Numerical thermo-mechanical stress analysis for HVDC cables

Calculating the current rating of paper insulated HVDC cables under low ambient temperatures can require additional mechanical considerations. Under rapid cable heating or cooling processes, an extremely high mechanical stress or a rapid pressure drop can develop due to the strong impregnant thermal expansion or contraction respectively. This may cause plastic deformation of the sheath or the creation of voids. This paper demonstrates the importance of this thermo-mechanical constraint through the application of finite element modelling techniques which permit a coupling of the thermal and mechanical properties within the cable. The results show that the FEA technique can be fully applied to analyze the internal thermo-mechanical stress distribution of the cable and calculate the resulting mechanical stress-limited rating, which provides an alternative to an analytical method previously developed by the same author.