Unit-II Utilization of Electrical Energy B.

Tech EEE

ELECTRIC HEATING & WELDING

Electric heating: Advantages of electric heating - Resistance heating, design of heating element and problems -
Induction heating, Dielectric heating.
Electric welding: Comparison between electric and non electric welding, Resistance and Arc welding, Gas
welding, Welding electrodes of various metals, Comparison between A.C. and D.C. Welding.

Electric heating and Applications

Electric heating is a process in which electrical energy is converted to heat energy. Electric
heating is extensively used both for domestic and industrial applications.
Domestic applications like room heaters, immersion heaters for water heating, hot plates for
cooking, electric kettles, electric irons, pop-corn plants, electric ovens for bakeries, electric toasters etc.
Industrial applications of electric heating include melting of metals, moulding of glass,
enamelling of copper wires, heat treatment of metals like annealing, tempering, soldering etc.

Advantages of Electrical Heating:

The electrical heating is required for both industrial and domestic purposes. In industries, heating
is required for the melting of metals, moulding of glass, enamelling of copper, baking of insulator and
welding etc. In domestic purposes the heating is required for cooking, water heating, room heating in
winter, pressing clothes and many more.
The electric heating has the following advantages over conventional methods.
1. Electric heating is free from dirt hence minimum effort for cleaning is required.
2. Electric heating is free from flue gases hence no need of exhaust system for heat generation.
3. Temperature control can be done very easily.
4. An electric heating system is economical compared to other conventional heating systems
available in the industry. Both the installation cost and running costs are quite low.
5. Automatic protection against any abnormality in the heating system can easily be provided in
electrical heating.
6. The efficiency of the system is quite high compared to other equivalent heating systems.
7. The electric heating system is noise free.
8. Starting of the system is quite faster than other heating systems.
Requirement of good heating material or Properties of heating element
The following are the requirement of good heating material or properties of heating element.
(i) The heating element should have high melting point.
(ii) It should be free from oxidation, corrosion and rust.
(iii) It should have low temperature coefficient of resistance.
(iv) High mechanical strength.
(v) It should have positive temperature coefficient of resistance
(vi) Lower in cost.
Design of Heating Element:
Practically, two types of heating elements are used for heating purpose. Those are
i) Circular heating element
ii) Strip or Ribbon type heating element
Under steady-state conditions, a heating element dissipates as much heat from its surface as it
receives the power from the electric supply i.e if P is the power input and H is the heat dissipated by
radiation, then P = H under steady-state conditions.
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i) Circular heating element:

As per Stefan’s law of radiation, heat radiated by a hot body per unit area is
 T1  4  T 2  4 
 
2
H = 5.72e K    w/m
 100   100  
Where T1 is the temperature of hot body in °K and T2 is the cold body (or cold surroundings) in °K.
V2 V2
Input power P = VI =  , but area a = πd2/4
R  l 
 
a 
d V2 2
d 2 4P
Power P =   ------- (1)
4l l V 2
If H is the heat dissipated per unit surface area of the wire by radiation, then total heat radiated is
(πd) ×l×H
At steady state, the input power (P) = Total Heat dissipated i.e P = (πd) l H
d 2 V 2
= πd l H
4l
l2 V2
 ------- (2)
d 4H
By solving equations (1) and (2), the heating element can be designed.

ii) Strip or Ribbon type heating element:

As per Stefan’s law of radiation, heat radiated by a hot body per unit area is
 T1  4  T 2  4 
 
2
H = 5.72e K    w/m
 100   100  
Where T1 is the temperature of hot body in °K and T2 is the cold body (or cold surroundings) in °K.
V2 V2
Input power P = VI =  , but area a = wt where width is ‘w’ and thickness is ‘t’
R  l 
 
a 
2
wtV wt V 2
Power P =   ------- (1)
l l P
If H is the heat dissipated by radiation per unit surface area of the wire, then total heat radiated is
H(2wl)
At steady state, the input power (P) = Total Heat dissipated i.e P = H(2wl)

wtV 2
= 2wl H
l
t 2H
2
 2 ------- (2)
l V
By solving equations (1) and (2), the heating element can be designed.

