current carrying capabilty of polyester carbon...

CURRENT CARRYING CAPABILTY OF POLYESTER CARBON COATED

FOR ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR

MOHD HAIDIR BIN MANAF

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

CURRENT CARRYING CAPABILTY OF POLYESTER CARBON COATED

FOR ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR

MOHD HAIDIR BIN MANAF

A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirement for the award of the degree of

Master of Engineering (Electrical-Power)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

DECEMBER 2014

iii

To my beloved mum and my late father,

my wife, my children, my siblings,

mother and father in law, brothers and sisters in law,

my colleagues and my friends

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I like to express my sincere gratitude to my project supervisor Associate

Professor Dr. Hj. Mohd Muhridza Yaacob for his brilliant ideas, guidance,

encouragement and friendship in completing this project. Also, I like to dedicate my

gratitude to Dr. Joe Lui Muk Lam, Mr. Khairuddin Abd. Majid and his friend Mr.

Rizal for their support in technical and material in this project.

I also like to thanks my beloved wife Masnira Mat Daud and also our

daughters Murni Aqilah and Mirza Faqihah for their patient, support and being my

strength to complete my master course project. Special thanks to Muhammad Nizam

Kamarudin, Ahmad Fauzi Nawawi, and Azreen Hazree Baharom for their support,

contribution and encouragement. Not forgotten too, to all lecturers in my Master of

Electrical Engineering Course.

Lastly, I like to express my appreciation to my mother, my siblings, my father

and mother in law, brothers and sisters in law, my colleagues at SK Sungai Jerneh

my friends, and also to those whose has involve directly or indirectly to complete this

project.

v

ABSTRACT

Copper and aluminum has been used as electrical conductor for power system

transmission and distribution a long time ago. Due to higher demand of copper and

aluminum in various sectors, copper and aluminum price has rose over a time and it

has become a catalyst of cable theft activities. The utilities company throughout the

world has lost billions of money due to cable theft activities. In this project, a carbon

fiber based material known as polyester carbon coated is tested as replacement to

copper and aluminum as electrical conductor. The conductor has been approved by

SAE and used commercially as conductor in ignition cable for automotive sector.

The main objective of this project is to study the characteristic and the current

carrying capabilities of the polyester carbon coated as electrical conductor. A

various type of test will be conducted on this conductor. Its include conductor

resistance and resistivity, voltage drop by measurement and calculation and

conductor current carrying capacity. The test that conducts meets British Standard

requirement on power cable testing. The result of this project is a set of testing data

which that will be analyzed in order to determine whether this conductor is suitable

or not suitable to be used as conductor in power system and also a comparison of

performance with existing materials.

vi

ABSTRAK

Tembaga dan aluminium telah digunakan sebagai pengalir elektrik untuk

sistem penghantaran kuasa dan pengagihan sejak dari dahulu lagi. Oleh kerana

permintaan yang tinggi terhadap tembaga dan aluminium dalam pelbagai sektor,

harga tembaga dan aluminium telah meningkat dari masa ke semasa dan ia menjadi

pemangkin aktiviti kecurian kabel. Syarikat utiliti di seluruh dunia telah kerugian

berbilion ringgit disebabkan oleh kecurian kabel. Dalam projek ini, bahan berasaskan

serat karbon dikenali sebagai ‘polyester carbon coated’ diuji sebagai bahan gantian

kepada tembaga dan aluminium sebagai pengalir elektrik. Pengalir tersebut telah

digunakan secara komersial dalam kabel pencucuhan untuk sektor automotif dan

telah mendapat keluluskan dari SAE. Objektif utama projek ini adalah untuk

mengkaji ciri dan keupayaan membawa arus ‘polyester carbon coated’ sebagai

pengalir elektrik. Pelbagai jenis ujian akan dijalankan pada pengalir ini. Ia

termasuklah pengujian rintangan dan kerintangan pengalir, kejatuhan voltan melalui

pengiraan dan pengukuran dan keupayaan pengalir membawa arus,. Ujian yang

dijalankan adalah memenuhi piawaian ‘British Standard’ pengujian terhadap kabel

kuasa . Hasil projek ini adalah satu set ujian data yang yang akan di analisis untuk

menentukan sama ada pengalir ini sesuai atau tidak sesuai untuk digunakan dalam

sistem kuasa dan juga perbandingan prestasi dengan bahan-bahan yang sedia ada.

