On Efficiency Analysis of the OpenFOAM-Based Parallel Solver for Simulation of Heat Transfer in and Around the Electrical Power Cables

Abstract

In this work, we study the efficiency of developed OpenFOAM-based parallel solver for the simulation of heat transfer in and around the electrical power cables. First benchmark problem considers three cables directly buried in the soil. We study and compare the efficiency of conjugate gradient solver with diagonal incomplete Cholesky (DIC) preconditioner, generalized geometricalgebraic multigrid GAMG solver from OpenFOAM and conjugate gradient solver with GAMG multigrid solver used as preconditioner. The convergence and parallel scalability of the solvers are presented and analyzed on quadrilateral and acute triangle meshes. Second benchmark problem considers a more complicated case, when cables are placed into plastic pipes, which are buried in the soil. Then a coupled multi-physics problem is solved, which describes the heat transfer in cables, air and soil. Non-standard parallelization approach is presented for multi-physics solver. We show the robustness of selected parallel preconditioners. Parallel numerical tests are performed on the cluster of multicore computers.

On economic-technological optimization of high-voltage electric cables

“…The minimal values of allowed sizes of cables are defined by the international technical standards [9]. We have developed a specialized software tool POWEROPT, which is used to simulate a distribution of temperature in and around cables for given parameters of cables, porous media and air [3,10]. The mathematical model is restricted to nonstationary two-dimensional approximation of the full three-dimensional problem.…”

“…This step of the optimization algorithm is very CPU time demanding, up to 24 hours is required to solve optimization problem on one processor. Thus a parallel version of the solver is used to reduce the computation time [4,10]. The scalability analysis, which is presented in these papers shows a quite good efficiency of the developed parallel solvers of the basic direct problem on heat conduction in and around the cables.…”

“…The parallel version of this tool is presented. The efficiency analysis of parallel algorithms for solving the given multiphysics problem is investigated in [4,10].…”

“…The developed software solver POWEROPT is used to simulate a distribution of temperature in and around cables for given parameters of cables, porous media and air [3,10]. The results depend on the geometry of cable grid and specified boundary conditions.…”

Special Splines of Exponential Type for the Solutions of Mass Transfer Problems in Multilayer Domains

“…With regard to the numerical analysis several numerical methods are known for solving 3-D problems: FEM, BEM, spectral methods, multigrids and others methods. An example, in [6] a new template for stability analysis of numerical schemes for parabolic and pseudoparabolic problems with nonlocal conditions is given, in [10] efficient parallel algorithms of the OpenFOAM-based Parallel Solver for simulation of Electrical Power Cables are analysed. For simple engineering calculations two methods are applied [1], [2]: special finite difference scheme and conservative averaging method (CAM) by using special integral hyperbolic type splines with two parameters in every layer.…”