needles, in which such high stresses
are available. These experiments show that high electric
stresses should be avoided; however, such experiments are
not conclusive on the cause of vented tree propagation a t
moderate electric stresses of a few kV/mm. The aging
conditions therefore will be emphasized when discussing
the various degradation processes.
7.2 CAPILLARY ACTION
Van der Waals demonstrated that a force, directed in-
ward is exerted on the water molecules of a surface layer.
The related surface energy can be written as a product
of the surface tension and the surface area. This sur-
face energy is a representation of the potential energy of
the molecules in the surface layer. Enlarging this surface
requires energy.
P E insulating materials always contain a number of mi-
crovoids. As a consequence of the different surface ten-
sions of PE/water, water/air and PE/air interfaces, water
inside microvoids with pure P E walls will in principle be
expelled from the PE.
Similar considerations describe the behavior of water
in a capillary channel. Water will not enter a narrow
channel as long as the walls of these channels consist of
pure PE. However, if the walls of these channels become
polar, their surface tension will change. Water will en-
ter the channel if the surface tension of the PE/water
interface is smaller than the surface tension of the P E /
gas interface. Then the absorption of water into the sys-
tem will cause the surface energy t o decrease. In other
wdrds, a certain minimum amount of polar material on
the walls is required to get an intrusion of water. It could
be questioned if capillary action itself is able to damage
r
1012
the polymer system, especially in front of the capillary
channel. This is not the case: the reduction of the sur-
face energy and, thus, the supply of water will stop as
soon as the water has reached the unmodified area in the
channel. The pressure at the end surface is compensated
by the concavity of the water meniscus. There remains
no pressure capable of damaging the P E [148].
7 . 3 OSMOSIS
Water-soluble substances that are present in microvoids
attract water from the environment and osmotic pressure
may occur. Moore [lo21 derives such an osmotic pressure
by means of a thermodynamic approach. It is stated that
the chemical potential of the water in the void and outside
the P E are equal if an equilibrium is reached. Therefore,
a decrease of the chemical potential of the water in a void
due to a solute must be compensated by a n increase of
the hydrostatic pressure. The osmotic pressure derived
becomes
II M RTc
in which R , the gas constant, 8.31 J/Kmole, T the tem-
perature in K and c the concentration in mole/m3. The
basis of this derivation is a diluted solution; however, for a
saturated solution Equation (1) is an approximation. For
better results the concentration c has to be replaced by a
practical parameter, c’ being the osmolarity. Therefore,
II M RTc’
This osmolarity has been measured for many solutions
and can be derived from data given in the Handbook of
Chemistry and Physics (D-262 [164]).
t”
Figure 23.
Stresses in the surface layer of a spherical void.
For a spherical void the stress ct in the tangential di-
rection of the void surface is 50% of the stress cT in the
radial direction of the surface [65]. With IF,( = II, the
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
tangential stress ct becomes = II/2. The various
stresses are given in Figure 23.
7.3.1 EXAMPLE
For a typical NaCl solution under saturated conditions
the osmolarity c’ = lo4 mole/m3 at a temperature of 300
K. As a result, the osmotic pressure II becomes large:
in this example the osmotic pressure is M 25 MPa. The
tangential stress in the surface layer of a spherical void
containing this solution is 12 MPa, which is near the yield
strength of LDPE (cyin Section 1.2). Creep, a mechan-
deformation process, may occur. As a
the void will be enlarged and by further absorption of
water the solution will be diluted and osmotic pressure
will decrease. This process will continue until eventually
the osmotic pressure falls below the yield strength of the
PE.
7.3.2 OSMOTIC PRESSURE AND SURFACE
TENSION
(1)
The osmotic pressure may be (partly) compensated by
the surface tension of the solid/liquid interface of the void.
The effect of the surface tension has already been dis-
cussed under ‘capillary action’. The surface energy can
be high, especially if the walls of the P E are unmodified
so that the voids have small radii. Therefore, the pres-
(2) sure drop over the liquid surface can reach compensating
pressures regarding osmotic pressure. The radii of such
voids are calculated to be in the nm region. Consequent-
ly, compensation of the osmotic pressure by the surface
energy can only be expected in the interlamellar region
of the polymer. Osmotic pressure itself does not explain
vented tree growth. It could act without an electric field,
while from the phenomenology it is known that an electric
stress is necessary for tree growth.
