In the same way that a conductor resists establishment of electric current in an electric circuit in response to the application of an EMF, a magnetic material shows reluctance against the establishment of flux in the core (magnetic circuit) in response to the application of an MMF.
In a resistive electric circuit, Ohm’s law gives:
where is the electromotive force (voltage) and is the current.
In a magnetic circuit, the equivalent of Ohm’s law can be stated as follows:
where is the magnetomotive force, and is the reluctance of the electric circuit in Ampere-turn/Weber ().
- In non-magnetic materials, is constant over the entire range of variations of and , and therefore, is proportional to .
- In magnetic materials, is not a constant and thus, - relation is not linear.
Like the case of resistance in electric circuits, is a function of the material of the core and the geometry of the magnetic core.
In electric circuits, resistance R is related to the property of material and geometry of the resistor through the relation:
where:
- is the resistance in ohms
- is the length in meters
- is the cross-sectional area in
- is the conductivity of the material in siemens per meter ()
Similarly, in a similar formula relates reluctance to the property of material and geometry of the magnetic core:
where:
- is the reluctance in
- is the mean path length in
- is the cross-sectional area in
- is the permeability of the core in Henry/meter ().