In recent years

high-voltage AC cables frequently have failures due to ablation of the buffer layer in China. However

such failure is very rare in Europe. The research shows that the main reason is that the cables in China use corrugated aluminum sheath structure

while the smooth aluminum sheath structure is used in Europe. In order to fully understand the performance difference of corrugated and smooth aluminum sheath in cables

in this paper the ablation experiments for different sheath structures is performed firstly. Then

the magnitude of current density of different sheath structures is simulated through electric field simulation. Finally

the mechanical properties of the smooth aluminum sheath is tested. The results show that under the same ablation conditions

the cable with the corrugated aluminum sheathed structure is more prone to the ablation of the buffer layer due to the radial current concentration

while the cable with smooth aluminum structure is not prone to the ablation of the buffer layer because the aluminum sheath and the buffer layer are closely fitted without current concentration. The yield strength

tensile strength and elongation at break of the aluminum tube material are reduced after the smooth aluminum tube is bent after being stressed

which indicates that the mechanical properties of the aluminum tube are reduced after bending. Due to stress. Therefore

in practical projects

the use of the cable with smooth aluminum structure can void the occurrence of cable ablation

but it is necessary to avoid the degradation of mechanical properties due to large bending of the cable.