A NEW METHOD OF MEASURING STRONG CURRENTS BY THEIR MAGNETIC-FIELD

In many situations, it is difficult to measure strong currents directl y, so the currents are measured by their magnetic fields (e.g. by sens ors glued onto the cable surface). If we have only one cable, then it is easy to reconstruct the current from the magnetic field. But in man y real-life situations, there is a neighboring cable whose current is also unknown. Moreover, the cables are hanging freely, so their distan ce is not precisely known. We show that in such situations, it is suff icient to have two pairs of sensors that measure magnetic field; the u nknown current can be uniquely reconstructed from the corresponding me asurement results by applying a simple computer algorithm. (C) 1997 El sevier Science Ltd.