LARSEN & TOUBRO LIMITED

INTERLEAVED BUSBAR SYSTEM FOR A.C. APPLICATIONS

(A) Introduction :

In LV switchgear, most of the power transformers used to be 1000 kVA or 1600 kVA. Thus, the
maximum currents were of the order of 2000 to 2500 A. Last decade has seen the transformer
rating going up (upto 2500 kVA) and thereby the current rating of the busbars also increasing. For
a medium sized industrial plant, busbars of 3500 A current rating have become a normal
requirement. In addition to this it was also realised that the tropical conditions in our country may
lead to an ambient of 45C or even higher. This brings temperature rise limits on the busbars in
switchboards. As long as the required current rating of the busbar is below 1600 A, it can be
achieved by using one or more conductors of suitable size and shape. But in case of a.c. busbar
systems of higher ratings, due to proximity and skin effect, increase of busbar cross section
beyond certain limit has little increase in current carrying capacity.

(B) The underlying phenomenon :

In case of direct current, the current distribution depends on the resistance and is uniform over the
conductor cross section irrespective of the shape, size and arrangement of conductors. Whereas in
case of a.c., due to skin effect the current gets concentrated at the outer parts of the conductor.
Also if the conductor is placed adjacent to another current carrying conductor then due to
proximity effect the current gets concentrated only in a small part of the total cross section. The
combined effect thus increases the current density at these localised parts making the busbar to
run at a higher temperature. Figure 1 shows the pattern of current distribution for round
conductors for both direct and alternating currents.

D.C. DISTRIBUTION

A.C. DISTRIBUTION

SKIN EFFECT AN ISOLATED CONDUCTOR

SKIN + PROXIMITY CURRENT IN SAME DIRECTION

EFFECT IN ADJACENT CONDUCTORS

SKIN + PROXIMITY CURRENT IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS

EFFECT IN ADJACENT CONDUCTORS

Figure 1

(C) Experimental observations :

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The reason for higher temperature rise due to non uniform distribution is because of the higher
losses. Let us take a flat conductor the cross-section of which is divided into several infinitely
small but equal areas carrying a total current of 10 A as shown in Figure 2.

In case of uniform distribution the watt loss works out to be 20 W. But for non uniform
distribution, element wise currents differ not only in magnitude but also in phase angle.
(Therefore, the arithmetic addition is 11.2 A). Watt loss in this case is 30.8 W. Since the watt loss
is more, the steady state temperature will be more for the same value of current or if the steady
state temperature is same, it will have lower ampacity. The ratio of a.c. to d.c. watt loss (also
known as Rac/Rdc) indicates the effective resistance offered by a configuration in relation to the
actual resistance (Rdc). Ideally the value should be 1 (Rac = Rdc).

RESISTANCE PER ELEMENT = 1 OHM

UNIFORM DISTRIBUTION NON-UNIFORM
(DC) 2 A PER ELEMENT ELEMENT DISTRBUTION (AC)

DC WATT LOSS = 1A AC WATT LOSS =

2A 2
2

2 5 x 2 x 1 = 20 W 1.4 1.0 x 1
2

2 2 + 1.4 x 1
2

2 2.8 + 2.0 x 1
2

2 4 + 2.8 x 1
2

+ 4.0 x 1
R ac AC WATT LOSS 30.8
= = = 1.54 30.8 W
R dc DC WATT LOSS 20

Figure 2

(D) Concept of Interleaving :

There are various methods to increase the busbar system ampacity. First alternative is to add a
conductor to the existing group of conductors. This results in widely non-uniform current
distribution due to increased skin and proximity effect. Another alternative is to arrange the
conductors in specific geometry so as to reduce proximity effect by increasing the distance
between them. Interleaving is one such arrangement. In conventional arrangement the
conductors / groups are placed as R R Y Y B B where as in case of interleaved system they are
arranged as R Y B R Y B in alternate fashion. Table 1 gives the Rac/Rdc ratios of various
configurations of three phase busbar systems with wide and moderate / close interphase spacings.

E : Table 1

In the second configuration, the busbar cross section is double of that of configuration 1.
However, the effective resistance of the middle phase is nearly double and so is the heat produced

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for the same magnitude of current. Hence, the increase in cross section gives no benefit. Also,
changing the material to copper, results in a further increase in the Rac/Rdc ratio. This is because
for copper the inductive effects distort current more due to lower resistance. This reflects in the
effective resistance Rac which is not lower in the same proportion as Rdc. Thus, considering the
fact that heating is proportional to the square of the current, rating with copper would be
marginally more of the order of 19%. Thus, the alternative to choose copper to increase the
ampacity of the busbars is a costly proposition.

Complex geometry are often suggested in order to counter the skin effect (configuration 3 & 4).
The results show that the proximity effect is negligible for wide spaced conductors. Though the
close spacing values are marginally better than the previous configuration, these sections are not
desirable because processing them on machines, making joints, etc. are difficult.

For the same cross sectional area, interleaved configuration (configuration 5) provides better
results than all the other configurations. In this configuration the proximity effect tend to cancel
each other. The effective resistance for the middle phase is less than half as compared to that of
configuration 2. As a result of the heat losses going down the ampacity of the busbars increases by
35 to 40% for aluminium and 40 to 45 % for copper. The Rac/Rdc ratio for all the three phases is
uniform resulting in uniform heating of all the three phases unlike the other configurations where
the ratio for middle phase is much higher thus, limiting the ampacity of the busbar by TR on this
phase even though the outer phases run cooler.

BUSBAR Rac / Rdc Rac / Rdc

CONFIGURATION ISOLATED PHASE 3 PH SYSTEM
R Y B R / B Y

1. R Y B AL 1.27 1.27 1.34

AL 1.54 1.77 2.71

2. -
CU 2.25 3.54
R R Y Y B B

3. R Y B AL 1.05 1.52 2.73

4. R Y B AL 1.10 1.45 2.54

AL 1.32 1.34 1.31

5.
CU 1.54 1.56 1.61
R Y B R Y B

Table 1

A test carried out on a 2.5 metre long busduct (IP54) with configurations 2 & 5 with aluminium at
3150 A shows an average rise of 66C for configuration 2 and 36C for configuration 5.

(E) Other Advantages :

Interleaved system offers lower and balanced impedance. This is important for long busducts
where voltage drop is critical.

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For the interleaved arrangement, forces due to short circuit currents are much lower (Figure 3).
This enables the support system to withstand much higher fault levels.

ELECTRODYNAMIC FORCES (kN) ON BUSBARS

DUE TO SHORT CIRCUIT ( 105 kA PEAK )
I kA (PEAK ON R) 105/2 105/2 - 52/2 - 52/2 - 53/2 - 53/2
(INSTANTANEOUS)
R R Y Y B B
FORCE (kN)
(INSTANTANEOUS) 2.3 12.6 7.2 3.4 1.2 1.5

I kA (PEAK ON R) 105/2 - 52/2 - 53/2 105/2 - 52/2 - 53/2

(INSTANTANEOUS)
R Y B R Y B

FORCE (kN)
(INSTANTANEOUS) 3.9 3.9 1.8 1.9 4.0 0.2

Figure 3

Thus, the optimum solution for reducing loss of energy and achieving high ampacity would be
interleaving. As interleaving system needs less material and use of aluminium is possible for very
high ratings, this system is best suited for Indian conditions.

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