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Simulation and Analysis of Magnetic Field in HVDC Transmission Cable

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AMIMA 2018 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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Simulation and Analysis of Magnetic Field in HVDC

Transmission Cable

Zhan Xiong1, Ji Fang2, Bo Zhang3,*

1
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunication, Faculty of Engineering,
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; zhan.xiong@student.unsw.edu.au
2
Library of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road,
Wuhan, China 430074
3
School of computer science, Wuhan Donghu University, Wuhan, China
*Corresponding author: bob.cheung@ovspark.com

Abstract. HVDC is well known for its high efficiency and controllability, which is the first
choice when it comes to long-distance, colossal-power transmission. Currently, HVDC
transmission is a worldwide concerned topic, especially for Australia, where the imbalance of
electricity between populated areas and remote regions is a difficulty to be solved. For instance,
Basslink, a brilliant HVDC transmission achievement gave a solution to this problem. At the
same time, the magnetic and electrical field produced by HVDC is totally different from
traditional AC transmission, which, is a special topic worth researching. This paper will
investigate the HVDC transmission cable magnetic field’s characteristics and its interaction
with the nearby cables. The scope of our topic are: the analysis of the magnetic field; how the
magnetic field of one cable influences others; what are the advantages and disadvantages of the
interactions; the comparison between HVDC transmission and common AC transmission with
the grid; use ANSYS to simulate the possible situations of the magnetic field of HVDC
Transmission Cable that would happen in the real world; the human exposure to magnetic field
are investigated considering different laying configurations, conductor dispositions, and supply
conditions.

1. Introduction
High voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission is playing such an irreplaceable role in the modern
Electric Power Transmission System. HVDC uses direct current for the bulk transmission of electrical
power[7].
The Magnetic field induced around the HVDC transmission cable is also an inevitable content that
we should consider.
This paper will investigate the HVDC transmission cable magnetic field’s characteristics and its
interaction with the nearby cables. The scope of our topic are: the analysis of the magnetic field; how
the magnetic field of one cable change influences others; what are the advantages and disadvantages
of the interactions; the comparison between HVDC transmission and normal AC transmission with the
grid; use ANSYS to simulate the possible situations of the magnetic field of HVDC Transmission
Cable that would happen in the real world; the human exposure to magnetic fields are investigated
considering different laying configurations, conductor dispositions, and supply conditions.

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AMIMA 2018 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
1234567890‘’“”

Power cables are used over the whole voltage range of 400 V up to 500 kV. Because they are much
more expensive than overhead lines, particularly at the high voltage end, power cables are generally
used only where circumstances necessitate their use. This will be for urban and, though not always,
suburban areas and for environmentally sensitive areas. A major use for cables is of course for water
crossings. AC cables have very high reactive power generation in their capacitance and this limits the
AC cable length that can be used without some form of reactive compensation by series inductance.
About 25–30 km is the upper limit without compensation. If the route is longer and there is no
possibility of reactive compensation, then DC cables are normally used. The longest underwater cables
such as the English channel cables, the inter-island link in NZ and the Bass Strait cable between
Tasmania and Victoria are HVDC [1].

