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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING Electronics and Computer Science Rating Methodology of High Voltage Mass Impregnated DC Cable Circuits by Ziyi Huang Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Octorber 2014 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE Doctor of Philosophy RATING METHODOLOGY OF HIGH VOLTAGE MASS IMPREGNATED DC CABLE CIRCUITS Ziyi Huang With the continuing growth in energy consumption worldwide, the move towards a European wide super grid will result in significant changes in how modern transmission and distribution networks are operated. Fundamental to this is the need to accurately know or determine the available ampacity of high voltage cable circuits, because huge bulk power volumes need to be transmitted between maritime nations through dc power cables. Therefore, an accurate cable rating becomes paramount towards an efficient and safe operation of transmission networks, while the finance for large scale network construction schemes is limited. Although the standardised thermal-limited rating has been successfully implemented for traditional ac cable networks for over 50 years, the move towards dc cable transmission imposes extra physical constraints on the cable rating, which are not considered by standard rating approaches. The two main concerns are the potential dielectric electrical breakdown prior to a normal thermal runaway and the development of dielectric cavities during cable cooling. In addition, the thermal- limited rating of submarine dc cable crossings, within a complex marine environment, requires an advanced numerical modelling method, where the traditional IEC thermal-limited rating method does not apply. Besides the technical value, significant interest exists both within the electrical power industry and organizations such as Cigré and IEC, because this work will inform future international standards for rating high voltage dc cables. Considering the dielectric electrical stress constraint as the limiting factor for cable ratings, an analytical electrical stress-limited rating method has been developed and successfully benchmarked by numerical simulations for a practical cable design. This method allows ratings to be calculated against a criterion of maximum dielectric electrical strength. Considering the dielectric cavity creation threshold as the limiting factor for cable ratings, a comprehensive study has been conducted, including thermal dynamics, theory of elasticity and electrical circuit theory. Subsequently, the analytical calculation of the cable internal pressure has been originally developed, together with a concept of the mechanical pressure-limited rating. The i method has been successfully demonstrated for a practical cable design, yielding a rating which prevents the creation of cavity due to potential plastic deformations of the cable sheath. When crossings are inevitably installed, cables are pushed towards their thermal limit, as a result of the mutual heating. In order to accurately rate these circuits under various ambient conditions; Finite Element Analysis (FEA) methods have been developed. Compared to the traditional IEC calculation, FEA modelling provides a more reasonable and accurate solution, by releasing idealistic assumptions in the IEC method. In addition, a systematic cable rating strategy has been suggested and successfully demonstrated through rating submarine high voltage dc cable crossings, which considers highly coupled physics: thermal, electrical and mechanical. In summary, this thesis contributes towards the modern rating methodology development for hvdc mass impregnated cable circuits, under a purpose of efficient and reliable long-term operation. ii Contents Symbols and Abbreviations ...............................................................................................................xi Declaration of Authorship .............................................................................................................. xvii Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................xix Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 UK’s energy structure and power transmission .................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Energy source & Power generation............................................................................. 1 1.1.2 Power transmission & Technique ............................................................................... 3 1.2 High voltage DC cable transmission ................................................................................... 4 1.3 Research motivation ............................................................................................................ 8 1.4 Contribution of this thesis ................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Thesis structure ................................................................................................................. 10 1.6 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 11 High Voltage Cable Technology....................................................................................................... 13 2.1 Cable construction ............................................................................................................ 13 2.1.1 Polymeric insulation ................................................................................................. 14 2.1.2 Paper-based insulation .............................................................................................. 15 2.2 Cable rating methodology development ........................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Thermal network analogue and Detailed lumped parameter method ....................... 16 2.2.2 Finite difference method and Finite element method ............................................... 16 2.2.3 IEC 60287 thermal-limited rating ............................................................................. 17 2.3 High voltage DC cable electrical design ........................................................................... 18 2.3.1 Space charge creation and modified electric field .................................................... 19 2.3.2 Empirical electrical conductivity equation of dielectrics .......................................... 21 2.3.3 Calculation of dielectric electric field ....................................................................... 24 2.4 High voltage DC cable mechanical design ....................................................................... 28 2.4.1 Dielectric cavity creation mechanisms...................................................................... 29 2.4.2 Electrical fundamental and thermodynamics ............................................................ 30 2.4.3 Theory of elasticity ................................................................................................... 31 2.5 High voltage AC/ DC cable thermal design ...................................................................... 33 2.5.1 Heat sources within high voltage cables ................................................................... 33 2.5.2 Ground boundary condition & backfill partial drying out ........................................ 34 2.5.3 Thermal-limited rating of cable crossings ................................................................. 35 2.6 Submarine cable protection and thermal property ............................................................ 37 2.6.1 Cable protection measures ........................................................................................ 37 2.6.2 Empirical conductivity calculation without thermal convection ............................... 40 iii 2.6.3 Theoretical conductivity calculation without thermal convection ............................ 43 2.6.4 Effect of natural thermal convection ........................................................................ 44 2.7 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 47 Nominal Cable Design, Installation Environment, and Modelling Technique ................................. 49 3.1 Two nominal cable designs .............................................................................................. 49