Effect of Dry-Zone Formation around Underground Power Cables on Their Ratings

Abstract

Current ratings of buried cables are determined by the characteristics of surrounding soils and cable properties as given in IEC 60287-1-3 (1982). In this standard the soil thermal resistivity of the surrounding soil is supposed to be varies from 0.5 oC m/w to 1.2 oC m/w but under loading the heat dissipated from underground power cables increases the soil thermal resistivity and this may leads to cable thermal failure and thermal instability of the soil around the underground cables. For this reason de-rating factors for cable loading taking the dry zone formation into consideration has to be considered during distribution cable network design. Several approaches have been adopted to establish current ratings of buried cables based on constant values of soil thermal conductivities. Mathematical models are suggested by many researches to study the drying out phenomenon around underground power cables. In this chapter de-rating factor for underground power cables taking dry zone formation into account is calculated depending on IEC 60287-1-3 (1982). This chapter also contains an experimental work carried out on different types of soils to investigate the formation of dry zone phenomena under loading by heat source simulates the underground cables.