Overheating of flexible tinned copper connectors

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 fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inElectrical Contacts - 2000. Proceedings of the Forty-Sixth IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts (Cat. No.00CB37081) pp. 67 - 72
Main Author Braunovic, M.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 2000
Subjects
Connectors
Contact resistance
Copper
Counting circuits
Power generation
Thermal expansion
Thermal force
Thermal resistance
Thermal stresses
Transformers
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Summary: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.
ISBN:9780780359604
0780359607
DOI:10.1109/HOLM.2000.889913