Electric Field Intensity Assessment on Curved Wires for Domestic Installations

Abstract

The increasing complexity of domestic electrical installations necessitates a thorough understanding of electric field intensity, particularly when dealing with curved wires. This paper presents the results on the assessment of the electric field intensity in curved wire configurations, which are commonly encountered in residential settings due to architectural constraints. This study employs both theoretical and simulation approaches with the help of the Finite Element Based Software (COMSOL Multiphysics). The theoretical and simulations were used for a case of straight wire to allow validation of the model through comparing simulation results with the theoretically computed electric field intensity using mathematical formula.  Later on, the COMSOL Multiphysics were used to compute electric field intensity under various curvature radii. The results of maximum electric field intensity against curvature radii were then plotted as scatter in excel and then fitted by the equation from the trendline option. The results show that the curvature of wires significantly influences electric field distribution. The electric field intensity was observed to be much higher for a case of small curvature radius as compared to larger curvature radius. For example, for the type of the geometry presented in this paper to represent the PVC wire used in domestic buildings’ electrical installations, the maximum electric field intensity for curvature radius of 0.025 mm was observed to be about 7 times for a case when the curvature radius was 10 mm. In additional, the power equation was found to model well the relationship between the maximum electric field intensity and curvature radius of the geometry presented in this paper