EE2025 Engineering Electromagnetics

Week 6 Review
Week 7 Preview
 Topics Covered
• Wave propagation and Phase Velocity
• Power flow and Poynting Vector
• Surface Current and Power loss in a conductor

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 Key Takeaways
1. Skin Depth
• Propagation constant
• Good conductor (definition depends on the frequency) :
• Skin Depth
– effective width of penetration of electric field inside a conductor

• Electric and magnetic field – phase lag by 45 degrees

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 Skin Depth – continues…
Steel reinforced cable for power transmission lines ?

Aluminium conductor steel-reinforced

cable (ACSR)
Al : higher conductivity, light weight, corrosion
resistant.
Higher resistance of the steel core is of no
consequence !

Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line, showing 1 strand (7

wires) of steel surrounded by 4 concentric layers of aluminium. (Wikipedia)

Given a choice, should I use a solid core wire -Or a stranded wire (Litz wire) – why ?

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http://compliance-club.com/archive/keitharmstrong/design_techniques4.html
 What are these ??

Silver plating on the inside of the waveguides to ensure skin depth is small
VHF antennas are hollow – why ?

You seem to lose cell phone connection inside a lift ??

Amateur engineers use Al foil in your RF projects ??

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 Submarine Communication with VLF

A VLF receiving antenna at Palmer Station, Antarctica, operated by Stanford University.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VLFatPalmer.JPG, Public Domain,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11107915
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 AC and DC Resistance of a wire

l
Rac  Rs
w

l  f l
Rac  Rs 
w  2a

Interestingly, you get the same answer if you calculate the resistance of a tube of width d

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 Poynting Vector

Poynting Theorem :

   1  * 1  * 
 
   *
 P  da   t 
V 
 E.E  H.H  dv     E.E dv
2 2   V
Stored electric energy Stored magnetic energy Ohmic Loss

 
    
Net Outward Power from a volume :  P  da   E  H . da 8
 Let’s apply Poynting Theorem
l
b

  I   I   I
J  az 2 E  az H  aφ
πb πb 2 σ 2πb
   I2
Poynting Vector on the surface of the wire : P  E  H  a 
2π 2 b 3σ
Net power dissipated in the wire :
   I2 I 2l
  P  da    P  â  da  2 3 2πbl  2 2  I 2 R
2π b σ π bσ 9
What is E, H and P in this case ?

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What is E, H and P in this case ?

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Can you prevent “loss of energy” as EM waves ?

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 Wave Propagation through Plasma
Plasma : Ionized gases with equal electron and ion densities

Electrons being lighter, are accelerated by electric field of the EM wave

Plasma can be considered as a free electron gas

Equation of motion of electrons :

Dipole moment of electrons :

Induced Polarisation (Dipole moment per unit volume :

Electric Displacement in the medium :

Relative permittivity of plasma :

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 Wave Propagation through Plasma

Propagation constant of Plasma :

The behavior is very different based on the frequency of propagation

For f > fp: Propagation without attenuation ( propagation constant is purely imaginary)

For f < fp: Attenuation without propagation ( propagation constant is purely real)

Why study wave propagation through plasma ??

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 Ionosphere

fp : 0.9 to 9 MHz

What should be the frequency of satellite communication ?

What happens if we transmit with frequencies < 0.9 MHz ?

What happens if we transmit with 0.9 MHz < f < 9 MHz ?

My AM radio picks up Australian channels in the night – why ?

For f > fp: Propagation without attenuation

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 Next Week
• Plane Wave in arbitrary direction
• Plane Wave at dielectric interface
• Reflection and refraction at media interface

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