Sletbak [138], who suggests a n osmotic pressure for
bow-tie tree growth, indicated that the electrically con-
trolled mechanism should be found in a Coulomb action.
Another investigator taking osmosis into account is Fe-
dors [42]. Kats [74] also indicated the ability of water
soluble matter to attract moisture, and included other
mechanisms in their overall picture, for example an elec-
trochemical reaction.
7.4 COULOMB FORCES
Coulomb forces are forces on electric charges, that are
caused by an electric stress. Separated stress terms as
IEEE n a n s a c t i o n s on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 No. 5 , O c t o b e r 1990
the Maxwell stress and electrostriction can be combined
into a single relation:
(3)
In which fi is the dielectric displacement vector, E' the-
electric stress vector, 5 the unit normal vector, the
permittivity of the polymer, and p the density of the poly-
mer.
Figure 24.
Pressure at the tip of a vented tree path.
Equation (3) expresses the relation between pressure
p and the electric stress E . The first term on the right
is related to the Maxwell stress and the second term t o
electrostriction. The medium here is P E surrounding the
vented tree, as is schematically illustrated in Figure 24.
A number of investigators (e.g.Meyer et al. [98]) esti-
mated Coulomb forces as serious. They considered var-
ious combinations of- the following: Very high electric
stresses in the virgin insulating material, that a water
tree is a conducting material, and the vibration of the
Coulomb forces in relation to the power frequency.
In certain cases Coulomb forces are assumed to act
in combination with another force. With regard to the
growth of bow-tie trees, including the effect of osmotic
pressure, Sletbak and Ildstad [138,140] should be men-
tioned here. A high surface tension of the PE/water
interface may counteract the effect of Coulomb forces,
especially for voids with small radii. A reduction of this
surface tension is assumed by Tanaka et al. [156] and Min-
nema et al. [loo]. The effect of vibrations is emphasized
by Cherney [29], Isshiki et al. [66], Minnema et al. [loo]
and Morita et al. [104].
Minnema et al. concluded that the vibrating elastic
stresses as a result of the Coulomb forces are essential.
1013
They also found a reduction of the surface tension of the
P E surface through the action of an electric stress. On
the basis of these two facts it was concluded that the
propagation of a vented tree is related t o a process which
is called 'environmental fatigue failure'.
Cherney [29] starts his calculations with the assump-
tion that the pressure can be derived from the relation
F, = Q E . In this relation the parameter Fn represents
the force on the medium. The electric stress is E and Q
represents all the electric charges present in the water of
a cavity. This derivation, however, is incorrect because
by no means all charges in the water contribute to the
force on the medium.
Recently Zeller [176] and Steennis [148] calculated that
the Coulomb forces are unable to degrade the polymer.
In this case the electric stress E,, has been chosen rather
moderate, according to service aging conditions. More-
over, Steennis assumed that a vented tree can be repre-
sented by an insulating material. There are several re-
sults from the phenomenological experience supporting
this conclusion:
1. If vented tree growth were related to Coulomb forces,
the propagation of the tree would be proportional to
E'. However, the results of the phenomenology seem
to indicate that its propagation is proportional to E .
2. Cracking of a polymer is normally reduced by the in-
crease of the molecular weight (Section 1.2). Such an
effect has not been observed clearly in relation to the
propagation of vented trees in P E (Section 5.7).
3. Even electron micrographs did not reveal cracking in
the tips of vented tree channels [28]. The voids some-
times observed in the P E a t a certain distance from the
channel tip probably are related to secondary degra-
dation.
7.5 DIELECTROPHORESIS
In a n inhomogeneous electric field, water dipoles tend
t o move to the point of highest stress. After some time
the flow of water in the direction of the electric stress
concentration will reach an equilibrium with the diffusion
backwards as a result of the water concentration gradient.
Several investigators describe this effect (Tanaka et al.
[155], Isshiki et al. [66] and Patsch [121]).
The difference in water concentration is found by using
a thermodynamic approach. An equilibrium is reached
if'the chemical potential of the water in the position of
high electric stress is equal t o the chemical potential in the
Dosition
, ~ ~ ~ .of. low (normal) electric stress. From equations
1014
given in the literature it can be calculated that even under
-
the application of a high electric stress enhancement of
1OOx a t the tip of a water tree, the increase of the water
concentrations a t that specific location is < 3%. The
increase of the water concentration becomes negligible if
a water tree is considered as an insulating material.
