Cable Impedance Calculations - Open Electrical http://www.openelectrical.org/wiki/index.php?title=Cable_Impedance...

Cable Impedance Calculations

From Open Electrical

This article provides details on the calculation of cable impedances - dc resistance, ac resistance and
inductive reactance.

Contents
1 Cable Resistance
1.1 DC Resistance
1.2 AC Resistance
2 Cable Reactance
3 References

Cable Resistance
The dc and ac resistance of cable conductors can be calculated based on IEC 60287-1 Clause 2.1.

DC Resistance

The dc resistance of cable conductors is calculated as follows:

Where is the dc resistance at the conductor operating temperature ( / km)

is the resistivity of the conductor material at 20 oC (.km).

For copper conductors, = 1.7241 x 10-5
For aluminium conductors, = 2.8264 x 10-5
is the cross-sectional area of the conductor (mm2)
is the temperature coefficient of the conductor material per K at 20 oC.
For copper conductors, = 3.93 x 10-3
For aluminium conductors, = 4.03 x 10-3
is the conductor operating temperature (oC)

AC Resistance

The ac resistance of cable conductors is the dc resistance corrected for skin and proximity effects.

Where is the ac resistance at the conductor operating temperature ( / km)

1 of 4 12/27/2012 6:14 PM
Cable Impedance Calculations - Open Electrical http://www.openelectrical.org/wiki/index.php?title=Cable_Impedance...

is the dc resistance at the conductor operating temperature ( / km)

is the skin effect factor (see below)
is the proximity effect factor (see below)

The skin effect factor is calculated as follows:

Where

is the dc resistance at the conductor operating temperature ( / km)

is the supply frequency (Hz)
is a constant (see table below)

Note that the formula above is accurate provided that 2.8.

The proximity effect factor varies depending on the conductor geometry. For round conductors, the following
formulae apply.

For 2C and 2 x 1C cables:

For 3C and 3 x 1C cables:

Where

is the dc resistance at the conductor operating temperature ( / km)

is the supply frequency (Hz)
is the diameter of the conductor (mm)
is the distance between conductor axes (mm)
is a constant (see table below)

Note that the formula above is accurate provided that 2.8.

For shaped conductors, the proximity effect factor is two-thirds the values calculated above, and with:

equal to the diameter of an equivalent circular conductor of equal cross-sectional area and
degree of compaction (mm)
where is the thickness of the insulation between conductors (mm)

2 of 4 12/27/2012 6:14 PM
Cable Impedance Calculations - Open Electrical http://www.openelectrical.org/wiki/index.php?title=Cable_Impedance...

Dried and
Type of Conductor
Impregnated?
Copper
Round, stranded Yes 1 0.8
Round, stranded No 1 1
Round, segmental - 0.435 0.37
Sector-shaped Yes 1 0.8
Sector-shaped No 1 1
Aluminium
Round, stranded Either 1 1
Round, 4 segment Either 0.28 0.37
Round, 5 segment Either 0.19 0.37
Round, 6 segment Either 0.12 0.37

Cable Reactance
The series inductive reactance of a cable can be approximated by the following equation:

Where is the conductor inductive reactance ( / km)

is the supply frequency (Hz)

is the axial spacing between conductors (mm)
is the diameter of the conductor, or for shaped conductors, the diameter of an equivalent
circular conductor of equal cross-sectional area and degree of compaction (mm)
is a constant factor pertaining to conductor formation (see below for typical values)

No. of wire
strands in K
conductor
3 0.0778
7 0.0642
19 0.0554
37 0.0528
>60 0.0514
1 (solid) 0.0500

For 3C and 3 x 1C cables, the axial spacing parameter depends on the geometry of the conductors:

3 of 4 12/27/2012 6:14 PM
Cable Impedance Calculations - Open Electrical http://www.openelectrical.org/wiki/index.php?title=Cable_Impedance...

References
IEC 60287-1-1, Electric cables Calculation of current rating Part 1: Current rating
equations (100% load factor) and calculation of losses Section 1: General
(http://webstore.iec.ch/p-preview/info_iec60287-1-1%7Bed1.2%7Den_d.pdf) , 2006
G.F. Moore, Electric Cables Handbook (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0632040750
/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=openelect-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&
creative=399349&creativeASIN=0632040750) , Third Edition, 1997, an excellent reference
book for cables

Retrieved from "http://www.openelectrical.org/wiki/index.php?title=Cable_Impedance_Calculations"

Category: Cables

This page was last modified on 4 October 2012, at 17:20.

4 of 4 12/27/2012 6:14 PM