Covers thermal rating models (CIGRE TB 601, IEEE 738), conductor physics, and electrical properties for overhead transmission lines. Use when implementing thermal calculations, validating conductors, or computing sag and resistance. Not for infrastructure deployment (use infrastructure-management) or system architecture.
Follows foundations code quality and TDD principles.
Domain knowledge for overhead transmission line physics, thermal ratings, and mechanical analysis.
ValueError for out-of-range valuesCIGRE TB 601, Section 4.2.3pytest.approx() with rel=1e-3 for thermal calculation tolerancesscripts/validate-bounds.py to check parameter values against physical limits| Parameter | Valid Range |
|---|---|
| Conductor temperature | -40°C to 250°C |
| Ambient temperature | -50°C to 60°C |
| Wind speed | 0 to 50 m/s |
| Solar radiation | 0 to 1400 W/m² |
| Topic | Reference | Use When |
|---|---|---|
| Thermal Models | references/thermal-models.md | CIGRE TB 601, IEEE 738 thermal rating implementations |
| Conductor Limits | references/conductor-limits.md | Physical validation bounds and parameter constraints |
| Electrical Properties | references/electrical-properties.md | Resistance, sag, catenary formulas and calculations |
| Standards Reference | references/standards-reference.md | Industry standards summary (CIGRE, IEEE, IEC, EN) |
| Script | Usage | Description |
|---|---|---|
scripts/validate-bounds.py | validate-bounds.py -t conductor_temp -v 85 | Validate physics values against bounds |
scripts/convert-units.py | convert-units.py 25 C K | Convert between units (temp, length, power, speed) |
scripts/check-standard-refs.sh | check-standard-refs.sh <dir> | Check for proper CIGRE/IEEE citations in code |
CIGRE TB 601 is the default thermal rating standard. Document any deviations in code comments. IEEE 738 differs in treatment of low wind speeds.
Always cite standard section numbers in code comments:
# CIGRE TB 601, Section 4.2.3: Natural convection heat loss
# Formula: P_n = pi * D * lambda * Nu * (T_s - T_a)
Thermal calculations: use pytest.approx() with rel=1e-3 (0.1% accuracy).
database-patterns — For persisting physics results