1.

Skin Effect and cable impedance

Answer:
when a conductor is carrying a steady DC current,it is uniformly distributed over the whole
cross section of the conductor. however, an alternating current fowing through the
conductor does not distribute uniformly . Rather it has a tendency to concentrate near the
surface of the conductor. This is known as skin eect
There is a considerable amount of discussion (not to say argument!) amongst those
interested in audio and Hi-Fi about the possible effects of cables upon sound quality.
This tends to lead to some people adopting almost theological ie!points that differ
fundamentally from the ie!s held by others. "ne of the technical factors !hich is
sometimes claimed to affect sound quality is !hat is usually called #$in effect.
%n most electronics te&tboo$s' the properties of cables and !ires are considered as a
form of transmission line. The te&t may mention briefly the s$in effect !ithout
e&ploring this in detail. (ore often' ho!eer' the only parameters that tend to be
considered are the capacitance per length' inductance per length' and their relationship
!ith the signals nominal propagation elocity and the characteristic impedance of the
system. The fact that normal materials hae a finite conductance (or resistance) is not
usually considered beyond its effect upon the d.c. (and lo! frequency) resistance of
the cables and the resulting implied signal po!er losses.
%n reality' !hen !e transmit alternating signals along conductie lines !e may
e&perience effects due to !hat is generally called s$in effects. This sub)ect is !idely
misunderstood' and hence people occasionally tend to ino$e this frequency
dependent behaiour as the implied basis for all $inds of claims regarding the
sounds of different types of cables. The purpose of this analysis is to thro! some
light into this area and help proide some understanding of the effects of using
conductors of finite conductiity.
%n engineering te&tboo$s' the consequences of finite conductiity and !ire si*e are
treated in terms of an %nternal %mpedance. This term is probably more useful that
s$in effect as it acts as a reminder that the effects arise due to the fields internal to
the conductor. The internal impedance per unit length of a !ire is considered in +amo
et al. From this !as may dra! the follo!ing results as a starting point.
The d.c. (i.e. ery lo! frequency) impedance of a !ire !hich has a circular cross-
section and is uniform may be said to consist of a resistance per unit length of
!here is the bul$ conductiity alue appropriate for the material used to
manufacture the !ire' and is the radius of the !ire. The resistance is in "hms,metre
if !e are using #.%. units (!hich !ill be assumed from no! on).
The !ire !ill also e&hibit an effectie inductance per unit length at ery lo!
frequency due to its internal fields. -t ery lo! frequencies this has the alue
!here is the permeability of the material. %n general !e can assume that this equals
the alue for free space
The detailed analysis in +amo leads to the follo!ing e&pressions !hich can be used to
determine the releant !ire resistance and inductance per unit length for a conductie
!ire of circular cross section at frequencies aboe d.c.
!here
and is the s$in depth alue !hich may be calculated ia
!here is the signal frequency (as opposed to the signals angular frequency).
%n fact' using the aboe e&pressions !e can sho! that
and specifying this factor in terms of and may be more conenient !hen
performing calculations.
.o!' ' etc are /essel functions. 0e can find numerical e&pressions for
ealuating these in a te&t li$e -bramo!it* and #tegun. 1sing these !e can compute
alues. For the sa$e of clarity is is useful to plot alues normalised in terms of .
#ome results of doing this are illustrated in figure 2. These are plotted ersus so
that the releant nominal s$in thic$ness is also normalised in terms of the !ire radius.
The solid lines plotted sho! the releant alues calculated from the aboe
e&pressions.
1nfortunately' the e&pressions proided by - 3 # only coer the range for
!hich roughly corresponds to . -boe this alue the /essel functions
become hard to ealuate and their combination tends to lead to a situation !here a set
of large alues cancel to gie a moderate result. Hence for computational simplicity
!e can use a simpler appro&imation for the situations !here is large. Here this
may be defined as !here this ratio has a alue greater than 4.
The standard h.f. appro&imation is that both and !ill be essentially
equal to . Ho!eer by inspecting the results sho!n in figure 2 !e can see
that it is possible to do better than this and a more reliable appro&imation !ould be
This appro&imations are sho! in figure 2 by the bro$en lines. The appro&imation for
is sho!n by a short-dashed red line' and that for by a longer-dashed
green line. %t can be seen that these appro&imations are li$ely to be reasonably
accurate in the region .
