Major Factors Affecting Cable Ampacity Francisco de Le6n, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—This paper presents a parametric study of the major actors affecting cable ampacity caleulations. The eurrent carrying capacity (or of a cable depends on many of the Installation properties and conditions. Tm this paper the effects on ampacity of conductor size, ambient temperature, bonding a i, duct size, soil thermal resistivity, resistivity nd size of backfil (or duct bank) and depth of installation for underground installations are presented. For ‘cables air the effects on ampacity of the intensity of solar radiation, the spacing from the wall and the geouping of eables fare analyzed, For riser pole installations the effect of the solar adi speed, ventilation and diameter of the duet are shown. Index Terms — Ampacity. Cable Rating. Underground Cables. Cables in Air. Cables ia Riser Poles. IEC Standards CYMCAP, Neher-MeGrath. 1. InrRopuction MPACITY (or current-carrying capacity) of a cable is sccatly affected by the installation conditions and material properties. In this paper a major factors affecting ampacity is presented. ‘Al simulations ‘were performed using the commercial ampacity program CYMCAP, which works in accordance 10 the IEC standards: see references [1] to [7] The IEEE Standard 835-1994 [8] ives very similar results 10 those of the IEC Standards for underground cables, Differences. are more noticeable for ccables in air, Both the IEC and IEEE Standards are based on the Neher-MeGrath method published in 1957 [9]. The reader is referred 10 [10] for a thorough review the theory of ampacity calculations, the historical developments and the differences between the two methods arameitic study of the For underground installations the effects on cable ampacity duc to the following parameters is studied: conductor size, native soil thermal resistivity, bonding type. directly buried versus duct bank installation and duct size. For cables in air the effect on cable ampacity of the following parameters is studied: conductor size, intensity of solar radiation, distance to the wall and cable grouping. For cables installed in riser poles the effect on ampacity of the following installation parameters is studied: conduit size, surface absorption coefficient of solar radiation, wind speed, type of ventilation, intensity of solar radiation and length of the riser pole Fd Losin wih CYME inermationa T&D. 1485 Roberval, Set 103, St Bram, Ques, Cada, J3V 3 (ema fone com, 1-4244-0493-2/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE. TI, UNDERGROUND CADLE INSTALLATIONS Several installation features were varied to study their effect inthe ampacity. In the Appendix the reader can find the data of cables and installations used to perform the parametric studies. The ambient temperature was always 25°C while the target temperature has been set to 90°C for all ampacity ‘calculations, The soil thermal resistivity is 1.0 [°K-Wim] except when indicated. All cases are balanced with & unity Toad factor. A. Varying Conductor Caliber ‘The sizeof the cable has been varied [rom 250 MCM to 1500 MCM. Figure 1 shows the results for single-point and 1wo- point boncing «oo 500 sinae-oint | zw ae | . | Ew onde | i 1 E m- | | 1 | 20 so 750 mo 159 15001750 Conductor Size (MEM) Figme . Ampaciy vers conic size fo wn boning Pes on sn 400 20 20 10 [Ampacity [AI oe © 250 su 750° 1000 1250 Conductor Size [MCMI 1500 1750 Fist 2. Apc verss conde size or rely bare ar dt bak Jnsllaor top boing) From the results presented in figures 1 and 2 one can appreciate that doubling the conductor cross-sectional area ‘does not double the ampacity. Ahough the de resistance of acable reduces in inverse proportion to the conductor area for ‘¢ excitation the skin and proximity effects play an important role. The larger the cross sectional area of the conductor the larger the effects of the induced eddy currents in single-point bonded installations and the cireulating currents in two-point bonded installations Figure 2 shows that directly buried cables have a slightly higher ampacity, about 6%, than cables installed in PVC conduits. The reason is that the PVC has a higher thermal resistivity than the native soil. B. Varying Soil Thermal Resistivity The thermal resistivity of the native soil using 4-treoils (for 500 and 1000 MCM) directly buried cables was vatied from 0.4 to 4.0 [°K Wil: this covers the conditions for most installations. The computed ampacities are presented in that the ampacity reduces as the igure 3. One can not thermal