Development of software for calculating electromagnetic fields near high-voltage power lines

The electromagnetic fields near power lines that may produce adverse effects on humans are of increasing interest in a variety of situations, thus making it worthwhile to develop general-purpose software that estimates both the electric and magnetic fields accurately. This study deals with the simulations of the electric and magnetic fields near high-voltage power lines for the triangular, horizontal and vertical conductor arrangements under both balanced and unbalanced conditions.

For all three conductor arrangements, the shapes of the electric field distribution curves are different with the vertical arrangement best for minimizing right of way consideration, while the shapes of the magnetic field distributions curves are similar. Except for the horizontal arrangement, the maximum electric field magnitudes with shield conductors are larger than those without shield conductors. Among the three different arrangements, the maximum field value of the vertical arrangement is most vulnerable to the unbalanced conditions.

For both the electric and magnetic fields, increasing the heights of phase conductors gradually results in diminishing return in terms of the field reduction. In this work, both the maximum electric field magnitudes and the maximum magnetic field magnitudes produced by 500 kV power lines at 1 m height from the ground are all within the permissible exposure levels for the general public. At last, the dynamic trajectories of both fields with time are simulated and interpreted, with each field represented by a vector rotating in a plane describing an ellipse, where the vector values can be compared to high-speed vector measurements.