2. Types of Wire
%n general' electronic signals are coneyed using a pair of !ires. These are used to
form a closed loop (path) bet!een the signal source and the load around !hich charge
may flo!. /roadly spea$ing !e can then define a cable to consist of a pair of !ires.
The most common forms of cable used in audio are T!in Feeder and 5o-a&. The
basic properties of these are discussed else!here. 6ach of the !ires may be a single'
solid' length of conductor. (ore usually' ho!eer' each !ire !ill consist of a bundle
of conducting strands. (ultistrand !ires hae properties !hich may differ from that
of a single' solid !ire of similar cross-section. 0e can therefore treat !ires as falling
into three general categories as outlined belo!.
#olid core (i.e. )ust one strand of conductor per !ire)
#tranded !ire (a bundle of thin strands of conductors)
7it* !ire (as stranded but !ith insulation bet!een the indiidual strands)
For solid-core !ires the aboe analysis can be used immediately to compute the
internal impedance and deduce the effects it may hae in a gien situation. For the
stranded and 7it* !ires !e need to ta$e the stranding and the effect of inter-strand
contacts or insulation into account.
7it* !ires consist of a bundle of ery thin' indiidually insulated conductors. The
insulation ensures that the current flo!s in all of the !ires in the bundle as the charge
cannot migrate to!ards the surface of the bundle. The entire cross section of
conductor bundle is therefore used by the charge transport. 8roided that the
indiidual strands are thin enough' the strands all hae indiidual radii that are small
compared to the s$in depth at audio frequencies. Hence the oerall properties of the
7it* bundle tends to be similar to that of a single !ire of the same diameter of the
bundle but !here s$in effect is apparently absent.
%n practice' most of the multi-strand !ires used for audio purposes hae no insulation
on the indiidual strands. This means they do not behae li$e a 7it* !ire. %n stranded
!ires !ithout insulation bet!een the indiidual strands charge may cross from strand
to strand. Hence current !ill tend to preferentially flo! near the s$in of the bundle of
!ires' )ust as it does !ith a single solid conductor of similar oerall diameter. Hence
!hen the strands are thin but in electrical contact !ith their neighbours !e can e&pect
the effect of internal impedance to be similar to that of a solid !ire of a diameter
similar to the bundle of strands. There is' ho!eer' one factor !e should ta$e into
account. This arises !hen the strands do not fill the bundle and their are air gaps.
This is illustrated in figure 9. This sho!s a close-pac$ed array of strands' each of
radius .
#ince the strands all hae a circular cross-section !e find that een if they are tightly
pac$ed into a he&agonal array there !ill be spaces in bet!een the places !here they
touch. Hence a bundle of small pac$ed strands that are in electrical contact can be
regarded as similar to a solid but !hich has some air inclusions !hich mean that
oerall !ire cross section is only partly filled !ith conductor. :ien a alue for the
fill factor' ' (the fraction of the cross section !hich is filled !ith conductor) !e can
treat the !ire as being equialent to a solid conductor of the same !ire diameter' '
but haing an effectie conductiity of . Thus the main electronic effect of using a
bundle of strands is to dilute the effectie conductiity and lo!er its apparent alue.
To estimate the alue of the fill factor !e can note that the array has a symmetry
similar to a pac$ed array of equilateral triangles !hose sides all hae a length of .
Ta$ing one of these elemental triangles !e can see that it contains three ;< degree
sectors of conductor. Hence the cross sectional area of conductor in each triangle is
equal to . Ho!eer the area of each triangle !ill be . Hence the fill factor
!ill be appro&imately equal to
+eal strands !ill tend to deform slightly !hen compressed and may not hae perfectly
smooth' circular cross sections. They may also not be perfectly pac$ed. Hence !e can
e&pect the actual alue of the fill factor to ary accordingly in practice. %n 7it*
bundles the insulation layers on the strands !ill also moe the conductors apart by a
small amount' thus reducing the fill factor alue. 1sually' !e can e&pect this effect to
be small as the layer of insulation is li$ely to be ery thin. %n most cases !e can
therefore tend to assume that the fill factor is reasonably close to unity so this is a
reasonable assumption for general analysis. That said' in some specific cases !e can
ta$e stranding into account by modifying the effectie conductiity by an appropriate
fill factor alue.
Content and pages maintained by: Jim Lesurf (jcgl@st-and.ac.uk)
using Tec!riter "ro and #T$L%dit on a &trong'($ po)ered (*&C+& macine.
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