The Coupled Electro-Thermal Field Analysis for Predicting Over-Current Protector Behavior

The characteristics of heat transfer of the bimetal disc for over-current protection device is specified. Bimetal consists of two metals which have a different thermal expansion coefficient. To analyze the thermal characteristics, temperature distribution when bimetal acts as a switch is calculated. As usual, heat source is applied to the bimetal and electric current is heat source in the over-current protection switch. In this paper, thermal distribution are obtained by solving a coupled electro-thermal field with 3D finite element method.