2. Background Theory
Most power systems use alternating current (AC). This is mainly due to the fact that the AC voltage
can be easily reversed up and down through the transformer. When the voltage rises, the current
through the line decreases, and because the resistance loss in the line is proportional to the square of
the current, increasing the voltage will significantly reduce the resistance line loss[8]. In DC-made DC
systems, the lack of a similar simple and effective system to perform the same function was
impractical at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. (Available devices such as rotary
converters that are less efficient and require extensive maintenance.) As technology advances, step-up
or step-down DC voltage becomes practicable, although today's processes are much more complex
than AC systems. A DC voltage converter is typically composed of an inverter (essentially a high
power oscillator) for converting DC to AC, the actual voltage step of the transformer, and then
converting the rectifier and filter stages to DC.
The DC switch device is getting bigger and the manufacturing cost is higher because the arc
suppression is more difficult. When the switch or fuse is turned on for the first time, the current will
continue to flow through the contacts through the arc. Once the contact interval is far enough, the arc
will go out because the electric field strength (volts / m) is not enough to sustain it. In the AC circuit,
during each AC cycle, the current drops to zero twice, and the arc is extinguished. If the distance
between the contacts is relatively small, the voltage will restart an arc. Since DC is constant and these
zero-crossing events do not occur, it is necessary to design a DC switch to interrupt the full rated
voltage and current, resulting in larger and more expensive switching devices. The voltage required to
restart the arc extinguishes is much greater than the voltage required to maintain the arc.
Since the live conductors in the cable are surrounded by relatively thin insulating layers (dielectrics)
and metal sheaths, long submarine / underground high voltage cables have high capacitance compared
to overhead transmission lines. The geometry is the geometry of the long coaxial capacitor. The total
capacitance increases with the length of the cable. The capacitor is connected in parallel with the load.
When AC power is used for cable transmission, additional current must flow in the cable to charge the
cable capacitance. This extra current increases the energy loss by increasing the heat loss in the cable
conductor to increase its temperature. Additional energy loss can also occur due to dielectric loss in
the cable insulation.
However, if direct current is used, the cable capacitance is charged only when the cable is first
energized or if the voltage level changes; there is no additional current required. For a sufficiently long
AC cable, the entire current-carrying ability of the conductor would be needed to supply the charging
current alone. This cable capacitance issue limits the length and power carrying ability of AC powered
cables. DC powered cables are limited only by their temperature rise and conduct loss. Even though
some leakage current flows through the dielectric insulator, this is still relatively small compared to
the cable's rated current [2].
The magnetic fields produced by Direct Current cables are actually static fields due to their sources
— both voltage and current do not alternate with time. Hence, unlike the Alternating Current magnetic
fields can cause the induction of currents or voltages in nearby objects, this does not happen with DC
fields.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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3. Simulation and Analysis

In this section, ANSYS Maxwell will be used to simulate some typical situation. Then the data will be
analyzed to draw the conclusion from the simulating results.

3.1. Single Cable without Amour

Single cable without amour means there is not any other influences for the magnetic field generated by
a HVDC cable. In this case, the radius of copper core is 5mm, the thickness of insulation is 8mm.
Modern high-voltage cables use polymers or polyethylene, including (XLPE) for insulation. Therefore,
polyethylene has been chosen as the most suitable material of insulation in this simulation.
The simulation made by Maxwell as follows

Figure 1. The H field of single cable without Figure 2. The H distribution of single cable (no
amour Amour)

Figure 4. The B distribution of single cable (no

Figure 3. The B field of single cable (no Amour) Amour)

3.2. Single Cable with Amour

It is known that the relationship between B and H; In SI units, the H-field is related to the B-field by:
B
H= −M
μ (1)
where M is the magnetization represents how strongly a region of material is magnetized.
In the case of para-magnetism and diamagnetism, the magnetization M is often proportional to the
applied magnetic field such that:
B
H=
μ (2)

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AMIMA 2018 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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As it can be seen from above simulation figures, the B and H are both reaching their highest value
at the surface between the core and the insulation, at 3.2109×104 A/m and 4.0350×10-2 T respectively.
Also, from the fig 2. and fig 4., the non-linear situation is occurring in the insulation area and decrease
with the growth of distance.

Figure 6. The H distribution of single cable

Figure 5. The H field of single cable

Figure 8. The B distribution of single cable

Figure 7. The B field of single cable

In this case, a steel Amour with thickness of 4mm has been added. Since the μ of steel is
significantly larger than other material, in the figure 7 and figure 8, just Amour area shows strong B
field obviously. In addition to the B field, the change of H filed cannot be neglected. Compared with
the H field of non-Amour situation, there are a considerable decline of H at the surface between core
and insulation and an obvious growth in the Amour area in the fig 6. As a result, adding steel layer in
cable will change the distribution of B and H.
However, the magnetic field made by HVDC single cable is very small. Even though the B in
Amour area is considerable large, which will not result in worse influence to other part of cable and
environment.

