Publications Details
Aging and condition monitoring of Class 1E cables
This paper presents a brief summary of condition monitoring results from an NRC-sponsored test program on aging, condition monitoring, and accident testing of Class 1E cables. In addition, since the program has been completed and the final reports have been published, this paper presents a list of references, along with abstracts for each reference. This list can serve as a guide for finding references to any desired information on the test program in varying levels of detail. The major conclusions of the test program with regard to condition monitoring were as follows: (a) of the parameters tested, elongation at break had the best correlation with aging for the most cable types; (b) hardness and indenter modulus (performed using the cable indenter developed under Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) sponsorship) measurements both increased with aging for some of the materials, especially the jacket materials, and the modulus measurements were significantly more sensitive to aging than the hardness measurements; (c) where indenter modulus was sensitive to aging, it was most sensitive in the later stages of aging, after the elongation had reached nearly 0%; (d) density generally increased with aging for most materials, but some changes were inconsistent; and (e) with only a few exceptions, tensile strength and a number of different electrical measurements did not correlate well with aging.