Methods of Electrical Heating:

Basically, heat is produced due to the circulation of current through a resistance. The current
may circulate directly due to the application of potential difference or it may be due to induced eddy
currents. Similarly, in magnetic materials, hysteresis losses are used to create heat. In dielectric heating,

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molecular friction is employed for heating the substance. An arc established between an electrode and
the material to be heated can be made a source of heat. Bombarding the surface of material by high
energy particles can be used to heat the body. Different methods of producing heat for general industrial
and domestic purposes are classified as:

Electrical Heating

Power Frequency Heating High Frequency Heating

Resistance heating Arc heating Induction heating Dielectric Heating

Direct Direct Core type induction heating

Indirect Indirect Core less type induction heating

Resistance Heating
In resistance heating method, the heat is generated because of the I2R losses when the current is
passing through a resistance element. There are two types of resistance heating methods.
Direct Resistance Heating:
In this method the charge (material to be heated) is treated as a resistance and current is passed
through it. The charge may be in the form of powder, pieces or liquid. The two electrodes are inserted in
the charge and connected to either 1-Ph AC or DC supply as shown in Fig. (a). Two electrodes will be
used in the case of d.c. or 1-ph a.c. supply but there would be three electrodes in the case of 3-ph supply.

When the charge is in the form of small pieces, a powder of high resistivity material is sprinkled
over the surface of the charge to avoid direct short circuit. Heat is produced when current passes through
it. The main advantage of this method is high efficiency because the heat is produced in the charge itself.
This method is used for resistance welding, boilers for heating the water etc.
Indirect Resistance Heating.
In this method of heating, electric current is passed through a resistance element which is placed
in the chamber and the chamber is surrounded by the charge as shown in figure (b). Heat produced is
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proportional to I2R losses in the heating element. The heat so produced is delivered to the charge either
by radiation or convection or by a combination of the two.
Induction Heating
The induction heating works on the transformer principle. The primary is supplied from an AC
source is magnetically coupled to the charge which acts as a SC secondary. When the AC voltage is
applied to the primary, it induces voltage in the secondary i.e charge. The secondary current heats up the
charge.
If the charge is non-magnetic, the heat generated is due to eddy current losses only, whereas if the
charge is a magnetic material, the heat generated is due to both hysteresis and eddy current losses. The
hysteresis loss is proportional to frequency whereas eddy current loss is proportional to square of the
frequency at low frequency. At high frequency the heating due to hysteresis becomes small as compared
to eddy currents. When the magnetic material is heated over its curie temperature, it loses its magnetic
property and becomes non-magnetic material and also the eddy current losses do not follow f2 law.
There are two type induction heating methods
(i) Core type or Low frequency Induction heating (ii) Core less or high frequency Induction heating
Core type or Low frequency Induction heating/furnance:
The core type induction furnace consists of primary and secondary windings which are
magnetically linked together through an iron core that facilitates a low reluctance path
for the flux linkage between primary and secondary. The primary of the furnace is
connected to the supply and the charge to be heated as secondary.

Dielectric Heating:
The process of heating the dielectric materials using a high-frequency alternating electric field/
microwave electromagnetic radiation.
 Dielectric heating is mainly used for heating of insulators like wood, plastics and ceramics, etc.
 The frequency of the input supply required for dielectric heating ranges from 10 MHz to 15 MHz
and the applied voltage is 20 kV.
Principle:
In this method, the insulating material which is to be heated is placed between two conducting
plates (form a parallel-plate capacitor) as shown in Fig (a). The equivalent circuit of this arrangement is
as shown in figure Fig(b).
When a practical capacitor is connected across an AC supply, it draws a current (I) which leads
the voltage (V) by an angle ϕ as shown in Fig.(a). It means that there is a certain component of the
current which is in phase with the voltage and hence produces some loss called dielectric loss. At the
normal supply frequency of 50 Hz, this loss is small and negligible. But at higher frequencies this loss
becomes so large that it is sufficient to heat the material.

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Power drawn from supply = VI Cos ϕ but Ic ≈ I = V/Xc = 2πf CV = ωCV

∴ P = V(ωCV)Cos ϕ = ωCV2Cosϕ But, ϕ = (90 – δ)
2
= ωCV Cos (90 – δ)
= ωCV2Sinδ
For small value of δ (in radians), Sinδ = δ
Power drawn from supply, P = ωCV2δ watts

A
Here capacitance C = ϵ0 ϵr , where t is the thickness and A is the surface area of the dielectric slab.
t
Generally, a.c. voltage of 20 kV at a frequency of 10 - 30 MHz is used.
Advantages: The advantages of the dielectric heating are given as follows −
 With the dielectric heating, the heating of the material is uniform because the heat is produced
within the material itself.
 The process of heating can be made faster by increasing the frequency.
 Dielectric heating is the only method for heating of non-conducting materials.
 With the dielectric heating, the heating can be stopped immediately as and when required.
 With this method, inflammable articles such as plastics, wooden products, etc. can be safely
heated.
 With increasing the frequency, the heating becomes faster.
 Since no flame appears in the process, so the materials like plastics and wooden products etc., can
be heated safely.