3.3. Double copper core cable

Figure 9 shows a high voltage cable produced and manufactured by Nexans Olex, an Australian
famous manufacturer of electrical cable. This is an image of cable with 3.8/6.6-19/33KV single core
screened and PVC sheathed. In order to simulate the magnetic field in ANSYS Maxwell 2D, the cable

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AMIMA 2018 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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model is divided into two parts: conductor and insulator. Conductor is made of copper and insulator is
made of polystyrene.
There is the distribution graph of magnetic field in figure two, which demonstrates the mutual
effect between two copper cables in a small range. The magnitude of magnetic flux density (B) can
represent the distribution of magnetic field and the arrow represents the direction of flux. In figure 10,
the radius of cable is equal to 5cm, and the distance between two cables is about 25cm. In the inner
conductor, the side of far away from another cable has larger magnitude, while the middle of two
cables has very little flux. This is because the flux from two cables is offset.

Figure 9. Olex MV cable

Figure 10. The magnetic flux density of two Figure 11. The magnitude of magnetic flux
cable density in X axis

3.4. Triple copper core cable

In order to simplify models, the insulator can be omitted, because insulator hardly affects the
distribution of magnetic field in figure 10. The same to the double cable, the magnitude in the middle
of three cables model are obviously lower than other area. Besides, the value of B is larger than the
two cable model, which means that the magnetic field is superimposed. In figure 13, there are low area
near the center of circle (conductors).

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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Figure 13. The magnitude of magnetic

Figure 12. The magnetic flux density of flux density in X axis
linear three cable

According to figure 14, there is no significant change between linear arrangement and triangular
arrangement. The middle of three cables is lower and the area that is near to the conductor is higher. In
figure 15, the magnetic field strength (H) of triangular cable can be calculated by means of an equation:
B
H=
μ (3)
μ is permeability and will change in different environment.

Figure 14. The magnetic flux density of Figure 15. The magnetic field strength of
triangular cable triangular cable.

Figure 16. The magnetic field strength of triangular cable

3.5. Main cable with return cable

For the cable applied in the real working condition, this kind of cable is the most widely used. Because
of the bipolarity of the current conducted, the magnetic field distribution is worth simulated and
analyzed. Combining the results from previous part, we decided to use this following model to
illustrate. As shown in figure 17, this is a typical submarine cable, which is applied in the Basslink

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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program. As we can see, there are various material and dielectric utilized in this cable. In order to
simulate the B and H field, we used a simple model which contains main parts: conductors, dielectric
and steel armor.

Figure 17. Typical submairne HVDC cable

Figure 18. H field of submarine HVDC cable Figure 19. The magnitude of H field in
submarine HVDC cable

Figure 20. B field of submarine HVDC cable

Figure 21. The magnitude of B field in
submarine HVDC cable
As the results from figure 18 to figure 21 shows, the H field is distributed as expected. The
interaction between the two directions current is ideal. However, as said before, the steel amour has
very high μ, which means comparing to other material, B in steel is relatively high. That explain the
distribution in figure 20 and 21. In a nutshell, this results from simulation is expected.

4. Effects of Magnetic Fields

Magnetic field in the transmission cables is a generally concerning topic around the world, because
when it has high frequency it might have negative influence on the human health. For example,
workers who usually work in a high magnetic field have an increasing risk of leukemia or brain
tumors from the epidemiological researches. Some electrical workers are found that they suffer from
cancers like the lymphatic and hematologic cancers. It is also shown in the previous studies that the

