Development and Validation of an Improved Cable Thermal Rating Model for Unfilled Trough Installations

Current industry practices for thermal rating of cables in unfilled troughs rely on conservative analytical methods outlined in IEC 60287 and CIGRE Technical Brochure 880, which often underestimate cable carrying capacity. While Finite Element Method (FEM) tools offer improved accuracy by modeling complete thermal environments, they present practical barriers: lack of standardization, requirement for specialized expertise, and inconsistency arising from nonlinear characteristics and user-dependent modeling decisions.