Sizing Mild Carbon Steel as a Conductor

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cjphelps

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I am suppose to use mild Carbon Steel to carry 100Amps, at 50VDC.

I am trying to get a rough idea as to the cross sectional area of the rod I will need. Can anyone help me with this?

I know that the resistivity of Mild Carbon Steel is ~1.7X10^-7 Ohm*m

The Reason I need to use mild Carbon Steel is for the chemical reaction the Scientist is trying to achieve.

:smile:
 
Steel as Conductor

Steel as Conductor

Not enough information. Round or bar. Insulated or bare. Ambient temperature. Allowable operating temperature for steel.

Copperweld and alumoweld have been used for 100 years as bare overhead conductors. Even galvanized steel cable has been used and ampacity tables are available.
 
That is about 10x the resistivity of copper.

Heat generated in a conductor is I^2 * R, and for for two rods of the same dimensions, one copper and one your mild steel, with the same current flow, you will generate 10x the heat in your steel rod.

If, given the constraints that beanland lists (in particular ambient temperature and allowed temperature rise), you can find the size of a copper rod that will carry sqrt(10)x your desired current, then that should give you a good approximation of the dimensions of the steel rod that you need.

I think that I posted a bus bar ampacity table before for you. Here is another http://www.stormcopper.com/design/ampacity.htm Select a permitted temperature rise, and then find copper bars that can carry 316A. Mild steel bars of the same dimensions and resistivity that you noted should have roughly the same temperature rise at 100A.

-Jon
 
beanland said:
Not enough information. Round or bar. Insulated or bare. Ambient temperature. Allowable operating temperature for steel.

Copperweld and alumoweld have been used for 100 years as bare overhead conductors. Even galvanized steel cable has been used and ampacity tables are available.
Click to expand...

Sorry, Round, Bare(submerged in water) Ambient temperature of water = 35c.

Cannot be anything but Mild Carbon steel, no copper or aluminum mixed in.
 
cjphelps said:
Sorry, Round, Bare(submerged in water) Ambient temperature of water = 35c.
Click to expand...

So is this bar acting as an electrode coupling current into the water? Or is the bar simply conducting current to something in the water?

Do you need to worry about electrical insulation?

-Jon
 
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