silicon steel lamination magnetic field direction.

[Salvador12]

Ok, so I have known for a while that the laminations within AC cores exist to reduce eddy currents and provide a path for the field to "flow". I have read that the field actually travels along the laminations within the airgaps that exist between each lamination and then "diffuses" inwards into each lamination , this diffusion inwards is dependent on the skin depth corresponding to the AC flux frequency.
My interest is this, what if I have such laminations and the flux flows along their length, but at some point within such core, I create an airgap between each lamination , within this airgap I place a conductor that is parallel to the length of the laminations themselves, now what is the field direction in such case? Would the field point from one lamination into the next and cut the conductor perpendicularly or would the field point parallel to the both the laminations and conductor?

Please see the attached imagine , the black lines represent the individual silicon steel laminations, the red lines represent the conductor placed within the airgap between each lamination.

 

[ahsrabrifat]

The magnetic field will primarily remain parallel to both the laminations and the conductors. The conductors may still pick up an induced voltage if the field parallel to them is time-varying, but this is not due to perpendicular field cutting.

 

[FvM]

Not sure what's the purpose of your setup.

Field lines take the path of lowest reluctance which is perpendicular to air gap. AC field will be however displaced by conductor eddy currents, actual field geometry must be determined considering frequency and conductivity.

 

[Salvador12]

Not sure what's the purpose of your setup.

Field lines take the path of lowest reluctance which is perpendicular to air gap. AC field will be however displaced by conductor eddy currents, actual field geometry must be determined considering frequency and conductivity.

I was just trying to understand how would the field behave if I for example took a rectangular silicon steel lamination core and at one part of it opened the laminations a bit open and inserted a flat conductor within them , like another lamination in the same direction as the silicon steel ones, but this one would be made from non magnetic material like copper, how would the field traverse the copper foil, would it pass parallel to it in the direction of the laminations or would it pass it perpendicularly, although I would think the field within a laminated core passes along the length of the laminations.

 

[FvM]

As stated, field in air gap, no matter if copper filled or not, is taking shortest path, perpendicular to gap. See simulation: