Helicoidal single-layer cylindrical coil self-inductance evaluation: a didactic method

This paper presents a didactic mathematical method to evaluate the self-inductance of a nonmagnetic core single-layer helicoidal coil presenting voids between turns. This type of calculation, using Biot-Savart Law, is not usually presented in the traditional electromagnetic text books, but constitutes an excellent tool to show to the students how to apply the very important Biot-Savart Law, using vectorial calculus, in a special electromagnetic device. It also shows them that the results are more accurate than that gotten when using the traditional methods presented in the most adopted books, that don´t consider the helicoidal shape and the voids between turns and usually make strong restrictive conditions to permit the self-inductance calculation