Calculation of Maximum Permissible Load of Underground Power Cables–Numerical Approach for Systems with Stabilized Backfill
Source abstract
Abstract
The maximum permissible load of underground power cables (known in U.S. engineering as “ampacity”) is a function of many parameters, in particular, the thermal resistivity of the native soil. If this resistivity is relatively high, thermal/stabilized backfill is applied, i.e., another material is placed around the cables, providing favourable conditions for heat transfer to the environment. It has a positive impact on the reliability of the power supply and favours the operational durability of the cables. In design practice, however, there is a difficult task—correct determination of the ampacity of the cable line depending on the thermal parameters and the geometry of the backfill. Therefore, this article presents the results of a numerical analysis to determine the ampacity of cable lines in which stabilized backfill is used. A new mathematical relationship is proposed that allows the correction of the ampacity of cable lines depending on their cross-section as well as the thermal and geometric parameters of the cable surroundings.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Thermal Analysis in Power Transmission · Geotechnical Engineering and Underground Structures · Electromagnetic Simulation and Numerical Methods
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Faculty of Electrical and Control Engineering, Gdansk University of Technology, Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland
Institute of Fluid-Flow Machinery of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jozefa Fiszera 14, 80-231 Gdansk, Poland
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