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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 2, APRIL 2005

Analytical Calculation of the Magnetic Field

Produced by Electric Power Lines
George Filippopoulos, Member, IEEE, and Dimitris Tsanakas

AbstractThe magnetic field produced by electric power lines is

usually calculated numerically with the use of a computer. However, the analytical calculation of the magnetic field is preferable
because it results in a mathematical expression for showing its dependences on the various parameters of the line arrangement. A
method to derive the analytical formula of the magnetic field vector
produced by any power line is developed in this paper. The specific
formulas for the magnetic field produced by any single circuit line
in flat, vertical, or delta arrangement, as well as for hexagonal lines
considered as double circuit lines in super bundle or low reactance
phase arrangements or as six-phase lines, are given. The derived
formulas are valid at any point with practical importance, close to
or far from the line.
The development of the method is made possible with the use of
new kinds of numbers, named double complex numbers, to represent the magnetic field vector in the vicinity of power lines. Double
complex numbers remarkably simplify the mathematical expressions for the magnetic field vector. Using these numbers, it is observed that the infinite terms of the magnetic field multipole expansion, for flat single circuit lines and for lines exhibiting polygonal
symmetry are contracted, resulting in simple formulas for the magnetic field vector, which is used to derive the formulas for the resultant value of the magnetic field.
The general formula of the magnetic field vector produced by an
arbitrary power line is a rational function of the distance from it.
Through the given expressions for the coefficients of this function
numerator and denominator, the formula for the magnetic field
vector produced by any power line can be derived.
Index TermsAccurate formulas, analytical calculation, analytical solution, double complex numbers, elliptically polarized
vector, hypercomplex numbers, magnetic field, multipole expansion.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE PRODUCED magnetic field is an important environmental constraint on power lines. Traditionally, the magnetic field produced by a power line is calculated as the vectorial sum of the magnetic fields produced by each conductor
current separately [1][3]. Although this method is suitable for
the numerical calculation of the magnetic field with the use of
a computer program, it is not suitable for drawing conclusions
about the magnetic field properties and its dependencies on the
various parameters of the line setting. For example, in [4], the
authors examined the effect of compaction and optimum phase
arrangement on the produced magnetic field. In order to reach
Manuscript received March 10, 2003; revised March 4, 2004. Paper no.
TPWRD-00098-2003.
G. Filippopoulos is with the Greek Atomic Energy Commission, Agia
Paraskevi 15310, Athens, Greece (e-mail: filippop@eeae.gr).
D. Tsanakas is with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department,
University of Patras, Rion 26500, Greece (e-mail: Tsanakas@ee.upatras.gr).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2004.839184

some general conclusions, they had to repeat the calculations

for different line voltages, arrangements, and conductor heights
from the ground. If the analytical formulas of the magnetic field
were known, the analysis would be much easier or at least much
different.
However, there were no analytical expressions for the magnetic field produced by power lines, except those developed in
[5]. In [5], the magnetic field produced by power lines at relatively large distances in comparison to their phase spacing was
analyzed. Simple formulas for the analytic calculation of the
produced magnetic fields far from the line were presented.
These formulas are very useful for the determination of the way
the magnetic field decays as the distance from it increases. Furthermore, through this approach, it is not difficult to design a
power line that produces a fast decaying magnetic field. Unfortunately, these formulas are not very accurate close to the line,
and so they could not be used to determine the behavior of the
magnetic field in the right of way of the power line. In the current paper, a method to derive a formula for the magnetic field
vector which is accurate at any distance, close to or far from the
line, is presented.
The power-line magnetic field is expanded in [5] as a series
of successive terms, each inversely proportional to an increasing
power of the distance from the line which, in the current paper,
will be called the multipole expansion. The first nonzero term of
the expansion approximates the produced magnetic field at far
distances from the line. Because the classical space vector representation was used, the expressions for the multipole expansion terms were relative complicated and their complexity increased rapidly with the order of the terms. The effect of various
power-line design parameters on the produced magnetic field far
from the line was also examined in [6] through analytical expressions. The multipole expansion was also presented and an
elegant expression for its general term was derived [6, paragraph
2.3.2]. This was done by the identification of the two-dimensional (2-D) space vectors (in the traverse plane to the conductors) with complex numbers. This gave the idea to the authors
of the current paper to use complex numbers for the representation of plane vectors (such as vectorial distances) in the vicinity
of power lines, in order to simplify the mathematical expressions for the magnetic field vector. The only problem was that
complex numbers are traditionally used to represent sinusoidal
varying quantities of time (such as currents) as phasors.
This problem is solved with the use of a new number set called
double complex numbers. This set has two imaginary units and
allows simultaneous representation of plane vectors and phasors. The double complex number system is a special case of the
hypercomplex number systems as described in [7]. The double

