Losses in a conducting cylinder carrying periodic nonsinusoidal current

It is known that current distribution in massive conductors even at periodical processes cannot be found by frequency domain methods (see, e.g., [1-2]). However, resistive losses induced by skin and proximity effects are readily modeled under a sine wave excitation, and the results proved to be accurate through many decades of scientific and engineering practice. Published literature suggests finding the losses at non-sine periodic excitation in linear media through Fourier series by summing the losses induced by every harmonic. This paper compares the results of rigorous analysis in time domain to that of classical frequency domain approach for a rectangular current flowing in a conductive cylinder in axial direction. It was found that whereas the current density profiles differ, the losses calculated for both cases match each other. Thus, current profiles and a direct proof of the validity of frequency domain analysis for non-sine waveforms have been obtained.