Analysis of electric field and charge density profiles during voltage polarity reversal in HVDC cables

The aim of this thesis is to present a useful tool to study the different electrical quantities and their behavior during a fast voltage polarity reversal in HVDC cable systems. The tool has been developed in the MATLAB environment, where it is possible to run different numerical simulations and to obtain accurate results, provided the correct model has been used. An important aspect of the developed code is that it uses Maxwell’s equations to calculate the electrical quantities at each step, even under time-varying conditions such as during voltage polarity reversals. After a presentation of the electric field behavior and voltage polarity reversal phenomenon in HVDC systems in Chapter 1, a detailed description of the implemented algorithm and the theory which is based upon is described in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, the case study used to validate our work is illustrated. Here, both geometrical and simulation parameters that have been used are mentioned. Next, in Chapter 4 the different results obtained with our code are illustrated. Different operating conditions (load and no-load) have been considered. Multiple comparisons have been done considering different simulation parameters, in order to understand the correct set of values to use, such to obtain trustworthy results. Finally, in Chapter 5 some final considerations have been made, along with some future insight as how to further develop this initial work.