0885-8977/20.00 2005 IEEE

FILIPPOPOULOS AND TSANAKAS: CALCULATION OF MAGNETIC FIELD PRODUCED BY ELECTRIC POWER LINES

complex numbers and their basic properties, from a mathematical point of view, are briefly discussed in the Appendix. Further
and more comprehensive coverage of the topic of double complex numbers can be found in [8]. It is not the first time that
double complex numbers have been used to represent elliptically polarized vectorssuch are the vectors of the magnetic
field produced by power lines. In [9], these numbers have been
used to represent the elliptically polarized vector of the electric
field of light.
Using the double complex numbers to represent the vector
of the magnetic field produced by single circuit lines in flat arrangement, a surprising result came up. The multipole expansion of the magnetic field was contracted to only two terms
which, when combined, result in a simple formula for the magnetic field. This formula was then used to derive the formula
for the direct calculation of the resultant value of the magnetic
field produced by any flat or vertical power line. Based on this
observation, a general method to extract the magnetic field formulas for lines consisting of conductors arranged on some corners of a regular polygon, exploiting the polygonal symmetry,
was developed. Using this method, similar formulas for the analytical calculation of the magnetic field produced by single circuit lines in delta arrangement as well as by double circuit lines
and six-phase lines in hexagon arrangement were derived.
Since the multipole expansion is valid only for far distances
from the line, a question was whether the derived formulas are
also valid close to the line. This led to the examination of the
general formula for the magnetic field vector produced by an
arbitrary line consisting of conductors, which is valid at any
distance from the line. This is a rational function of distance.
The coefficients of this function are independent of the distance
from the line, and so the formulas for the magnetic field are
the same for any distance from it. So the developed formulas
are accurate at any distance from the line. Moreover, through
the given expressions for these coefficients, the formula for the
magnetic field vector can be reached for any power line.
For denotation, bold letters are used for space vectors, underlined letters are for phasors, and bold underlined letters are for
double complex numbers (elliptically polarized vectors). Also,
small letters indicate instantaneous values and capital letters
represent root mean square (rms) values.
II. MAGNETIC FIELD CALCULATION
Fig. 1 shows the space arrangement of the conductors of a
power line in relation to the
axes system. The line route is
considered straight and parallel to the axis. The line conductors are not straight, but they are sagged by their weight. The
curve that is drawn by each conductor in a span between two
sequential suspension points is known as the catenary one. In
order to simplify the calculations and the analysis of the magnetic field produced by the line, the model of an assembly of
horizontal conductors parallel to the axis is used [1][3]. This
model is precise for the calculation of the magnetic fields if, as
usual, the conductor sag is small in comparison to the span [10].
The calculation of the magnetic field in the vicinity of a power
line consists of two steps: the calculation of the line currents and
the calculation of the produced field. In this paper, the second

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Fig. 1. Space arrangement of the conductors of a real power line.

step is focused, assuming the line currents are balanced without

higher harmonic components. Also, the effects of the groundinduced currents and of the varying electric field on the total
magnetic field are considered negligible [11], [12].
Fig. 2 shows the traverse section of the model of a power line
plane.
with three conductors. This section is parallel to the
The sinusoidal varying current (toward the positive axis diis represented by its
rection) of the conductor
, created by the conphasor . The magnetic flux density
ductor is given by the Amperes law (in the classical space
vector representation)

(2.1)
where
is the magnetic permeability
of free space, is the unit vector in the direction of the axis,
is the vector distance from the conductor to the point of
interest P, and the symbol denotes the cross product of the
vectors
and
.
In the general case, a line with conductors may be considered. Using the superposition theorem, the magnetic flux density
produced by the line is the sum of the fields produced by each
conductor separately

(2.2)
Relation (2.2) is usually used for the arithmetic calculation
of the magnetic field vector. However, the summing operation
does not allow this formula to be readily applied for the calculation of the magnetic field and makes it unsuitable for reaching
general conclusions for the magnetic field properties and its dependencies on the various parameters of the line setting.
The magnetic flux density vector occurred in (2.2) with its
classical representation as is described in [1]. That is, a vector
in plane whose components in each axis is sinusoidal varying
and
are the
with time. If

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 2, APRIL 2005

Fig. 3. Traverse section of the power-line model, noting the reference point O.

