Finite-Element Analysis of Magnetically Shielded Wire Coils Using Homogenization Method

A magnetically shielded wire (MSW), which has magnetic-conductive thin layers on the surface of a wire conductor, is expected to reduce the eddy current losses due to the proximity effect. The conventional finite-element method (FEM) needs unacceptably long computational time to analyze eddy currents in multi-turn MSWs. This paper proposes a homogenization method, which models MSW as a uniform material with complex permeability. The coil impedance evaluated by the homogenization-based FEM with coarse elements is shown to agree well with that obtained by the conventional FEM with much finer elements. Moreover, the optimal shield thickness is determined by the proposed method.