Heating of Cables

The temperature rise of a body depends upon the rate of generation and dissipation of heat by
the body. If the rate of generation is greater than the rate of dissipation, the temperature goes
on rising and vice versa.
In case of an underground cable the sources of heat generation are
• core loss, i.e., copper loss in the core of the cable,
• the dielectric loss, and
• sheath losses,
and the heat is dissipated through the dielectric to the ground and finally to the atmosphere.
Core Loss: In order to find out the core loss the value of the resistance of the cable is calculated.
Having calculated thus the resistance of the cable the core loss is calculated as I2R where I is
the current carried by the cable.
Dielectric Loss: The cable is a sort of capacitor with the core and the sheath forming the two
plates of the condenser separated by dielectric material. The equivalent circuit for this system
is represented by a parallel combination of leakage resistance R and a capacitance C. The loss
in the dielectric is due to the loss in the equivalent leakage resistance.

Sheath Loss: When single core cables are used for a.c. transmission, the current flowing
through the core of the cable gives rise to a pulsating magnetic field which when links with the
sheath, induces voltage in it. This induced voltage sets up currents under certain conditions in
the sheaths and this results in sheath losses. Since the sheath currents are proportional to the
cable core currents, the sheath losses are also proportional to the conductor losses.