Nevertheless, several authors mention supersaturation
of water in PE. This supersaturation is assumed to be
caused by dielectrophoresis. Water droplets will be
formed, which cause small voids to be filled with water.
This process continues until an equilibrium has been
reached and may therefore lead to pressure building up
and P E being attacked [21,93,94,121,141,167].
It can also be stated that there is no supersaturation.
The slightly higher water concentration a t the location
with a higher electric stress is in equilibrium with its sur-
roundings. Dielectrophoresis is not the cause of water
tree growth but may contribute to the transportation of
water to locations capable of absorbing water if stress
enhancement exists near the surface of these locations.
Condensation will occur in these places; in particular wa-
ter trees can be considered as such dislocations.
7.6 THERMAL DEGRADATION
The thermal behavior of any arbitrary volume is given
by the relation
dT
p c , - - v .k’VT = qh (4)
at
With p the density of the material, C,, the specific heat,
k’ the thermal conductivity, qh the heat dissipation. The
value of qh is given by
qh = %Et (5)
in which q, and E, are the conductivity and the electric
stress in the vented tree respectively.
It is possible to assume that a vented tree is a conduct-
ing material (water and salts) and that, moreover, the
remaining electric stress in the tree is still considerable
( M E,). Calculations show that under these conditions
the temperature can become unstable ( a T / a t # 0). On
the basis of these assumptions the investigators Isshiki et
al. [66], Tanaka et al. [156], Yoshimura et al. [174] and
Meyer et al. [98] state that an increase of temperature
may play an essential role. Yoshimura suggested that
the water in the tree would even evaporate, with obvious
consequences for the polymer.
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
cable insulation
Figure 25.
Cylindrically shaped volume V surrounded by the
unaffected PE. T h e volume V has the electrical
properties of a vented tree path.
On the other hand, it is possible to assume that the
vented tree can be considered as an insulating materi-
al (Section 3.1) and that there is a thermal equilibrium:
a T / & = 0 according to [148]. It can be shown that the
temperature in the vented tree hardly differs from the
temperature of the surrounding polymer. This is demon-
strated for a certain volume V in the PE, cylindrically
shaped, as shown in Figure 25, with a length h, radius
T and with one of its extreme surfaces A on the outer
surface of the insulation. The properties of the vented
tree are attributed to the whole cylinder. For the con-
figuration considered, the solution of Equation (4) with
a T / a t = 0 is according t o Wong [169]:
r2 2h
Tu = To + qh-2k‘ In( -)
T
in which T, is the temperature of the vented tree, T the
radius of the cylinder, h the length of the cylinder.
In relation (6) the heat flow through the surface A is
neglected. The temperature in the water tree has a max-
imum for T = 2h/&, thus
c, E,”h2
Tu < To +7 ek (7)
Assuming that E, <E,, E, = 2x106 V/m, c, = 1.3x10-’
(am)-’, k’ = 0.25 J/Ksm, h < 1 mm, while e = 2.72.
These assumptions result in
< +
Tu To 0.08K (8)
In agreement with these findings microscopic examina-
tions of vented trees do not reveal any thermal degrada-
tion. Moreover, Bamji et al. [ll]using Differential scan-
ning calorimetry were not able t o detect any difference
between the thermal history within PE affected by a tree
and the P E free from attack.
7.7 PARTIAL DISCHARGES
Partial discharges may occur in gas-filled cavities under
high electric stresses. Under the application of an ac-field
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990
a continuous repetition of the process causes degradation
of the surrounding insulating material, so that electrical
treeing may occur eventually. These discharges have been
studied for many years [82,84,90,91].
In Section 4.4 it was concluded that vented tree growth
a t moderate stress levels is in all likelihood not accompa-
nied by such discharges. The experience with partial dis-
charge measurements on medium-voltage cables confirm
this, even if these cables contained large vented trees.
The noise level during the experiment of Steennis [148]
was FZ 0.1 pC, the mean electric stress level in the insu-
lation was < 5 kV/mm.
