A. F.

Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves Fields & Waves Note #12 Current, Conductivity, and Resistance

10/04

Objectives: Introduce the concepts of electric current and current density. Discuss Ohms Law and the conductivity of materials. Illustrate the relation between the conductivity and resistance of a bulk conductor. Finally, present an expression for the power dissipation in conductive materials. In Note #5, the effect of an electric field on an insulated conductor was considered. In that environment, charges quickly redistribute themselves in order to cancel the electric field in the conductor. If on the other hand the conductor is not insulated, the charges are free to move. In this Note, we introduce the notion of a continuous movement of charge: a current. We also consider a means for characterizing different conducting materials in terms of their effect on the resulting current flow. The resistance associated with a uniform piece of conducting material is calculated. Finally, we present an expression for the power dissipation in a conducting material. Electric current Figure 1 depicts a battery with its terminals connected by a conducting wire. Chemical reactions within the battery maintain a voltage difference between the terminals, and therefore produce an electric field within the wire. Since the wire is a conductor, free electrons in the wire are subjected to a coulomb force F = QE applied (12.1)

Consequently, these electrons will move in response to the applied force. An observer located at some point along the wire will observe a certain number of Coulombs of charge passing that point each second. Moving charge constitutes a current. The units of current, Amperes (A), satisfy 1 Ampere = 1 Coulomb second (12.2)

Negative charge (electrons) moving in one direction is equivalent to positive charge moving in the other. Since the wire and the battery in Figure 1 comprise a closed loop, current will continue to flow as long as the battery is connected to the wire (until the original energy stored in the battery is exhausted). Current and current density Like charge, current comes in several flavors depending on the situation. The total current flowing past a particular point in a system is measured in Amperes. Current can also be distributed across a surface, or throughout a volume. In those situations, we can consider

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves

10/04

the current density at a particular point on the surface of a conductor or within a conductor volume. The different distributions of current can be summarized as follows: Total current Surface current density Volume current density I Js J (A) (A/m) (A/m2)

Although these are written as scalars, the electric current is usually expressed as a vector quantity, with the vector indicating the direction of current flow.

Example:

A surface current density of Js = 10 mA/m resides on the surface of a conducting tube of radius a = 1 cm. What is the total current I on the tube? To compute the total current, we integrate over the surface of the tube: I=
2p

Solution:

f =0

J s adf

= 2paJ s

(12.3)

The resulting current is 2p(0.01)(0.01) = 6.3 104 (A).

Example:

A volume current density J ( r) = J 0 r 2 z (12.4)

Exists within the region r < a. What is the total current I in that region? Solution: By integration, we obtain I=
a

r =0 f =0
a

2p

rdrdf J 0r2z

= 2pJ 0 z = 2pJ 0 z

r =0

r 3 dr

(12.5)

a 4 pJ 0 a 4 = z 4 2

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves

10/04

Ohms Law The current flowing in the wire in Figure 1 follows the direction of the applied electric field, Since it is reasonable to assume that an increase in the field will result in an increase in current, we write J = sE (12.6)

where J is the volume current density in units of A/m2 and E is the electric field (V/m). The parameter s is a constant of proportionality known as the conductivity. (In practice, s varies with temperature but is fairly constant with changes in field strength as long as the temperature is maintained.) Conductivity has units of 1/(W-m), or Siemens (S) per meter. Values of s for several materials are listed in Table 1. Most metals are good conductors, with conductivities on the order of 107 (S/m), while plastics and ceramics are usually good insulators, with essentially no free electrons and conductivities many orders of magnitude smaller than the conductors. Observe that water, while not a good conductor, exhibits substantially larger conductivity than typical insulators such as mica.

Table 1. Conductivities of common materials (S/m) silver 6.2 107 copper gold aluminum brass seawater fresh water glass mica 5.8 107 4.1 107 3.5 107 1.5 107 4 103 10 12 10 13

The relation in (12.6) is known as Ohms Law.

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves Conductivity and Resistance In electric circuits, the voltage and current associated with a resistor are related by V = IR

10/04

(12.7)

The resistor may be made from a chunk of material having conductivity s, as depicted in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows a cylinder of cross-sectional area A and length L, connected at each end to an ideal wire. If a voltage V is applied to the wire terminals, an electric field is created within the cylinder of material that satisfies V = E dl Assuming that the electric field is constant within the material, we obtain V= EL (12.9) (12.8)

If we also assume that the current I flowing through the cylinder is uniformly distributed, it may be expressed in terms of a volume current density J = I A (12.10)

which is related to the electric field through Ohms Law in (12.6): J =s E Therefore, I =s E A The resistance may be obtained in the form R= EL V L = = I s E A sA (12.13) (12.12) (12.11)

This result has units of Ohms (W). The resistance increases with cylinder length, decreases as the cross-sectional area increases, and decreases as conductivity increases, as might be expected.

