Bachelor of Science

Engineering

BSC102C: Electrical Circuit Theory and Analysis

Tutorial

Topic 10
Electrical Measurements

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Today’s Topics
1. Analogue instruments (using moving coil/moving iron principle and
galvanometers)
2. Shunts and multipliers
3. Power meters
4. Ohm meters
5. Digital instruments and their principles
6. Loading effect of instruments and errors introduced
7. The oscilloscope as a measuring device
8. Bridges and their use in measurements

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1. Analogue Instruments
Every mechanical instrument/measuring device relies upon three
requirements.
They are:
1. A deflecting (or operating) torque
2. A controlling (or restoring) torque
3. A damping torque

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Deflecting Torque
• This torque is produced employing either magnetic, electrostatic or
electromagnetic effect of current or voltage.
• Hence this causes movement from zero position of the pointer.
• It depends upon the nature of the instrument.

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Controlling or Restoring Torque
• The controlling torque opposes the deflecting torque.
• It is directly proportional to the deflection produced.
• It enables the pointer to return to the zero position when the source is
removed.
• Without controlling torque the pointer will not return to zero after
removing the source.
deflecting torque = controlling torque

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Controlling or Restoring Torque

a) Spring control b) Gravity control

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Damping Torque
• The inertia of the instrument will cause the pointer to keep on
oscillating at its final position.
• To overcome this difficulty a damping torque is developed.
• It is done by using a damping device attached to the moving system.

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Deflection of Galvanometer - Derivation
• PQRS is the coil of the galvanometer with current I through it.
• QR and SP are along the direction of the field (so force = 0).
• PQ and RS are normal to the field and experience a force.
PQ = RS = l = length of the coil
b
PS = QR = b = breadth of the coil
Force on PQ, F = B.I.l l
− FPQ acts outwards (Fleming’s rule)
Q
Force on RS, F = B.I.l
− FRS acts inwards (Fleming’s rule)
• These two equal and opposite forces having constitute a couple and
cause deflection of the coil.

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Deflection of Galvanometer - Derivation
• If there are n turns in the coil, moment of the deflecting couple
= n.B.I.l × b = n.B.I.A
• A restoring couple proportional to the twist is set up in the wire.
• If θ is the angular twist, then moment of the restoring couple = Cθ,
where C is the restoring couple per unit twist.
• At equilibrium, deflecting couple = restoring couple so:
n.B.I.A = C.θ
∴ I = (C / nBA) θ = K.θ i.e. I is proportional to θ
where K is the galvanometer constant, K = C / nBA.
• The deflection is directly proportional to the current flowing through
the coil.
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Factors Affecting Current Sensitivity

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Factors Affecting Current Sensitivity
Voltage sensitivity = θ / V = θ / IG = n.B.A / C.G
where G is the galvanometer resistance.
• Voltage sensitivity is independent of current sensitivity
• No. of turns (n) is directly proportional to current sensitivity.
• But a large value of n leads to increase in the resistance (G).

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Problem 1
A galvanometer shows a deflection of 15 degrees for a current of 1.5 mA, when a
rectangular coil of area 30 cm x 20 cm with 110 turns of wire is suspended with the
value of B = 6 x 10-3 T. Find the torsional constant of the suspension wire.
Given:
n = 110
A = 30 cm x 20 cm = 3 x 10-1 x 2 x10-1 m2
B = 6 x 10-3 T, θ = 15 degrees
I = 1.5 mA = 1.5 x 10-3 A
C=?

Answer: 2.26 x 10 Nm/rad

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Galvanometer as an Ammeter
• This is accomplished by connecting a low resistance (shunt) in parallel
with the galvanometer.
• Shunt resistance depends upon current passed through G.

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Galvanometer as an Ammeter
Ig - maximum current in G G - Galvanometer resistance
S - Shunt resistance I – Circuit Current
∴ Current through the shunt:
Is = (I - Ig)
Ig . G = (I - Ig)S
S = G (Ig / I - Ig)
S is very small because Ig << I
1 / Ra = 1 / G + 1 / S
Ra = G.S / (G + S)

• Ammeter is connected in series with load and Ra is very low

• Hence, an ideal ammeter has zero resistance.

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Galvanometer as an Ammeter
G - Galvanometer resistance
Ig - Current required to produce deflection G V
V – Voltage across voltmeter
R - Series resistance

The current through the galvanometer:

Ig = V / (R + G)
R = (V / Ig) – G

The effective resistance of the voltmeter is Rv = G + R

Voltmeter is connected in parallel with a circuit (Rv is very large)

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Moving Coil Instrument
Benefits:
• High torque
• Less power consumption
• Uniform scale
• Very effective damping
• Strong operating field
• Wide range

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Moving Coil Instrument
Drawbacks:
• Finds usage only for dc supply
• Not cost efficient
• Permanent magnet field weakens over time
• Friction and temperature error cannot be avoided

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Moving Iron Instrument (Attraction)
Benefits:
• Easy and simple
• Finds usage for ac as well as dc
• Cost efficient
• Minimum error due to friction
Drawbacks:
• Occurrence of eddy current and hysteresis error
• Non-uniform scale
• More consumption of power
• Deviation in calibration for ac/dc

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Moving Iron Instrument (Repulsion)
Benefits:
• Absence of eddy current error
• Efficient damping
• Accurate measurement of voltage (rms)
Drawbacks:
• Less torque
• Non-uniform scale
• High power consumption
• Less cost efficient
• Occurrence of error (frequency, temperature)

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2. Shunts and Multipliers
Problem 2:
A moving coil galvanometer produces full scale deflection for a current of
45 mA. The resistance of the galvanometer is 22 Ω.
How will you convert the galvanometer into an ammeter of range 22 A.

Given:
G = 22 Ω ; Ig = 45 10-3 A
I = 22 A
S = ?, R = ?

Answer: 0.045Ω
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Problem 3
A moving coil galvanometer produces full scale deflection for a current of
55 mA. The resistance of the galvanometer is 20 Ω.
How will you convert the galvanometer into a voltmeter of range 110 V.

Given:
G = 20 Ω ; Ig = 55 10-3 A
V = 110 V
S = ?, R = ?

Answer: 1980 Ω

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Problem 4
A 10 Ω resistance is connected across a moving coil galvanometer. The
deflection in the galvanometer falls from 55 divisions to 15 divisions.
Calculate the galvanometer resistance.

Given:
θ1 = 55 divs, θg = 15 divs
S = 10 Ω
G=?

Answer: 26.66 Ω

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Problem 5
A moving coil meter has a resistance of 20 Ω. It produces full scale
deflection when a current of 30 mA passes through it.
If the meter is to be used as an ammeter what value of shunt needs to be
added to increase the current range up to 55 A.

Answer: 10.9 mΩ

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3. Power Meters

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Two Wattmeter – Star Connection

W1 + W 2 = P
P is the total power absorbed in the three loads.

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Two Wattmeter Method
Measurement of power:
• Current coils - connected with R and Y
• Potential coil - joined on line B
• The total power taken by Z1, Z2 and Z3, = sum of the powers measured
by W1 and W2.
1. Star connection:
Current through W1 (current coil), = iR
Potential difference across W1 is:
e1 = eRN – eBN
Power measured W1 is:
W1 = iR (eRN – eBN) ------------ (1)
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Two Wattmeter Method
• Current through W2 = iY
• Potential difference across W2 = eYN – eBN
• Power measured by W2 = iY(eYN - eBN) ------------ (2)
• From (1) and (2) total power:
W1 + W 2 = iR (eRN - eBN) + iY (eYN - eBN)
= iR.eRN + iY.eYN – eBN(iR + iY)
N
= iR.eRN + iY.eYN + iB.eBN
(since iR + iY + iB = 0)
Therefore, W1 + W2 = P

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Two Wattmeter - Delta Connection

W1 + W 2 = P
P is the total power absorbed in the three loads.

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Delta Connection
Current through W1 = iR = i1 – i3
Voltage measured by W1 = eRB
Power measured by W1
W1 = eRB(i1 – i3) --------- (3)
Current through W2 = iY = i2 – i1
Potential difference across W2 = eYB
Power measured by W2 is:
W2 = eYB (i2 - i1) ----------- (4)

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Delta Connection
• Add equations (3) and (4):
W1 + W2 = eRB(i1 – i3) + eYB(i2 – i1)
W1 + W2 = i1. eRB + i1.eYB - i3.eRB – i1.eYB
W1 + W2 = i2.eYB + i3.eBR – i1(eYB + eBR)
(since – eBR = eRB)
W1 + W2 = i1.eRY + i2.eYB + i3.eBR
(i.e. eRY + eYB + eBR = 0)
• Therefore, W1 + W2 = P.
• P is the total power absorbed in the three loads.

