doiSerbia

Controlling the thermal environment of underground power cables adjacent to heating pipeline using the pavement surface radiation properties

Klimenta Dardan O. (Faculty of Technical Sciences, K. Mitrovica)
Perović Bojan D. (Faculty of Technical Sciences, K. Mitrovica)
Klimenta Jelena Lj.
Jevtić Milena M. (Technical Faculty, Bor)
Milovanović Miloš J. (Faculty of Technical Sciences, K. Mitrovica)
Krstić Ivan D. (Faculty of Technical Sciences, K. Mitrovica)

This paper shows how the pavement surface radiation properties can be used to control the thermal environment of 110 kV underground cables in order to increase their ampacity. It is assumed that the ampacity is additionally affected by the cable bedding size and an underground heating pipeline. Thanks to an experimental apparatus, some useful data were collected for the validation of two different finite element method based models that predict the effect of the pavement surface radiation properties on the cable ampacity. The first model corresponds to the experimental apparatus and actual indoor conditions, while the second one corresponds to the theoretical case and assumed outdoor conditions (taking into account the thermal effects of solar radiation, cable bedding size, and heating pipeline). This paper examines two possible cases of outdoor conditions, one corresponding to summer period (the most unfavorable ambient conditions) and another one corresponding to winter period (the most common winter conditions in Serbia). This proposed new method is based on the experimental data and generalized using the finite element method in COMSOL. It is found that the ampacity of the considered 110 kV cable line can be increased up to 25.4 % for the most unfavorable ambient conditions and up to 8 % for the most common winter conditions.

Keywords: ampacity, cool pavement, finite element method, heating pipeline, power cable, surface radiation properties

Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. TR33046