Influence of contact resistance on shielding efficiency of shielding gutters for HV cables

Shielding of buried three phase high voltage cables can be done by placing the cables in conducting ferromagnetic U-shaped gutters covered by plates. In case of a perfect electrical contact between adjacent gutters and between adjacent cover plates, the induced currents in the shield efficiently reduce the field generated in the vicinity of the cables. However, as a perfect contact cannot be guaranteed, it is useful to quantify the effect of a bad electrical contact on the shielding performance. From 2D FEM, 3D FEM and experiments, it is observed that a bad contact does not influence significantly the shielding if the axial length of the plates is relatively long compared to their other dimensions.