Reduction of electric-field intensification and hot-spot formation inside cable terminations

This paper presents a 2d finite-element analysis for a 33-kV, three-phase, three-core cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) power cable termination. To enhance the cable termination lifetime, many factors are examined to reduce the electric-field intensification and the induced current density in the copper sheath. The aim of this simulation is to investigate how the electric and the induced current density distributions can be reduced to avoid partial discharge activities and hot spot formation, respectively. In the electrostatic analysis, the electric-field distributions are studied for unpolluted and polluted cases and with different relative permittivities of each layer. In addition, two methods of stress relief are also investigated, namely, the stress control cone and stress control tube. In the magnetic analysis, three cases are investigated at the rated ampacity of the cable, namely, balanced, unbalanced and single phasing, where the induced current density distributions are laterally computed.