Jean-Louis Gelet and Antoine Gerlaud
Mersen, France
Large electrical systems carrying high currents could pose a danger if any of their components, such as fuses and bus bars, fail. In order to increase safety and improve manufacturing, it is necessary to understand the failure mechanisms of those components. One of those components, a bus bar, is made up of a single piece of conducting metal that replaces individual, thick cables when conducting a large current across a short distance and to many loads.
Mersen, an international company with expertise in surge protection, manufactures bus bars that are laminates with a film of insulating material glued between conducting plates at different potentials. If the temperature in a bus bar gets too high, however, the glue or insulation can be destroyed.
A group at Mersen, focusing on electric protection, used COMSOL simulations to determine the temperature field generated by the Joule effect, and eliminate any identified hot spots.
Suggested Stories
Complex Fenestration System for Energy Efficiency
Fenestration systems can greatly impact the energy efficiency of buildings. Eurac Research is using simulation to ...
Numerical Simulation-Based Topology Optimization Leads to Better Cooling of Electronic Components in Toyota Hybrid Vehicles
The Toyota Research Institute in Ann Arbor drives cutting-edge research in energy efficiency, mobility infrastructure, ...
Making Biofuel a Cost-Effective, Renewable Source of Energy
Pyrolysis is a pre-commercial thermochemical process that converts renewable, plant-based materials such as wood into ...
Simulation-Led Strategy for Corrosion Prevention
Corrosion is a widespread concern costing the US billions of dollars annually. For the Navy, specifically, it is the ...