resistivity of the soil increases andl seems to Follow a hyperbolic function. Soi Treat Hesisiiy Win) Figure 3. Ampacity fonction of sil heal esis, © Varying Bonding and Transposition F ampacity than single-point bonded cables. This is due to the large circulating currents in (sheaths or) concentric neutrals. ‘The ampacity reduction effect of the circulatin becomes more significant For larger cable sizes were larger jin the sheaths oF concentric 1 shows that two-point bonded cables have a smaller circulating cv als ‘Table 1 shows the calculated ampacity for several bonding, trrangements for the installation of the 4 trefoils specified in the Appendix using 1000 MCM cables. The ampacity for a 'svo:point bonded installation is about 15% smaller than that of the single-point bonded case. The circulating curren Cross bonding the cables with ing currents. However, in practice the lengths cannot be identical Table I shows how for different ratios AM (longest/shortest) and AN (longer/shortest) one obtains different ampacity nts are prese cause this ampacity reduction equal section lengths completely eliminates the iret reductions. “TABLE I, VaRUAMOK OF AMPACTT FOR TREFOUS WIM DFARS BONDING Bonding Arrangement Single-Poimt Two-Point Equal Section Lengths Cross Bonding AM =} 5/ ANG 125 AM=20/AN=15 0 AN=20 ‘The same effects can be appreciated in flat formation installations. Figure 4 summarizes the arapacity results for the flat formation installation shown in the Appendix. Different bonding arrangements were used and the distance between cables was varied, 11000 00 goo) ey z —— Ea 200 0203 o4 05 a6 Distance between phases Im oo gue 4. Amgacy versus distance for deem ending stanganets (Oat forma inaton) ‘The ampacity for single-point bonding and cross bonding is the highest and increases with the separation of phases. This js due to a reduction in the induced heating between cables While cross bonding cables is more expensive, single-point bonded cable installations produce standing voltages in the ungrounded terminal. Those voltages increase with phase separation (see the bottom curve in Figure 4). Two-point bonded installations not only have reduced ampacity as compared with single-point bond but the ampacity has the initial tendency to reduce even fuethor as the separation between the phases increases. This is because the effect of the larger circulating currents is ‘greater than the reduction of induced heating. There isa point however, where the effect ofthe increased circulating currents is overcompensated by the reduction of mutual heating effects ‘and the ampacity augments slightly as the phases separate. D. Varying the Number of Neighboring Circuits Induced heating from neighboring cables produces important reductions in cable ampacity. Consider the duct Dank installation, with four trefoil circuits, shown in theAppendix. the computed ampacity is 650 A. When a second trefoil is added the ampacity reduces to 575 A while adding a third trefoil luces the ampacity to 512 A. When the last (foueth) circuit is added the ampacity becomes only 464 A; this is about 70% Further reduetions are expected as the number of cables heating each other increases. Frequently, there is the need to account for the heating (or cooling) induced from neighboring heat sources, (sinks) such as steam or water pipes running parallel to the cable installation. It is not possible, however, to give rules of thumb or perform parametric because the Installation possibilities are infinite. When only one trefoil circuit is present studies E, Varying the Conduit Size The diameter of a PVC conduit buried in native soil was vatied from a The plot of Figure 6 ity increases slightly as the diame ases, For steel conduits the slope i even smaller than for PVC cond see Figure 5 shows that the amp oS Figure 5, Seles eras laren cont 160 500 tas a 1000 MEM z ; 0! — Duct Internal Diameter [ram] Figure 6, Anpaiy as8frstion of ond dame UL, Castes us Aur A. Varying Conductor Caliber ‘The conductor caliber has been varied from 250 MCM to 1500 MCM. Figure 7 shows the results for single-point and two-point bonding for a solar radiation intensity of 1000 Wim, which is typical for North America. One can appreciate thatthe ampacty inereases with the ealiber of the conductor at a larger rate that for underground cables: compare the results of Figure 7 with those of Figure | 1200 1000 | Z gy | Sele Poi Bontng 2 | ‘Two-Poim Bonding = coo = E 10 E00 200 6 _ 020 S00 750 1000 1250 1300 F730 Conductor Size MCM Faw 7.Anpocity sa function of cot dane B. Varying the Solar