UNIT-II

Electrical and Electronic Instruments:

Classification of instruments,– Working Principle
of potentiometer, Design of Analog voltmeter,
ammeter using PMMC and MI and its loading
effect. – Principle of working power factor meter –
Single phase wattmeter, Analog energy meter, Use
of Instrument transformers.
Necessary requirements of any measuring instruments
1. The circuit conditions should not be altered.
2. Power consumption should be small.
Essential requirements of an instrument:
1. Deflecting system producing deflecting torque Td.
2. Controlling system producing controlling torque Tc.
3. Damping system producing damping torque.
 Deflecting torque
It overcomes
• Inertia of the moving system.
• Controlling torque produced by the controlling
system.
• Damping torque produced by the damping system.
To produce deflecting torque
It uses any one of the following effects.
• Magnetic effect.
• Thermal effect. (Heating)
• Electrostatic effect.
• Induction effect .(Electro magnetic )
• Hall effect.
 Magnetic effect
• When a current carrying conductor is placed in
uniform magnetic field, it experience a force
which causes to move it.
• Attraction type or
repulsion type of moving
iron instruments.
• Force between current
carrying coil and a permanent
magnet
• Force between two
current carrying coils
 Thermal effect
• The current to be measured is passed through a
small element –heats it to rise in temperature.
• Temperature rise is converted to an emf by a
thermocouple attached to it.
• Thermocouple consists of lengths of two
dissimilar electric conductors joined at ends to
form a closed loop.
• Different temp-a current flows through the
closed loop.
 Electro static effect
• When two plates are charged, there is a force
exerted between them.
• This force is used to move one of the plates.
• Electrostatic instruments.
• Usually voltmeters.
 Induction effect
• When a non magnetic conducting pivoted disc
or drum is placed in a magnetic field produced
by a system of electromagnets excited by
alternating currents, an emf is induced in the
disc.
• If there is a closed path, the emf forces a
current to flow in the disc.
• The force between induced currents and the
alternating magnetic fields makes the disc
move.
 Hall effect
• Depends on current, magnetic flux and hall
effect coefficient
• Magnetic mea.
Sensing of current
 Controlling torque
• It produces a force equal and opposite to the
deflecting force,
• If it is absent, then the pointer will swing
beyond its final position.
• It brings the moving system to zero position,
When the force is removed.
Types of control system:
• Gravity control
• Spring control
• Functions of controlling system:
1. To produce a force equal and opposite to the
deflecting force at the final steady position of
pointer.
2. To bring the moving system back to zero
when the force causing the instrument
moving system to deflect is removed.
 Gravity control
Weight produces a controlling torque due to
gravity.
The scale for the instrument is not uniform.
Advantages of gravity control:
• Performance is independent of time.
• It is simple and cheap.
• Tc can be varied by adjusting the weight.
• Performance is independent of temperature.
Disadvantages:
• Scale is not uniform.
• Used only in vertical position and properly
leveled.
• Not used for indicating and portable
instruments.
 Spring Control
• Requirements:
1. Spring should be non magnetic.
2. Spring should be free from mechanical stress.
3. Spring should have a small resistance ,
sufficient cross sectional area.
4. It should have low resistance temperature
coefficient.
Phosphor bronze
 Spring Control:
• When the pointer is deflected one spring unwinds
itself while the other is twisted. This twist in the
spring produces restoring
(controlling) torque, which is
proportional to the angle of
deflection of the moving system
• Silicon bronze, hard rolled
silver or cu.
Phosphor bronze spiral springs
• Flat
Spring Control
 Gravity control Spring control

Adjustable small weight is used Two hair springs are used which
which produces the Tc exert Tc
Tc can be varied. Fixed

Not temp dependent. Dependent

Scale non uniform Uniform

Tc α sin θ Tc α θ

Readings not accurate Accurate

Vertical position only Need not be

Proper levelling is required Not required

Simple, cheap, but delicate Simple, rigid but costlier

Rarely used for indicating and Popularly used

portable instruments
 DAMPING TORQUE
• We have already seen that the moving system of the
instrument will tend to move under the action of the deflecting
torque.
• But on account of the control torque, it will try to occupy a
position of rest when the two torques are equal and opposite.
• However, due to inertia of the moving system, the pointer will
not come to rest immediately but oscillate about its final
deflected position as shown in figure and takes appreciable
time to come to steady state.
• To overcome this difficulty a damping torque is to be
developed by using a damping device attached to the moving
system.
 DAMPING TORQUE

• The damping torque is proportional to the speed of rotation of

the moving system, that is

• Depending upon the degree of damping introduced in the

moving system, the instrument may have any one of the
following conditions as depicted in above graph.
 DAMPING TORQUE
1. Under damped condition:
The response is oscillatory
2. Over damped condition:
The response is sluggish and it rises very slowly from its
zero position to final position.
3. Critically damped condition:
When the response settles quickly without any oscillation,
the system is said to be critically damped.

