parallel feeders

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Re: parallel feeders

A quick and dirty answer. Skin effect ratio is the ratio of AC resistance to DC resistance in a conductor, and is a function of the geometric shape of the conductor and the proximity of one conductor to another as well as the frequency. The result of skin-effect is to reduce the effective area of the conductor.

At normal power frequencies the skin effect ratio is neglible for small conductors. It first becomes a somewhat usable ratio around 266 kcmil at 60Hz.

One of my reference books has the following ratios for copper and aluminum conductors at 60Hz and 65C:
300Kcmil - 1.01
400Kcmil - 1.01
500Kcmil - 1.02
600Kcmil - 1.03
700Kcmil - 1.03
750Kcmil - 1.04

I find it hard to believe the allowable ampacity tables in the NEC have not taken the skin-effect ratio into account. This is not one of the correction factors mentioned in the NEC.
 
Re: parallel feeders

It appears to me the skin effect is not significant. The cross sectional area reduction may affect the impedance, but it does not seem to affect the ability to dissipate heat.

The technical manuals, I have, all state that skin effect at 60 Hertz is a non-issue.

[ April 13, 2004, 12:04 PM: Message edited by: bennie ]
 
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