However, there are two different situations in which
partial discharges can be related to vented treeing. In
the first situation partial discharges may occur during
initiation. If water needles are applied, the very high
initiation stress level a t the tip of the water needle may
cause partial discharges. This accounts for the light emis-
sion from the water needle electrodes in a test by Nitta
[114]. Secondly it is possible for electrical treeing to orig-
inate from vented trees, for example during overvoltages.
These electrical trees cause partial discharges. Examples
have already been presented in Figures 18 and 19.
Finally, it is assumed by Dakin [37] that perhaps micro
discharges could play a role in the process of water tree
growth.
7.8 ELECTROCHEMICAL
D EG RA DAT IO N
The concept of chemical action in relation to water tree
growth in P E has been mentioned by several authors. Rye
e t al. [128] showed that in the absence of a n electric field,
warm solutions of some salts (sodium chloride and vari-
ous copper salts) attack the interface of P E chemically,
possibly oxidizing it. It is possible that such a process
increases the tendency to water tree growth in PE. It has
still t o be explained why a tree structure arises.
Tabata et al. [153] found tree structures in voltage en-'
ergized cable insulation which had been in a solution of
H2S and water. The trees had grown from a copper con-
ductor, and contained CuzS and Cu20. This makes the
contribution of a chemical action to water treeing proba-
ble. Yoshimitsu et al. [171] suppose water tree formation
in epoxy resins t o be accompanied by chemical reactions.
Henkel et al. [63] supposed a n electrochemical process
a t the P E interface, in which H 2 0 2 is generated in water,
successively attacking the PE. The fact that agents which
1015
are known to either interrupt the electrochemical process
or stabilize H 2 0 2 , strongly diminish the formation of wa-
ter trees, supports this supposition.
Steennis [148] states that water enters the amorphous
regions of polymers if polar impurities are present. He
gives several reasons for the creation of polar regions
(which can be seen as a vented tree initiation process).
For instance:
1. pollution or oxidation of the compound or cable insu-
lation during production,
2. diffusion of impurities from a semiconducting screen,
which was also estabilished by Crine [31] and Johnson
~71,
3. scratching of the insulation surface during or after ca-
ble production. This will produce polymer chain ends
which may easily be oxidized.
polar group
Figure 26.
Polar groups (.) fixed on the polymer chains at a
scratched PE surface.
Figure 7 shows an example of a vented tree initiate(
a t such a location. In the cavity were species contain-
ing silicon, sulfur and calcium (Figure 8). Growth due
to electrochemical action is illustrated in Figure 26 [148].
In a cross section of an insulation surface, polar groups
are attached to the polymer chains. In Figure 27 an en-
largement is shown. Water enters the amorphous regions
as far as these regions contain polar groups, the front of
this water intake is represented by line F . In the polar
region, up to front F , charge transport by ions can take
place, represented by c. Beyond front F the polymer
is *pureand acts as a dielectric that transmits capacitive
currents, represented by the permittivity cp of the poly-
ethylene in the Figure. At interface F the transport of
1016
t P
F =
noter
Figure 27.
Water intake at a polarized insulation surface
[148] and consequent tree growth by electroly-
sis. Up to front F the degraded polar polymer
is slightly conductive by ion movement. At F the
ions lose their charge and free radicals are formed
that attack the virgin polymer. The ionic current
through cv is maintained by a capacitive current
through c p so that the mechanism works at ac
voltage only.
ions is stopped and charge transfer takes place by elec-
trolysis as has been described by Kao et al. [70]. Free
radicals or oxydizing agents such as H202 are formed.
The polymer is attacked, the front shifts further into the
polymer and a polar path is created: the polar path con-
taining water forms a vented tree. The vented tree can be
considered as a very high-resistive electrolyte: the ionic
conductivity is low and a high potential difference re-
mains over the electrolyte. Because the available voltage
remains high, the vented tree path may contain several
of such fronts in series. The vented tree is thus consid-
ered as an insulator, although a poor one. As the ionic
current in the water tree in this theory is maintained by
capacitive current through the unaffected dielectric, tree
growth takes place at ac voltage only which corresponds
with the phenomenology described in Section 5.2.
