Field tests of a medium-voltage single-core cable lying on the ground surface

The calculation of transients in power cables requires both the use of accurate simulation models and proper formulations for the representation of the imperfect earth. However, the scarcity of available field tests in the literature leads to questionable results in several simulation cases. In this paper a set of field measurements is presented, which has been conducted on a medium-voltage single-core cable lying on the ground surface. The cable is excited by various types of voltage sources, while several grounding and termination scenarios are implemented. The examined cable is further modified and modeled in order to simulate transient phenomena, using a recently developed frequency-domain universal model, including different earth formulations. The simulation results are compared with the corresponding field measurements, leading to significant remarks. An improvement in the calculation of the frequency dependent per-unit-length parameters is also proposed, which may lead to the more accurate modeling of cables lying on the ground surface.