Radiation Intensity ‘The effects of the variation of the intensity of solar ragiation on eable ampacity are shown in Figure 8. One can appreciate, as expected, that the ampacity ofthe cable reduces asthe intensity of solar radiation increases. The behavior for several surfaces having diferent coefficients absorption is also compared in the figure, As the surface absorption coefficient increases a larger ampacity derate is ‘obtained for a given solar radiation intensity. ‘The solar radiation intensity, for not shaded installations depends on the geographical location of the installation (Gatitude and altitude) and the day of the year and hour of the day. The surface absorption coefficient depends on the ‘material type and color of the cable's external surface (the surface exposed to the sun) of solar 1200 1 | SRS? 00 600 00 200 0250 500750 10001250 Solar Radiation Intensity (Wim2] 1300 Fp 8 Varin f amped with solr radon ins for seve sue shscetion contents CC. Varying the Distance to the Wall In the IEC standard 287-2-1, reference [4], there are several arrangements for cables in air installations using nom: continuous brackets, ladder supports or cleats, sec Figure 9 ‘Table 2 shows the effect on ampuity of the distance from the cable 10 the wall, The 1000 MCM concentric neutral cable,eseribed in ampacities. the Appendix, was used to compute T= Fgwe 9. Standardized asrangeent fr cables in air ‘Arringement” Ampaciy (A) ‘Nut 3 4 a m 8 9 sa Comparing the ampacity of eases 1 with 9 and 3 with 10 fone ean see that cable installations near the wall show a substantially smaller ampacity than those separated from the wall, For the single-phase the obtained reduction is 12%, while for the wefoil he reduction is 24%, One can also note from cases 4 and 7 that there is no influence when installing the cables vertically or horizontally. Grouping the cables has the effect, as expected, of reducing ampacity; compare cases 1. 2and 4 D. Groups of Cables ‘The effect of the separation between cables for groups of cables was analyzed using the 1000 MCM cable (single-point bonded) described in the Appendix. Figure 10 shows the results for flat formations and Figure 11 the results for trefoils. In both cases when the cables are grouped horizontally there is a transition when (e/De) = 0.75. The lampacity before and after the transition point is independent fof the separation between cables, When the cables. are grouped horizontally and vertically as well, one can see to ‘smoother transition points, IV, Caauesiy Riser Poues In Figure 12 the variation of ampacity as a function of the internal diameter is presented. The variation is shown for three different ventilation conditions. As expected, ventilation ‘on bath-ends gives the greatest ampacity followed by the ease vented at the top. In all three cases the ampacity is highest ‘with very tight ducts, ie. when the internal diameter of the the ‘duct is equal to the minimum circumference that encloses the trefoil formation. As the diameter of the ducts increases the ampacity reduces reaching a minimum and then slowly rises, 1200 04 ‘Separation gue 10. Ageia faction of separation 100 B88 Ampacty (A) 8 02 03 of Separation mi] gue 11, Arpaiy as fonction of separation Figure 13 shows the variation of ampacity with the surface cocilicient of solar absorption of the external surface of the installation (cable or duct). One notices that the ampacity reduces slmost linearly with an increase of the surface cocificient of solar absorption. Figure 14 shows the variation ‘of ampacity as a function of the intensity of solar radiation. ‘The ampacity reduces in a quas-linear fashion from shaded ‘conditions as the intensity of solar radiation increases. 400 | Ampacity(Al 200 ° joo 20030040000 Internal Diameter of Duct mon) sue 12 Varying te inna ameter oe cot for dere1200 1200 |. 000 seo Ampaity A g bo 02 ost Surface Absorption Coeficent Figure 13. Ampucity ition of he sfce absorption cece of se ‘alain 1400 1200 + ened ds ° 500 Intensity of Solar Radiation (Win) 10015002000 16, Amc intone fl adon| Figure 15 shows a plot of ampacity versus wind speed. The ampacity increases with an increase of wind speed. However, the ampacity increase is larger at the lower end. Thus increasing the wind speed form 0 to $ mvs has a large effect it from 15 0 20 mm/s. The length of the riser pole was varied from 1 0 20 meters and the ampacity did not show any significant variation (results are not shown), 00 38 z Ampacity (A) 200 2 ® 5 fos Wind Specd {ms} m2 Fie 1, Amp con wd spond A. Underground Cable Installations ‘The