In 1990 Ross [127] introduced a n advanced model of
the structure of water trees in the nm range, see Fig-
ure 28. In this model the hydrophilic nature of water
trees is explained by the presence of chemically or phys-
ically bonded ionic groups. It is assumed that oxidation
occurs during water tree growth as carboxylate groups
and ionic sulfur-oxygen groups (observed with FTIR) can
be regarded as possible oxidation products. It is suggest-
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
-
-r
t F
limiting void with Iimitin g
diameter tropped solt diameter
b
crystalline at.'. cotions
oOoO anions
amorphous
LVJ ionic endgroups PE outside watertree
Figure 28.
A model of the structure of water trees (After [127])
ed that acidic sulfur-oxygen groups may be the result
of oxidized antoxidants, which derive their functionality
from a sulfur atom; in contact with water these groups
may be converted to salts. It shows that antioxidants
may play a n important role in the process of water tree
growth. Ross observed with oxygen plasma exposition
that the oxidative stability is locally reduced by water
trees, which is another argument that oxidation process-
es are important. According to Ross there is a further
argument. This argument is found in the growth rates
of vented trees in needle tests when different salt solu-
tions are applied (for a description of the test results,
see Section 5.6). The strongest tree growth is obtained
with copper sulfate. According t o Ross, sulfates can be
considered as oxidizing agents and copper ions are noto-
rious catalysts in oxidation processes. Ross further in-
troduced the selective permeability for different entities
locally, seeming to bear a close resemblance to ionomer
membranes. As a result of the selective permeability (at
places with limiting diameter in Figure 28), salts may be
trapped once the electric field is removed.
7.9 CONCLUSIONS
Osmosis and capillary action are not related to electric
stress, which is the reason why they cannot be consid-
ered as the cause of water tree growth. However, both
processes may play a secondary role, for instance during
the initiation of a water tree or by pushing water into a
polarized channel.
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 No. 5 , O c t o b e r 1990
Partial discharges have never been detected during the
growth of a vented tree under moderate aging conditions
and are thus not considered in the first place as the basis
of water tree growth. Nevertheless if such discharges are
involved, the level is below detectability.
Assuming a water tree represents a conducting mate-
rial, various basic mechanisms of degradation are con-
ceivable such as thermal degradation and degradation by
Coulomb forces. About the role of dielectrophoresis there
are different opnions. In any case, dielectrophoresis might
be of assistance by carrying water vapor to the tip of a
vented tree.
On the other hand, assuming a vented tree is not a
conducting material but an insulating material, and by
selecting aging parameters to comply with the actual use
of medium-voltage cables, most of the mechanisms men-
tioned above become rather improbable. Under these as-
sumptions, however, electrochemical degradation can be
considered as a significant mechanism.
8. TEST METHODS
8.1 FIELD TESTING
1. Experience with dc tests on service-aged cables con-
taining water tees (vented trees) shows that many cables,
after a first ac breakdown and repair, have an extreme-
ly low dc breakdown voltage. Often breakdown voltages
smaller than the rated voltage of the cable were report-
ed and further dc breakdowns reveal an ever decreasing
breakdown voltage level [49,60,150].
2. To find the effect of the dc field test on the 50 He
breakdown voltage level short cable lengths have been
stressed with a dc voltage up t o several times the rated
voltage after which the 50 Ha breakdown voltage level
was measured. It was found that in these specific cases
there was not a reduction of the 50 Hz breakdown voltage
level, although the cables contained many large vented
trees [20,60,145].
Gronefeld [60] explained the apparent contradiction be-
tween l and 2 as follows: under the application of a dc
stress space charges can reduce the stress enhancements
in the vicinity of water trees. Then, traveling waves of op-
posite polarity, occurring after breakdown, will give rise
to relatively high stress enhancements a t the tip of the
water tree which may result in degradation.
Although it is difficult t o prove this assumption, prac-
tical experience gives enough reasons to avoid dc stresses
1017
on cables, even for cables with small water trees. Espe-
cially dc stresses of several times the rated voltage could
lead to cable insulation damage.
Alternative test procedures, such as 0.1 Hz [60] and os-
cillating wave [6] are under investigation for instance in
Germany and in The Netherlands. It was found recent-
ly (to be published, Steennis, Jicable 1991) that 0.1 Hz
easily discriminates between cables with different rates of
degradation.
A further alternative would be the measurement of the
dc current under dc load conditions. According to Hara-
sawa et al. [61] this measurement technique has the dis-
advantage that only heavily deteriorated cables can be
discriminated from other cables. A further disadvantage
is that still the application of the suspected dc load is
required.
