Busbar vs cable sizing the latter

[1holaguy]

I am creating a battery bank of six - 100 amp 12v batteries in parallel and am contemplating using a copper, steel or aluminum bar as a busbar to connect all the batteries together, one negative and one positive. This is mainly because the bank is in a mobile environment and I want to add rigidity to the pack. How do I determine what size (in2) the bar needs to be? Example: if the bar is 1" wide how thick should it be?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I am creating a battery bank of six 100 amp 12v batteries in parallel and am contemplating using a copper bar as a busbar to connect all the batteries together, one negative and one positive. This is mainly because the bank is in a mobile application and I want to add rigidity to the pack. How do I determine what size (in2) the bar needs to be? Example: if the bar is 1" wide how thick should it be?

Depends on how much current.

I simply look up the cross sectional area of the suitably rated cable I need for the application and size the bus bar accordingly. Alternatively, there are many commercial bus bar solutions that simply tell you how many amps they can handle.

 

[Rednecktek]

Plus, there's no harm in going thicker than you think you need.