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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magnetic field could have teratogenic influence on the animals’ embryos [3].The exposure to
electromagnetic fields is estimated by the information obtained from the five interviews and the direct
measurements of four different probes [3].
Some studies show that living close to power lines and other high pressure devices have been
associated with the increasing risk of childhood cancer. However, no association was found in at least
two other studies. Although there is no evidence of biological links, the extremely low frequency (50-
60 Hz) electromagnetic field of this installation has been considered to be causal risk factor. However,
people living near certain types of high pressure facilities may be exposed to more than 10-20 times
the average. We investigated whether a clear population living and being born near a high-pressure
facility would increase the risk of cancer in children, and the correlation between risk and magnetic
field intensity. We also describe the overall trends in electricity consumption and the incidence of
childhood cancer in the country since 1940s [4]. The representative examined each address trained
with regularity of the Danish electricity company's local departments for the existing or detailed layout
map before 50-400 kV transmission connection and related substation in Denmark all housing are
classified according to a predetermined standard distance (Table 1). The standard of potential risk area
is used to describe that all residential exposure to at least 0.1T magnetic field is magnetic flux density
1uT = 10 Milligauss (mG) which will be included (57 homes are occupied by 55 children). The
division is a view of a remote covering house close to overhead power lines, but not exposed to any
measurable level (Table 2). These families are considered to have the same socially economic
composition as potential exposure areas [4].
In the Table 2, it describes ten examples when children were exposed to the average contact at least
0.1uT from high voltage devices, three of which with lymphoma belong to the subgroup of Hodgkin's
disease, accounting for about 30% 0-14 years of childhood lymphoma in Denmark. The duration of
exposure was controlled by 20 exposures ranging from two months to 10 years [4].
The exposure to the magnetic field also has great influence on mental and psychological health of
human. Several public survey of the effectiveness of residential exposure in the possibility of 50 Hz or
60 Hz electromagnetic field may lead to adverse psychological effects, such as depression and Dutch
act might be controlled by insufficient or the limitation of measurement for confounding factors
exposure. About 450 adults who are living close to the electrical devices or transmission lines have
finished para -psychological tests, mental health assessment scales and other questionnaires in the
main areas of memory and attention function.
In the basis of the Table 3, a preliminary analysis was made. The common feature of this is the use
of various outcome measures, and there is no reason to assume that the same dose response model will
be applicable to all outcome measurements.

Table 1. Dividing the living area into the potential exposure areas of the magnetic field (from the
high pressure facilities) and the distance from the standard area, using the minimum distance
between the residential and the intermediate line [4].
Potential exposure area View distant area
Overhead Transformer Underground cables Overhead Transformer substations
lines substations lines
Exposure Distance NO of Distance NO of Distance NO of Distance NO of Distance NO of
(KV) (m) dwelling (m) dwelling (m) dwelling (m) dwelling (m) dwelling
220-240 ≦150 2 ≦150 0 <20 0 151-300 8 151-300 0
132-150 ≦75 28 ≦75 0 ≦5 1 76-150 23 76-150 3
50-60 ≦35 22 ≦35 1 ≦2.5 3 36-75 29 36-75 3

Table 2. Magnetic field levels and time sequences of exposure and tumor diagnosis among cases
exposed to average density of 0.1 uT or more [5].
Case Tumour diagnosis Average Age at onset of Perod of Age at Latent period Exposure free
No magenetic exposure exposure disgnoise (years, mouths) period
field (years, mouths) (years, mouths) (years, mouths) (years, mouths)
level(uT)

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1 Acute lympfatic 1.72 conception 3, 5 2, 8 3, 5 None

leukaemia
2 Acute lympfatic 1.67 0, 6 2, 3 3, 1 2, 7 0, 4
leukaemia
3 Acute lympfatic 0.52 1, 10 3, 3 5, 1 3, 3 None
leukaemia
4 Stem cell leukaemia 0.11 conception 4, 9 4, 0 4, 9 None
5 Hodgkin’s disease 0.21 conception 0, 11 11, 4 12, 1 11, 2
6 Hodgkin’s disease 0.73 0, 0 0, 11 9, 9 9, 9 8,10
7 Hodgkin’s disease 0.21 2, 9 9, 11 12, 8 9, 11 None
8 Medulloblastoma 1.00 conception 3, 0 3, 3 4, 0 1,0
9 Medulloblastoma 0.12 1, 7 7, 11 13, 1 11, 6 3,7
10 Malignant glioma 1.58 conception 5, 6 4, 9 5, 6 None

