Power cable thermal analysis with consideration of heat and moisture transfer in the soil

A method of numerically modeling coupled heat and moisture flow around power cables in steady-state and transient conditions that is based on the Philip and DeVries model for flow in soils is presented. The method has been implemented in a computer program for an IBM or compatible personal computer that utilizes the Galerkin finite-element method. The program uses sparsity-based algorithms that can handle large finite-element grid structures and calculate accurately the steady-state and transient temperatures, moisture distributions, and isothermal contours for power cables buried in media containing complex configurations of soil, boundaries, heat sources and sinks. The program has been validated by data from field tests, which show good agreement between predicted and measured results