Fig. 2. Traverse section of the power-line model.

components of the magnetic field in

then the vector is written as

and

axis, respectively,

(2.3)
and
are the unit vectors on and axis, respecwhere
and
tively, and the vectors
are the real and the imaginary part of , which correand
, respecsponds to the real and the imaginary part
tively, of the currents
. Note that in the following paragraphs, the symbol is used instead of .
The magnitude of the magnetic field is usually characterized
by its resultant rms value , which is equal to

(2.4)
This parameter is generally used to determine the magnitude
of the magnetic field in order to compare it with exposure limits.
III. REPRESENTATION WITH DOUBLE COMPLEX NUMBERS
The relations for the magnetic field vectors are simplified if
plane are represented with comthe vector distances on the
plex numbers. On the other hand, for ac lines, the conductor currents are sinusoidal varying quantities represented by phasors,
which are also complex numbers. It is clear that having only one
set of complex numbers does not allow the simultaneous repreplane and the current phasors.
sentation of the vectors in the
In order to solve this problem, two different copies of the comof the complex numbers
plex numbers set are used: 1) the set
and 2) the set
of the
with the imaginary unit
complex numbers with the imaginary unit
. It is
.
noted that
The set
is used for the representation of the vectors on the
plane. Each vector on the
plane
is
.
represented by the complex number in
in (2.2) is
Using this representation, the factor
, where
is the complex conjugate of
replaced with

and the factor is used to enter the

rotation instead of the cross product with the unit vector .
is used for the representation of the sinusoidal
The set
varying quantities as phasors. For example, the current of the
is represented
conductor of instant value
.
by the complex number
Using these representations, (2.2) becomes
(3.1)
and the magnetic field vector
occurs as a double complex
number. These numbers are described in the Appendix. The
may be written in the following
double complex number
forms:

(3.2)
,
, and
The complex numbers in
represent the real and the imaginary part of , and
the complex numbers in
,
, and
represent the phasors of the components of the
magnetic field in the and axis.
The resultant rms value of the magnetic field , given by
(2.4), is equal to the modulus
(discussed in the Appendix)
of the double complex number .
IV. MULTIPOLE EXPANSION
Fig. 3 shows again the traverse section of the power-line
model. The place of the conductor is characterized by the
from the reference point O, which is a central
vector distance
point of the line. The point O is close to but not necessarily the
center of the conductor arrangement [5]. Its choice is a matter
of experience and is made in order to simplify the derived mathematical expressions. In all of the examples presented in this
paper, O is selected as the center of the conductor arrangement.
defines the distance of the point of interest P
The vector
in (3.1), it becomes
from the point O. Replacing

FILIPPOPOULOS AND TSANAKAS: CALCULATION OF MAGNETIC FIELD PRODUCED BY ELECTRIC POWER LINES

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(4.1). Using the well-known formula (4.2) in (4.1), the multipole

expansion of the magnetic flux density is derived in (4.3)

(4.1)

(4.2)
(4.3)

Fig. 4. Traverse sections of a) a flat power line and b) a vertical power line.

Equations (5.4) and (5.5) in combination with (4.4) result in

order
there being a general recursive relation between the
and the order term
term

where
(4.4)

(5.6)
(4.5)
Each term
of the multipole expansion is called order
is called the order moment. The first
term. The factor
nonzero term of the magnetic field multipole expansion approximates the power-line magnetic field at far distances from the
line as explained in [5].
The advantage of double complex numbers use for the representation of magnetic flux density vector is demonstrated by the
simplified general relations (4.4) and (4.5) for the order term
and its moment in comparison with (4), (5), (6), and (7) in [5],
which express the first four terms of the magnetic field with the
classical representation of the magnetic flux density vector.
V. FLAT AND VERTICAL POWER LINES
Fig. 4(a) shows a flat power line. This line consists of three
conductors lying on the horizontal plane. Using the center conductor as the reference point O, the distances of the conductors
from it are given in (5.1). The conductor currents are considered
to be as in (5.2)
(5.1)

