Life expectance prognosis of high-voltage insulating materials based on accelerated tests

It is a well-known fact that the environmental conditions determine the service life of high-voltage insulation. The severity of these conditions and the period of exposure of HV insulation to such conditions are paramount to the extent of deterioration of the insulation characteristics and hence its service life. Exact determination of the latter is dependent upon a number of unknown and unpredicted variables related to climatic and other adverse chemical pollutions. However, it seems possible to estimate the service life of insulation with a reasonable degree of accuracy if the latter is subjected to accelerated laboratory tests which simulate and model the effect of real aggressive environmental atmospheres over a long period of time upon the insulation degradation