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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Cable indenter aging monitor

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5703337

The purpose of the investigation reported here is to develop a device suitable for in-situ, non-destructive monitoring of the remaining useful life of electrical cables. In any application where cable has a long installed life and is subject to replacement when it degrades beyond an acceptable level it is useful to have a device that can monitor degradation without having to remove specimens of installed cables or damaging them in the process of making measurements. The device under development involves the probing of the exposed elastomeric element of a cable and measuring the compressive, mechanical response of the material. This report covers two distinct aspects of the continuing investigation. The first is the laboratory experimentation conducted to determine the test apparatus and the test parameters that yield the greatest sensitivity to age, the least data scatter and reasonable independence from cable construction features. These test conditions were applied in a series of studies of four sample cable types, to establish the correlation between thermal aging and measured modulus, and combined thermal and radiation aging and measured modulus. The second aspect of the investigation covered by this report is the development of a portable engineering model of a cable indenter instrument suitable for convenient, in-situ tests of cables installed in active plants. The design concept is described, illustrating the major components of the Portable Cable Indenter. 5 refs., 21 figs., 2 tabs.

Research Organization:
Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA); Franklin Research Center, Norristown, PA (USA). Valley Forge Corporate Center
Sponsoring Organization:
EPRI; Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA)
OSTI ID:
5703337
Report Number(s):
EPRI-NP-7348
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English