Using (5.6), all of the terms of the magnetic field multipole

expansion may be derived from the first two nonzero terms,
and
. Furthermore, the sum
of all the
namely,
, and the sum
of all the odd terms
even terms
of the magnetic field multipole expansion are
and
, recalculated from (5.6) in relation to the terms
spectively
(5.7)
(5.8)
The infinite sum appearing in the former two equations is cal) and the terms
culated from the known relation (5.9) (for
and
are calculated through (4.4) from the moments
and
(5.9)
So the magnetic flux density vector is calculated from the sum
of all the terms of its multipole expansion as in (5.10)

(5.2)

(5.10)

The moment
is calculated according to (4.5), which for
gives (5.3). It is noted that since the currents are balanced,

Replacing the moments

and
from (5.4) and (5.5),
respectively, in (5.10), it results in the following formula for the
magnetic field vector as a double complex number:
(5.11)

(5.3)
The former equation gives two general expressions for the
: one if is an even number and one
terms of the moment
if it is an odd number

Using the above formula, the formula for the resultant value
of the magnetic field is derived
(5.12)

for

for even
odd

(5.4)
(5.5)

is the angle of the vector

where
zontal axis, shown in Fig. 4(a).

in relation to the hori-

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Fig. 5. Line with the conductors placed at the corners of a regular polygon.

Fig. 4(b) shows a vertical power line. The formula for the
magnetic field produced by this line can be derived in a similar
way as for the flat power line. However, another way is to conin (5.12) as the angle between the conductor
sider the angle
plane and the vector as shown in Fig. 4(b). In this case, (5.12)
also expresses the magnetic field around the vertical power line.
The formula (5.12) may be readily used for the calculation of
the magnetic field resultant value produced by a single circuit
line in flat or in vertical arrangement.

Fig. 6. Traverse section of a delta power line. The conductors are placed on
the corners of an equilateral triangle.

where
(6.7)

VI. LINES WITH POLYGONAL SYMMETRY

The applied method to derive the magnetic field formulas for
the flat line can be generalized for any line with its conductors
arranged on the corners of a regular polygon. Consider a line
consisting of conductors placed at the corners of a regular
polygon, as shown in Fig. 5.
Considering the reference point O to be the center of the arof the conductor from it, is written
rangement, the distance
in the form (6.1)
(6.1)
Because

The resultant value

(6.6) as

of the magnetic field is derived from

(6.8)
is the angle between the vectors and ,
where the angle
shown in Fig. 5.
It is not necessary to have conductors located at every corner
of the polygon to use the above formulas; some fictitious conductors with zero currents may be considered to fill the gaps. In
any case, the most difficult part of the application of the method
.
is the calculation of the module

(6.2)
the multipole expansion moments are related through the recursive relation (6.3), derived from (4.5) and (6.2)

VII. DELTA POWER LINE

Replacing (6.3) in (4.4), it results in the recursive relation for

the multipole expansion terms

Fig. 6 shows a delta power line. This line consists of three

conductors placed at the corners of an equilateral triangle.
Choosing the center of the arrangement as the reference point
O, the first three moments are calculated as in (7.1) to (7.3) [the
currents are considered as in (5.2)]

(6.4)

(7.1)

(6.3)

This equation means that the multipole expansion of the magnetic field may be separated to sums
(6.5)

(7.2)
(7.3)
The magnetic field expression nominator is calculated after
as in (7.5)
(6.7), as in (7.4) and its modulus

Replacing (5.9) and (4.4) in (6.5), it results in the general formula for the magnetic field vector as a double complex number

(7.4)

(6.6)

(7.5)

FILIPPOPOULOS AND TSANAKAS: CALCULATION OF MAGNETIC FIELD PRODUCED BY ELECTRIC POWER LINES

Fig. 7. Traverse section of a super bundle double circuit line. The conductors
are placed on the corners of a regular hexagon.

1479

Fig. 9. Traverse section of a six-phase line. The conductors are placed on the
corners of a regular hexagon.

