Abstract:
The problem of current spreading across the width of thin foils (in snake-like systems) or planar current sheets is considered. For calculation the evolution of the current distribution across the width of inhomogeneous thin conductive layers or foils is calculated using an integrodifferential equation which reduces the two-dimensional problem for the magnetic field to a one-dimensional problem. An infinite periodic system of plane snake-like foils is considered. It is shown that in this foil system the current distribution corresponding to the ideal foil conductivity is first established and then relaxation of the current distribution to a uniform one occurs. If the foils are used as circuit breakers, current must have time to be distributed uniformly across the foil width during current transfer to the load, so that the corrections for the nonuniformity of the current distribution in the switches should be small.
Keywords:foil circuit breaker, current sheet, filamentation, tearing instability, current distribution relaxation.
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