Transformer

What are Transformers?

 An AC device used to change high voltage and
low current AC into low voltage and high current
AC and vice-versa without changing the frequency
 In brief
1. Transfers electric power from one circuit to another
2. It does so without a change of frequency
3. It accomplishes this by the principle of
Electromagnetic induction
4. Where the two electric circuits are in mutual
inductive influence of each other
5. Input and output are AC
 Electromagnetic Induction

 When a conductor is moved through a magnetic

field, a voltage is induced across the conductor
 This principle is known as electromagnetic
induction
• The faster the relative motion, the greater the
induced voltage.
 Electromagnetic Induction is the process of
generating an electric current by varying the
magnetic field that passes through a circuit.
 electromagnetic induction establish an important
link between electricity and magnetism.
 Transformer
 The device that changes AC voltage.
 It can not change (direct current) DC voltage
 Transformer is label as “T” in the circuit board
 Transformer basically consists of two inductors one of
these inductors is a meant for supplying alternative
current from external source(is called primary winding),
the other coil in which the primary winding induce
voltage( is known as secondary winding).
Transformer
Symbol of Transformer
 Parts of a Transformer
A transformer consists of 3 basic components
 Primary Coil or Primary Winding :
• It is an electrical wire wrapped around the core
on the input side.
• The winding,which receives electrical energy
 Secondary Coil or Secondary Winding:
• It is an electrical wire wrapped around the core
on the output side.
• The winding, which delivers electrical energy
 Core : A ferromagnetic material that can conduct a
magnetic field through it. Example: Iron
Cont’d….
 Windings are made of copper.
 The windings are stationary and the magnetic
flux is changing.
Transformer Structure
 Magnetic Flux

 The force lines going from the north pole to the

south pole of a magnet are called magnetic flux
(φ); units: weber (Wb)
 magnetic flux measures the amount of magnetic
field passing through a surface. Φ= B*A
 The magnetic flux density (B) is the amount of
flux per unit area perpendicular to the magnetic
field; units: tesla (T), 1 T = 10,000 G (Gauss)
B=
Example:
Find the flux density in a magnetic field in which
the flux in 0.1 is 800 μWb.
Solution: B= = B=
B= 8000μT
 Principles of operation
 If two coils are placed near each other, the change
in flux in one coil will cut the turns of the other
coil and will induce a voltage in it.
 Then these two coils are said to have mutual
inductance
Principles of operation
 This transformer has two air coils that share a Common
flux.
 The flux diverges from the ends of the primary coil in
all directions and it is not concentrated or confined.
 The primary is connected to the source and carries the
current that establishes a magnetic field and the other
coil is open-circuited.
 Notice that the flux lines are not common to both coils.
 The difference between the two is the leakage flux;
that is, leakage flux is the portion of the flux that does
not link both coils.
principles of operation
Transformer Operation
 An electrical transformer normally consists of a
ferromagnetic core and two coils called
"windings".
 A transformer uses the principle of mutual
inductance to create an AC voltage in the
secondary coil from the alternating electric
current flowing through the primary coil.
 The voltage induced in the secondary can be
used to drive a load.
Transformer Operation
What is Mutual Inductance?
 The principle of mutual inductance says that
’’when two electrical coils are placed near to
each other, AC electrical current flowing in one
coil induces an AC voltage in the other coil’’.
 This is because current in the first coil creates a
magnetic field around the first coil which in
turn induces a voltage in second coil.
Mutual Inductance
 Types of Transformer
 According to the transformer construction, they are
classified into two types.
a) Core type transformer
b) Shell type transformer
a) Core type transformer
 In the core type transformers, the windings surround
the core.
b) Shell type transformer
 In shell type transformers, the core surrounds
the windings.
Transformer Types
 Generally there are two types of transformer
based on their uses in power supply
a) Linear type power transformer
b) Switching mode power transformer
a) linear transformer divided in to three:
1) step up transformer
 increase the out put voltage
 example: 240v ac input with a 480v ac out
put (high voltage)
2. Step down transformer
 decrease the out put voltage
 example : 240v ac input with a 12v ac out
put(low voltage)
3. Isolation transformer
 Produce the same amount of voltage as the in
put voltage
 Example: 240v ac input with 240v ac output
Comparison between step up and step
down transformer

