930 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 47, NO.

5, MAY 2011

Frequency-Dependent Coupled Field-Circuit Modeling of Armored Power

Cables Using Finite Elements
Nagy Y. Abed1 and Osama A. Mohammed2 , Fellow, IEEE
Quanta Technology Raleigh, NC 27607 USA
ECE Department, Energy Systems Research Laboratory, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33174 USA

This paper proposes a frequency-dependent electromagnetic model for armored power cables using Coupled circuit-field method. The
model parameters were obtained by conducting a series of coupled field-circuit studies at different frequencies. The cable capacitance
matrix is calculated using an electrostatic FE analysis. The frequency response of the cable was obtained by coupling the cable FE domain
model and external electric circuits. This technique allows the physical representation of the nonlinear magnetization behavior of the
cable shell as well as the frequency dependence of the cable parameters. This frequency response was then fitted with rational function
approximation. The resulting vector fitting (VF) rational function was then represented by an equivalent electrical network. This model
represents the cable’s high-frequency dynamic behavior to account for overvoltages or spikes in the current waveforms.
Index Terms—Coupled problems, finite element analysis, frequency dependence high-frequency model, power cables.

I. INTRODUCTION II. COUPLED FE-CIRCUIT MODEL

T HE transient behavior of power cables is difficult to model

accurately, because of the strong dependence of the cable
parameters on the power system operating conditions. A number
of well-established models can be found in the literature [1], [2].
It’s crucial to model the cable frequency dependence effi-
ciently especially for energy systems with different operating
frequencies (e.g., ship power system in which there are two fre-
quencies used 60 Hz and 400 Hz). Also, with the increase in
the utilization of high-frequency switching power electronics
components in energy systems especially in renewable genera-
tion (e.g., wind energy generation, and PV arrays), a more accu-
rate frequency-dependent model for the cable is required. This
model is essential in the design stage of power cables to study
the impulse voltage and switching surge distribution. It is also
necessary for insulation diagnosis and most often frequency ef-
fects for high-fidelity models in bandwidths up to 10 MHz [1].
The study of the high-frequency part of the spectra is necessary
due to the resulting stray capacitances shunting the series induc-
tances and dominating the response [3]–[6].
In this paper, a high-frequency model for armored power
cable is developed by using coupled-FE and vector fitting.
The cable parameters are obtained from a series of studies
conducted using FE analysis. The cable frequency response
is obtained using coupled circuit-FE analysis. The obtained
frequency response was then curve fitted using vector fittings
(VF). The resulted VF rational function was then represented
by an equivalent electrical network.
The main contribution of this paper is 1) to present a complete
armored power cable high-frequency model and 2) to illustrate
the performance of the developed model in a realistic example.
The simulation results of the cable’s terminal behavior under
switching and overvoltage operating conditions are presented
here and they show the expected behavior.
Manuscript received May 31, 2010; revised July 19, 2010; accepted August
23, 2010. Date of current version April 22, 2011. Corresponding author:
O. A. Mohammed (e-mail: mohammed@fiu.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2010.2085036
0018-9464/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
The electromagnetic field inside the armored cable is gov-
erned by the following set of nonlinear partial differential equa-
tions [7]:
(1)
(2)
where is the magnetic vector potential, is the total current
density, is the magnetic reluctivity, is the electric scalar
potential, and is the electric conductivity.
The cable circuit domain is governed by the following set of
mesh equations:
(3)
where, , and represent the vector of
voltages source in each electric mesh m, the vector of the cur-
rent in each mesh, the matrix of resistances, the matrix of induc-
tances, the matrix of the reciprocal of the capacitance, and the
matrix of the non-linear voltage drop, respectively.
The cable consists of three circular sectors representing the
phase conductors. All conductors are made of copper. The cable
insulation consists of inner and outer insulators and a protective
braiding (steel tape). The magnetic protective steel braiding is
an isotropic non-linear magnetic material defined by analytic
saturation curve. Fig. 1 shows the used cable geometry and the
FE mesh details. In order to mesh the conductor’s region for
the high-frequency eddy current problem, care was taken such
that the size of the elements used is smaller than the wavelength
of the PWM excitation frequency. The mesh size should be less
than the skin depth. The FE model contains 25 030 second order
elements with 50 157 nodes. Dirichlet boundary condition was
adopted on the outer surface of the cable.
ABED AND MOHAMMED: FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT COUPLED FIELD-CIRCUIT MODELING OF ARMORED POWER CABLES USING FINITE ELEMENTS
Fig. 1. The used cable geometry and the mesh details.
III. MODEL PARAMETERS CALCULATIONS
Under inverter operating condition the cable resistance, in-
ductance and capacitance behave differently from the low-fre-
quency operation. The conductors have skin, eddy currents and
proximity effects which cause the resistance to be much higher
than the low-frequency resistance. While the inductance values
decreases with the increase in the operating frequency. To obtain
the accurate frequency behavior of the resistance, inductance as
well as the capacitances matrix for the cable, a 2D finite element
analysis was used.
A. Resistance and Inductance Calculation
The 2D FE magnetodynamic problem is solved to calculate
the resistance and inductance of the cable as a function of fre-
quency. For calculation of these parameters, the eddy current ef-
fects in the conductors and steel tape are considered. To consider
these effects, two properties were assigned to the steel material;
the nonlinear permeability and the resistivity. The conductors,
resistivity and unit permeability were assigned. All other ma-
terials were set to properties of air. The time harmonic solu-
tion with nonlinearity is obtained by assigning different perme-