The resultant value of the magnetic flux density occurs as the

modulus of the above expression
(8.3)
are shown in Figs. 79.
where the distance and the angle
The calculation of the magnetic flux density consists of the
calculation of from the six first moments and the calculation
. Using the expressions for the currents, inof modulus
dicated in the corresponding figures, the following expressions
are derived for the three lines.
Fig. 8. Traverse section of a low reactance double circuit line. The conductors
are placed on the corners of a regular hexagon.

Using (7.4) and (7.5), the magnetic flux density vector and
its resultant value are given, after (6.6) and (6.8), by (7.6) and
(7.7), respectively

A. Double Circuit Line in Super Bundle Phasing

In Fig. 7, the hexagon arrangement is considered as a super
bundle double circuit line with balanced and equal currents on
the two circuits. The values of and N are calculated as
(8.4)

(7.6)
(7.7)
where the angle
shown in Fig. 6.

is the angle between the vectors

and ,

VIII. LINES IN HEXAGONAL ARRANGEMENT

Figs. 79 show three cases of power lines with their conductors placed on the corners of a regular hexagon. Considering the
reference point O at the center of the hexagon, the magnetic field
from all of these lines is given by the general expression (8.1),
derived from (6.6)
(8.1)
where

(8.5)
B. Double Circuit Line in Low Reactance Phasing
In Fig. 8, the hexagon arrangement is considered as a low
reactance double circuit line with balanced and equal currents
on the two circuits. The values of and N are calculated for the
currents indicated in Fig. 8 as
(8.6)
(8.7)
C. Six-Phase Line
In Fig. 9, the hexagon arrangement is considered as a sixand N are
phase line with balanced currents. The values of
calculated, for the currents indicated in Fig. 9 as
(8.8)

(8.2)

(8.9)

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IX. GENERAL FORMULA OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD

A paradox is that despite the multipole expansion is only valid
at far distances from the line, the developed formulas are valid at
any distance from it. To explain this, (4.1), which is valid at any
distance from the line, is re-examined. Equation (4.1) implies
the general formula of the magnetic field vector, also valid at
any distance from the line
where

presented method for the calculation of the magnetic field formula for lines with polygonal symmetry is just one way to find
the above coefficients. There are also other possible ways to derive the same formulas. For example, for the single circuit lines
, (9.6), (9.7), and (9.8)
that consist of three conductors
result in
(9.9)
(9.10)
(9.11)
(9.12)
(9.13)
(9.14)

(9.1)

(9.2)

(9.3)
degree polynomial of with double
is a
In general,
complex numbers (elliptically polarized vectors) as coefficients
[ in (9.4)] and is a degree polynomial of with complex
numbers (space vectors) as coefficients [ in (9.5)]
(9.4)

Using (9.9) to (9.14), the formulas for the magnetic field

vector in the vicinity of any single circuit line with three conductors can be reached. Of course, the formulas for the flat, vertical, and delta single circuit power lines presented in Sections V
and VII of the current paper could also be derived from these
relations.
Once the formula for the magnetic field vector has been
reached (for the general case of a line consisting of n conductors), the calculation of its resultant value can be made
according to

(9.5)
(9.15)
and
in the polynomials of (9.4) and
The coefficients
(9.5) are calculated in (9.6) and (9.8) with the symmetrical polynomials of the distances . These polynomials occur from (9.2)
and (9.3) in a similar way as the well known Vitas Formulae
occur from the roots of a polynomial [13]. The numerator codepend on the line currents and the geometrical
efficients
arrangement of the conductors whereas the denominator coefdepend only on the geometrical arrangement of the
ficients
conductors. That means that a change in line currents will only
affect the numerator coefficients
(9.6)
where

(9.7)
(9.8)
The variables
,
, ...
appearing in the summing operation of (9.8) take successively all the possible values between
1 and that conform with the indicated inequalities, so that
the terms of the sum are all the possible products with dif. Similarly,
ferent factors between the distances
the terms of the sum in (9.7) are all the possible products with
1 different factors between the distances
excluding . It is noted that
and
.
and
in the above general expressions
The coefficients
are independent of the distance from the line . So their value
can be found for any distance from the line (for example, far
from it) and remain valid at any other distance (close to it). The

