Emergency Ampacities of Direct Buried Three Phase Underground Cable Systems

A thermal model is formulated for the determination of the emergency transient ampacities of a three phase, horizontally spaced underground cable system. The model is based on a finite difference heat transfer analysis and the principle of superposition which permits the summation of the temperature rise of individual heat sources to eventually provide for the temperature rise of a multiple cable system. The thermal model is transformed into a complex computer program that is capable of calculating the real time cable temperature for any change in conductor current.