Article
Research on Temperature Monitoring Method of Cable on
10 kV Railway Power Transmission Lines Based on Distributed
Temperature Sensor
Kai Chen
1
, Yi Yue
2,
* and Yuejin Tang
2
Citation: Chen, K.; Yue, Y.; Tang, Y.
Research on Temperature Monitoring
Method of Cable on 10 kV Railway
Power Transmission Lines Based on
Distributed Temperature Sensor.
Energies 2021, 14, 3705. https://
doi.org/10.3390/en14123705
Academic Editor: Amer Al-Hinai
Received: 26 April 2021
Accepted: 18 June 2021
Published: 21 June 2021
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1
China Railway Siyuan Survey and Design Group CO., LTD., Wuhan 430063, China;
siyuanchenkai@gmail.com
2
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan 430074, China; tangyj@mail.hust.edu.cn
* Correspondence: yueyi@hust.edu.cn; Tel.: +86-131-2996-6316
Abstract:
Railway power transmission lines (RPTL) are power lines that provide nontraction power
supply for railways, such as communications and signals along the railway. With the advancement of
technology, power cables are being used more and more widely. Operational experience has shown
that during the operation of power cables, abnormal heat is often caused by fault factors such as
poor joint crimping and severe partial discharge caused by insulation defects, leading to cable burns
in extreme cases. Distributed temperature sensors (DTS), a kind of spatial continuous temperature
sensor using sensing optical fiber, can measure the temperature along the cable and are expected
to realize on-line monitoring and positioning of cable heating faults. This paper first builds a finite
element model of the cable under various faults to calculate the distribution characteristics of the
temperature field of the faulty cable. Then the results are verified through experiments with the
external sensing fiber and the artificially manufactured heating points of the cable. The conclusions
show that it is feasible to use a distributed sensing fiber to monitor and locate the heating fault of
power cable.
Keywords:
railway power transmission lines; power cable; temperature; on-line monitoring; DTS;
heating fault
1. Introduction
With the increasing density of the high-speed railway network in China, the reliability
of the power supply of communication and signal equipment along the railway will directly
affect the railway traffic safety. To improve the reliability of the power supply of RPTL,
more and more railway through lines use all-cable lines.
In general, RPTL are buried directly in the soil, through a pipe, or along cable trenches.
The laying condition along the line is changeable, and numerous loads are distributed
along the line. Factors such as inherent defects and external force damage may cause cable
failures, primarily when the cable works in a plateau area for a very long time, unfavorable
factors such as low air pressure and high cold will reduce the insulation strength of the
cable and accelerate the aging of the insulating medium [
1
,
2
]. In addition, the location and
identification of faults in these cables are even trickier due to the complexity of the power
supply network and the invisibility of cable faults. Therefore, it is urgent and significant
to keep cables under on-line monitoring to ensure the stable and reliable operation of
the RPTL and the ability to quickly and accurately locate the fault point and promptly
eliminate the fault after its occurrence [3,4].
Partial discharge, grounding current, temperature rise, etc., are usually used as eval-
uating indicators for on-line monitoring to assess the condition and predict the life of
cables [
5
,
6
]. Among various cable on-line monitoring methods, temperature monitoring
Energies 2021, 14, 3705. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14123705 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
