electricpete
Electrical
- May 4, 2001
- 16,774
Attached is a picture of a hot-spot we are watching. Particularly interested in box#3 (left side of image) based on its position within the circuit. It started at 11C rise, went to 0C rise (above ambient marked B) for a few measurements, now bouncing around 7-9C rise. We have not measured the current, but we don't think there was any significant decrease when it went to 0.
By the way, these are fused disconnects in a 125vdc control circuit, and the hot-spot is on a lug associated with the wire connected to the fuse disconnect. In fact I believe there are 2 lugs landed on that point, and based on the thermal image, the one in front is not the hot one (the hotter one is not directly visible to the camera). This conclusion based on looking at the hot wire that comes out.
Our approach is to use 0.95 emissivity for the whole image. There is a relay to the left producing heat which elevates the background behind the point of concern. No special background compensation was applied and we compare to ambient located at a cooler part of the cabinet. Any comments on this approach?
My main questions:
1 - How would you rank the severity of this?
2 - What industry standards are available for evaluating electrical hot-spots.
3 - Is anyone aware of similar crimped connections that were failed which had thermal history available? i.e. we are interested to get some basis for answering the question: when would it fail? Have other crimps failed rapidly after showing similar rises (noting the erratic behavior?).
Thanks for bearing with my long question and looking forward to any comments.
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