The damping torque is produced by the following methods:

1.Air Friction Damping 2.Fluid Friction Damping
3.Eddy Current Damping 4.Electromagnetic
Damping
 Air friction damping

Used in hot wire and MI.

Does not have PM, (no distortion of operation field)
Fluid friction damping
 Eddy current damping
• When a conductor moves in a magnetic field ,
an emf is induced in it and if a closed path is
provided, a current(eddy current) flows.
• This current interacts with the magnetic field
to produce EM torque which opposes the
motion.
• This torque is proportional to the strength of
the magnetic field and the current produced.
 Electro magnetic damping
• The movement of a coil in a magnetic filed
produces a current in the coil which interacts
with the magnetic field to produce a torque.
• This torque opposes the movement of the coil
and slows the response.
• The magnitude of the current and the damping
torque is dependent on the resistance of the
circuit.
• Used in galvanometers.
TYPES OF AMMETERS & VOLTMETERS
1) Moving Iron Type Meters
a) Attraction type,
b) Repulsion type.
2) Moving Coil Type Meters
a) Permanent Magnet type,
b) Electrodynamic or Dynamometer.
3) Hot Wire Type (AC & DC);
4) Induction Type (AC & DC);
a) Split phase,
b) Shaded Pole type.
5) Electrostatic Type for Voltmeters Only;
 Moving-iron instrument
• An attraction type of moving-iron instrument
is shown diagrammatically in Figure. When
current flows in the solenoid, a pivoted soft-
iron disc is attracted towards the solenoid
and the movement causes a pointer to move
across a scale.

• In the repulsion type moving-iron instrument

shown diagrammatically in Figure, two
pieces of iron are placed inside the solenoid,
one being fixed, and the other attached to the
spindle carrying the pointer.
 Moving-Coil instrument

• There are two types of moving coil

instruments namely, permanent magnet
moving coil type which can only be used for
direct current, voltage measurements.
• The dynamometer type which can be used
on either direct or alternating current, voltage
measurements.
 Moving coil
• MC –wound with many turns of enamelled or
silk covered cu wire.
• Mounted on a rectangular al former pivoted on
jewelled bearings.
• Moves freely in field of PM.
• Voltmeter-coils wound on metal frames –EM
damping.
• Ammeter-coils wound on non magnetic
formers-coil turns shorted by ammeter shunt.
• Coil itself provides EM damping.
 Magnet systems
• Old-U shaped soft iron pieces.
• Alcomax,alnico (high coercive force)- smaller
magnet lengths, high field intensities.
• Flux densities 0.1 to 1 wb/m2.
• Movement of coil is restricted, no actual part
of coil is allowed to reach the extreme
positions near the pole tips (fringing field).
• Angular span -90°.
• Concentric magnet-250° or more
 Control and damping torque.
• Spring control.
• Serve to lead current in and out of the coil.
• Damping- movement of the al former moving
in the magnetic field of PM.
• Pointer and scale: carried by spindle –scale.
• Scale twisted to form a fine blade-to reduce
parallax error.
Torque Equation
 Errors in PMMC instruments
• Friction-Torque to weight ratio is high.
• Temperature-Change on R-large errors.
• Ageing of various parts-PM and control springs
• Weakening of PM-less deflection
• Weakening of control spring-large deflection
 Moving Iron Instruments
1. Moving Iron Attraction type Instruments.
2. Moving Iron Repulsion type Instruments.
Moving Iron Attraction type
Instruments.
 Working principle
• A soft iron piece if brought near the magnet gets
attracted by the magnet.
• The controlling torque –Springs.
• Gravity control also used for vertically mounted
panel type instruments.
• Damping torque-Air friction.
• Operating magnetic field is very weak. Hence eddy
current damping is not used since it requires
Permanent magnet –distort the operating field.
 Repulsion type-Working principle
• Two vanes inside the coil-fixed, movable
• Vanes –magnetized-due to repulsion of like
polarities, there is a repulsion force b/w
vanes –movement of movable vane.
• Commonly used.
• Two types
1. Radial vane type.
2. Co-axial vane type.
Moving Iron Repulsion type
Instruments
 Radial vane Repulsion type
• Most sensitive, linear scale.
• Two vanes are radial strips of iron.
• Fixed vane to coil ,Movable one to spindle and
suspended.
• Needle is attached to vane.
• Alternating current, But always repulsion force-same
direction deflection.
• Proportional to actual current.
• Accurate only for the frequency it is designed, due to
the impedance variation.
 Co-axial vane Repulsion type.
• Two concentric Vanes.
• One –coil frame rigidly.
• Other –rotate coaxially inside the stationary vane.
• Both vanes-magnetized .Movable vane rotates-
rotation of shaft
• Moderately sensitive
• Deflection is proportional to the square of the current-
square law response.
• Scale –non uniform
• Used for both a.c and d.c
Torque Equation
 Errors in Moving Iron Instruments
1. Hysteresis error
2. Temperature error.
3. Stray magnetic field error.
4. Frequency error.
5. Eddy current error.
Application:
Measurement of Electric Voltage and Current
• Moving iron instruments are used as Voltmeter and
Ammeter only.
• Both can work on AC as well as on DC.

