Engineering Commons^™

Distributed Interdigital Capacitor (Idc) Sensing For Cable Insulation Aging And Degradation Detection, Md Nazmul Al Imran

Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear power plants (NPPs) contain myriad power, control, instrumentation, and other types of cables. The polymer insulation and jacket materials of such cables degrade over time due to operation and environmental conditions e.g., heat, humidity, and radiation. Since the life span of NPPs may extend beyond 40-50 years regular monitoring of cable insulation and jacket polymers is critical to ensure safe and reliable operation. The agingrelated degradation of cables causes changes in the relative permittivity or dielectric constant of the insulation and jacket materials. Capacitor sensors, if properly designed and developed can measure this change and thus can provide an …