Correct Answer - Option 3 : doubled
Concept:
The skin effect is the tendency of an alternating electric current to become distributed within a conductor such that the current density is largest near the surface of the conductor and decreases with greater depths in the conductor.
The electric current flows mainly at the skin of the conductor, between the outer surface and a level called the skin depth.
Skin depth is defined as:
\(δ=\frac{1}{\alpha}\)
The attenuation constant is given by:
\(\alpha=\omega\sqrt{\frac{\mu\epsilon}{2}\left[\sqrt{1+\left(\frac{σ}{\omega\epsilon}\right)^2}-1\right]}\)
For an ideal conductor with σ ≈ ∞,
\(\Rightarrow \left[\sqrt{1+\left(\frac{σ}{\omega\epsilon}\right)^2}-1\right]≈\frac{σ}{\omega\epsilon}\)
∴ The attenuation constant becomes:
\(\alpha=\omega \sqrt{\left(\frac{\muσ}{2\omega}\right)}\)
\(\alpha=\sqrt{\left(\frac{\omega\muσ} {2}\right)}=\sqrt{\pi f\muσ}\)
Thus, \(δ=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi f \muσ}}\)
Thus, the skin depth is inversely proportional to the root of frequency.
Analysis:
f1 = f
f2 = f/4
\(δ_1=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi f \muσ}}\)
\(δ_2=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi (\frac{f}{4}) \muσ}}\)
δ2 = 2 δ1
The skin depth becomes double.