Experimental and numerical study on heat transfer of soil around underground cable

Abstract

In Europe during summer time, there are very often outages of underground cable. Due to the high energy consumption in summer, the cable will generate great amount of heat to the surrounding soils. The heat lead to drying of the soils and decrease the thermal conductivity of soil. Overheating of the cable will cause outages of the power network. The interaction of the underground cable and soil is very complex. The aim of this study is to use experimental and numerical methods to model the heat transfer problems of the underground cable. The thermal conductivities of soils with different water contents are measured. The numerical models are calibrated by the model tests.