What Is A Bundle Conductor, Advantages and Disadvantages

Hello Guys, welcome back to my blog. In this article, I will discuss what is the bundle conductor, advantages and disadvantages conductors, parts.

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Also read – Transmission, Distribution, And Utilization Questions And Answers.

What Is A Bundle Conductor

Bundle conductors are used in the transmission lines if the voltage is more then 220 KV. below 220 KV bundle conductors are not used. Whenever you get free time go and watch a transmission line of 220 KV there you can see bundle conductor.

BC is made up of two or more sub-conductors which is used as a single line conductor. we all know that bundle conductors are used if the line voltage is greater then 220 KV, in 220 KV line how many sub-conductors are used to make BC? In the 220 KV line, two sub-conductors are used to make bundle conductors whereas in 400 KV lines four sub-conductors are used to make bundle conductors. Therefore, the conductor which consists of two or more sub-conductors is called bundle conductor.

Above 220 KV, instead of bundle conductor if a single conductor is used then it will have heavyweight and also not flexible to use compared to BC.

Parts In Bundle Conductor

01. Sub conductors

02. Spacers

01. Sub conductor is nothing but a conductor as shown in the below figure

02. Spacers – It is made up of metallic structure, spacers are provided in the BC for three reasons.

a. Maintain Distance
b. Avoid Clashing
c. Maintain Parallel

a. Maintain Distance – Spacers are provided to maintain distance between sub-conductors, the distance between the two sub-conductors will be 8 to 10 times the diameter of the conductor.

b. Avoid Clashing – The purpose of spacers is to avoid clashing between sub-conductors.

c. Parallel – The purpose of the bundle conductor is to maintain the parallel distance between conductors throughout the line.

Advantages Of Bundle Conductors

01. Reduces the corona effect
02. Reduces skin effect
03. Reduces inductance in a line

01. Reduces the corona effect – This is the very big advantage of bundle conductor. If corona occurs in a transmission line then the efficiency of the line reduces, so by using bundle conductor corona effect can be reduced.

02. Reduces skin effect – By using bundle conductor skin effect can also be reduced. skin effect means current in line starts flowing through the surface of the conductor. when a conductor is carrying direct current, the current is distributed uniformly over the whole cross-sectional area whereas when the conductor carrying alternating current, the current is not distributed uniformly, the current will flow on the conductor surface. One thing note that skin effect is negligible if the frequency is less then 50 Hz and the diameter of the conductor is less then 1 cm

03. Reduces inductance in a line – The line which carries alternating current produces the changing flux around it, this changing flux step up, links with the conductor due to this flux linkages, the conductor possesses inductance. By using BC, inductance can be reduced and more current flows through the conductor.

Disadvantages Of Bundle Conductor

1. Cost for construction is very high

I hope this article may help you all a lot…

Thank You For Reading……. Bye…

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Chetan Shidling

Automotive | Technical Blogger | Engineer | Content Creator

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