A more sophisticated procedure was described earlier
by Oonishi et al. [117]. They found that the dc leakage
current under negative voltage application is larger than
under positive voltage application. As a consequence of
this polarity effect, the ac voltage will reveal a dc charg-
ing current or a dc leakage current. Their examinations
showed a good correlation between the breakdown volt-
age, the size of vented trees and this leakage current.
Moreover, the measurement of the current can be made
without interruption of the cable usage. The results indi-
cate that both extensively deteriorated and moderate de-
teriorated cables can be discriminated from cables having
small water trees only. It is not possible to distinguish
cables being deteriorated by bow-tie trees since in this
case there is no polarity effect. It is the authors’ opin-
ion that this disadvantage is not very important, because
bow-tie trees are less detrimental. However, cables hav-
ing vented trees grown from both sides of the insulation
may probably be less sensitive t o this procedure.
8.2 ACCELERATED AGING
The evaluation of the water tree susceptibility of a cable
insulation and in particular the evaluation of water tree
retardant insulating materials must be made by means of
accelerated aging tests. It is the object of such a test to
obtain an indication of the service behavior of the cable
insulation in a short period of time.
The development of such a procedure is rather difficult,
as’history shows. A material test is still under develop-
ment [131]. With respect t o full-scale cable tests, the
AIEC test [2] and the ‘Accelerated life test’ [87] (ACLT,
1018
introduced by Lyle and Kirkland) are being used espe-
cially in the United States. In Europe, the 'Accelerat-
ed water tree aging test' [134] (ACWT, introduced by
Schroth, Kalkner and Fredrich) is under consideration.
The effectiveness of these three tests can be questioned.
It was shown that, probably as a consequence of the tem-
perature regimes applied, the tests lead to an extensive
bow-tie tree growth and a reduction of the sizes of the
more important vented trees. Therefore, the water tree
growth patterns obtained are not according t o service ex-
perience [134,148]. It was shown also that a bad cable
passed the AEIC test [148].
Alternative test procedures are under development, for
instance within CIGRE WG 21-11 [113]. As long as a
few thousand hour test is not available, a 2 yr test with
moderate test conditions (such as 2 . 5 ~the rated volt-
age, room temperature, power frequency) can be applied
according to [148].
8.3 C HA RACT ER lZATl0N TESTS
In order to determine the level of degradation of aged
cables (and if necessary the reference level of unaged ca-
bles) a characterization test is carried out. Such a test
comprises the following three basic elements:
1.supply of several cable samples is necessary for break-
down tests and visual inspections in the laboratory,
2. breakdown voltages (in most cases a step voltage test)
give information on the electrical strength of the cable
insulation,
3. visual inspections give information on the sizes, densi-
ties and types of water trees.
Breakdown voltages are found by testing cable samples
with a length of a t least about 5 m. The mean break-
down voltage level can be calculated by means of Weibull
statistics [14, 1581.
Visual inspections are carried out on dyed slices of the
cable insulation. Microscopic evaluations are necessary
to find water trees with sizes in the range of 100 p m t o
1 mm. The slices can be taken from randomly chosen
places, the vicinity of the places of breakdown and the
breakdown site.
AEIC [2], Weck [165] and CIGRE [149] recommend
their own characterization test procedures.
After aging in the AEIC qualification test [2] the rate
of degradation of the cable is characterized by means of
the ac breakdown test. The characterization is based on
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
2 cable samples, each a t least 5 m long, subjected to a
step test until breakdown. A breakdown voltage of 10
kV/mm minimum is required for each of the two cable
samples. Moreover visual inspections are carried out on
slices taken near the places of breakdown. In the 'Stufen-
test' described by Weck [165] three cable samples of 15 m
are subjected to a step test. The step test is terminated
a t a level of 9 x the rated cable voltage (15 to 20 kV/mm).
It is assumed that water treeing is of minor importance
in cables having breakdown voltages above this level. Vi-
sual inspections are carried out both on randomly chosen
insulation volumes and near and a t the breakdown sites.
01
0
I
10
'
20
'
30
'
40
'
50
I
60 70
I
80
I '
90
I
100
largest woter tree observed in insulotion
[ % of the insulation thickness]
cable circuit with breokdown(s) during
J
service operation
Figure 29.
