Optimized Magnetics Winding Design (Part 1): A Discovery Over Fifty Years Late
by Dennis Feucht, Innovatia Laboratories, Cayo, Belize, How2Power Today, May 15 2025
Focus:
Dowell derived a 1D field solution for a pair of parallel plates conducting current, much
like the layers of windings in a transformer. Magnetics textbooks routinely derive and
explain it, and how it can be applied to magnetic component analysis, which is to say the
calculation of winding resistance and therefore power losses for a given transformer
design. Yet there is also an obvious way to apply it for magnetics design optimization,
which minimizes winding resistance while applying constraints on certain winding
parameters. This article explains the concepts and methods useful for design optimization
of windings in transformers and inductors. Concepts presented previously by the author are
presented here in more of a tutorial format with further explanation.
What you’ll learn:
- How to apply Dowell’s equations to determine optimal wire size in a transformer at a given frequency
- How to apply Dowell’s equations to determine optimal wire size in a transformer at a given frequency when wire bundling is used
- How to apply Dowell’s equations to determine optimal wire size in a transformer at a given frequency and for a given winding window area
View this Source (requires a PDF Viewer installed on your device)
© 2025 How2Power. All rights reserved.