Multi-dipole modeling of XLPE cable for electromagnetic field studies in large power systems Mohammadreza Barzegaran and Osama A. Mohammed Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA Abstract Purpose – In this paper, modeling of the XLPE cable for electromagnetic signature study at a far distance is proposed. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Due to the very small ratio of the dimensions of cables to the dimensions of the whole system, using actual geometry of the cables with all layers in this study causes deformation of the cable’s model. Therefore, multi-dipole modeling is used for modeling the cables. Findings – This model includes specific voltages and currents in lines and nodes, respectively. Radiated electric and magnetic fields at a far distance are selected as the index of appropriateness of the model. Originality/value – In order to investigate the accuracy of the model, various configuration of the cable is studied. Additionally, coupling of the cable with an electrical machine is investigated. They all show that the equivalent models can be used in place of the actual model for signature studies. Keywords Computational electromagnetics, Electromagnetic signatures, EMI Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Power electronic devices, such as inverters and power supplies create harmonic currents that mostly flow through connecting cables. Cross-linked polyethylene cables, which are abbreviated as XLPE cables are widely used in power system application. The advantage of using these cables to using regular polyethylene cable is their high resistivity to deformation even at high temperatures, low dielectric loss, and excellent aging property. Hence, an XLPE cable constitutes the best cable for transmission and distribution systems (Universal Cable Inc., 2011). This study is intended for power systems with the components of various generators, motors and power supplies. The XLPE cables are used for connecting these components. Published work related to the study of the electromagnetic signatures of these types of cables was reported (Mendez and Monteys, 2000; Bulington et al., 1999). S.J. Mendez et al. studied electromagnetic interference of power cable in tunnels and investigated the effects of communication cable and power cable on each other from an electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) point of view. The induced voltage and earth resistance of substations were also evaluated. Other studies were on interference of IGBT variable frequency drives (VFDs) with the cables. Bulington et al. (1999) investigated the impact of various cables in drive applications. Another application of low frequency signature analysis of the cable is that the electromagnetic field coupling to wires buried in a lossy medium is of great practical interest for many EMC applications, such as transient analysis of power and communication cable. Basically, the buried wire can represent a telephone cable, power cable, or a cylindrical antenna operating at a very low frequency (VLF). Some important The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0332-1649.htm COMPEL: The International Journal for Computation and Mathematics in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Vol. 33 No. 1/2, 2014 pp. 3-13 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0332-1649 DOI 10.1108/COMPEL-11-2012-0360 Multi-dipole modeling of XLPE cable 3