Modelling Of Current Density Distribution In Copper Wire And Frequency Dependence

S. Dabbak [1]
[1] University of Malaya, Malaysia
Published in 2015

A magnetic field study was used to investigate the current distribution in 0.5mm and 0.63mm diameter copper wires. In this study, the skin depth was investigated when 1A sinusoidal wave pass through the wire of 0.5 mm and 0.63 mm diameter with copper electrical resistivity and relative permittivity are assigned. The simulation was done for different frequencies between 50Hz and 1MHz with 200 Hz increment step. The current distribution was taken at the peak value of the sinusoidal wave.

From the results obtained, at the frequency of 50 Hz, for 0.5mm and 0.63 mm wire, the skin effect has no effect on the resistance of the wire because e the current density is uniform over the cross section and the effective area is same as cross sectional area of the Wire. However, at high frequencies more than 20 kHz, the skin depth start to have major effect on the resistance and current capacity of the wires. This has been validated by the simulation Results and theoretical calculation. This also shows that the model developed is acceptable.