Low Computational Cost Model for Convective Heat Transfer From Submarine Cables

Abstract

The ampacity of submarine cable circuits is strongly influenced by heat transfer in the marine environment surrounding the cable. It has been demonstrated in previous work that for high permeability sediments convective heat transfer can play a significant role using both bespoke two dimensional models and experimental investigations [1,2]. This paper introduces a one dimensional model which is capable of calculating cable temperatures within both convective and conductive sediments. Agreement between the one dimensional model and a two dimensional simulation was found to be within 1.5°C. The model is used to demonstrate that the ampacity of power cables may be significantly increased due to convective heat transfer. Further, the one dimensional model offers significant savings in computational time and cost compared to the two dimensional equivalent model. This allows the analysis of large DTS data sets in order to calculate: dynamic ratings; burial depths; and the long-term (annual to decadal) performance of the cable.

Thermal Assessment of Power Cables and Impacts on Cable Current Rating: An Overview

“…The sediments are a mixture of solid and liquid components, which impact on conductive heat transfer. Moreover, if the permeability of the sediments is high, the convective heat transfer can be significant [85]. The thermal properties of the sediments (e.g., thermal conductivity and volumetric heat capacity) have to be considered in the overall thermal model.…”

Fluid–structure interaction simulation and optical fibre stress analysis of submarine cables in vortex‐induced vibration

“…Distributed optical fibre sensing technology is usually used to monitor the temperature, strain, vibration, and acoustic waves of submarine cables [11][12][13][14], which has the advantages of high precision, wide range, and real-time monitoring. Therefore, it is necessary to study the mechanical response of the submarine cable and the stress distribution at the optical fibre position when the VIV occurs.…”

Experimental validation of ultra-shortened 3D finite element electromagnetic modeling of three-core armored cables at power frequency

“…It was initially employed to evaluate the power losses in TCACs, as in [4][5][6], where the use of additional constraints in 2D-FEM models were proposed to take into account the relative twisting between the armor wires and the phase conductors. This feature has led to quite a few studies aiming at understanding and characterizing phenomena like induced losses [7][8][9], thermal behavior [10][11][12][13][14], and electrical parameters [15][16][17][18][19], as well as paving the way for the development of new analytical approaches to improve the IEC standard [20][21][22].…”