Heat transfer in an overhead electrical conductor

Abstract

A heat transfer model is presented to describe the thermal responses of an overhead electric conductor in a high voltage power transmission line when subjected to changes in operating and ambient conditions. The thermal model takes into account all major heat transfer mechanisms happening to the conductor in a natural environment. The original heat transfer and simplified macroscopic models are employed to predict the conductor temperature distributions under various indoor and outdoor operating conditions. Good agreement between the theoretical predictions and the observed data justifies the various assumptions involved in the development of the simplified macroscopic model.