three major factors affecting ampacity in underground cable installation are: cable caliber, soil theemal resistivity and, bonding method. Doubling the conductor cross-sectional area does not double the ampacity: see Figures 1 and 2. The soil thermal resistivity plays @ very important role in the ampacity of an installation. Keeping all other conditions unchanged, a large variation on te soil thermal resistivity ean affect the ampacity in more than S0% (Figure 3). Depending on the particularities of the installation, honing type can also account for up $02 of the ampacity (Figure 4), B. Cables in Air For cables in air the three major factors affecting cable ampacity are: conductor size, the eable grouping and the distance 10 the wall. Doubling the conductor cross-sectional area does not double the ampacity, but the "reduction effect" is smaller than that of underground cables. Ampacity is less sensitive to the bonding type and somehow dependent on the intensity of solar radiation especially for large values of the abs6rption coefficient of solar radiation. However, ampacity is very much dependent on the distance from the cable to the wall and on eable groping: see table 2 and Figures 10 and 11 . Cables in Riser Poles “The ampacity of cables in riser poles greatly depends on the diameter of the guard, the intensity of solar radiation and the surface coefficient of solar absorption (Figures 12, 13 and 14). Its somehow dependent on the wind speed (Figure 15), VI. REFERENCES Elsie Cabs — Calan ofthe eset ating Prt Cao ating quaions 100% tond factor) and caeaation of esses ~ Seton | (Gera IEC Standard 287-1 1 (1998 lest Cables ~ Caan ofthe caret ing ~ Pr: Carentan squats (100% fa fcr and cleuion of tes Sesto 2 Sheath ‘hy curt ows factors er tw cats a ori TEC Sard Bletic Cabs Caclaion of he cure rung — Part 2: Thema 287-21 1988-12, tse Cables Calelaton of the stent ming — Par 2 Thema fesistnce~ Secon 24: A meth fr ealelting eect ates For ‘jou of casi Woe a, pred om sla tala, 1EC Stn e722 1995.05, Ecc Cables ~ Caan ofthe cure etng~ Pat 3: Sect en ‘opeaing enon, — Soto Roltees eperaing cons and Sthstion ofcable ype IEC Stnard287 3-1 (1985.07 {Cakultion of be cei ant energeey cutee aig of cables — Pat (Getic rating fst for abs pt ad tcuding 8/30 5) XV TEC Paeaon 855-1198), CClelton of the yeti amd emergemy caren ang of cables Pa 2: {Gelieraing ofeale rear ay 130 (36) AY and ergeney abias Fercable fl wltape TEC Pblation 53-2 (1989.07) IEEE Sandal Power Cable Amgocity Tales, IEEE Se 835-1094, ILEL Neher and MH McGrath The Caleltion ofthe Tenpeatre Rese fn Lod Copabiiy of Cable Syste, ATEE Tansy Pat Power Apacs an Syler, Vl 76, Ober 195, pp. 752-72 Geage J Antes, "Rutng of Eure Power Codes! Anpaciy Computations for TrmantvionDistdation, and Ida Alcan, NBER Ps McGraw H197 wi i 0 (a) © uoVILL APPENDIX: CABLE AND INSTALLATION DATA Figure 16 describes the 15 RV, 1000 MCM, coneentric neutral eable tase this paper. The cables sith diffrent calibers used in the parametric study have the same layers with diferent ses; see ‘Table 3. Figure 17 ilustates the instalation used inthis paper with four trefoi formstions installed in a 22 duct bank. The diectly Duried case is shown in Figure 18 and the fat formation shown in Figure 19, > & + Renate sl Tho bola ich 6 btn fea ate Sal = ban i 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 aco Tar 3 Sch ae Figuce 18, Four deity buried foils (stances in fet) “Retin. 2088 + nmi cable dante 2 00567 ich otra =T6ONY Gon ee 070510 KOUR) Figure 16 Comtracion am dimensions of he concent etal able wed for ‘TABLES. CONDUCTOR SIZES ie sisal Dace Laer [va @ (NOH Gonduoe —Shels —nadslon Seren Wes Jot athe sal La -Can "OSIM DGtae 16a 17907 taser 21510 = sata basa tags 20uaa 2atra Dame 360 ogtaD 10080 aris 22417 2anks 26417 joo 19519 1210 27585 20s 208s 27805 vs 280 2505 20H 2005 tn tae 2s, 24 0 1 2 3 ‘igure 19 Flt orton fr the parame study of cle separation (tances inet Francaco de Led (8°85, N92, SM'U2) was BSc. and the MLS. una eur ale) doses Elica Engvesing tom de Nate Pobre Hate (Mico) in 1983 ard 1986 respectively, a obianed his PRD. dese from the Unis of Toon, Cana, 91992. He has Hl several aeons postions in Mexia st ys works! forthe Canaan secre ity Cust working with CY ME Inerstinl TD in St Beano (Qube, Canada). he declops Foesonal grade. sovirefor_ power snd 4 (6 stb stam and ish ean etna suppor of CYMCAP. CYMES (She anpacty progam. He fas bial over den apes in efeeed Jowetle EERIE), ich ave been td ver 10 mes non te fe Sone isi inn, gw 17. Dis bk ntaltion of 22 each ith fortress ‘nies