3

Capacitance of Transmission Lines

INTRODUCTION

The flow of current through a conductor gives rise to a magnetic field and charging of conductor
results in an electric field. A charge if brought in the vicinity of this electric field experiences a
force. The intensity of this field at any point is defined as the force per unit charge and is
termed as electric field intensity designated as E. The units of this field are newton per coulomb
or volts per metre. The direction of electric field intensity is the same as the direction of the
force experienced by the unit charge. Since we are here concerned with the transmission line
conductors it is better to know this electric field due to infinite line of charge.

3.1 ELECTRIC FIELD OF AN INFINITE LINE OF CHARGE

Consider the field produced by a thin line of charge as shown in Fig. 3.1. Let a positive charge
L coulomb per metre be uniformly distributed along the infinitesimally thin line of infinite
length.

rL

dy z
dq
y
q P dE cos q
0
r
dE
dE sin q

-
Fig. 3.1 Infinite line charge: Electric field intensity at P.
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