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CHAPTER TITLED PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xv

LIST OF SYMBOLS xvi

LIST OF APPENDICES xvii

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Definitions of Conductor 1

1.2 Problem Statement 3

1.3 Objective 4

1.4 Scope of Work 5

1.5 Expected Result 5

1.6 Thesis Outline 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

viii

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Electric Cable 7

2.2 Copper and Aluminum Conductor 10

2.3 Carbon Fiber 13

2.4 Properties of Carbon Fiber 16

2.5 Electric Properties of Carbon Fiber 18

2.6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Carbon Fiber 19

3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 21

3.2 Electric Resistivity Measurement 24

3.3 Voltage Drop Measurement 27

3.4 Current Measurement 29

3.5 Temperature Measurement 33

3.6 Conductor DC Resistance Measurement 34

3.7 Current Carrying Capacity Measurement 35

3.7.1 Measurement Circuit for 0.52 AC current 37





4. RESULT, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction 42

4.2 Conductor DC Resistance Measurement Result 43

4.3 Measurement Result

4.3.1 Measurement by 0.52 Amp AC Current 45




ix

4.3.5 Measurement by 2.52 Amp AC current 56

4.4 Resistance and Resistivity Analysis 60

4.5 Voltage Drop Analysis 64

4.6 Power Dissipation Analysis 67

4.7 Conductor Temperature Analysis 69

4.8 Current Carrying Capacity Analysis 71

5. CONCLUSION

5.1 Conclusion 75

5.2 Further Works 76

REFERENCE

Appendices A - E

78

79 - 103

x

TABLE NO.

LIST OF TABLE

TITLED PAGE

1.1 Resistivity of material 2

2.1 Advantage and disadvantage of copper and aluminum 13

4.1 Load voltage, load current and power for 0.52 Amp 45

4.2 Conductor temperature for 0.52 Amp 46









4.11 Resistance and resistivity comparison 60

4.12 Voltage drop and power dissipation by calculation 63

4.13 Voltage drop on conductor 64

4.14 Load power, power dissipation, and efficiency 67

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4.15 Conductor temperature 70

