6/7/2017 Coil - Open Electrical

Coil
From Open Electrical

In electrical engineering, a coil or solenoid refers to a current-

carrying wire loop that is wound in a tight spiral (sometimes
around a ferromagnetic core).

Contents
Figure 1. Rendering of a coil / solenoid
1 Magnetic Field of a Coil
2 Magnetic Flux
3 Flux Linkage
4 Inductance

Magnetic Field of a Coil

Consider a long coil such that its length is very large compared to its cross-sectional diameter. Experiments show
that the magnetic field outside the coil is negligible compared with the field inside the coil.

The field lines inside the coil always run perpendicular to the cross-section of the coil (since from Gauss' law (htt
p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%27s_law_for_magnetism), magnetic fields have zero divergence):

Figure 2. Magnetic field lines in and around a coil

Using Ampere's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amp%C3%A8re%27s_circuital_law), we can calculate the the

magnetic field inside the coil. Suppose there is a closed rectangular loop (C) that goes parallel to the field inside
the coil for length L, comes out at right angles and returns outside the coil:

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Figure 3. Closed loop C around part of the coil

Ampere's law states that any closed line integral of the magnetic field is equal to the total current that the line's
path encloses, i.e.

B d = 0 Ienc
C

In the case of the coil, it is assumed that there is no magnetic field outside the coil, so the line integral can be
evaluated simply as the magnitude of the B field times the length of the line inside the coil (note that inside the
coil, the magnitude of the magnetic field is constant along any path parallel to the axis):

B d = Bl
C

The total current enclosed by the path is equal to the current I flowing through the wire multiplied by the number
of turns N that the path encloses:

Ienc = N I

Therefore:

B d = Bl = 0 N I
C

The magnetic field inside the coil is thus:

0 N I
B =
l

Magnetic Flux
Since we assumed that the magnetic field is negligible outside the coil, the magnetic flux is completely due to the
field inside the coil passing through the cross-sectional surface of the coil.

Given that the field inside the coil is always perpendicular to the cross-section of the coil, the surface integration is
simply the magnitude of the field multiplied by the cross-sectional area A:

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0 N I A
= B dS = BA =
S l

Flux Linkage
Due to the additive effects of Ampere's law, the total flux through the coil can
be increased by adding more turns. The flux linkage is the total amount of
flux that links all the current (and by extension, turns of the coil) that generate
it. Figure 3. Magnetic flux lines
through the cross-sectional
Since magnetic flux density is uniform inside a simple coil, the flux linkage is
surface of the coil
equivalent to the magnetic flux derived above:

0 N I A
= =
l

Inductance
The inductance of the coil is:
2
N 0 N A
L = =
I l

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Category: Fundamentals

This page was last modified on 15 February 2017, at 08:27.

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