Eddy Currents in Composite Laminations

The familiar theory of eddy current shielding leads to an expression for the impedance of a ferromagnetic core inductance coil in terms of the initial permeability and resistivity of the core material, the core geometry, and the measuring frequency. Measurements on a number of different core materials over a wide frequency range have revealed sizeable deviations from the theory in some cases. The discrepancies are especially marked in some specimens of chromium permalloy, the measured inductance over a certain frequency range being of the order of one tenth that specified by the theory. It appears that discrepancies arise when the laminations are not homogeneous, a condition contrary to an assumption of the simple theory. The inhomogeneity takes the form of a thin surface layer which has a permeability much less than that of the interior. By etching off these surface layers, the initial permeability is increased, and discrepancies between the measured variations of impedance with frequency, and those calculated for a homogeneous sheet are removed almost completely. The theory has been extended to take account of the surface layers, and agrees well with measurements on the original unetched laminations when plausible assumptions are made regarding the properties of the surface layer.