TDHVL Researcher Tim Hughes Wins Consecutive Awards in 2014 Conferences

Tim Hughes , a member of the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory, has received multiple awards from conferences around the UK. Tim is a postgraduate researcher working on an interdepartmental research project Understanding Environmental Controls on the State of sub-seafloor High Voltage Cables, between the TDHVL and NOCS.

Tim started his PhD in October 2012 and since May 2014, he has attended three conferences:

• Near Surface Geophysics Group (NSGG) Postgraduate Symposium 2014
• British Geophysical Association (BGA) Postgraduate Research Progress Meeting 2014
• HubNet Smartgrids Symposium 2014

The aim of Tim's research is to try to understand how certain properties of marine sediments affect the thermal performance of submarine high voltage (HV) cables. The traditional analytical methods for calculating cable current ratings are controlled to a large degree by the properties of the sediment surrounding the cable itself, as heat generated within the cable needs to be dissipated into the environment in order to preserve the condition of the cable components. Tim's work uses a numerical technique called the finite element method to simulate heat flow in and around high voltage cables buried specifically under the seafloor. Due to the nature of his research, he spends his time split between the TDHVL and the University of Southampton geology and geophysics group located in the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS).

Once more, the TDHVL research team have been recognised for their research in underground high voltage cables. These and other awards confirm that not only is TDHVL research advancing the current state-of-the-art in the power sector, but is also developing a new generation of top quality researchers.