Investigation of the environmental impact on the capacity of overhead power lines

Due to the growing demand for electricity and the deterioration of existing infrastructure, overhead power lines in many cases are forced to operate at the limit of their thermal capabilities. This encourages engineers to increasingly pay attention to the consideration of weather factors affecting the temperature of conductors, using appropriate mathematical models. This makes it possible to quickly respond to changes in the thermal regime of the conductors.

In this article, based on the equations of thermal balance, analytical expressions are derived for calculating the temperature of insulated and non-insulated wires of overhead power lines. The presented mathematical model is confirmed by comparison with the finite element method implemented in the Ansys software package. The study also included a comprehensive study of how ambient temperature, wind speed and atmospheric pressure affect the thermal state of the conductor.

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