Current-Carrying Capacity for Copper Tube

In what situation would you need a copper tube to conduct electricity?

I want use this tube as a moving blade for 33Kv Double Break Isolator.

That's madness.

These are normally solid copper sometimes nickel plated. I don't think a copper tube would last long. Possibly cause failure and short when most needed.

There are many manufacturers that can sell you properly rated mechanisms for your function. Don't jury rig your power supplies with inadequate isolators.

Catastrophies are inevitable!

Sorry to intrupt you dear, but when we talk of HT electricals then we have to follow the designs offered by the Power Department. The Tube I'm using as per the requirement of my customer but I want to Re- confirm that the stuff they are asking is really stand for the load?.

the current caring capacity for a given section depends ultimately on the thermal stability of the material(which depends on the other hand on the maximum temperature that can be attained by the material in condition of proper running of the eqiupment). The copper tube has some geometrical dimentions that you know. Also it has electrical resistance. for a given current the tube will dissipate an amount of power in a form of heat.So the tube will tend to heat up as the current rises. eventually you will need to calculate how much the tube is allowed to heat up, then to calculate the power that reaches the limit of the thermal stability, and knowing the power dissipated in the tube and the electrical resistance of the tube you can calculate the maximum current.

good luck

The most sensible thing to do is to use the size of tube the customer specified. This way you wont get into trouble if it doesnt work. However copper tube is better for HV than solid copper as the electrons travel on the surface. The hollow tube also helps in cooling. Hollow tube is widley used for Bus Bars The only reason it is not used for HV cabling is we cant work out how to make it flexible.

Our power systems isolation bars are solid copper about 1.5 inches x 1/4". Our switchers are 2 inch solid copper. We are rated for 10MVA but operate around 4.5MVA. Don't know if this helps much but most I've seen or worked with were solid.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Don't deal much in MM tube.

pi d^2 /4 @ 37.5 = 1104.5 mm^2 - same for 31.5 (37.5 - (2*3) ) = 325 mm^2 csa of copper, does that help?

Dear Guest, If you slit a copper tube ( legthwise) and flatten it it would be a sheet of 3 mm thickness and 37.5 X pi width. so, your cross sectional area is 3 X 37.5 X 3.14 = 353.25 sqmm. I will leave it here, since current carrying capacity will lot of other variables. Good luck

Use the National Electrical Code book or any Electrical Standards use in your country. Look for the Current Capacity of a Copper Bus Bars as related to your copper tubing design.

1 if u bend the coppere tube 3 times,, even straightening it out,, it gets too hard

u will have to pass a flame of a butaine torch over it a little to get it soft again

2 the service of the surface area is the electron conducting zone; or, the outside and the inside skin, if it had skin ,, is the only place the valance electrons let go and travel and grab again.

inside and outside area is conductive the thick area inside the wall doesnt conduct.. its more conductive to conduct copper fuzz, or chopped up thin hairs of copper than the tube.

r u trying to conduct static or moving, kinetic electricity,, is this for a tesla device or a townsend brown device. ... if it is a townsend brown device,, a grav cap,, ur on the right track.

I would be very worried about the heat build up. As an electrician I was taught that when making up (high amperage) connections, to be careful not to allow air pockets because heat could build up and deteriorate the connector.

If the calculations have been done correctly, and there's enough copper to carry the flux (& sufficient surface area on the contacts in connectors etc.) it won't get hot...

cheers

RF_G

The load current should be not more than 900A-1000A. There is not formulary for this tube busbar unit area capacity, as the current density is not even with the skin effect. We know this result by experience and test.

Orient heaters as shown and torque hardware uniformly to 30 in-lbs. Test to confirm that heaters are held firmly in place.

• Temperature?
• Orientation?
• Pressure?
• For how long?
• Etc.