Busbar Voltage Drop

The Busbar voltage drop is the expected resistive voltage drop on a busbar circuit, based on the length and cross sectional area of the bar. There may be an additional voltage drop due to the inductance of the bar. This can become particularly important at high frequencies and high currents. Where there are a number of bars in parallel, assume the bar width is the actual width multiplied by the number of bars in parallel. i.e. 5 bars of 50 x 6 mm in parallel would give the same resistive voltage drop as a single bar of 50 x 30mm.






To calculate the resistive voltage drop of a length of busbar, enter in the width, length and thickness of the bar. Select the units as either metric or imperial. and the current passing through the bar. The circuit configuration also needs to be specified. "Single bar" refers to the voltage drop along a single length of bar, while "Single Phase" refers to the voltage drop of two equal lengths of bar, one in the active circuit and one in the neutral circuit. "Three Phase" calculates the voltage drop between the supply and a three phase load where three equal bars are used for the three phase circuits. Enter the ambient temperature around the bar as Celsius or Fahrenheit and the program will check the suitability of the bar for that current. The program displays the resistive voltage drop for both an aluminium bar of these dimensions and a copper bar of these dimensions.