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Wattmeter - Benefits
• Wattmeters are extensively used in electrical circuit measurement and
debugging.
• In industries they are employed to check the power rating and
consumption of electrical appliances.
• They are used to measure the power ratings of refrigerators, electric
heaters.

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4. Ohmmeters
• An ohmmeter is an electrical instrument that measures electrical
resistance
• Micro-ohm meters make low resistance measurements. Megaohm
meters or “Megger” measure large values of resistance.
• The unit of measurement for resistance is ohms (Ω).

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5. Digital Instruments
• Light weight.
• Capable of giving more accurate readings.
• They measure physical quantities like voltage, current, resistance,
frequency, etc.
• They are less costly.
• They can measure different electrical parameters at high frequencies.

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Analog to Digital Converters
• Digital instruments use analog to digital converters (ADC) to sample
the analog waveform and convert it to digital values.
• There are two main types of ADC
– Integrating ADC which have high accuracy but low sample rate
– Successive approximation or flash ADC with high sample rates and
lesser accuracy
• A digital voltmeter uses dual slope integration type of ADC which gives
very good accuracy with a sampling rate about 100 samples per second.

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Resolution
• The relationship between resolution and signal accuracy is simply that
when more bits are used in the D/A conversion process the more
discrete voltage levels can be resolved.
• The relationship is as follows:
x = 2n
where x is the number of discrete voltage levels and n is the number of bits
• For example 8-bit resolution gives 256 discrete voltage levels or about
0.4% per bit
• Whereas for greater accuracy 12-bit resolution gives 4096 voltage levels
or 0.02% per bit.

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6. Loading Effect of Instruments

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Problem 6
A dc circuit has the value of effective resistance = 2 kΩ and the value of Vth
= 1 V. The internal resistance of ammeter, Rin = 110 Ω.

Calculate the % accuracy and % error.

RTH

VTH A

Answers: 94.78% and 5.22%

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Problem 7
A voltmeter of voltage limit 100 V has a resistance of 2 kΩ. Find the value
of the resistance to be connected in series required to extent the range of
instrument to 250 V.

Given:
Rm = 2 kΩ , Vm = 100 V
V = 250 V
Rse = ?

Answer: 3 kΩ

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Problem 8
What is the value of series resistance needs to be used to extend 0 to 100
V range of 10,000 Ω/volt voltmeter to 0 to 1000 volt?

Answer: 9 MΩ

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Problem 9
A moving iron meter of 580 V, 50 Hz has value of L = 1H It gives correct
reading when the current is 110 mA.
For FSD what is % error in the meter when connected to 210 VDC by
comparing with 210 VAC.

Answer: 0.25%

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Problem 10
A dc milli ammeter has internal resistance Rm = 45 Ω and a full scale
deflection current Im = 1.5 mA.
Design a multi-range dc milli ammeter for a range 0-50 mA.

Answer: Apply shunt resistor of 1.35 Ω

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Problem 11
The open- circuit voltage of a cell is 10.9 V. When a 12 Ω resistance is
connected across the cell the voltage drops to 10.0 V.
Find the internal resistance of the cell.

Given:
R = 12 Ω
E = 10.9 V
V = 10 V
r=?

Answer: 1.08 Ω

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7. Oscilloscopes
• The oscilloscope allows us to view the voltage waveform(s).
• Most modern oscilloscopes are computer-based digital devices.
• These enable us to capture and store transient signals for analysis.

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Digital Storage Oscilloscope

Signal sampled and converted to digital sample points in ADC

Samples stored in memory and waveform displayed on screen

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Virtual Digital Storage Oscilloscopes
There are three main types of Digital Storage Oscilloscopes (DSO):
• Low Cost DSO
− Designed for low-frequency signals (up to 20 kHz) and usually sample
signals at rates of 10K-100K samples per second.
− Resolution is usually limited to 8-bits or 10-bits
• High-Speed DSO
− Designed for signals up to 100 MHz
− 100M to 1000M samples per second ( halved if dual channel)
− Resolution is usually limited to 8-bits or 12-bits
• High-Resolution DSO
− 20M to 100M samples per second
− Resolution is usually 12-bits to 16-bits
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Sampling Rate
• The upper signal frequency limit of a DSO is determined primarily by the
rate at which it can sample an incoming signal.
• In order to display waveforms with reasonable accuracy it is normally
suggested that the sampling rate should be at least twice and preferably
more than five times the highest signal frequency.
• Thus, in order to display a 10 MHz signal with any degree of accuracy a
sampling rate of 50 M samples per second will be required.