Prob. An insulating material 2 cm thick and 200 cm2 in area is to be heated by dielectric heating. The
material has relative permittivity of 5 and power factor of 0.05. Power required is 400 W and frequency
of 40 MHz is to be used. Determine the necessary voltage and the current that will flow through the
material. If the voltage were to be limited to 700 V, what will be the frequency to get the same loss?

Solution.
A
Capacitance C = ϵ0 ϵr = 8.854×10–12 ×5×200×10–4/2 ×10–2 = 44.27×10–12 F
t
P 400
Power P = 2π fC V2Cosϕ  V2 = =
2fC Cos 2 × 40 × 10 × 44.27× 10-12 × 0.05
6

∴ Voltage V = 848 V
Current flowing through the material, I = P/VCosϕ = 400/848 × 0.05 = 9.48 A
H 2 V22 f 2
Since heat produced H α V f 2

H 1 V12 f 1
V12
For same losses, the heat generated also same, ∴ Frequency f 2  f1
V22
= 40×106 (848/700)2 = 58.7 MHz

Electrical Welding
Welding: The process of joining two metal pieces by the fusion process is called welding.
The welding processes are classified as follows:

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Welding process

Non-Electrical (or) Gas Electrical Welding

Welding

Resistance welding Arc welding

Oxy-Acetylene Oxy-Hydrogen
Spot Metal arc
welding welding
Flash Carbon arc
Seam Plasma arc
Projection Gas Metal arc
Butt Gas Tungsten arc

Electrical welding: The process of joining materials together through the use of heat that is produced by
an electric current is known as electric welding.
Gas welding: Gas welding is the process of generating the heat by burning a fuel gas (like acetylene) to
cut and/or join metals together. Several gas combinations can be used to produce the hot flame for
welding metals. Common mixtures of the gases are Oxygen + Acetylene, Oxygen + Hydrogen, Oxygen
+ other fuel gas. When a fuel (acetylene) is used, the flame can reach temperatures of just over 3200°C.
When the hydrogen is used as fuel, the flame can produce a temperature of 1900 0C. This temperature is
lower than what we get from an arc welding.
Working: Gas welding is the process (Shown in figure) in which a gas flame is used to raise the
temperature of the metals to be joined. The metals are heated up to melting. The metal flows and on
cooling it solidifies. A filler metal may be added to the flowing molten metal to fill up cavity made
during the end preparation.

This process of welding is suitable for joining metal sheets and plates with thickness of 20 to 50
mm. A filter material of more than 15mm thick is added to the weld as welding rod.

Gas welding is one of the oldest and most important types of welding because of following advantages.
(i) Ease of use and low-cost. (ii) It is used to join different types of metal
(iii) Does not necessarily require expert welders. (iv) It does not require the use of electricity.
The gas welding suffers from the following disadvantages.
 Not suitable for thick sections.
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 Cannot be used for high-strength steel. This is because; the heated zone can affect the mechanical
properties of the parent metals.
 The slow rate of heating and metal joining compared to other forms of welding.
 Cannot reach the temperatures of arc welding.
The gas welding is commonly used for
 Repair works
 Fabrication of sheet metal:
 Aircraft industry: Oxy-Acetylene welding is commonly used in joining various aircraft parts.
 Automotive industry: Used to weld parts of the frame and the chassis.
 Joining High carbon Steel: Gas welding is very effective in melting high carbon steel.
Resistance welding:
This method is used to join two plain metal pieces together by running an electrical current
through them. The necessary welding heat is generated by the electrical resistance of the metals (i.e the
contact resistance in between them) and by the electrical current.
The working principle of resistance welding is the generation of heat because of electric
resistance. The resistance welding such as seam, spot, protection works on the same principle. Whenever
the current flows through electric resistance, then heat will be generated. This heat generation takes place
because of the energy conversion from electric to thermal. The heat generation H = I2Rt.
Resistance Welding Applications
 This type of welding can be widely used in automotive industries for making nuts as and bolts.
 The leak prove joint in tanks, boilers, etc, the Seam welding is used.
 For welding metal tubes and pipes Flash welding is proffered.

Resistance Welding Advantages

 This method is simple and does not require high expert labor.
 The rate of production is high
 Both same and different metals can be weld.
 This type of welding is faster in operation
 It does not need any flux, filler metal & protecting gases.

Resistance Welding Disadvantages

 The work section thickness is limited because of the current requirement.
 It consumes high electric-power.
 This type of weld joints has small tensile & fatigue power.

