Low computational cost model for convective heat transfer from submarine cables

Abstract

The ampacity of submarine cable circuits is strongly influenced by heat transfer in the marine environment surrounding the cable. It has been demonstrated in previous work that for high permeability sediments convective heat transfer can play a significant role using both bespoke two dimensional models and experimental investigations [1,2]. This paper introduces a one dimensional model which is capable of calculating cable temperatures within both convective and conductive sediments. Agreement between the one dimensional model and a two dimensional simulation was found to be within 1.5°C. The model is used to demonstrate that the ampacity of power cables may be significantly increased due to convective heat transfer. Further, the one dimensional model offers significant savings in computational time and cost compared to the two dimensional equivalent model. This allows the analysis of large DTS data sets in order to calculate: dynamic ratings; burial depths; and the long-term (annual to decadal) performance of the cable.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Justin Dix: orcid.org/0000-0003-2905-5403

ORCID for James Pilgrim: orcid.org/0000-0002-2444-2116

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