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Problem 12

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Problem 12 cont.
For the oscilloscope voltage patterns, determine:
1. The peak-to-peak voltage for channel 0 (the green trace).
2. The period for channel 0(the green trace).
3. The frequency for channel 0 (the green trace).
4. The time shift between channel 1 (green) and channel 2.(blue)

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8. Bridges and Measurements
Bridges are used for resistance measurement, inductance measurement
and capacitance measurement.
Resistance measurement is divided into three types:
1. Low resistance measurement (a few milli Ωs to micro Ωs)
2. Medium resistance measurement (1 Ω to 100 kΩ) Potentiometer,
thermistors, etc. measurement comes under this category.
3. High resistance measurement (100 kΩ to greater than 100 MΩs).

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Bridges - Comparison
Bridge Measurement
Wheatstone Used where small changes in resistance are to be measured (sensor
applications).

Kelvin bridge Used to measure very small unknown electrical resistances below 1 Ω.

Maxwell bridge Used to measure unknown inductance (usually of low Q value) in terms of
calibrated resistance and capacitance.

Schering Bridge Used to measure capacitance, dissipation factor and measurement of relative
permittivity.

Hay’s bridge Used to measure inductance.

Wien Bridge Used to measure unknown range of frequency . It can also be used for
measurement of unknown capacitor with great accuracy.

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Wheatstone Bridge
Applications:
• The Wheatstone bridge is used for measurement of very small
resistance changes with high accuracy.
• Using instrument amplifiers and A/D converters capable of measuring
microvolt differences, it is used to measure physical parameters like
temperature, strain, light, etc.
• Other measurements - capacitance, inductance and impedance (based
on variations).

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Maxwell’s L/C Bridge
Benefits:
• Usage of simple equations.
• Independent of frequency.
• Size of capacitor (standard) is small than inductor (standard).
Drawbacks:
• Cost of variable capacitor is high.
• Can only measure Q-factor in the range 1 to 10.
• Cannot measure choke of Q-factors more than 10.

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Hay’s Bridge
Benefits:
• Use of fixed capacitor which is comparatively cheap.
• Can measure high value of Q-factor.
Drawbacks:
• Complicated equations are involved.
• Values of R1 and L1 are dependent on frequency.
• Cannot measure low Q-factor.

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Schering Bridge
Benefits:
• Accurate measurement of capacitance.
• Ability to measure capacitance value over a wide range.
• Measures accurate value of dissipation factor.
Drawbacks:
• It requires two capacitors.
• Variable standard capacitor is costly.

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Wien’s Bridge
Benefits:
• By varying the two capacitor values, different frequency ranges can be
obtained.
• Perfect sine wave output is possible.
• It is used to measure audio frequency range i.e. 20 Hz to 100 kHz.
Drawbacks:
• More number of components.
• High cost.
• Poor frequency stability.

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Problem 13
A Wheatstone’s bridge has the following parameters R1 = 800 Ω, R2 = 200
Ω, R3 = 750 Ω,. Find the value of unknown resistance Rx.

Answer: 187.5 Ω

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Problem 14
A Maxwell bridge has the following arrangement. The arm ab has unknown
inductive impedance and arm bc has non-inductive resistance of 400 Ω,
arm cd has non-inductive resistance of 1000 Ω in parallel with a
capacitance of 0.5 microfarad. Arm ad has non-inductive resistance of 600
Ω.
Under balance conditions find the value of resistance r1 and the inductance
L1 in branch ab.
L1

Answers: 240 Ω and 0.12 H

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Problem 15
A bridge ABCD has the following parameters, arm AB has R2 = 250 Ω in
parallel with C2 = 2 μF; arm BC has R4 = 450 Ω, arm CD has R3 = 1100 Ω and
arm AD has R1 = 100 Ω in series with C1 = 3μF. Identify the type of bridge
circuit.
Determine the frequency at which the bridge will be balanced.

Answers: Wien Parallel Bridge, 410.9 Hz

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References
• Electrical, Measurements and Instrumentation, by A. K. Sawhney
• Electrical Measurement, by U. A. Bakshi
• Electus Distribution Reference Data Sheet: SHUNTMUL.PDF (1)

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