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The ampacity of a conductor depends on its ability to dissipate heat without damage to the conductor or its insulation. This is a function of the insulation temperature rating, the electrical resistance of the conductor material, the ambient temperature, and the ability of the insulated conductor to dissipate heat to the surroundings.
Comparison of SWG (red), AWG (blue) and IEC 60228 (black) wire gauge sizes from 0.03 to 200 mm² to scale on a 1 mm grid – in the SVG file, hover over a size to highlight it. In engineering applications, it is often most convenient to describe a wire in terms of its cross-section area, rather than its diameter, because the cross section is directly proportional to its strength and weight ...
Because multiple conductors bundled in a cable cannot dissipate heat as easily as single insulated conductors, those circuits are always rated at a lower ampacity. Tables in electrical safety codes give the maximum allowable current based on size of conductor, voltage potential, insulation type and thickness, and the temperature rating of the ...
In the North American electrical industry, conductors thicker than 4/0 AWG are generally identified by the area in thousands of circular mils (kcmil), where 1 kcmil = 0.5067 mm 2. The next wire size thicker than 4/0 has a cross section of 250 kcmil. A circular mil is the area of a wire one mil in diameter. One million circular mils is the area ...
From the basic principles that electric current leads to thermal heating and thermal power transfer to the ambient environment requires some temperature difference, it follows that the current leads to a temperature rise in the conductors. The ampacity, or maximum allowable current, of an electric power cable depends on the allowable ...
The ampacity of a conductor, that is, the amount of current it can carry, is related to its electrical resistance: a lower-resistance conductor can carry a larger value of current. The resistance, in turn, is determined by the material the conductor is made from (as described above) and the conductor's size.
Electric current passing through the conductor causes heating according to Joule's first law, resulting in the conductor expanding and the line sagging. Transmission ratings are set with a maximum allowable conductor temperature (annealing temperature) and minimum clearance rules to comply with legislation and regulation. [1]
Derating is necessary because multiple conductors carrying full-load power generate heat that may exceed the normal insulation temperature rating. (NEC 310.16) The NEC also specifies adjustments of the ampacity for wires in circular raceways exposed to sunlight on rooftops, due to the heating effects of solar radiation.