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves Example:

10/04

A resistor is made by coating a cylinder of brass having radius a = 1 mm with a layer of gold having outer radius b = 1.2 mm. If the layered cylinder has length L = 10 mm, what is its resistance? The cross-sectional area of the inner cylinder is A1 = 3.14 106 (m2) while its conductivity is 1.5 107. Thus the resistance of the core is Rcore = L 0.01 = = 2.1 10 -4 (W) 7 s 1 A1 (1.5 10 )( 3.14 10 -6 ) (12.15) (12.14)

Solution:

The cladding region has cross sectional area A2 = 1.38 106 (m2) and conductivity 4.1 107, for a resistance of Rcladding = L 0.01 = = 1.8 10 -4 (W) 7 s 2 A2 ( 4.1 10 )(1.38 10 -6 ) (12.17) (12.16)

The parallel combination of these yields a total resistance of Rtotal = 1 = 9.6 10 -5 (W) 1 1 + Rcore Rcladding (12.18)

Since these materials are both good conductors, the total resistance is small.

Example:

What value of electric field is required to produce I = 100 mA of current in a copper wire with cross-sectional area A = 1.0 mm2? For this wire, which is not much different in size from a typical copper wire used in household wiring, the cross-sectional area is A = 1 10 -6 (m2 ) (12.19)

Solution:

The volume current density is

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves J = I 0.1 = = 1 10 5 A 1 10 -6 (A / m2 )

10/04 (12.20)

Therefore, the electric field has magnitude J 1 10 5 = 0.0017 E = = s 5.8 10 7 (V / m) (12.21)

This result, 1.7 mV/m, indicates that a total of 1.7 mV would have to be applied to the ends of a 1 m length of wire to produce 100 mA of current. Equivalently, if L = 20 m, (a typical length of wire in a small house), a total of 20 1.7 = 34 mV (12.22)

would need to be applied. This suggests that in a 120 V system, the voltage drop across the wiring is negligible compared with that across some appliance being powered.

Example:

A coaxial cable is made of two concentric hollow cylinders of copper. The inner cylinder has radius a = 2 mm, while the outer cylinder has radius b = 5 mm. The thickness of each tube is t = 0.5 mm. Estimate the resistance per unit length of the cable. The cross-sectional area of the inner cylinder is approximately Ainner @ 2pat while that of the outer conductor is approximately Aouter @ 2pbt The resistance of a length L of the inner conductor is Rinner = L L @ sAinner s 2pat (12.25) (12.24) (12.23)

Solution:

while that of the outer conductor is Router @ L s 2pbt (12.26)

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves

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The current in a coaxial cable flows down one conductor and back through the other, to the resistance per unit length is found by combining the two together according to R Rinner + Router 1 1 = @ + L L s 2pat s 2pbt For the given dimensions and the conductivity of copper, we have R 1 @ 7 L (5.8 10 )2p (0.002)(0.0005) 1 + 7 (5.8 10 )2p (0.005)(0.0005) = 0.00274 + 0.00110 = 0.0038 (W / m) (12.27)

(12.28)

Power dissipation As current flows in a resistive material, some of the energy is converted into heat. The electrical power dissipated in the material can be calculated from P = J E dv = s E E dv (12.29)

Based on the units of current density (A/m2) and electric field (V/m), we observe that the dissipated power is in units of Volts Amperes = Watts (W).

Example:

For a resistor made from a circular cylinder of uniform conductivity s, radius a, and length L, how much power is dissipated in the resistor when a voltage V is applied to its terminals? Assume that the electric field and current are uniformly distributed throughout the interior region. Equations (12.9)(12.13) describe the situation. magnitude is E = V L The electric field

Solution:

(12.30)

The integration in (12.29) yields

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves P = s E E dv =

10/04 (12.31)

sV 2 2 pa L L2

Recognizing that the result can be written in the form P =V2

sA V 2 = L R

(12.32)

produces the expected result for a resistor. Example: For the previous example involving the resistor made by coating a cylinder of brass (radius a = 1 mm) with a layer of gold (radius b = 1.2 mm), assume that the current flowing through the resistor of length L = 10 mm is I = 100 (A). How much power is dissipated in the resistor? The power dissipation integral can be expressed as P = s 1 E E dv +
core

Solution:

cladding

s 2 E E dv

(12.33)

The electric field in both regions is the same, with E = V L (12.34)

Therefore, we obtain V V P = s 1 A1L + s 2 A2 L L L s A s A = V 2 1 1 + 2 2 L L 1 1 =V + Rcore Rcladding

2 2 2

(12.35)

V2 Rtotal

as expected. This result can also be expressed as P = I 2 Rtotal Substituting numerical values, we obtain P = 0.96 (W). (12.36)

A. F. Peterson: Notes on Electromagnetic Fields & Waves

10/04

As a final observation, we note that resistors are actually manufactured in three forms: wire wound resistors, carbon-compressed resistors, and thin-film resistors. Wire-wound resistors are formed by winding a conducting wire into a helical shape, and exhibit the DC properties described above by the uniform conductivity model. Compressed-carbon resistors, the most common discrete components, are formed by a process of compressing crushed carbon into a cylindrical shape, and therefore do not correspond to the uniform conductivity model considered above.