An electrician ran 1000 ft of parallel 350 kcmil Aluminum XLPE cables in a PVC conduit underground. The run was from a non-fused disconnect to several large brine pumps on a platform. About 500 ft in to the run they put a non-wet proof splice kit in. About 7 months ago the customer noticed water boiling in the area of the splice kit and pull box. They then replaced the splice kits with the proper splice kit that was specified by me and is rated for the application. They also replaced the non-fused disconnect with a fused disconnect.
For about 6 months there doesn't seem to be any problems till I got called in today. It seems one of the 6 conductors on both ends of the conductor was dripping sea water out of the aluminum wire ends and of course dripped on the flow meter controls and damaged them. They created a make shift catch basin and it collected several pints of waters and then dried up. They are asking me for recommendations.
My thought is that the bad splice and the heat of the conductor sucked in water between the jacket and the individual strands of wire. The splice got fixed, but water was stuck in the conductor jacket. With the equipment now running, heat has finally cause the water to work its way out. It has since been evaporated. I have proposed an insulation test to make sure the conductor insulation wasn’t damaged when the bad splice was in and a short was forming in the water without any fused protection. If it passes ok and we all agree it was water working its way out of the cable I am worried about one other problem. That is salt water working its way through the whole cable and leaving salt deposit in there for future corrosion. One thought says the aluminum oxide around the strands wouldn’t be harmed by the salts and not to worry about it. Another thought says to replace all the conductors which would be a huge financial burden to the electrical contractor. Please give me your thoughts and anything else we can do to make sure we are OK from here on out.
For about 6 months there doesn't seem to be any problems till I got called in today. It seems one of the 6 conductors on both ends of the conductor was dripping sea water out of the aluminum wire ends and of course dripped on the flow meter controls and damaged them. They created a make shift catch basin and it collected several pints of waters and then dried up. They are asking me for recommendations.
My thought is that the bad splice and the heat of the conductor sucked in water between the jacket and the individual strands of wire. The splice got fixed, but water was stuck in the conductor jacket. With the equipment now running, heat has finally cause the water to work its way out. It has since been evaporated. I have proposed an insulation test to make sure the conductor insulation wasn’t damaged when the bad splice was in and a short was forming in the water without any fused protection. If it passes ok and we all agree it was water working its way out of the cable I am worried about one other problem. That is salt water working its way through the whole cable and leaving salt deposit in there for future corrosion. One thought says the aluminum oxide around the strands wouldn’t be harmed by the salts and not to worry about it. Another thought says to replace all the conductors which would be a huge financial burden to the electrical contractor. Please give me your thoughts and anything else we can do to make sure we are OK from here on out.