ability values to the mesh depending on the flux density vector.
In order to mesh the conductor’s region for the high-frequency
eddy current problem, care was taken such that the size of the
elements used is smaller than the wavelength of the PWM exci-
tation frequency.
While calculating the resistance and inductance, the field and
circuit equations were solved simultaneously. The magnetic
field inside the cable is governed by (1) and (2).
The simultaneous excitation of turns is performed to consider
the proximity effects. The losses associated with the proximity
effect are losses in a conductor due to currents in all other con-
ductors. The proximity effects are far more than skin effects
while calculating the resistance values at high-frequency oper-
ation. After solving the coupled field and circuit problem to-
gether, the voltage in the source is obtained. From the voltage
and current phasors in the source, the resistance is calculated.
931
Fig. 2. Cable resistance and inductance variation with the frequency.
If several conductors are current supplied at the same time,
the computed inductance for a conductor is a global inductance
L. This includes the self inductance of the chosen conductor
and the mutual inductances due to all other conductors. From
the voltage and current in the source, the reactance is calcu-
lated. The inductance is calculated corresponding to the value
of the applied frequency using the reactance. The calculated
inductances are apparent inductances. Fig. 2 shows the cable
resistance and inductance variation behavior with the supply
frequency.
Fig. 2 is just meant to show the variation trend of parameters
with frequency. With an increase in the frequency, there is less
flux penetration in the steel part. This causes the inductance to
be almost constant.
The slope of the resistance increases with the increase in
the applied switching frequency due to skin effect in the cable.
Fig. 3 shows the current density distribution (A/m ) in the cable
conductors at different operating frequencies.
B. Capacitance Calculation
The electrostatic problem is solved for the calculation of ca-
pacitances matrix. As capacitances are functions of geometry
rather than frequency. An electrostatic analysis is assumed to
be a linear analysis which means that the electric field is pro-
portional to the applied voltage. The analysis determines the
electric scalar potential distribution caused by applied voltage.
The following Maxwell equation is solved during electrostatic
analysis
(4)
Where, is surface charge density, is permittivity, V is electric
scalar potential.
For each phase, the self and mutual capacitances were ob-
tained from a separate electrostatic FE problem. To calculate
the mutual capacitance, a unit charge is applied to one con-
ductor surface and the other conductor’s potential is evaluated
using an FE analysis. This was done while the self-capacitance
932
Fig. 3. The cable current density (A/m ) distribution at different operating frequencies.
is calculated by the measurement of the potential at the same
charged conductor. The cable capacitance matrix are in pF/m is
as follow:
IV. VECTOR FITTING
Vector Fitting (VF) is a robust numerical method for rational
approximation in the frequency domain. It permits to identify
the state space models directly from measured or computed fre-
quency responses, both for single or multiple input-output sys-
tems [3]–[6].
The VF method approximates the cable admittance Y(s) fre-
quency response with rational functions, expressed as the sum
of partial fractions [3]–[6]
(5)
where and denote the residues and the poles, respectively.
The d and e may be specified as zero, if desired. The poles and
residues are real or complex conjugate, whereas d and e are
real. The rational function given by (5) can be represented by an
equivalent electrical network as shown in Fig. 5. The parameters
of the network are calculated from the rational function given
by (5) as follows: and values are equal to
Each real pole gives an RL-branch and its parameters are cal-
culated as follow: . it’s harmonic contents due to lumped and the developed HF
Each complex conjugate pair
gives
an RLC branch and its parameters are calculated as follows:
This network reflects the frequency dependence of the cable
resistance and inductance and is shown in Fig. 4.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 47, NO. 5, MAY 2011
Fig. 4. Synthesization of the cable admittance by electrical network.
The VF algorithm was implemented on the cable example
and the frequency response obtained from the FE analysis. A
sensitivity analysis was conducted to select the order of the ap-
proximation. A six order approximation was found to have the
best approximation for the cable impedance and phase angle
respectively.
V. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
The developed cable high-frequency model is tested in a
simple system to study the effect of different switching fre-
quencies and compare it to lumped cable model behavior. The
system consists of constant frequency IGBT inverter supplying
a load through the cable.
Figs. 5(a) and (b) show the output current waveform and
cable model, respectively. It is clear that the HF cable model
shows a slightly higher harmonics distortion compared to
normal lumped cable model. Fig. 6 shows the voltage across
the inverter output due to HF cable and normal cable model,
respectively. It is clear that the HF cable model can capture
the high-frequency effects compared to normal lumped cable
model.
The high-frequency cable model was used to predict the over-
voltage transients due to the interaction between the inverter, the
cable and transformer. A high-frequency transformer model was
used to conduct the study [9].
ABED AND MOHAMMED: FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT COUPLED FIELD-CIRCUIT MODELING OF ARMORED POWER CABLES USING FINITE ELEMENTS 933

Fig. 5. The inverter output current waveform.

Fig. 7. Transformer Primary voltage profile at different switching frequencies.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a method to model high-frequency cable using
coupled circuit-FE was presented. Several FE studies were con-
ducted to obtain the model low and high-frequency parameters
as well as the cable frequency response.
The developed cable model was then tested with different in-
verter frequencies and compared with a normal cable model.
The proposed model was able to account for realistic harmonic
content leading to an accurate physics based representation.
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