Water treeing in extruded cable insulation as Rehbinder electrical effect

Abstract

The paper contains systematic comparison of signs and properties of the water treeing phenomenon (the basic mechanism of degradation of medium voltage electric cable extrudered insulation which develops under combined action of electric stress and water) and Rehbinder Effect – the reduction of mechanical strength of solids due to physical and chemical action of liquid medium.
The analysis of the published data permits to distinguish 13 indications of the Rehbinder Effect. The authors show successively the direct analogy of the water treeing and the Rehbinder Effect using the above mentioned indications, including decrease of work of the development of new surfaces in the course of destruction, chemical specificity, role of material defects, two-stage destruction nature, etc. The analogy obtained is accepted as a working hypothesis which permits to bring certain order into theoretical and experimental studies of the water treeing.