Development of integral equation solution for 3D eddy current distribution in a conducting body

Eddy current analysis finds wide application in electrical machinery and devices, in power system analysis, nondestructive testing, continuous casting, ship board applications, and others. Finite-element methods such as T-/spl Omega/, A-/spl phi/ and A-V methods do provide solutions of acceptable accuracy for small problems where the element size is comparable to skin depth. Even for this, a large number of elements are required to model the entire space of the conducting medium and the surrounding air region. Integral equations require modeling of only the conducting parts and therefore offer an alternative approach to the problem. This paper presents an integral equation analysis and its application to a conducting body with and without a crack excited by a transmission line source.