The 63% breakdown stress level and the largest
water tree found in the insulation plotted for dif-
ferent cables in one graph. In this Figure, the ca-
ble circuits which had failures during service are
indicated with a lightning mark [149].
An extensive but very informative test procedure is the
so called characterization test of CIGRE [149]. The total
number of 5 m cable samples subjected to the breakdown
test is 12. In this test (apart from visual inspections on
randomly chosen small cable samples) visual inspections
are carried out a t the breakdown sites. In order to ob-
tain better visual inspection results, it is recommended to
r
IEEE Transactions o n Electrical Insulation Vol. 25 N o . 5 , October 1990
adjust the equipment for the breakdown tests in such a
way that the energy dissipated during breakdown is min-
imized. As a consequence the actual causes of breakdown
are often found which is very informative (examples are
given in Figures 12, 18 and 19, vented trees were found
as the cause of breakdown). Especially for cables hav-
ing water trees exceeding about 30% of the insulation
thickness this inspection is useful. The largest water tree
observed in combination with the 63% breakdown stress
level represent one dot in a graph (see Figure 29). This
graph makes it possible to get a n indication of the level of
degradation of the involved cable (each dot in this graph
represents one cable circuit under investigation) in com-
parison t o other cables. The region of bad cables (indicat-
ed with lightning marks) starts with a (63%) breakdown
voltage smaller than about 15 kV/mm and with water
trees having a length exceeding
thickness.
- 40% of the insulation
9. MEASURES TO REDUCE
WATER TREEING
different methods can be applied t o obtain a bet-
T WO
ter aging performance of cables under wet conditions.
On the one hand it is possible to make water-tight cable
constructions. On the other hand it is possible to accept
water in contact with the insulation and to apply so called
water tree retardant insulating materials.
9.1 WATER TIGHT CONSTRUCTIONS
In many countries today the utilities install cables with
water-tight constructions having longitudinal water block-
ings or a combination of longitudinal and radial water
blockings.
To avoid any radial water ingress by diffusion utilities
often apply cables having radial water barriers. Such a
radial water barrier for medium voltage cables is usually
a metal foil under the plastic outer sheath. Water vapor
is not able to permeate through the metal. Examples
of such constructions are given in many publications, for
instance by Bourjot [22], Nagabasami [lo81 and Bow [23].
To avoid axial water ingress under the outer sheath af-
ter a damage of this sheath, longitudinal water barriers
can be applied. These barriers are situated in between
the outer sheath and the cable core and mostly consist of
swelling tapes or swelling powders [135]. Cable damage
can be expected also when liquid water from the soil can
reach the conductor, but this conductor can be made wa-
ter tight for instance by means of a solid conductor or by
the application of swelling powders between the strands.
1019
Concerning the swelling material under the outer sheath,
these materials have the ability t o absorb water vapor dif-
fusing through the plastic outer sheath into the cable. In
this way, by absorption, the swelling material is able to
keep the relative humidity low for a long period of time
for cables having a HDPE outer sheath (with a relative-
ly low water diffusion coefficient). For example, assuming
dry swelling materials right after production, it is expect-
ed that this period will be a few decades at least. It is
the authors’ opinion that it would be of interest to prove
that with a MDPE outer sheath (having a much higher
diffusion coefficient) this period is long enough to avoid
t o much water in the cable. Such a situation would be
reached when in and near the cable insulation the relative
humidity level exceeds a level of x 70% (also see Section
5.5).
9.2 WATER TREE RETARDANTS
Compound manufacturers and cable manufacturers, of-
ten in close cooperation, put much effort in the develop-
ment of water tree retardant insulating materials. Pub-
lications show that developments are based on differ-
ent philosophies concerning the mechanism of water tree
growth. As will be shown, the water tree retardant mate-
rials presented are modified polymers, polymers in which
chemical additives are incorporated or both. In many
cases a modification of the polymer is required to prevent
that these additives become fugitive. The test results as
described in the various publications give the impression
that tree retardants can be effective a t least over the lim-
ited time period of the tests.
Already in 1980 Soma et al. [141] formulated a bow-tie
tree inhibiting material. Soma assumed that bow-tie trees
are initiated by condensation of water in a void under the
action of an electric field. Further condensation will lead
to a pressure build up and creep of the void surface. The
mechanically damaged surface contains polar groups and
water will enter the polymer. The water tree retardant
material (intended t o suppress bow-tie tree development)
is based on additives having hydrophilic groups absorb-
ing the water in the polymer structure around the voids.
