Heating of cables due to fault currents

The metal screen of new type of medium and high voltage single-core underground cables is comprised of helically applied copper wires embedded in a semiconductive layer. The distribution of current and power among the thin wires is non-uniform in a three-phase system, what can lead to their non-uniform heating, especially during fault conditions. The paper investigates this problem with 2D finite element models. The simulations are based on the coupling of the electromagnetic and thermal fields.