Mutual inductance of bifilar winding, vs transmission line parameter

  • Level: Undergrad 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Swamp Thing
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Mutual inductance
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
4 replies · 2K views
Swamp Thing
Insights Author
Messages
1,076
Reaction score
844
Is there a relation between the mutual inductance across a pair of bifilar wound coils, and the inductance per meter of the same winding considered as a transmission line? I.e., can one calculate one from the other?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
No.
The twisted pair line has an impedance to differential mode signals.
The inductance of the line about the transformer core is in common mode.
 
Yet intuitively, it seems that changing something (eg twist per cm or insulation thickness) that reduces the L/m would also push the K closer to 1.
 
Swamp Thing said:
Is there a relation between the mutual inductance across a pair of bifilar wound coils, and the inductance per meter of the same winding considered as a transmission line? I.e., can one calculate one from the other?
This is a very confusingly worded question. Which "inductance per meter" did you mean? Ref @Baluncore's distinction of common mode vs. differential mode. Maybe a sketch would be in order, or a clear identification with standard jargon about which inductances you meant?

If you are comparing mutual inductance between two windings with and without a core, then no. The core has a huge influence, that's why we put it there.

There is a crude approximation for the leakage inductance (see this post for a definition), that it is independent of the core. This assumption is that it is due to flux that doesn't link to the core and that the flux that does link to the core will also link to the other winding. So all of the core parameters would then contained in the magnetizing inductance in that model. But, as I said, it's crude; as in not right but better than nothing.
 
Swamp Thing said:
Yet intuitively, it seems that changing something (eg twist per cm or insulation thickness) that reduces the L/m would also push the K nearer to 1.
The twisted pair impedance is really determined by wire diameter and insulation type/thickness. More twists simply shorten the wavelength at which the twisted pair will operate without radiative losses.

Impedance changes, due to a proportional increases in L and C, will cancel, since impedance is proportional to; √(L/C).

The K for a bifilar-wound, twisted pair, will be close to 1. More twists will make no substantial difference to K.

Once the wire helix length starts to rise steeply, more twists will slow the signal velocity slightly, since the velocity factor is proportional to; 1/√(L⋅C).

In effect, the situation you are considering, is called a "transmission line transformer".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balun#Transmission-line_transformer_type