Elevated Temperature Creep Technote

This technote explains elevated temperature creep (ETC), its impact on the sag of conductors, and how the calculations are performed in PLS-CADD. All ETC calculations in PLS-CADD are based on IEEE standard 1283.

ETC is a phenomenon that occurs in conductors, primarily with high percentages of aluminum, that after subjected to periods of high temperature operation which causes additional permanent elongation beyond that of typical creep elongation. The ETC feature in PLS-CADD allows you to select a wire and subject it to hypothetical high temperature events by specifying the temperature and duration of each event. PLS-CADD uses the predictor equations documented in the IEEE 1283 standard to derive an equivalent change in temperature to reflect the additional creep stretch your conductor will see from elevated temperature operation.