Numerical Study of CH4 Generation and Transport in XLPE-Insulated Cables in Continuous Vulcanization
Type
ArticleKAUST Department
Computational Transport Phenomena LabEarth Science and Engineering Program
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2020-07-03Submitted Date
2020-06-01Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/664058
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In this work, we apply a computational diffusion model based on Fick’s laws to study the generation and transport of methane (CH 4 ) during the production of a cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated cable. The model takes into account the heating process in a curing tube where most of the cross-linking reaction occurs and the subsequent two-stage cooling process, with water and air as the cooling media. For the calculation of CH 4 generation, the model considers the effect of temperature on the cross-linking reaction selectivity. The cross-linking reaction selectivity is a measure of the preference of cumyloxy to proceed either with a hydrogen abstraction reaction, which produces cumyl alcohol, or with a β -scission reaction, which produces acetophenone and CH 4 . The simulation results show that, during cable production, a significant amount of CH 4 is generated in the XLPE layer, which diffuses out of the cable and into the conductor part of the cable. Therefore, the diffusion pattern becomes a non-uniform radial distribution of CH 4 at the cable take-up point, which corresponds well with existing experimental data. Using the model, we perform a series of parametric studies to determine the effect of the cable production conditions, such as the curing temperature, line speed, and cooling water flow rate, on CH 4 generation and transport during cable production. The results show that the curing temperature has the largest impact on the amount of CH 4 generated and its distribution within the cable. We found that under similar curing and cooling conditions, varying the line speed induces a notable effect on the CH 4 transport within the cable, while the cooling water flow rate had no significant impact.Citation
Ruslan, M. F. A. C., Youn, D. J., Aarons, R., Sun, Y., & Sun, S. (2020). Numerical Study of CH4 Generation and Transport in XLPE-Insulated Cables in Continuous Vulcanization. Materials, 13(13), 2978. doi:10.3390/ma13132978Sponsors
This publication is based on a joint research project supported by The Dow Chemical Company. We gratefully acknowledge the support. In addition, we wish to thank Jozef Van Dun at Dow Chemical Europe for his valuable suggestions and comments.Publisher
MDPI AGJournal
MaterialsAdditional Links
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/13/2978https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/13/13/2978/pdf
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3390/ma13132978
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