An IoT-based Temperature Monitoring System for Underground Cable Tunnels

Underground power transmission cables often have to face the challenge of poor ventilation, which decreases power transmission capacity and damages the materials of the cables in a high-temperature environment. It is necessary to take a heat dissipation measure to ensure not only the safety but the efficiency of power transmission systems. Currently, for underground tunnels, two temperature reduction methods have been used. One is to exhaust heat by improving air circulation and the other is to employ chilling devices. However, even with the devices little information can be used to determine when these devices should be activated. Overusing the devices may cause high energy consumption. Additionally, underusing the devices might lead to the decrease of transmission efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes an IoT-based underground tunnel temperature monitoring system in which the wireless transmission method used is after the experiment. Temperature sensing nodes are placed in an underground tunnel, and then a gateway collects sensed data and sends them to a database, so management personnel can monitor the temperature distribution in the tunnel in real time to determine whether ventilation devices should be activated.