EEE1001
ELECTRIC CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS
Module 3 – Lecture 2
Dr. Arindam Dutta
Assistant Professor
School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
VIT Bhopal
Email: arindamdutta@[Link]
Cabin: C-509
Magnetic Circuits
• All electrical machines and equipment are made of magnetic material as their core. A winding which carries current is
placed around the core. The core and the current-carrying coil around the core forms an electro magnet.
• The strength of this electro magnet produced by the magnetizing force is directly proportional to the magnetizing force
and inversely proportional to the reluctance of the flux path.
• Reluctance is the opposition offered to the establishment of flux.
• The amount of flux produced by the magnet indicates the strength of the magnet.
• The more the magnetizing force (MMF), more is the flux produced.
• The more the opposition to flux path (i.e., reluctance or magnetic resistance) less is the flux produced.
Reluctance l = length of the flux path
A = area of cross section of the flux path
μ = permeability of the magnetic material.
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Magnetic Circuits
For the same amount of ampere turns, the flux produced by an iron-core coil is much more than that produced by an air-
core one. If we make a cut in the magnetic material to create an air gap, the flux produced for the same ampere turns will
be somewhat less because the total reluctance of the flux path is now increased. The flux has to cross the air gap whose
reluctance is very high as compared to iron. The flux produced will be calculated as
To calculate the ampere turns required to create a required amount of flux we use the relations:
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Magnetic Circuits
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Analogy between Magnetic and Electric circuits
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Magnetic Leakage and Fringing
Most of the flux will flow or pass through the magnetic material which is called the main flux or useful flux. However, a
certain percentage of flux will link the coil itself and will not pass through the entire core. This flux is called leakage
flux. Leakage flux completes its path through air instead of going through the entire iron path.
In a magnetic circuit with some air gap, when flux has to pass through the air gap, there is tendency of the magnetic flux
to spread out at the two edges or sides. This effect is called fringing.
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Series and Parallel Magnetic Circuits
The equivalence of MMF (NI), of the magnetic circuit is EMF (E or V) of the electric circuit. Magnetic reluctance of the
iron path and that of air gap are represented by their equivalent resistances Ri and Rg in the electric circuit. Flux in the
magnetic circuit is represented by current in the electric circuit. The magnetizing force, NI / l produces the flux in the
core. The opposition to the flux path is provided by iron and the air in the air gap through which the flux has to pass. The
reluctance of iron is very low whereas that of air is very high. For a small amount of air gap, the reluctance will be much
more than along the length of the iron path.
Due to spreading of the flux, the effective area of cross section of the air gap through which the flux passes increases,
which is not desirable.
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Problems
Q: A circular iron ring of mean diameter 25 cm and cross-sectional area 9 cm2 is wound with a coil of 100 turns and
carries a current of 1.5 A. The relative permeability of iron is 2000. Calculate the amount of flux produced in the ring.
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Problems
Q: A rectangular shape iron core has an air gap of 0.01 cm. The mean length of the flux path through iron is 39.09 cm.
The relative permeability of iron is 2000. The coil has 1000 turns. The cross-sectional area of the core is 9 cm2.
Calculate the current required to produce a flux of 1 mWb in the core.
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Problems
Q: Neglecting fringing effects, calculate the flux produced in the air gap in the magnetic circuit, which is excited by the MMF
of two windings. The mean length of the flux path is 40 cm. The permeability of iron is 2000. The uniform core cross-sectional
area is 10 cm2.
Flux produced by the MMF of the two coils are in opposite directions. Thus, resultant MMF is the difference of the two MMFs.
1.5 A
= air-gap flux (since no fringing)