Madan Mohan Malaviya Univ.

of Technology, Gorakhpur

POWER SYSTEM-1
Unit 03
Lecture 8 on
Insulation resistance & grading of cables

Presented by :
Prof. K. G. Upadhyay
Dr. Prabhakar Tiwari
Electrical Engineering Department
Madan Mohan Malviya University of Technology Mr. Amit Verma
Gorakhpur (UP State Govt. University) Research Scholar, MMMUT,
Gorakhpur

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 Outline
• Insulation Resistance of a Single-Core Cable
• Grading of cables
• Capacitance grading

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 Insulation Resistance of a Single-Core Cable

• The cable conductor is provided with a suitable thickness of insulating

material in order to prevent leakage current. The path for leakage
current is radial through the insulation.

• The opposition offered by insulation to leakage current is known as

insulation resistance of the cable. For satisfactory operation, the
insulation resistance of the cable should be very high

3
 Contd…
• Consider a single-core cable of conductor radius and internal sheath
radius as shown in below figure. Let l be the length of the cable and ρ
be the resistivity of the insulation.

4
 Contd…
• Consider a very small layer of insulation of thickness dx at a radius x.
The length through which leakage current tends to flow is dx and the
area of X-section offered to this flow is 2
• Insulation resistance of considered layer
• =
• Insulation resistance of the whole cable is
• R=

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 Contd…
• R=

• This shows that insulation resistance of a cable is inversely

proportional to its length. In other words, if the cable length increases,
its insulation resistance decreases and vice-versa

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 Grading of cables
• By grading of a cable is meant the distribution of dielectric material
such that the difference between the maximum gradient and the
minimum is reduced, thereby a cable of the same size could be
operated at higher voltages or for the same operating voltage a cable
of relatively smaller size could be used
• There are two methods of grading:
1. Capacitance grading where more than one dielectric material is used
2. Intersheath grading where the same dielectric material is used but
potentials at certain radii are held to certain values by interposing
thin metal sheaths
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 Capacitance Grading
• Let λ be the charge per unit length. If we have one single dielectric
material the gradient at any radius x will be
• g=

8
 Contd…
• where ε is the permittivity of the material. If we could use an infinite
number of materials with varying permittivities given by
•
• the gradient at any radius x now becomes
• g=
• For a particular operating voltage the overall size of the cable is
minimum. This looks quite all right but practically it is impossible to
have infinite number of dielectric materials with varying permittivities
as given above.

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 Contd…
• Normally two or three materials are used. Let there be three materials
with permittivities placed at radii r ,and respectively given in below
figure.

Gradient Single core cable with three materials

with infinite
number of
materials

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 Contd…
• Let the dielectric strength and working stresses of this material be and
and respectively The objective now is to find out the locations of
these materials with respect to the conductor of the cable. We can’t
keep any material anywhere we like. There must be some criterion,
otherwise the results of grading may be offset. There are two
possibilities:
i. The factor of safety for all the materials be same, thereby the
working stress of the various materials different
ii. The same working stress for different materials

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 Contd…
• (i) The gradient at the surface of the conductor will be
•
• where f is the factor of safety
• The gradient at radius
• The gradient at radius
• From these three relations,
•

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 Contd…
• Or
• Since r<,

• This means the material with highest product of dielectric strength and
permittivity should be placed nearest to the conductor and the other
layers should be in the descending order of the product of dielectric
strength and permittivity. So this is one arrangement of the dielectric
materials

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 Contd…
• (ii) The second alternative as is said earlier is when all the materials
are subjected to the same maximum stress.
• With this arrangement,
•

• Or
• Again since r< ,

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 Contd…
• The dielectric material with highest permittivity should be placed
nearest the conductor and other layers will be in the descending order
of their permittivities.
• The distribution of voltage using capacitance grading(same stress) is
shown in below figure.

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 Contd…
• Total operating voltage (hatched area) of the cable if is the working
stress.

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 Capacitance of a 3-Core Cable
• If we could assume that the dielectric is uniform between the core and
the sheath, it is possible to calculate the capacitance of a 3-core cable.
But normally it is not so and, therefore, it is desirable to find the
capacitance by measurements.

• In a 3-core cable, sheath is at earth potential and the three conductors

at supply potentials.

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 Contd…
• There are six capacitances formed between these systems. Three
capacitances are between the sheath and the conductors and the other
three capacitances between the conductors given in below figure.

Capacitance of 3-core Star equivalent of

cable delta
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 Contd…
• Let be the capacitance between sheath and the conductor and the
capacitance between each conductor. It is desirable to connect this
system of capacitors into an equivalent star connection.

• The equivalent star of a delta connection (capacitance between

conductors)will be as shown in last figure.

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 Contd…
• Since the star point is at sheath potential and the other terminals
correspond to the conductors of the cable, the whole system of
capacitors can be reduced to the following star system of capacitors
given in below figure.

Equivalent capacitance
of a 3-core cable

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 Contd…
• There are two unknowns and to find out the capacitance per phase of
the cable. We need to make two measurements.
i. bunch the three cores and measure the capacitance between the
bunched conductors and the sheath. Let this be given by given in
below figure.

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 Contd…
ii. connect any two cores to the sheath and measure the capacitance
between the remaining conductor and the sheath . Let this be given
in below figure. The equivalent circuit will be

22
 Contd…
• Since the capacitance per phase as from figure of equivalent
capacitance of 3-core cable.

• =
• =

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 Contd…
• In case the test figures are not available, the following empirical
formula due to Simon gives an approximate value of capacitance for
circular conductors
•
• relative permittivity of the dielectric
• d=conductor diameter
• t=belt insulation thickness
• T=conductor insulation thickness

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 Bibliography

1. Electrical Power Systems By “C L WADHWA”.

2. Principles Of Power System By “V.K. MEHTA &ROHIT MEHTA”.

3. Elements Of Power System By “U.A. BAKSHI & M.V.BAKSHI”.

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THANK YOU

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