Although the calculation of the module

is relatively easy,
for the given numerical values of , it is rather difficult to reach
from (9.4), for lines consisting
the formulas for the module
of many conductors, such as double circuit lines, and lucking
out on some kind of symmetry that simplifies the expressions.
X. DISCUSSION
Using (9.1)(9.8), the formula for the magnetic field vector
in the vicinity of any arbitrary power line can be derived. The
derived formula is valid at any distance, close to or far from the
line. It is the first time that such accurate formulas are developed
in the technical literature. The only existing analytical formulas,
until now, were those for the magnetic field at relatively far distances from the line, developed in [5]. In [5], the magnetic field
was approximated with the first nonzero term of the magnetic
field multipole expansion. Fig. 10 shows a comparison between
the magnetic field produced by a flat single circuit line as is
calculated by the formula (5.12), and the resultant value
[given in (10.1)] of the second-order term of its multipole expansion, which is the first nonzero term of it. It is noted that
and
, where is the horizontal distance from the line axis and is the distance of the
calculation plane from the line plane
(10.1)
At far distances from the line axis, there is only a small dif, but close to the line, the difference
ference between and
is significant. The formula (5.12) as well as any other formulas
derived with the presented method in this paper are suitable for
the examination of the way the magnetic field behaves close to

FILIPPOPOULOS AND TSANAKAS: CALCULATION OF MAGNETIC FIELD PRODUCED BY ELECTRIC POWER LINES

Fig. 10. Comparison between the resultant value B of the magnetic field
produced by a typical 150-kV flat line with balanced currents as is calculated
with the analytical formula (5.12) and the resultant value of the second-order
[given in (10.1)] of the magnetic field multipole expansion, which
term B
may be used for the calculation of B at far distances from the line [5].

the line. For example, the maximum value of the magnetic field
and the distance from the line axis it occurs on can be found
for various distances between the conductors or for various distances of the calculation plane from the line plane.
The formulas of this paper give identical results with the
numerical calculations of any computer software that takes
into account the general assumptions mentioned in Section II.
However, computer simulations can also be performed in cases
where the arrangement is three dimensional (3-D) or in cases
where there is no magnetic linearity. For example, in [14], the
magnetic field emanated from the 3-D network of the energized
conductors of a residence electrical circuits is calculated and
in [15], the effect of a nonlinear ferromagnetic pipeline on the
magnetic field produced by power lines is examined.
The use of analytical formulas is not competitive to the use
of computer programs but they can combine. For example, special computer software may be developed to calculate the values
and
in the formula for the magnetic
of the coefficients
field vector. These coefficients are constants for given line arrangements and currents and carry significant information about
the behavior of the magnetic field. For example, examining the
values of these coefficients, useful conclusions can be reached
about the effectiveness of active or passive shielding at various
distances from the line. The coefficients of the higher powers of
distance determine the magnetic field far from the line and the
coefficients of lower powers of distance determine the magnetic
field close to the line.
XI. CONCLUSION
A method to derive the analytical formula of the magnetic
field produced by any power line has been presented. The development of the presented method was made possible through the
representation of the magnetic field vectors with double complex numbers. Double complex numbers proved to be very efficacious at this task. Indeed, their use simplified the expressions
for the magnetic field vector produced by power lines, gave
elegant expressions for the multipole expansion of it, and re-

1481

vealed the hidden symmetry of its terms for the lines exhibiting
polygonal symmetry.
The infinite terms of the multipole expansion of the magnetic
field vector produced by any power line with its conductors arranged on the corners of a regular polygon can be contracted
to a sum of few terms. These terms can be combined, resulting
in relative simple formulas for the magnetic field vector and its
resultant value. Using this technique, the formulas for the magnetic field for any single circuit line in flat, vertical, or delta
arrangement as well as for lines whose conductors are arranged
on the corners of a regular hexagon, considered as double circuit
lines in super bundle or in low reactance phasing or as six-phase
lines are derived. These formulas can be readily used for the analytical calculation of the produced magnetic field at any point
in the vicinity of the power lines.
The general formula for the magnetic field vector produced
by any arbitrary line is a rational function of the distance from
it. The coefficients of its numerator depend on the line currents
and the geometrical arrangement of the conductors and the coefficients of its denominator depend only on the geometrical arrangement of the conductors. Through the given expressions for
these coefficients, the formulas for the magnetic field vector of
any power line can be derived.
The derived formulas are accurate at any distance with practical importance, close to or far from the line, whereas the existing formulas in the technical literature were only accurate
at far distances from the line. Also, the calculations based on
the derived formulas are identical with those of any computer
program that takes into account the same assumptions. However, the derived formulas are more suitable for the analysis of
the magnetic field behavior underneath power lines, using the
well-known calculus of functions (integration, derivation, etc.)
to examine the dependence of the magnetic field on the various
parameters of the line setting.
Given the formula for the magnetic field vector, the formula
for the resultant value of the magnetic field can be derived. This
can be easily done for lines consisting of a few conductors, such
as single circuit lines. However, for lines consisting of many
conductors, such as double circuit lines, it is difficult to reach
a formula for the resultant value, unless there is some kind of
symmetry that simplifies the expressions. For example, the conductors of the considered double circuit lines were considered
on the corners of a regular hexagon with equal and balanced currents on the two circuits, though true double circuit lines may
decline significantly from this case.
APPENDIX
DOUBLE COMPLEX NUMBERS
The double complex numbers may be used when there is a
need to use simultaneously two different sets of complex numbers. Two copies of the complex numbers set are used: the set
with the imaginary unit , and the set
with the imagiand
. The set of double
nary unit
cross
complex numbers is the Cartesian product of the set
. So a double complex number
the
may be written in the form
(A.1)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 2, APRIL 2005

where
and
are complex numbers in
, and
and
are complex
the set
and a, b, c, and d are real numbers (in the
numbers in the set
set ).
Assuming that the usual operations of real numbers apply,
and
, where they appear, the
and replacing
product of the double complex number with another double
occurs as the
complex number
double complex number

(A.2)
Equation (A.2) allows the axiomatic definition of double
complex numbers as a commutative ring with unity. That means
that the basic operation rules for double complex numbers addition and multiplication are the same as the known ones for real
numbers. So there is no need to memorize special operation
rules. Also, there is no need to remember the multiplication
,
where
rule (A.2); it is enough to replace
they appear.
However, there is a significant difference between the set of
double complex numbers and the sets of complex and real numbers. Double complex numbers is not a division system (i.e.,
there are some double complex numbers without an inverse).
is not valid, unless it is known that is
So, the expression
invertible (for example, if it is a real or a complex number). That
means that the elimination of a double complex factor appearing
in both sides of an equation is forbidden.
of a double complex number expressed in
The modulus
the form of (A.1) is a real number that occurs according to

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(A.3)
This relation is consistent with the definition of the modulus
of complex numbers.
A useful relation for the calculation of the modulus of the
and
is the folproduct of two double complex numbers
lowing:
(A.4)
However, this relation is valid only if at least one of and
is a real number or a complex number or a product of a complex
number in
with a complex number in
.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is the outcome of G. Filippopoulos Ph.D. thesis
at the University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
REFERENCES
[1] D. W. Deno and L. E. Zaffanella, Field effects of overhead transmission
lines and stations, in Transmission Line Reference Book345 kV and
Above, 2nd ed, CA: Elect. Power Res. Inst., 1982, ch. 8.

George Filippopoulos (M02) was born in Greece in 1973. He received the

electrical engineering degree and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from
the University of Patras, Patras, Greece, in 1996 and 2003, respectively.
Currently, he is with the Non Ionizing Radiation Office of the Greek Atomic
Energy Commission, Agia Paraskevi, Athens, Greece. His research interests include analysis and measurement of electric and magnetic fields produced by the
electric power systems and the use of electricity in general as well as analysis
and measurement of RF radiation emitted by broadcasting and communication
antennas, human protection from nonionizing radiation..

Dimitris Tsanakas received the electrical engineering degree and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt,
Darmstadt, Germany, in 1970 and 1976, respectively.
Currently, he is Professor and the Director of the Power Systems Laboratory
at the University of Patras, Patras, Greece. From 1970 to 1973 and from 1977 to
1979, he was with the Public Power Corporation, Athens, Greece. Since 1979, he
was a Professor of the Chair of Electric Energy Systems, Demokritos University,
Thrace, Greece. His research interests include short-circuit currents and their
dynamic effects, analysis of electric and magnetic fields produced by power
systems, and power system planning.
Professor Tsanakas is a member of CIGRE SC 23 Substations, of IEC
TC 73 Short-circuit currents, and of the Greek TC ELOT/TE 75 for CENELEC/TC 111 Human exposure to electromagnetic fields.