Inductance Calculations for Noncoaxial Coils Using Bessel Functions

A relatively simple and general method for calculating the mutual inductance and self-inductance of both coaxial and noncoaxial cylindrical coils is given. For combinations of cylindrical coils, thin solenoids, pancake coils, and simple circular loops, the mutual inductance can be reduced to a one-dimensional integral of closed form expressions involving Bessel and related functions. Coaxial and noncoaxial cases differ only by the presence of an extra Bessel factor J ₀(sp) in the noncoaxial integral, where p is the perpendicular distance separating the coil axes and s is the variable of integration. The method is related to a recently given noncoaxial generalization of Ruby´s formula for a nuclear radiation source and detector system, the analogy being close but not exact. In many cases, the Bessel function integral for the inductance can be easily evaluated directly using Maple or Mathematica. In other cases, it is better to transform the integral to a more numerically friendly form. A general analytical solution is presented for the inductance of two circular loops which lie in the same plane