The publication describes different additives and presents
their effectiveness in a 3000 h test on a full-scale cable.
In 1984 Nagasaki et al. [log] presented a water-tree re-
tardant insulating material containing a n ethylene copoly-
mer (EVA) that acts as a barrier against water tree growth.
The cause of this retardant effect has not been clarified.
Life tests up to 30000 h were carried out on medium-
voltage cables showing that the material suppresses the
growth of both bow-tie trees and vented trees.
1020
One year later Matey et al. [92] presented a modified
base polymer which should intrinsically be more resistant
to water tree degradation. Matey assumes that mechani-
cal fatigue plays an important role in the process of water
treeing. The modified polymer system should offer a n en-
hanced resistance to crack propagation. In addition the
resistance is enhanced by water treeing inhibitor, being
an organometallic compound. With respect to this mate-
rial, it is assumed by Saure et al. [132] that by migration
the polar additives have the ability to reduce the electric
field stress on places of field enhancement. In this publi-
cation Saure emphasized that the basic polymer is a P E
copolymer stabilizing the presence of the additives. Short
duration tests show that both vented trees and bow-tie
trees are reduced in number and length. Long-term ag-
ing tests up to 10000 h reveal the good performance of
the material both with respect to the breakdown strength
and the bow-tie tree development. However, no data are
presented concerning the growth behavior of the vented
trees.
In 1986 Fisher et al. [49] described the development
of a water-tree retardant insulating material called HF-
DA 4202. The development program was intended to
find a material without a filler and with additives being
nonfugitive. From [119] it is known that the additive is
an organo-metallic compound. Short-term water needle
tests show the retardant characteristics of this material.
No more information about test results of long-term tests
have been found.
One year later Fischer et al. [48] described a water--
tree retardant material which is based on a modified base
polymer with nonfugitive additives. The additives are
known to stabilize hydroperoxides by deactivation of the
catalytically active metal ions via adsorption and by a
deactivation of the initiating sites at which the assumed
electrochemical reactions occur. The background of this
electrochemical process during tree growth was published
two years earlier by Henkel and Muller [63]. Fischer per-
formed aging tests up to 6000 h and observed a reduction
of both densities and lengths of bow-tie and vented trees.
Recently, Field et al. [43] described the results of 3000 h
tests on full-scale cables. Assuming the water tree growth
is related to free water, to ionic contaminants and to ox-
idation products, different water tree retardant materi-
als were tested among which successfully a homopolymer
with an additive and two different modified polymers. In-
dication of tree size reduction of both bow-tie trees and
vented trees was obtained. Further testing to demon-
strate long-term benefits are in progress.
Apart from water-tree retardant insulating materials it
is generally assumed that smooth semiconducting layers
Steennis et al.: Water Treeing
and a reduction of the amount of impurities in these lay-
ers would be helpful in retarding the water tree growth,
especially the vented tree growth. A study of types and
amounts of impurities is given by Belhadfa et al. [13]. Im-
purities diffusing from the layers into the insulation are
described by Crine et al. [31] and Johnson et al. [67]. De-
velopment of semiconducting layers with lower contami-
nants levels have been reported for instance by Nitta [115]
and Umpleby [161].
Unfortunately, the above described developments and
test results are not informative about the actual degra-
dation mechanism, since modified polymers as well as
additives can be considered as polar material. For all
mechanisms discussed above, polar groups have water-
tree retardant consequences since polar groups are able
to reduce the electric stress locally (effective for all mech-
anisms) or to reduce the interfacial energy of polar in-
terfaces which reduces the absorption of water in general
(effective especially considering electrochemical degrada-
tion). It is concluded that water-tree retardant insulating
materials or a combination of these materials with smooth
and clean semiconducting layers can be considered as se-
rious candidates for solving the water treeing problem.
However, in many cases long duration tests at least up
to two years have not yet been performed; such tests are
required to come to better evaluations of the character-
istics of these materials on the long term. These tests
should emphasize material stability and fugitivity of the
additives. Moreover, tree growth of especially the vented
trees should be taken into account.
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Manuscript was received on 27 Jun 1990, in revised form 1 9
Sep 1990.