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Magnetostatic Fields: 5.1 Biot-Savart Law
Magnetostatic Fields: 5.1 Biot-Savart Law
Magnetostatic Fields
The direction of dH can be determined using the right-hand rule, viz. the thumb
pointing in the direction of I and the right hand fingers encircling the wire in
the direction of dH.
1
Class Notes on ECEG-2110
5.1. BIOT-SAVART LAW Electromagnetic Fields
For surface or volume current distributions, replace the current element Idl with
KdS or Jdv where K is the surface current density (A/m) and J is the volume
current density (A/m2 ).
Idl × aR
Z
H = line current (5.2)
4πR2
ZL
KdS × aR
H = surface current (5.3)
S 4πR2
Jdv × aR
Z
H = volume current (5.4)
v 4πR2
Example 5.1: Determine the field due to a straight current carrying filamentary con-
ductor of length AB. Derive the field for semi-infinite and infinite lengths.
Example 5.2: Find the magnetic field intensity at the center O of the conducting
square loop of side 4 m carrying a dc current of 5 A shown below.
Exercise 5.1: For the above loop, determine H at (2, 0, 0). (ans. 0.46ax A/m)
Exercise 5.2: For the circular loop shown below, show that
Iρ2
H(0, 0, h) = az
2(ρ2 + h2 )
but Z
Ienc = J · dS
S
therefore,
∇×H=J 3rd Maxwell’s equation (5.6)
Ampere’s law can be easily applied on symmetrical current distributions.
B = µo H (5.7)
Flux lines of B (or H) are always continuous and form a closed loop, which
implies that there are no magnetic monopoles, or isolated ‘magnetic charges’.
All magnets have both a north and a south pole, and the field B is continuous
through the magnet. Thus the total flux through a closed surface in a magnetic
field is zero, i.e.,
I
B · dS = 0 (5.9)
S
we have,
∇·B=0 fourth Maxwell’s equation (5.10)
for some vector field A. A (wb/m) is called the vector magnetic potential of B.
dQ
R
In parallel with the electric potential (V = 4πεo R ), we can define
Z
µo I dl
A = line-current (5.12)
4πR
ZL
µo K dS
= surface-current (5.13)
4πR
ZL
µo J dv
= volume-current (5.14)
L 4πR
The magnetic flux can be expressed through the vector potential A, viz.,
Z Z I
Ψ= B · dS = (∇ × A) · dS = A · dS
S S L
so that,
I
Ψ= A · dl (5.15)
L
Example 5.4: Given the magnetic vector potential A = − 14 ρ2 az wb/m, calculate the
total flux crossing the surface φ = π/2, 1 ≤ ρ ≤ 2 m, 0 ≤ z ≤ 5 m.
Exercise 5.3: A current distribution gives rise to the vector magnetic potential
A = x2 y ax + xy 2 ay − 4xyz az wb/m.
Calculate
1. B at (−1, 2, 5)
2. the flux through the surface defined by z = 1, 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, −1 ≤ y ≤ 4.