Authors:
Gabriele Milani
1
and
Federico Milani
2
Affiliations:
1
Technical University in Milan, Italy
;
2
CHEM.CO Consultant, Italy
Keyword(s):
Power Cables Production Lines, EPDM Elastomers, Peroxide Vulcanization, Steam Curing, DSC Characterization, Experimental Rheometer Curves.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Application Domains
;
Case Studies
;
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
;
Computer Simulation Techniques
;
Formal Methods
;
Health Engineering and Technology Applications
;
Industrial Processes
;
Mathematical Simulation
;
Neural Rehabilitation
;
Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics
;
Plant Simulation
;
Simulation and Modeling
;
Simulation Tools and Platforms
Abstract:
The standard industrial process to produce medium voltage electric cables based on EPDM consists of crosslinking by peroxides with high temperature steam (pressurized water vapor). Suboptimal material crosslinking is usually due to a decrease of the temperature along the vulcanization pipe. Temperature variations are connected to variations in steam pressure into pipe system. In the present paper a combined numerical and experimental approach to optimize the production process of medium voltage rubber insulated electric cables vulcanized with steam water is presented. The numerical part, discussed in an accompanying paper, is based on the utilization of Finite Elements and an optimization Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach. Here, attention is focused on the experimental investigation. In particular, the final crosslinking degree is experimentally obtained by means of a DSC determination of non-decomposed peroxide from the external layer to the core of the cable insulation. The final tas
k is to minimize the difference between numerically predicted and experimentally determined crosslinking degree using a steam temperature profile along the pipe to explain the variations. A preliminary evaluation of kinetic reaction constants of rubber cured with peroxides is here provided by means of a previously presented kinetic model.
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