Thermal study synthesis

The value of the maximum temperature, Tmax, reached within a harness, made by a certain number of ribbon layers and loaded by a given distribution of currents, depends on the AWG scheduling, on the current intensity flowing in each conductor and on the relative position of the loaded wires within the harness. The purpose of the Work Package 2.2.4 (thermal study synthesis) developed within the European Research Contract N° G4RD-CT-00406, is to synthesize, in a properly prepared software, the main experimental and theoretical results obtained on the thermal behaviour of flat ribbon cable. The cable is subjected to arbitrary current rating in continuous and transient regime. The influence of the aircraft altitude on the thermal behaviour is considered too. An effort is made to condense in simple and user oriented laws the main practical results in such a way the software could be easily implemented in the automatic design tools. Finally, some simple and practical rules able to optimize the cooling efficiency of a Flat Cable Array are suggested.