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Ghareeb Moustaffa
Suez Canal University
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Joint Resistance of Bolted Copper BusBar
Connections as influenced by Mechanical
Contact Devices Material and
Configuration.
Ghareeb Moustafa Steffen Grossmann Mazen AbdelSalam S. S. Dessouky Samir M. ElMakkawy
Abstract The effect of different Mechanical contact devices on A welldesigned contact device should have an adequate
the DC Joint resistance of overlapping bolted connection was mechanical strength to maintain the mechanical integrity of a
investigated experimentally, A thermal network calculations are connector under normal and overload conditions of conductor
done and the result power and temperature are compared with
operation. It should also establish and maintain a low contact
that obtained experimentally the agreement between measured
and calculated values are quite good. Furthermore, the behavior resistance, thus preventing or minimizing the excessive
of the joint resistance of bolted copper joint when loaded by AC heating of the joint under overload conditions. In fact, the
current was measured with changing mechanical contact devices temperature rise of the joint should not exceed that of the
shape and material, It was found that use of steel plate conductor under normal or emergency conditions (2).
significantly increase the AC contact resistance especially if the
direction of the plate is normal to current direction. In addition, The simplest type of connection is made using a hand tool
the temperature rise and power dissipated through the joint with
different mechanical contact device was measured. and a mechanical connector, most of which use mechanical
contact devices such as washers, bolts, screws, etc. These
I. INTRODUCTION connectors are inexpensive and easily installed but give rise to
The main function of the substation is to provide a point in doubts about their reliability, primarily because of their
the electrical system where energy can be tapped from the performance under operating conditions.
transmission lines, transformed to lower voltage and directed
via busses to switches and circuit breakers for the purpose of It is well established that the electrical contact resistance of
either protecting the various circuits in emergencies, or clean contacts, depends on such parameters as: normal force,
switching circuits according to load, need for maintenance, contact microhardness, electrical resistivity and surface
etc. Furthermore, of the many types of connections used in texture (roughness) Traditionally, surface texture parameters
substations components, overlapping bolted joints are the are defined by the variance of the height and the slope of the
most widely used. They are versatile, dependable, and surface (3). The most significant quantity to assess is the
economical. joint resistance to guarantee reliable operation of the joint.
The joint resistance should be no greater than limiting value.
There are several factors influencing the performance of an Such limiting values do not exist at present. Furthermore, it is
electrical contact. Such important factors are: design, known that the life time of an electrical joint will be
environmental conditions, mechanical and electrical loads, determined significantly by the joint resistance R0 after
materials and assembling procedures. As the performance assembly (before aging) (4). The quickness of ageing depends
demands on electrical networks and plants in general, and on the performance factor k which equal the joint resistance
electrical contacts in particular, constantly increases, the need divided by the resistance of an unjointed bar of the same
for more reliable rules for design and testing of electrical length, it has proven that maximum initial performance factor
contacts becomes necessary. As for the design factor, a must be equal or less than 1.5 to have a life time 25…30 year
number of more or less important design parameters can be for bolted joint (5) (6).
identified, including: contact force, specific contact pressure
(i.e. pressure distribution on the contact surface) , contact Previous studies on the effectiveness of different
surface topography (preparation), etc (1). mechanical contact devices (2) have shown that the use of
300
discspring (Belleville) washers combined with thick flat 3. Solvent cleaned to remove grease and abrade the
washers assures the most satisfactory mechanical stability of a surface with a steel wire brush.
bolted joint under stressrelaxation and currentcycling
conditions. The same combination was also found to be the
most effective in reducing the deleterious effects of
thermoelastic ratcheting on the mechanical integrity of bolted
aluminumtoaluminum connections (7). Recently the effect
of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Belleville Washer on the
contact resistance was studied (8).
This paper is discussing whether special type of mechanical
contact device has any influence on a contact resistance of a
bolted joint copper busbar. At the same time, a comparative
study between the different type of the joint cleaning and its
effect on contact resistance during tightening and releasing
was made. Moreover, the power dissipated through the joints
with different mechanical contact devices is measured.
Figure (1b) plate and twin nut direction parallel to current direction
The experiments were carried out in Institute of Electrical assembly number 9 table (1).
Power Systems and High Voltage Engineering of the Dresden
Figure 1: copper busbar and test object assembly.
University of Technology Germany
.
Plate stainless steel Plate steel S52
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETALS
A. Copper Busbars
All the tests in this study were performed using copper busbars from SE
CuF25 ( Figure 1) measuring 80 mm by 10 mm by 180 mm long, delivered
from SIEMENS to TUD Dresden –Germany; the two busbares are connected
by four bolt arranged in rectangular shape in an overlap distance of 90 mm
Figure 1 .
301
C. DC Joint resistance measurement Table 1: test number, D.C and first ac Joint resistance reading.
The DC contact resistance was measured by a micro
ohmmeter MO2 50 (manufacturer: Rasmus, Germany).
D. AC Joint Resistance Measurement
The joint was connected as shown in Figure 3, for different
joint assemblies in Table 1 operating under the same
environmental and loading condition of 50 Nm. The applied
current was 2300 A to 2350 A. The temperature of the
busbars was measured by ALMEMO 2590 (manufacturer:
AHLBORN), until it reaches the steady state temperature.
