Contribution to the modeling of the heating phenomenon of electric contacts

In this paper we propose a 2D axisymmetric numerical modeling of the heating of cylindrical electrical contacts under the action of the current flow. The distributions of the electrical potential and of the temperature field in the contact bodies are calculated with the help of a finite-difference method. The modeling takes into account the temperature variations of material properties (electrical and thermal conductivity, specific heat...). Various phenomena are then studied for a copper contact such as the influence in stationary regime of the boundary conditions on the electrode heating and on the contact voltage drop (more particularly the role of heat exchange coefficient on the contact surfaces). A comparison with the usual Kohl-Rausch theory is then realized. Moreover, a study concerning the influence of the thermoelectric effect on heavy contact heating is presented in the stationary regime.