Lifetime estimation of thermoplastics compounds for cable sheathing using Arrhenius equation

The lifetime of two thermoplastics compounds for cable sheathing was studied. Both tested compounds are designed for operation in harsh environments at operating temperature of 60 °C. Lifetime was estimated applying accelerated thermal aging under elevated temperature of 90 °C. The conditions of the thermal aging (time and temperature) were derived using differential scanning calorimetry and Arrhenius law. Elongation at break was continuously measured by universal testing machine in single times of accelerated thermal aging whereas the reduction to 50% of its original value was used as an end-point criterion. It has been proven that both the sheathing compounds tested can withstand applied thermal aging without any considerable decrease in the elongation at break and will not reach the…