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Extension of Meter Range: Ammeter Shunts

The document discusses the construction and requirements of ammeter shunts and voltmeter multipliers, emphasizing the importance of low temperature coefficients and stable resistance materials like manganin and constantan. It explains the design of multi-range ammeters and voltmeters, including the use of universal shunts and individual multipliers for varying current and voltage ranges. Additionally, it outlines the advantages and disadvantages of PMMC instruments, highlighting their accuracy and low power consumption, but noting their limitations with AC measurements.

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6 views9 pages

Extension of Meter Range: Ammeter Shunts

The document discusses the construction and requirements of ammeter shunts and voltmeter multipliers, emphasizing the importance of low temperature coefficients and stable resistance materials like manganin and constantan. It explains the design of multi-range ammeters and voltmeters, including the use of universal shunts and individual multipliers for varying current and voltage ranges. Additionally, it outlines the advantages and disadvantages of PMMC instruments, highlighting their accuracy and low power consumption, but noting their limitations with AC measurements.

Uploaded by

sai488654
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Extension of Meter Range

❖ Ammeter Shunts
• Construction of Shunts

General Requirements:

The temperature co-efficient of shunt and instrument


should be low and should be as nearly as possible the same.
The resistance of shunt should not vary with time.
They should carry the current without excessive
temperature rise.
They should have a low thermal electromotive force with
copper.

Manganin is used for shunts of dc instrument.


Constantan is used for shunts of ac instrument.

Shunts for low currents are enclosed in the meter casing but for currents above 200 A, they are
mounted separately (so that heat produced can be effectively dissipated).
Effect of temperature change in Ammeters
• The temperature error can be eliminated when the
shunt and the moving coil are made of the same
material and kept at the same temperature. This
method, however, is not satisfactory in practice as the
temperature of the two parts are not likely to change
at the same rate. An additional disadvantage of using
copper shunts is that they are likely to be bulky as the
resistivity of copper is small. Copper shunts are only
occasionally used in instruments with build in shunts.

•The arrangement normally used is shown in the figure below. Here, a ‘swamping resistance’ of
manganin (which has a negligible temperature coefficient) having a resistance of 20 to 30 times the
coil resistance is connected across this combination. Since copper forms a small fraction of the
series combination, the proportion in which the currents would divide between the meter and the
shunt would not change appreciably with change in temperature.
Multi-range Ammeters

• Four different current


ranges

•Let be shunt
multiplying powers for
currents

•Low range ammeters use multi-position make-before break switch in order that meter
movement is not damaged when changing from the current range one to another.

•If ordinary switch is provided, meter remains without a shunt and as such is unprotected
and therefore can be damaged when the range is changed.
• Universal shunt is also used for
multi-range ammeter.

•It eliminates the possibility of the


meter being in the circuit without a
shunt. But this advantage is gained at
the cost of a higher meter resistance.

For switch at position 1,

For switch at position 2, For switch at position 3,

Thus the values of different sections of resistances i.e. may be found.


Voltmeter multipliers
A D’Arsonval basic meter movement
is converted into a voltmeter by
connecting a series resistance with it.
This series resistance is known as
multiplier. The combination of the
meter movement and the multiplier is
put across the circuit whose voltage is
to be measured.
The multiplier limits the current
through the meter so that it does not
exceed the value for full scale deflection
and thus prevents the movement from
being damaged.

For the circuit of figure,

Hence, for the measurement of


voltage ‘m’ times the voltage
range of the instrument, the
series multiplying resistance
should be (m-1) times the meter
resistance.
• Construction of Multipliers

Essential Requirements:

Their resistance should not change with time.


The change in their resistance with temperature should be
small.

The resistance materials used for multipliers are Manganin


and Constantan.

Effect of temperature change in voltmeters


The multiplier resistance used in series with the moving coil is usually made of
manganin having a negligible temp. coefficient. Since the series resistance of the
multiplier is very much greater than the coil resistance ( which is of copper) , the
variations of resistance of due to temperature changes are ‘swamped’ by the
resistance of of multiplier.
Multi-range DC voltmeters
In a multi-range voltmeter, different full scale voltage ranges may be obtained by the use of
individual multiplier resistors or by a potential divider arrangement.

❑ Individual Multipliers

Let range desired be


.

Then corresponding multiplier


resistances are
❑ Potential Divider Arrangement
The series resistances for the voltage
ranges
can be computed as follows.

Multi-range voltmeters are very effective for moderate range voltages. For higher range
voltages, it is often desirable to use external resistors in connection with a given
voltmeter.
Advantages and Disadvantages of PMMC
• Advantages
The scale is uniformly divided.
The power consumption is very low.
The torque /weight ratio is high which gives a high accuracy.
A single instrument may be used for many different current and voltage ranges by
using different values of shunts ad multipliers.
Since the operating forces are large on account of large flux densities which may be
as high as ,the errors due to stray magnetic fields are small.

• Disadvantages
Useful only for dc. Torque reverses if current reverses. If connected to ac, pointer
cannot follow rapid reversals and the deflection corresponds to the mean torque,
which is zero. Hence, it cannot be used for ac.
Cost is higher than moving iron instruments.

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