Water Treeing in Polyethylene - A Review of Mechanisms

A literature survey on the mechanisms of water-treeing electrical cables is presented. The survey provides an introduction, some background, and examples of current research on water-treeing mechanisms. The mechanisms of water-treeing have been broken into three categories: chemical, electrical, and mechanical. Along with discussion on the types of mechanisms, methods are discussed for reducing tree growth by fillers, additives, or structural changes in polyethylene. Some interesting new theories have been proposed which may help to explain the appearance and growth of water trees in electric cables.