Project 1: Electrical Fuse

The Scenario:

A company that currently produces blade-type electrical fuses has recently had a large number of fuses fail product control tests. Specifically, their 15A fuse has been failing (burning out) at currents much lower than 15A. To rectify this problem, the design engineers have made some modifications to the specifications of the fuse connector to ensure the fuse works as it should (i.e. only burns out when a current load of 15A or greater passes through). However, the engineers are concerned that the same problem could occur again after production. To ensure money isnt wasted on producing defective fuses, the engineering manager has his team conduct a simulation in ANSYS to verify that the fuse will only fail at loads greater than 15A. To do this they will first apply a current load through the fuse and perform an electric analysis. The resulting solution will be used to determine the temperature profile in a thermal analysis. Finally, they will compare the temperature results to the known melting point of the fuse to determine if it has been designed properly or not.

Fig. 1: 3D model of the fuse, has been provided and can be downloaded from Moodle

Project Aim:
To gain a basic understanding on how to solve coupled problems for case study in Electrical and Thermal Analysis using ANSYS.

Upon completion of this project, you are expected to:

Define Material Properties Set up an Electrical Analysis Set up a Steady-State Thermal Analysis Apply Boundary Conditions (Current, Voltage and Convection) Link and Duplicate Multiple Analysis Systems Solve an Electric and Steady-State Thermal Analysis Utilise Viewports to compare and review results

Additional Information:
(Hints for rep ort writing are found in the notes in bra ckets)
1. Engineering Data: Materials Fuse has been made of 3 different materials: Copper Alloy, Polyethylene and Solder. The first two materials are predefined within ANSYS. Solder, is not (will need to manually add and define it) The properties that has to be define for solder are: o Isotropic Thermal Conductivity: A measure of the material's ability to conduct heat, irrespective of direction. We will set this to 57 W m^-1 C^-1, a similar value to the thermal conductivity of iron. o Isotropic Resistivity (Electric): A measure of the materials ability to resist the flow of electricity (inverse of conductivity), irrespective of direction. We will set this to 1.5e-7 kg m^3 A^-2 s^-3, a similar value to the electric resistivity of carbon steel or iron.

2. Geometry: Import and Assign Materials Import geometry using a standalone Geometry Component System. The electrical fuse is comprised of a connector, two blades and a body. Create a standalone Electric Analysis System (found under Analysis Systems in the Toolbar) and then link in the Engineering Data and Geometry (already set up in point no.1) to create a linked system.

Set the materials as follows: 10 Amp Body: Connector: Fuse Blades: Polyethylene Solder Copper Alloy

3. Mesh: Generate Mesh (Justify element selection and mesh size)

4. Boundary conditions: Voltage and Current Specify three Boundary Conditions (based on basic electrical knowledge, V=I.R)- a reference voltage, an effective resistance and either a current flow or a driving voltage: 1. 2. Effective resistance: Current flow: Already defined in the intrinsic material resistance in Defining Materials (point no. 1) It will be sufficient to model the bottom face of the fuse blade as the face where current enters the fuse (note that it makes negligible difference which blade the current flows into). This can be applied to the bottom face of the other fuse blade.

3.

Reference voltage:

5. Thermal Boundary Conditions: Convection By default, ANSYS assumes that ambient conditions are at 22oC which can be changed if necessary. ANSYS also assumes conduction occurs between the fuse blades and plastic fuse body. The only heat dissipation of the system will be modelled as heat convection to ambient temperatures via the plastic fuse body. All thermal analyses need at least two boundary conditions; one that serves as a heat source and one that allows dissipate heat from the system.

6. Solving: Having simulated the loading conditions on the fuse, the next step is to determine the resultant heat generated (and whether the fuse will blow or not). Structural, Electric and Thermal analyses all share a common solver (Mechanical), so in this case, you will notice that coupling the thermal analysis will share the same solver environment and added in the solver's 'Outline'.

(What types of results are necessary to meet the aim? Why? Hint: Compare the general temperature profile of the fuse particularly the solder joint for two temperature profiles)

Final Question:
Has the 15A fuse been designed properly? Will the fuse fail at currents of 15A and above only? (i.e. will the temperature of the fuse connector remain below 427oC at currents below 15A and exceed 427oC at currents of 15A and above?)