Moreover, the joints resistance and power dissipated were
also measured by a SinglePhase Precision Power Analyzer
LMG95 (manufacturer: HOTEK TECHNOLOGY) to
eliminate the effect of magnetic field produce by high
current on the measuring value, Measuring terminal of
power analyzer must be crossed as shown in Figure 3. Before
connected the circuit, all contacting surfaces of the copper
busbars were prepared following the same procedure.
III. RESULTS
Figure 4 shows a comparison between DC joints resistance
and Initial AC Joint resistance at the same contact force. It
can be seen that the initial AC contact resistance of the
copper joint with Plate and twin nut from normal steel is
higher than the AC value for other connection assemblies.
Figure 4: comparison between DC joint resistance and initial AC joint
resistance.
B. Effect of alternating current on the joint resistance
Figure 6 shows the relation between joint resistance and joint
temperature for all tests. It is clear from the figure that using
normal steel plate has a great effect on joint resistance
especially when used with normal steel nut, this can be
ascribed to the eddy current produced on normal steel plate
when subjected to AC current. This cause increasing in joint
resistance and increasing in power dissipated as shown in
Figure 7 . If we compare the result obtained from assembly 3,
4 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 we can observe that changing screw
material has no effect in AC or DC joint resistance.
Figure 3: Circuit diagram for AC test circuit.
If the direction of the steel plate was changed (assembly
Table 1 : test number, D.C and first ac Joint resistance reading. number 9 figure (1b)) to be in the same direction of the
passed current the joint resistance and power dissipated will
A. Relation between joint resistance and joint force decreased when compared with that when the plate direction
Effect of increasing and decreasing torque on the joint is perpendicular to the current direction.
resistance is assessed as shown in Figure (5) where the
cleaning method was changed as explained previously. This C. Power Dissipated through the joint
figure shows that at the same joint force the joint resistance is The power dissipated through the special (normal steel) and
always higher during tightening than during releasing this normal copper joints was measured by Power analyzer.
behavior is known as hysteresis of the joint resistance. Also it Experiment was carried out two times the first one is to
is clear from Figure 5 that the Joint resistance does not measure the power dissipated at 20 o C ( Figure 8 ) and the
depend on joint torque at torque greater than 20 Nm for second one is to measure the power dissipated when current
polished and abraded joint. flows for about 2 hours ( Figure 10). From this figure, it can
be seen that the power dissipated and the temperature rise
302
through the normal steel contact devices copper joint is higher
in comparison to the other type.
Figure 5: Relation between joint resistance and joint torque at assembly No.3.
Figure 8 : Power dissipation versus AC current for different joints
Table 2: relation between electrical and thermal flow field
Electrical domain Thermal domain
Voltage V [V] Temperature T [°C]
Current I [A] Heat flow P [W]
Electrical Resistance R [Ω] Thermal resistance Rth [K/W]
Thermal
Electrical Capacitance C [F] Cth [J/K]
Capacitance
Figure 7: Power Dissipated vs. Temperature with different twin material
and shape.
303
Table 3: Calculation Equations For Thermal Power Losses And Thermal Resistances
Thermal Network Equation
Element
Power Losses
Convection resistance
Figure (10a)
Radiation resistance
Losses
Conducting along Figure (10b)
Radiation
Convectio
conductor
Figure 10: power dissipated versus AC current for different joints after being
heated.
I. CONCLUSIONS
1. Results of contact resistance measurements with
changing applied torque show clearly that the joint
resistance of bolted copper power connectors can be
significantly decreased by surface preparation, such
as abraded or polished.
2. From the available data and the experimental tests,
the DC joint resistance of cleaning copper basbar
Figure 9: Thermal Network model of busbar conductor
joint is not affected by changing mechanical contact
B. Thermal network results devices or increasing applied torque.
The thermal network results of power and temperature at 3. The Joint resistance of busbar joints is affected by
different applied currents are shown in Figure 10. The figure mechanical contact devices material when subjected
shows a good agreement of the calculated values with those to AC current.
measured experimentally. The different between measured 4. The detrimental effect of normal steel devices
and computed value for temperature may be attributed to resulting in the form of high AC joint resistance and
instrument error or the constant room temperature 20 o C in high power dissipated.
the calculation procedure. 5. Changing screw material (stainless steel – normal
steel) does not effect on DC or AC joint resistance.
304
6. The joint resistance of bolted copper busbar with Contacts and the 22nd International Conference on Electrical
normal steel contact devices decreases when the Contacts,2023 Sept. 2004, PP.111 117.
direction of used plate and twin nut was changed, 11. Christoph Gramsch, Andreas Blaszczyk, Helmut Löbl1
this ascribed to changing of the amount of magnetic and Steffen Grossmann. "Thermal Network Method in the
field which cutting plate and twin nut. Design of Electric Power Equipment". Scientific Computing
in Electrical Engineering SCEE 2006.
7. The agreement between the theoretical and 12. Ina Berg, Helmut LöbL, Steffen Grossmann and Frank
experimental result of temperature and power Golletz. "Thermal Behavior Of Network Components
dissipated at different joint assembly obtained from Depending On Outdoor Weather Conditions". 20th
this study is quite good. International Conference on Electricity Distribution,Prague,
811 June 2009.
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