4.16 Data summary for current carrying capacity 72

xii

FIGURE NO. TITLED PAGE

1.1 Problem statement 3

2.1 Electric cable cross-sectional area 8

2.2 Cable insulation layer 9

2.3 Copper prices trend in 10 years 10

2.4 Aluminum prices trend in 10 years 11

2.5 The process for making carbon fiber from PAN and

pitch precursors 15

2.6 Carbon fiber fabrication process 16

2.7 Properties of some PAN based carbon fiber 17

2.8 Thermal properties of the most advance pitch based

Carbon fiber 17

2.9 Electrical resistivity versus temperature for carbon

Fiber 18

3.1 Research methodology flowchart 21

3.2 Ignition cable with carbon fiber conductor 22

3.3 High performance ignition cable cross-sectional area

Diagram 23

LIST OF FIGURES

xiii

3.4 Configuration of electrical resistivity measurement of

carbon fiber 25

3.5 Measured and declares value of carbon fiber resistivity 26

3.6 Current measurement by using ammeter 31

3.7 Voltage measurement by using voltmeter in parallel

with shunt resistor 31

3.8 Current measurement by using clamp-on ammeter 32

3.9 Schematic representation of thermocouple 33

3.10 Measurement setup 34

3.11 Measurement circuit 36

3.12 Measurement circuit for 0.52 Amp 37





4.1 Temperature versus period for 0.52 Amp 47





4.6 Load voltage and voltage drop for measurement 65

4.7 Permissible voltage drop BS7671 66

4.8 Load power and power dissipation 68

4.9 Conductor temperature 70

xiv

4.10 Current carrying capability of polyester carbon coated 73

4.11 Table 4D1A from BS 7671 74

xv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BS British Standard

IET Institution of Engineering and Technology

IEC International Electrotechnical Commission

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineer

TNB Tenaga Nasional Berhad

TM Telekom Malaysia

IACS International Annealed Copper Standard

SI Systeme Internationale

PVC Polyvinyl Chloride

XLPE Cross Linked Polyethelyene

PAN Polyacrylonitrile

RFI Radio Frequency Interference

EMI Electromagnetic Interference

SAE Society Automotive Engineers

RTD Resistance Temperature Detector

xvi

LIST OF SYMBOLS

M Micro

Q Ohm

OC Degree Celsius

K Kelvin

A Ampere

kA kiloAmpere

mA miliAmpere

Amp Ampere

V Volt

kV kilovolt

mV miliVolt

W Watt

P Rho

m meter

cm centimeter

mm millimeter

% percent

LIST OF APPENDICES

xvii

APPENDIX

A

B

C

D

E

TITLE PAGE

TABLE 4D1A BS 7671 CURRENT CARRYING

CAPACITY 82

TABLE 4D1B BS 7671 VOLTAGE DROP 84

ULTRA POWER IGNITION LEAD PATENT

DOCUMENT 83

BS EN 60288 CONDUCTOR OF INSULATED

CABLES 98

BS 7671 REQUIREMENT FOR ELECTRICAL

INSTALLATION 105

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Definitions of Conductor

Conductor is a material or medium which permits an electron flow through it.

The electron in low resistivity material will flow when electromotive force (emf) was

applied on it. The flow of this electron is known as electric current and measured in

unit Amperes (A). Copper and aluminum is an example of conductor materials.

Copper and aluminum is widely used as conductor in wire and cable. It has been

used for power generation, transmission, distribution, telecommunication, electronic

circuitry and wiring for residential, commercials and industries.

The capability of material to conduct electric current is very relying to it

resistivity. Material with low resistivity is the best conductor and the material with

high resistivity is a bad conductor. The example of material with low resistivity is

silver, but it is too expensive to be used as conductor. Some material resistivity is

depicted in table 1.1 below.

Table 1.1 : Resistivity of material (metal)1

From the table the less expensive material but has good resistivity after silver

is copper and aluminum. The selection of conductor not only depending to it

resistivity, but the tensile strength, stiffness, thermal conductivity, life span include

corrosion and oxidization also has to considered.

There are also non-metallic conductor such as graphite, solution of salt,

carbon, plasma and etc. It has been found that carbon fiber is a good electric

conductor. In this project, a carbon fiber known as polyester coated carbon is tested

to find the potential of the material to be used as replacement for copper and

aluminum for wire and cable conductor in power system transmission and

distribution. This conductor currently has used as conductor in ignition cable for

automotive sector.

Material Resistivity

Cooper 0.0178µΩm

Aluminum 0.0285 µΩm

Tin 0.114 µΩm

Silver 0.0163 µΩm

Brass 0.06-0.09 µΩm

Iron 0.100 µΩm

Lead 0.218 µΩm

2

1.2 Problem Statement

Copper and aluminum is widely used as conductor in wire and cable since in

the early stage of electric power system is developed. Copper and aluminum also

popular in industrial sector, commercials and house appliance, building construction,

automotive parts, machinery parts and etc. Due to high demand in multiple sectors,

the price of copper and aluminum is steadily rose year on year. This caused electric

cable theft activities which peoples can resale the cable as scrap metal to earn money.

Even though there are some efforts from the utility company and authority to prevent

these activities, it is cannot be fully prevented.

There are a lot of impact due to cable theft activities to utility company,

industries and consumer site. As reported by News Straits Times, Tenaga Nasional

Berhad (TNB) loses RM180 million in cable theft almost a decade. Utusan Malaysia

reported that Telekom Malaysia (TM), loses RM29 million in eight months due to

cable theft. The impact of this cable theft is the utility company need to spend much

money to replace the missing cable. In addition, cable theft caused a fault in power

system and telecommunication system. This will increase their interrupting time to

troubleshoot and restore their services. Figure 1.1 shows the newspaper cutting

regarding to this problem.

Figure 1.1 Problem statement2

3

In consumer site, cable theft caused failure to their electrical equipment and

appliance due to voltage incremental. The industrial, commercial and services sector

suffers a lost in millions due to power interrupting. The power interrupting will

impact on their productivity as their plant cannot operate as usual. In commercial

and services sector, telecommunication services interrupting caused difficulties on

operation since they were unable to communicate via internet or intranet. The

situation is worsening when electric and electronic equipment cannot operate due to

power supply is not available. Many of tasks cannot be done until the power system

and or telecommunication services were restored.

