3-phase cable thermal analysis at the rated current specified in CIGRE TB 880 Case #0-1 - QuickField simulation example

Simulation problem

Geometry
The 3-core cable is buried at a depth of 1 m as described in CIGRE TB 880 Case #0-1 [1]

Given
Soil temperature far from the cable is 20°C.

Table 2, page 82 in [1], gives:
Conductor losses W_c = 31.0365 W/m (current I = 886.17 A )
Sheath losses W_s = 2.4117 W/m
Dielectric losses W_d = 0.3851 W/m (132 kV)

Task:
Calculate the temperature field.

Solution
In reality, the conductor consists of individual wires. In the model, the stranded conductor is replaced with a solid one.
The volumetric heat generation rates are calculated by dividing the losses (W_c, W_s, W_d) by the corresponding cross-section areas (S_c, S_s, S_d) measured in the QuickField model:
- conductor: Q_c = W_c / S_c = 31.0365 (W/m) / 721e-6 m² = 43046 W/m³,
- sheath: Q_s = W_s / S_s = 2.4117 (W/m) / 170.15e-6 m² = 14200 W/m³
- dielectric (including semiconducting layers): Q_d = W_d / S_d = 0.3851 (W/m) / 2794.1e-6 m² = 137.83 W/m³

Result
The calculated maximum conductor temperature is close to the CIGRE reference value of 90°C.

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