Step up transformer step down transformer

Step up transformer Step down transformer

Secondary voltage more than Secondary voltage less than primary

primary voltage(v2>v1) voltage
(v2<v1)
N2> N1 N2<N1
N2 number of secondary turn N2 number of secondary turn
N1 number of primary turn N1 number of primary turn

I2<I1 I2>I1
I2 current in secondary winding I2 current in secondary winding
I1 current in primary winding I1 current in primary winding

Transformer ratio Transformer ratio is less than one

K=V2/V1 is more than one

Power transformer at a Power Distribution transformer is an

Generating Station is an example of this type
example of this type
Tapped Transformers

• The center tap(CT) transformer is equivalent to two

secondary windings with half the voltage across each.
b)Switching mode power transformer(SMPT)
 used in switch mode power supplies in
electronic equipment such as computer
monitor, TV,DVD and so on.
 SMPT converts ac wave to some other value,
lower or higher
 Have input(primary winding) and out
put(secondary winding)
 Cont’d…..
 SMPT rarely break down
 If it break down causes power section
components to blow or totally blow up
 If SMPT is failed , normally it was the primary
winding shorted.
 The secondary winding are very robust and
seldom have problem
 Other types of transformer based on their
applications
 Power transformer(PT)
• main transformer
 Audio frequency transformer(AFT)
• operated at audio frequency of 20Hz to 20 KHz
 Radio frequency transformer(RFT)
• operated at a very high frequency of 300kHz to 3MHz
 Intermediate frequency transformer(IFT)
• lie between audio and radio frequency range and fixed
 Auto transformer(AT )
• the same coil is used to provide turns the primary as
well as the secondary
Auto transformer
 An autotransformer has only one tapped winding,
which is both the primary and the secondary.
 Since only one winding is needed the autotransformer is
cheaper than a normal transformer.
 The disadvantages of the autotransformer is that:
• There is a direct metallic connection between the
input and the output, whereas the coupling in a
double-wound transformer is magnetic only, giving
electrical isolation of the two windings.
• In the event of an open-circuit fault in the common
part of the winding, the input voltage.
Autotransformers
 An autotransformer uses only one coil for the
primary and secondary.
 It uses taps on the coil to produce the different ratios
and voltages.
Step-down and step-up transformers are
illustrated in figure.

Figure: Autotransformers: (a) step-down; (b) step-up

Isolation transformer(IT )

 In isolation transformer, the primary and

secondary are physically isolated (no electrical
connection)
 when the number of the primary winding (N1)is
equal to the number of the secondary
winding(N2 ) that is N1=N2
 While isolating the powered device from the
power source , usually for safety reason.
 has 1 to 1 turn ratio (1:1)
Isolation Transformer
Advantages of Isolation Transformer
 Voltage spikes that might occur on the primary
are greatly reduced or eliminated in the
secondary
 If the primary is shorted somehow, any load
connected to the secondary is not damaged
 Example: In TV monitors to protect the picture
tube from voltage spikes in main power lines
Transformer design factors
1. Efficiency
2. Turn ratio
3. Coefficient of coupling
1.Efficiency of transformer
 Efficiency expressed as percentage
 The basic expression of Efficiency is:
Efficiency% = *100
Input Power and Output Power of a Transformer
 Under ideal conditions input power and output
power should be the same.
 But there is power loss between the primary
and secondary and so practically they are not
exactly equal.
 So, = +
Cont’d….
 Efficiency is normally described by comparing
input power and out put power.
 Power transformer’s efficiency ranges between
80% to 90%
 It is possible to produce having higher efficiency
ratings, but this is not economical always practical
 Any primary power that is not used by the
secondary of the transformer gets converted into
heat in the transformer
 The power loss in this manner is not productive
Transformer Efficiency
 The power loss is converted to heat .
 The heat produced can be found by calculating
the transformer efficiency.
2.Turn ratio
The formula for turn ratio is