Table 3. Mean values (Standard Deviations in Parentheses) for quintile on neuropsychological test
measures and health questionnaires, and statistics from regression analyses [6].
Quinitile means and standard deviations Regression statistics
Neuropsychology test 1 2 3 4 5 Unadjusted Adjusted 95% confidence P
measure reg. Coef. reg. Coef. interval(CI)

Headaches 1 0.94 1 1.09 1.15 0.00042 0.00022 -0.00025, 0.00069 0.35

Digit span total 14.34 14.93 14.98 15.07 14.29 -0.00095 -0.00024 -0.0026, 0.0021 0.84
Visual memory span 15.6 15.81 15.3 15.82 15.84 0.0010 0.0011 -0.00086, 0.0030 0.24
Selective memory LT 10.70 10.97 11.00 10.73 10.06 0.0008 0.00072 -0.00057, 0.0020 0.27
Selective memory CR 3.12 3.37 3.56 3.13 3.13 -0.00032 -0.00044 -0.0011, 0.00023 0.19
D2 missed targets 138.32 135.64 138.78 138.68 141.00 0.0051 0.0045 -0.019, 0.028 0.17
D2 false alarm 4.07 4.19 4.65 4.00 3.13 -0.0025 -0.004 -0.0086, 0.00040 0.07
Trail making A 33.15 31.65 30.91 33.67 33.66 -0.0036 -0.0038 -0.011, 0.0034 0.30
Trail making B 74.4 74.37 74.98 71.11 70.5 -0.0128 -0.014 -0.031, 0.0038 0.10
Symbol-digit W 46.93 49.98 46.93 47.25 46.33 -0.0033 -0.0022 -0.0085, 0.0041 0.48
Symbol-digit O 55.99 55.78 55.11 55.64 54.77 -0.0017 -0.0016 -0.0090, 0.0058 0.66
Digital-Symbol 53.41 53.97 53.92 53.80 49.60 -0.0084 -0.011 -0.019, -0.0034 0.0035

5. Conclusion
In a nutshell, the HVDC transmission cable magnetic field’s characteristics are investigated and its
interaction with the nearby cables, which has results that are basically estimated. The magnetic field is
analyzed and how the magnetic field of one cable influences others. At the same time the question
what are the advantages and disadvantages of these interactions are answered. At the last part of
simulation, we used ANSYS to simulate the possible situations of the magnetic field of HVDC
Transmission Cable that would happen in the real working condition. And the human exposure to
magnetic field are investigated considering different laying configurations, conductor dispositions, and
supply conditions. Although there are still improvements should have been done in the model
establishing part, we reckon that the original objective has been completed.

Acknowledgments
Topics from Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, the number of which is 2016CKC777.
Thanks for the support of Hubei provincial science and Technology Department. Thank you for
providing the experimental platform in Wuhan Donghu University and Wuhan Vocational College of
Communications And Publishing. We have completed the implementation of the algorithm on this
platform and the experimental data is presented.

References
[1] Donald G Fink and H Wayne Beatty 1978 Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers 11th
Edition McGraw Hill ISBN0-07-020974-X pp 57-58.
[2] D F Warne Advances in High Voltage Engineering Institution of Electrical Engineers.

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IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 382 (2018) 032041 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/382/3/032041
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[3] K Skyberg, I Hansteen and A Vistnes 1993 Chromosome aberrations in lymphocytes of high-
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Work Environment & Health vol 19 no 1 pp 29-34.
[4] J Olsen, A Nielsen and G Schulgen 1993 Residence near high voltage facilities and risk of
cancer in children BMJ vol 307 no 6909 pp 891-895.
[5] I Beale, N Pearce, D Conroy, M Henning and K Murrell 1997 Psychological effects of chronic
exposure to 50 Hz magnetic fields in humans living near extra-high-voltage transmission
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[6] Z Tong,Z Dong and M Tong 2016 Analysis of magnetic field generated by overhead cables
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[7] L Zilberti, E Pons, O Bottauscio, M Chiampi and M Pastorelli 2010 Evaluation of the
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Delivery vol 25 no 4 pp 3085-94.
[8] E Andrulewicz, D Napierska and Z Otremba 2003 The environmental effects of the installation
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