The estimation of ship cable condition by the means of measuring its insulation characteristics

Abstract

Timely detection of defects in electrical equipment and cable network is required for the ensuring the fire safety of a modern marine vessel. The method of continuous monitoring of the resistance value of cable insulation is not very informative and is not applicable for assessing the service life of cables and predicting their replacement during operation and repair. Currently the problem of developing modern non-destructive methods of insulation control is very urgent in order to determine the operability of the cable, search for diagnostic parameters characterizing the state of insulation during prolonged aging, as well as the introduction of traditional methods of diagnostics of electrical equipment that have shown their effectiveness at the facilities of the coastal infrastructure. A promising solution for this problem is a method for monitoring the values of the tangent of the dielectric loss angle tgδ of cable insulation using devices that allow registering parameters with high accuracy. In this study the determination of changes in the parameters of a ship cable subjected to accelerated thermal aging at temperatures 120-130 °C has been made. The tgδ measurements of the cable sheath have been carried out using the Tangent-2000 insulation meter. The tests have shown that aging of cable hose insulation is accompanied by a non-linear change in tgδ; at certain values of the tangent of dielectric loss angle, visible cracks appear indicating the onset of an emergency condition of the cable. The nature of the change in the parameter tgδ is explained by the occurrence of reactions of oxidative dehydrochlorination of polychloroprene in the process of thermal aging of insulation and changes in its mass. Thus, the tangent of the dielectric loss angle can be one of the diagnostic parameters for assessing the state of the insulation of the ship's cable and predicting its service life.