Two approaches for heat transfer simulation of current carrying multicables

Excessive temperatures in cable bundles integrated in cars can cause harms to connecting structures and essential components. To avoid hotspot generation already at the production of cable harnesses, reliable predictions of temperatures in cables under load are necessary. Two approaches for stationary heat transfer simulation in current carrying multicables, i.e. thick cables composed of several smaller ones, are compared in this work. An extensive model with partial differential equations, solved via the finite element method, is subject of the first approach. In the second one, formulas for temperatures at characteristic cable positions are derived and computed via a fixed point approach. The first approach provides a detailed temperature profile and thus enables the location of hotspots a priori, the second approach excels by very fast determination of average temperatures without time consuming geometry creation. Furthermore, accordance to realistic settings is demonstrated by comparison to measurement results.