AC Electrical Contact Resistance at a Bolted Joint

Application ID: 133291


This model demonstrates how to use the Interior Contact feature to model the contact pressure at a bolted joint connecting two copper busbars. The AC current flowing through the assembly is induced to flow close to the outside boundaries of the conductors, but the contact resistance is lowest close to the bolt, where the contact pressure is highest.

For a description of this model, see the accompanying blog post "Modeling Electrical Contact Resistance at Bolted Joints".

This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products: