Scott Dorsey wrote:
Chuck Harris wrote:
But that is exactly backwards from the way chokes work. As the current
rises, and the core approaches saturation, the coil starts to lose the inductance
enhancement provided by the core, and it approaches the inductance of an
equivalent air core choke. That is, the inductance *drops*, and the inductive
reactance *drops* and the AC current shoots way up.

That makes perfect sense to me. So how _do_ current-limiting chokes work,
then? I always assumed they worked as I described but I may well be wrong.
--scott

On DC, they can't! No way, no how.

On AC, a choke can limit the current by being a reactive component...
kind of a lossless resistor for AC.

But! Swinging chokes always reduce their inductance when the current
rises. They typically have a 100:1 change in inductance over their
design current range.

-Chuck