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In electric power distribution, a busbar (also bus bar) is a metallic strip or bar, typically housed inside switchgear, panel boards, and busway enclosures for local high current power distribution. They are also used to connect high voltage equipment at electrical switchyards, and low voltage equipment in battery banks. They are generally uninsulated, and have sufficient stiffness to be supported in air by insulated pillars. These features allow sufficient cooling of the conductors, and the ability to tap in at various points without creating a new joint. Design and placement The busbar's material composition and cross-sectional size determine the maximum current it can safely carry. Busbars can have a cross-sectional area of as little as , but electrical substations may use metal tubes in diameter () or more as busbars. Aluminium smelters use very large busbars to carry tens of thousands of amperes to the electrochemical cells that produce aluminium from molten salts.

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Heat Transfer in the LHC Main Superconducting Bus Bars

Pier Paolo Granieri

CERN is performing a systematic analysis of the interconnecting bus bars of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) main magnets. Their thermal, electrical, mechanical and hydraulic performances are addressed. In the frame of these studies, the heat transfer between the main superconducting (SC) bus bars and the surrounding He bath is investigated. It represents a key parameter in the comprehension of the bus bars stability and quench propagation mechanisms, thus crucial for the analysis of the 2008 incident which was triggered by a defective bus bars joint. This paper reports on the experimental tests and relative analysis aiming at describing the thermal behavior of the LHC main bus bars.

2010

Stability analysis of the Interconnection of the LHC Main Superconducting Bus Bars

Luca Bottura, Pier Paolo Granieri

The operation of the Large Hadron Collider calls for a thorough analysis of the thermo-electric behavior of the 13 kA superconducting bus-bars connecting its dipole and quadrupole main magnets. This presentation reports a synthesis of the work performed jointly by researchers and students at CERN and at the University of Bologna as a contribution to the understanding of the LHC incident occurred on September 19th 2008. This work is complementary to the analyses carried out at CERN by the MPE group. The aim of the work is to analyze the stability of the interconnections as far as the quality of manufacturing, operating conditions and protection system parameters are concerned. A first part of the work is devoted to the development of a numerical model suitable for the analysis of the faulty interconnections. The main type of defect analyzed is the lack of solder among the superconducting cable and the copper stabilizer components at the interface between bus bar and splice. The evaluation of the critical defect length limiting the maximum safe current for powering the magnets without risk of thermal runaway is provided, as a function of the RRR of cable and stabilizer, decay time constant of the LHC circuit, spatial distribution of the defect and cooling conditions. A second part of the work is related to the modeling of the heat transfer mechanism between the main superconducting bus bar and the surrounding helium bath. This study is aimed to analyze a set of experimental measurements on the heat transfer coefficient of the main bending dipole bus bars performed at CERN. The final part of the work consists in a preliminary analysis of the heat transfer mechanisms involved in the stability experiments of defective interconnections performed in the FRESCA facility.

2011

Protection estimates for the 13 kA bus bars interconnections at 3.5 - 4.5 TeV

Luca Bottura, Pier Paolo Granieri

This memorandum provides alternate estimates of the critical additional resistance Radd of the 13 kA superconducting bus bars interconnections (IC), both for the LHC main bending (MB) dipole and main quadrupole (MQ) magnets. The calculations are performed using the 1-D thermo-electrical model described in [1], based on the definition of transverse local heat transfer coefficient towards the cooling helium bath established from the analysis of short sample tests performed in 2009 and 2010. Details on the model and its validation are not discussed here. The most pessimistic (adiabatic), most optimistic (full cooling) and most likely (partial cooling) critical additional resistances are provided, depending on the bus-bar and cable RRR, dump time constant, and space distribution of the defect, for beam energy between 3.5 and 4.5 TeV.

2012

Electrical conductor

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MICRO-505: Organic and printed electronics

This course addresses the implementation of organic and printed electronics technologies using large area manufacturing techniques. It will provide knowledge on materials, printing techniques, devices, systems, and applications: state of the art and current status on commercialization.