Experimental and theoretical study of heat transfer in switches

Author

Davies, T.S. ; Nouri, H. ; Fairhurst, M.

Author_Institution

Fac. of Eng., Univ. of the West of England, Bristol, UK

fYear

1996

fDate

16-20 Sept. 1996

Firstpage

45

Lastpage

49

Abstract

The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) technique is applied to the thermal analysis of AgCdO contacts under high intensity arc conditions. FEA uses the axisymetric mode for modelling, with adjoining material boundaries combined within the model using Boolean Algebra Commands. The validity of the model is examined against the measured data in a special case where the arc power is distributed equally to the contacts. The measured data is the temperature which is taken from the output of a thermocouple placed 240 /spl mu/m away from the surface of the contact. The paper also investigates the erosion characteristics of the contacts by varying thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and density of the materials.

Keywords

arcs (electric); cadmium compounds; electrical contacts; finite element analysis; heat transfer; silver compounds; switches; AgCdO; AgCdO contact; Boolean algebra; arc erosion; finite element analysis; heat transfer; switch; thermal analysis; thermocouple; Conducting materials; Contacts; Finite element methods; Heat transfer; Heating; Solid modeling; Switches; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; Wire;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 1996. Proceedings of the Forty-Second IEEE Holm Conference on ??. Joint with the 18th International Conference on Electrical Contacts

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3578-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.1996.557178

Filename

557178