Types of Resistance Welding

Different types of resistance welding are discussed below.
Spot welding:
It is used for joining two or more metal
sheets. This welding process has two electrodes,
one electrode is movable and the other is fixed.
The sheets to be welded are held between the two
electrodes as shown in figure. Pressure is applied
from the top electrode by moving it downward.
The fusion of material takes place at the
spot. Then the sheet is moved to have another spot
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weld at the desired place. The time period for each weld may be 10msec or more.
The current may be of the order of 5 kA or more. The voltage between electrodes is about 2 volts.
For the sheets, the time required is about 1/50 sec. for each 0.25 mm of the total thickness of the
two sheets to be welded. Wires, rods and small pieces of a sheet can also be welded by this method.
Advantages of Spot Welding:
 It has low initial cost.
 A less skilled worker can also operate this welding.
 The operation can be made fully automatic or semi automatic.
Disadvantages of Spot Welding
 High thickness metals cannot be welded.
 Skilled workers are required for maintenance purpose.
The Spot Welding is commonly used in automobile and aircraft industries, for making containers, used in
the fabrication of steel furniture.
Projection welding:
It is a modified form of spot welding. In this
process, large-diameter flat electrodes (also called platens)
are used. Here the upper and lower platens are connected
across the secondary of a step-down transformer and are
large enough to cover all the projections to be welded at one
stroke of the machine. When movable electrode touches the
work piece, welding current flows through each projection.
The welding process is started by first lowering the upper
electrode on to the work-piece and then applying
mechanical pressure to ensure correctly-forged welds. After this, welding current is switched on as in
spot welding. As projection areas heat up, they collapse and union takes place at all projections
simultaneously.
Advantages of Projection Welding
 More than one spot can be welded at one time.
 Proper heat balance can be obtained easily.
 Welds can be placed closer than spot welding.
 Electrode life is much longer than the life of electrode used in spot welding.
 Appearance and uniformity of this weld are better than spot welding.
 With the projection welding, it is easy to weld certain jobs which cannot be welded by spot
welding.
Disadvantages of Projection Welding
 Metals, which cannot support projections, cannot be welded satisfactorily.
 To make projection is an extra operation.
 The initial cost of equipment required for projection welding is high.
This type of welding is usually employed on punched jobs, where the projection automatically exists,
Welding of stainless steel parts etc.
Seam welding:
The seam welding is done in order to
obtain a continuous joint. In this case, roller
type electrodes are used and constant pressure
is between electrodes. The two sheets on which
seam welding is required are placed

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overlapping each other. The current is passed between the two moving electrodes and sheets get welded.
Advantages of Seam Welding
 Less overlap required of two parts than spot or projection welding.
 Several parallel seams can be produced.
 Gas tight or liquid tight welds can be produced.
Disadvantages of Seam Welding
 Seam welding sets are more costly than spot welding sets.
 It is difficult to weld thickness greater than 3mm.
 Welding can be done only along a straight line.
It is used for making containers, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, motor cases etc.
Butt Welding
To form a butt joint, work pieces are placed
touching each other end to end as in figure. A
pressure is also applied in the axial direction of the
job. The jobs are securely clamped and heavy current
is passed through them. The heat is produced to raise
the temperature of material and fusion takes place at
the points of contact.
This method is used for welding pipes, wires
and rods etc. The voltage required for welding is 2v
to 12v and current varies from 50A to several
hundred amperes, depending upon the kind of
material and the area to be welded at a time.
Flash Butt or Flash Welding
It is similar to butt welding except that the
parts to be welded are joined together under light
pressure and heavy current is passed through the joint.
Due to poor contact, arcing takes place at the joint.
When sufficient heat has been produced the two parts
are suddenly pressed together and current is stopped
simultaneously.
Advantages of Flash Butt Welding
 It is a fast and cheap process.
 Preparation of weld surface is not required.
 Many dissimilar metals with different melting
temperatures can be welded.
 It offers 100% strength factor.
Disadvantages of Flash Butt Welding
 More chances of fire hazards, Metal is lost during welding.
 Concentricity and straightness of work pieces are often difficult to maintain during the welding
process.
It is used for welding rail ends, shaft axles, chain etc.
Arc Welding: Arc welding is a type of welding process where the heat is generated to melt and join
metals using an electric arc. A power supply creates an electric arc between the electrode (consumable or
non-consumable) and the work piece (base material) using either DC or AC currents.
The Arc welding is classified as (i) Caron Arc welding (ii) Metal Arc welding

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Carbon Arc Welding (CAW):

Carbon arc welding is the oldest welding process. In this welding process, the heat is generated
by creating an electric arc between the carbon electrode and the work piece. The arc heats and melts the
work pieces, forming a joint. If required, filler rod may be used in Carbon Arc Welding. This type of
welding required DC supply.
Advantages of Carbon Arc Welding:
 Low cost of equipment and welding operation;
 High level of operator skill is not required;
 The process is easily automated;
 Low distortion of work piece.