One way to overcome the problems is by replacing copper and aluminum

with other material which did not have a resale value. Through this project,

polyester coated carbon was proposed to solve cable theft problem. Polyester carbon

coated is material which were derived from man-made fiber through carbonization

process, which are stronger than metal, lighten than copper and aluminum. It also

has a high tensile strength, and good electrical properties.

1.3 Objective

The objective of this project is as below:

1. To study characteristic of polyester carbon coated as high voltage cable

conductor.

2. To conduct current carrying capacity test on the material.

3. To compare the performance with existing material.

4

All testing and experiment will be done at High Voltage and High Current

Institute, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. To meet the objectives, all test or

experiment that will conduct on this conductor will follow to standard testing

procedure on power cable.

1.4 Scope of work

Scope of work on this project is to complete the following tasks:

1. Testing the current carrying capability of polyester carbon coated.

2. Measurement on resistivity, losses and voltage drop of the conductor.

3. Determination the capability of the conductor to conduct continuous AC

current.

1.4 Expected Result

The result expected from this project is an understanding of the characteristic

of polyester carbon coated as electric conductor through the analysis of the testing

data. The data will be analyzed to find the performance of the material, current

carrying capability and comparison with existing material. The result will be

determined the advantages and disadvantages of the material as electrical conductor.

These result also will determined whether the conductor is suitable or not suitable to

be used as electric conductor for power transmission and distribution.

5

1.5 Thesis Outline

This thesis is divided into five chapters. There are:

i. Introduction. This chapter describes the problem statement, objective, scope

of work and expected result.

ii. Literature review. This chapter is concentrate in detail on cable, copper and

aluminum as conductor, carbon fiber properties and characteristic,

advantageous and disadvantageous of carbon fiber.

iii. Methodology. This chapter explains in details the project methodology,

conductor resistance testing technique, voltage and current measurement

procedure in electric circuit and conductor temperature measurement

technique.

iv. Result, Analysis and Discussion. This chapter presenting in details the

testing and measurement result of conductor resistance and resistivity,

voltage drop measurement, load current measurement, power dissipation

measurement, and conductor temperature measurement, the detail analysis

and discussion on data from calculation and testing result, characteristic of

the conductor under AC current, and determination of current carrying

capability of polyester carbon coated.

v. Conclusion. Summary of project findings and further works.

6

REFERENCES

1. Giancoli, Douglas C., Physics, 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, 1995.

2. Veena Babulal, TNB loses RM180m in cable theft, News Straits Times,

Jun 2013.

3. M. Khalifa, High-Voltage Engineering, Theory and Practice, Marcel Dekker,

Inc., 1990.

4. Andrew Mickey, Copper: The Bull Market Continues, Wealth Wire Special

Report, 2011.

5. Micheal Petro, Material and Services – Direct, Metals, Accenture, 2013.

6. Deborah D. L. Chung, Carbon Fiber Composites, Butterworth-Heinemann,

1994.

7 Luk Mui (Joe) Lam, Ignition Apparatus, US007819109B2, 2010.

8 A. G. Clegg, N. V. Dovaston, Conductor and Super Conductor, In: M. A.

Laughton, D. F. Warne, Electrical Engineer Reference Book, Sixteenth

Edition, Newnes, 2003, 5/1-5/13

9. Veronika ŠAFÁŘOVÁ, Jan GRÉGR, ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY

MEASUREMENT OF FIBERS AND YARNS, 7th International Conference

TEXSCI, Liberec, Czech Republic, Technical University of Liberec,

2010, 1-8 .

10 Serge Rebouillat, Michael E.G. Lyons, Measuring the Electrical Conductivity

of Single Fibres, International Journal of Electrochemical Science, 2011, 6

(2011),5731 – 5740.

11 Darrell Locke, Guide to Wiring Regulations, 17th

Edition IEE Wiring

Regulations (BS 7671:2008), John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2008.

12 Tony R. Kuphaldt, Lesson In Electric Circuit, Volume I – DC, Design

Science License, 2006.

13 Larry D. Jones, A. Foster Chin, Electronic and Instrument Measurement,

Second Edition, Prentice Hall, 1995.

14 British Standard, Conductor of insulated cables, London, BS EN 60228,

2005.

15 British Standard, Requirement for Electrical Installations, London, BS 7671,

2013.

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