Electromagnetic-thermal model for power cables analysis

The original non-linear coupled electromagnetic-thermal model of the extruded sheath power cables is presented. The model is related to the calculation of the ampacity. The computation of the currents and Joule losses is performed by means of filament method. The method provides the conductors and sheaths to be replaced by a large number of smaller subconductors or filaments. The heat transfer phenomena including infinite domain are modelled using the combination of the finite elements and mapped infinite elements. The corresponding finite element mesh is generated by the advancing front method. The developed mesh generator based on this method creates triangle elements inside a domain starting from the polygonal discretisation of its border. The results based on the coupled electromagnetic-thermal model are compared with the results obtained using the IEC relations. The satisfactory agreement between the results realized via different approaches is achieved.