Insights into the thermal performance of underground high voltage electricity transmission lines through thermo-hydraulic modelling

Liu, Kui ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7533-1272, Zagorscak, Renato ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8408-8585, Sandford, Richard J., Cwikowski, Oliver N., Yanushkevich, Alexander and Thomas, Hywel R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3951-0409 2022. Insights into the thermal performance of underground high voltage electricity transmission lines through thermo-hydraulic modelling. Energies 15 (23) , 8897. 10.3390/en15238897

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Abstract

In this paper, a flexible numerical framework to provide thermal performance assessment for the underground buried cables, considering different geological and meteorological conditions, has been presented. Underground cables tend to retain the heat produced in the conductor, so complex coupled thermo-hydraulic response of the porous medium surrounding the cables needs to be assessed to prevent cable overheating and the associated reduction in cable capacity for carrying current. Applying a coupled thermo-hydraulic model within the developed numerical framework to conduct a health assessment on a subset of National Grid Electricity Transmission’s underground cables, this study provides novel insights into the thermal behaviour of buried circuits. The results indicate that backfill and surrounding native soil have the dominant effect on the thermal behaviour of cables, while the amount of precipitation and ambient temperature were found to have less impact on cable’s thermal behaviour. The findings strongly infer that the nature of the overloading which is undertaken in practice would have no ongoing negative impact, suggesting that more frequent or longer duration overloading regimes could be tolerated. Overall, this study demonstrates how the developed numerical framework could be harnessed to allow safe rating adjustments of buried transmission circuits.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences Engineering
Publisher:	MDPI
ISSN:	1996-1073
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 November 2022
Date of Acceptance:	21 November 2022
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2023 08:46
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/154487

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