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High-Capacity Underground Transmission: Polyolefin and Silicone-Grease, Reduced Resistivity, with A More Effective Heat Dissipation System

CSEF · 2023 Physics & Astronomy Honorable_mention Award

Marval De Andrade Alicia · 11

Overview

High-Capacity Underground Transmission Polyolefin and Silicone-Grease, Reduced Resistivity, with a More Effective heat dissipation system Alicia Marval Clovis North High School, Fresno CA, USA An underground cable’s insulation affects the conducting material’s efficiency–specifically its ability to “transfer” power due to an increase in heat by current. This study tested the effects of thermally conductive insulating materials (to form a heat dissipation system), Polyolefin and Silicone-grease, on voltage drop. Aluminum and Copper wires ( ≈ 17 Gauge, 8.5 in.) were insulated with different sized polyolefin tubes filled with silicone-grease. Then, an adequate amount of voltage and current were run through the wires in a circuit. On the ground side, multimeters were placed to take voltage drop (mV) and temperature measurements. A candle was used to speed up the heating process. This procedure was also done with un-insulated bare wires. Data was analyzed using graphs for each test, comparing growth rates and percent increases of voltage drops. Compared to the bare wire’s voltage drop, the wires with the most insulation showed a 43.24% decrease for [Al] voltage drop and a 23.73% decrease for [Cu] voltage drop. The Growth rates of “voltage drop increase” decreased from no insulation on wire ( [Al]-0.433, [Cu]-1.36) to the most insulation on wire ( [Al]-0.177, [Cu]-1). This study showed that the more thermally conductive insulation a wire had, the less power loss there was. There was a significant decrease in voltage drop for both metals, especially Aluminum (43.24 % decrease), suggesting that a cable’s efficiency can be improved if there is a proper heat dissipation system set in place to overall decrease power loss.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (1)

  • Category Award: HM

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Physics & Astronomy · Entry S1702

Resources

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