 Where, Ns is the number of turns of wire in the

secondary winding and Np is the number of turns
of wire in the primary winding.
 This ratio is very important when we consider
that this relationship is directly related to the
quantity of induced voltage
Turns Ratio
 The voltage at the secondary coil can be different
from the voltage at the primary. This happens
when the number of turns of the coil in primary
and secondary are not the same
 The Turns Ratio (TR) is the ratio of the number of
turns in the primary coil to the number of turns
in the secondary coil
Formulas
• TR=
• Also TR=
• So we can say, =
Also = , if power losses neglected
Transformer Voltages & Currents
Problems
1) A transformer has a primary voltage of 230v and
turns ratio of 5:1. Calculate the secondary voltage.
Answer: =46V
2) A transformer has 200 turns in the primary, 50
turns in the secondary, and 120 volts applied to
the primary (). What is the voltage across the
secondary (V s)?
=30V
 More Problems….
3) There are 400 turns of wire in an iron-core coil. If
this coil is to be used as the primary of a transformer,
how many turns must be wound on the coil to form
the secondary winding of the transformer to have a
secondary voltage of one volt if the primary voltage is
five volts?
Answer: =80
4) A 12 volts transformer has 20 turns in the primary,
5 turns in the secondary. What is the voltage across
the primary side (VP)?
Answer:48V
 3.Coefficient of coupling
 The coefficient of coupling(k) between two coils is
the ratio of the lines of force (flux) produced by
one coil linking the second coil () to the total flux
produced by the first coil ():
K=
 The coefficient of coupling depends on the
physical closeness of the coils and the type of
core material on which they are wound
 Transformer testing
 The most common trouble in coil is open winding
 An ohm meter connected across the coil reads
infinite resistance the open circuit
 Inductors for 60Hz and audio frequencies with
several hundred turns may have resistance values of
10 to 500ohms, depending on the wire size
 Open coil: has infinite resistance
 Open primary winding: when the primary of the
transformer is open no primary current can flow
and there is no voltage induced in any of the
secondary windings
 Cont’d….
 Open secondary winding: when the secondary of
the transformer is open it can not supply power
to any load resistance across the open winding
 Short across secondary winding: excessive
primary current flows, as though it were short
circuited ,often burning out the primary winding.
 The reason is that the large secondary current
has a strong field that opposes the flux of the
self induced voltage across the primary,
making it draw more current from the
generator
 Cont’d….
 There are two ways of testing transformer
1. cold test (power off):-without power
2.Hot test(power on):- with power
1. cold test
 With power off, remove the transformer from the
board and perform a resistance or continuity test
on primary and secondary winding.
 If there is no resistance or ohms reading on the
primary and secondary winding measured an
open winding and the transformer need to be
replaced.
 Cont’d….
Types of Resistance value
transformer
Primary Secondary
winding(R1) winding(R2)
Step down R1>R2 R2<R1
Step up R1<R2 R2>R1
Isolation R1=R2 R2=R1

 The advantage of this method is you are safe

because no power is applied to the transformer.
 The disadvantage is checking the resistance for
ohms reading is not as accurate.
 Cont’d….
2. Hot test
 Switch on the equipment and measure the input
and output voltage of the transformer with either
an analogue or digital meter.
 If there is no voltage or lower voltage then it
suppose to be, the transformer need
replacement.
Cont’d….

Types of Voltage value

transformer
Primary Secondary
winding(V1) winding(V2)

Step down V1>V2 V2<V1

Step up V1<V2 V2>V1
Isolation V1=V2 V2=V1

 The advantage of this method is the transformer

under full operating voltage which is very accurate.
 The disadvantage is that you must be very careful
when checking it especially when power is ‘on’.
THE END