Investigation of the heat distribution around cable ducts in a desert climate

The motivation for this project is, the cable loads depends both on the heat dissipation from the cables and the thermal environment surrounding the cables. A measuring system was built for monitoring cable currents, cable temperatures and temperatures surrounding the cable. The effect of soil temperatures surrounding the cables depending on distance from the cable duct bank, ambient air temperature and cable loads is investigated. The transient cable jacket temperature rise corresponding to any step change in cable current is also examined and discussed. The daily variation of the probe thermocouple temperatures, cable current loads and the cable jacket temperatures are evaluated. The measured results were validated using the USAmp+ cable ampacity software and the substation energy management system (EMS) data. The measured results helps the utility to know whether the cable jacket temperatures exceeds the maximum limits and also provides data for increasing loads in case of high demand