Effects of temperature dependence of electrical and thermal conductivities on the Joule heating of a one dimensional conductor

Abstract

We examine the effects of temperature dependence of the electrical and thermal conductivities on Joule heating of a one-dimensional conductor by solving the coupled non-linear steady state electrical and thermal conduction equations. The spatial temperature distribution and the maximum temperature and its location within the conductor are evaluated for four cases: (i) constant electrical conductivity and linear temperature dependence of thermal conductivity, (ii) linear temperature dependence of both electrical and thermal conductivities, (iii) the Wiedemann–Franz relation for metals, and (iv) polynomial fits to measured data for carbon nanotube fibers and for copper. For (i) and (ii), it is found that there are conditions under which no steady state solution exists, which may indicate the possibility of thermal runaway. For (i), analytical solutions are constructed, from which explicit expressions for the parameter bounds for the existence of steady state solutions are obtained. The shifting of these bounds due to the introduction of linear temperature dependence of electrical conductivity (case (ii)) is studied numerically. These results may provide guidance in the design of circuits and devices in which the effects of coupled thermal and electrical conduction are important.