Overheating of flexible tinned copper connectors

Author

Braunovic, M.

Author_Institution

MB Interface, Montreal, Que., Canada

fYear

2000

fDate

25-27 Sept. 2000

Firstpage

67

Lastpage

72

Abstract

Overheating of flexible tinned copper connectors has been observed at a number of power stations. These connectors are used to connect the generator to outgoing busbars and transformers, thus serving to counter the effects of vibration and thermal expansion forces. It is shown that the main cause for the observed overheating is a result of a combined action of the high initial contact resistance, fretting, stress relaxation, differential thermal expansion and the formation of intermetallics at the copper-tin interfaces.

Keywords

busbars; contact resistance; copper; failure analysis; interface structure; metallisation; power stations; power transformers; stress relaxation; thermal expansion; tin; vibrational modes; wear; Cu-Sn; copper-tin interfaces; differential thermal expansion; flexible tinned copper connectors; fretting; generator connection; initial contact resistance; intermetallic formation; outgoing busbars; overheating; power stations; stress relaxation; thermal expansion forces; transformers; vibration effects; Connectors; Contact resistance; Copper; Counting circuits; Power generation; Thermal expansion; Thermal force; Thermal resistance; Thermal stresses; Transformers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 2000. Proceedings of the Forty-Sixth IEEE Holm Conference on

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5960-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.2000.889913

Filename

889913