Magnetic Field Diffusion in Medium-Walled Conductors

Abstract

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The diffusion of transient magnetic fields through the walls of a hollow conductive shell is an important phenomenon of interest throughout a variety of pulsed power applications. Basic solutions do exist for cylindrical geometries in the limiting case that the skin depth is much larger than the wall thickness; however, in many pulsed applications, the transient skin depth is often similar to the conductor thickness. As the underlying thin-wall assumption begins to breakdown, the production of complex eddy current distributions in the conductor walls results in deviation from these simplified analytical solutions of the diffused field. Precise calculation of these current distributions is essential for many applications including inductive shielding and magnetic field diagnostics near conductors. Electromagnetic simulations using the finite-element method provide a more accurate picture of the diffusion process in this regime. A high magnetic field testbed facilitates measurement of the diffused fields in order to verify simulation accuracy. The effect of material conductivity, wall thickness, and conductor geometry on the diffusion process is examined.