The effect of soil and cable backfill thermal conductivity on the temperature distribution in underground cable system

The paper presents a mathematical model of heat transfer in the underground cable system. The computations were performed for flat formation of power cables buried in the ground at a depth of 2 meters. The model allows determining the two-dimensional temperature distribution in the soil, thermal backfill and power cables. The simulations studied the effect of soil thermal conductivity on the maximum temperature of the cable conductor. Furthermore, the effect of thermal backfill soil conductivity on the cable conductor temperature was studied. Numerical analyses were performed based on a program written in MATLAB