Multi-physics Based Temperature Distribution Simulation of HVAC Submarine Cable at Various Velocity

The temperature distribution of submarine cables is an important parameter reflecting its operation status. The acquisition of temperature distribution trends for submarine cables under varying seawater flow rates holds important engineering significance. In this paper, the geometric model is constructed using a 220 kV three-core AC armored submarine cable laid on the seabed. The simulation model of AC three-core submarine cable temperature field is proposed based on the coupling of electro-thermal-flow multi-physics field. Finally, the study investigates how the steady-state temperature distribution of submarine cables varies with different seawater flow velocities. The results show that the temperature is radially distributed at the seawater velocity of 0m/s, and the temperatures of different phase conductors are different by the relative position, which are 89.9 °C, 89.6 °C and 89.08 °C, respectively. As the seawater flow velocity increases, the heat taken away from the cable surface by convection increases. When the seawater flow velocity is 1 × 10−6m/s, 0.0001 m/s, 0.001 m/s, 0.001 m/s and 0.001 m/s, the maximum conductor temperatures are 69.5 °C, 44.6 °C, 38.5 °C, 33.6 °C and 32.7 °C, and the ampacity is 871.7 A, 1216 A, 1382.8 A, 1590.7 A and 1640.9 A, respectively. The simulation results can provide reference for submarine cable transmission engineering design.