Calculating the area of a cable.

For single-strand cable use the following formula to calculate the exact area of the cable where the diameter of the cable-strand is known:

s =  π(D/2)²

Where:

As an example, let's consider a single-strand cable with a wire diameter of 0.9mm. Applying the above formula we get:

The following formula can be used to calculate the approximate area of a multi-strand cable where both the diameter of an individual strand and the strand-count are known:

s   = (πd² / 4 (to get the area of a single strand)
S   = n.s (to get the approximate area of a number of strands)

Where:

As an example, let's assume we want to know the area for a copper conductor cable having 41 strands of 0.20mm wire.

First we need to calculate the area of a single strand:

0.20 x 0.20 = 0.04

                     0.04 x 3.14 = 0.1256

                                         0.1256 4 = 0.0314

The approximate area for 41 strands is:

                                                       41 x 0.0314 = 1.2874