Simulation Study on Influence of Environmental Friendly Cable Insulation Materials on Temperature Rise Characteristics

Abstract

In recent years, the increasingly serious global resource and climate problems require people to build a green and sustainable economic strategy. As a power grid enterprise that takes burning fossil fuels as its main energy source, improving the environmental protection level of the power grid is of great significance for building a green and sustainable economy. The key to the environmental protection performance of the power grid lies in the power cable, and the core to improving the environmental protection of cable lies in the cable insulation material. The thermodynamic and electrical properties of insulating materials will affect the service efficiency and environmental performance of cables. Therefore, this paper uses the finite element simulation method to study the operating temperature of different cables with XLPE, PE, and PP insulation materials and finds its temperature rise characteristics under the fluctuating load in summer and winter. The results show that the maximum temperature of XLPE cable, PE cable, and PP cable under winter load is 299.37 K、299.69 K, and 302.45 K respectively, and the maximum temperature under summer load is 327.64 K, 327.99 K, and 332.42 K respectively. It can be found from the results that under the same load, the temperature rise of PP cable is the highest, and the temperature rise of XLPE cable is the lowest. Therefore, considering the relationship between cable temperature rise and thermal conductivity of cable insulation materials, as well as the difference in environmental protection characteristics between thermoplastic insulation materials and thermosetting insulation materials, PP cable can be used as the basic material for environmental protection power cable insulation. The research content of this paper puts forward the selection basis of environment-friendly cables that can be applied to build a green and sustainable power grid, which can provide a reference for solving environmental protection problems in large-scale cable applications.