The pole connector for miniature circuit breakers used in photovoltaic applications

Highlights: • The new type of the pole connector for miniature circuit breakers has been presented. • The pole connector allows for much better heat dissipation from MCBs than typically used section of wire. • The model driven approach in the product development was presented. - Abstract: The new type of the pole connector for miniature circuit breakers (MCB) is presented in this paper. The pole connector is an appliance designated for an electrical in-series connection of MCBs used in photovoltaic (PV) applications. Two different concepts are proposed and analyzed due to heat efficiency, resistance to high temperature of exhaust gases and also due to manufacturing costs. In the design process CFD simulations were carried out to achieve the final, optimal shape. The CFD code was used to model the natural convection, the radiation and the heat conduction phenomena in order to designate a temperature distribution on the appliance working in operating conditions typical for PV applications. The CFD simulation was also used to check the resistance to exhaust gases blown out from the MCB during disconnection of a short-circuit current.