Disadvantages of Carbon Arc Welding:

 Unstable quality of the weld ;
 Carbon of electrode contaminates weld material with carbides.

Metal arc welding: It is also known as shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). In this welding process,
the arc is struck between an electrode flux coated metal rod and the work piece. Both the rod and the
surface of the work piece melt to create a weld.

This is a versatile process ideal for joining ferrous and non-ferrous materials with a range of material
thicknesses in all positions.

Types of Welding Electrodes

Based on the process, there are two types of welding electrodes:
(i) Consumable Electrodes (ii) Non-Consumable Electrodes
Consumable Electrodes: Consumable electrodes have low melting point. For making consumable
electrodes, materials such as mild steel and nickel steel are used. The consumable electrodes are
categorized as:
(i) Bare Electrodes (ii) Coated Electrodes
The bare electrodes are electrodes which are not having any type of coating. The coated Electrodes are
the electrodes which are coated with a coating material. The ratio of electrode diameter to the diameter
of the core wire is called coating factor. Based on the coating factor, the coated electrodes are:
(i) Light coated electrodes: The coating factor of these types of electrodes is of 1.25. Light coating
applied to electrodes helps to remove impurities such as oxides and phosphorous. Light coating also
helps in enhancing arc stability.
(ii) Medium coated electrodes: The coating factor of these types of electrodes is of 1.45.

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(iii) Shielded arc or heavily coated electrodes: It’s coating factor is between 1.6 to 2.2. These electrodes
have a proper and well defined composition. The heavily coated electrodes are designed in three types
– electrodes with cellulose coating, electrodes with mineral coating and the electrodes with coating of
both cellulose as well as mineral coating.
These types of welding electrodes are preferred to use in Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding.
2. Non-Consumable Electrodes
As the name suggests, these types of welding electrodes are not consumed in the entire welding process,
practically, due to the vaporization and oxidation processes taking place during welding there is a little
bit reduction in the length of the electrode. The non-consumable electrodes have high melting point and
are unable to fill the gap in the work piece. Non-consumable electrodes are made from materials such as
pure tungsten, graphite or carbon coated with copper. These types of electrodes are classified as:
(i) Carbon or Graphite electrodes: It is made up of carbon and graphite and mostly used in the
applications of cutting and arc welding.
(ii) Tungsten electrodes: Basically, it is consists of tungsten as the name itself suggests and it is a non-
filler metal electrode.
Comparison between Electrical and Non-electrical Welding

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Comparison between AC and DC Welding:

AC Welding DC Welding
 Electrode will act as anode ,work can act  Electrode is always negative and the work
as cathode and vice versa is positive
 Power consumption is low  Power consumption is high
 Arc is unstable  Arc is stable
 More efficient welding  Low efficient welding
 No noise during the operation  Produces noise during the operation
 AC welding cost is low  DC welding cost is more
 Only coated electrodes are used  Both coated and bare electrodes are used
 Welding of thin sections is not preferred  Welding of thin sections is preferred

Assignment-II

1(a) Write the advantages of Electrical heating.

(b) Classify the resistance welding methods.
(c) Mention the properties of good electrical heating elements.
(d) Write the comparison between the AC and DC welding methods.
(e) An insulating material 2.5cm thick and 230cm2 in area is to be heated by dielectric heating. The
material has relative permittivity of 4.85 and power factor of 0.06. Power required is 410 W and
frequency of 38MHz is to be used. Determine the necessary voltage and the current that will flow
through the material. If the voltage were to be limited to 850 V, what will be the frequency to get the
same loss?

2. (a) Explain indirect resistance heating method with suitable diagram.

(b) Explain the working of core type induction furnaces with the neat diagrams.

3. (a) Explain the procedure for design of circular or strip type heating element.
(b) Explain the process of Dielectric heating with neat diagram. Mention its applications.

4. (a) What is arc welding. Explain Carbon Arc welding with neat diagram.
(b) Explain the operation of gas welding process and mention its advantages compared with other kind
of welding.

5. (a) Explain the various types of electrodes used for welding process.
(b) Write in detailed comparison between the Electrical and non-Electrical welding methods.

6. Discuss various types of resistance welding methods with neat diagrams.

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