Ammeter:
• Instrument used to measure current in the circuit.
• Always connected in series with the circuit and carries the
current to be measured.
• This current flowing through the coil produces the desired
deflecting torque.
• It should have low resistance as it is to be connected in
series.
Application:
Voltmeter
• Instrument used to measure voltage between two points in
a circuit.
• Always connected in parallel.
• Current flowing through the operating coil of the meter
produces deflecting torque.
• It should have high resistance. Thus a high resistance of
order of kilo ohms is connected in series with the coil of
the instrument
Basic Voltmeter
 Multirange Ammeters
• Upto 50A.
• Highest range should
be used first.
Cost is high.
Multi range voltmeter
 Electrodynamometer type
instruments
• Transfer Instruments-calibrated with a d.c
source and used without any modifications for
a.c measurements.
• Can be used as a.c voltmeters and ammeters
both in the range of power frequencies and
lower part of the audio frequency range.
• They are used as wattmeters,varmeters and with
some modification as power factor meters and
frequency meters.
 Working principle
• Torque in one direction-one half
• Equal and opposite effect in –other half.
• The field can be made to reverse
simultaneously with the current in the
movable coil if the fixed and movable are
connected in series.
1. Fixed coils
2. Moving coil.
3. Control
4. Moving system.
5. Damping.
6. Shielding.
7. Cases and scales.
 Fixed coil
• Field produced.
• Divided into two sections, to produce uniform
field near the centre.
• Wound with fine wire .(voltmeters)
• Heavy wire carrying main current in ammeters
and watt meters.
• Wire is stranded to reduce eddy current losses.
• Varnished and baked to form a assembly.
• Clamped against the coil supports.
• Mounting supports made of ceramic.
 Moving coil
• One.
• Wound either as self sustaining coil or on a
non metallic former.
• Metallic former cannot be used as eddy
currents would be induced in it by the
alternating field.
• Light but rigid construction is used.
• Both(MC &FC) are air cored.
 Control
• Spring control
• Two springs
• Acts as leads to moving coils.
 Moving system
• Moving coil mounted on aluminium spindle.
• It carries the counter weights and pointer.
• Suspension can be used if high sensitivity is
required.
 Damping
• Air friction damping is used.
• Pair of aluminium vanes to spindle at the
bottom.
• Eddy current damping is not used as the
operating field is very week.
 Shielding
• Field is weak-0.005-0.006wb/m2
• In d.c, earth magnetic field may affect this.
• Effect of stray magnetic field.
• In a casing of high permeability alloys.
 Cases and scales
• Lab instruments-polished wooden cases.
• Stable over longer period.
• Glass is coated to remove electrostatic field.
• Case is supported by levelling screws.
• Sprit level is provided to ensure proper
levelling.
• Diagonal lines for fine sub division is drawn
on the scale.
• High -300mm scale with 100,120,150
divisions.
Torque Equation
Electrodynamometer type
Ammeters and Voltmeters
Torque Equation in Ammeters
Torque Equation in Voltmeters
 Error In EDM
• Low Torque to weight ratio
• Frequency
• Eddy currents
• External magnetic fields
• Temperature change
 Advantages of EDM
1. Free from hysteresis and eddy current errors.
2. Precision grade accuracy.
3. Both a.c and d.c.
4. Very useful in voltage measurement
 Disadvantages
1. Low torque/weight ratio, low sensitivity.
2. Increased frictional losses.
3. More expensive than PMMC or MI.
4. Sensitive with overloads and mechanical
impacts.
5. Operating current is large, weak magnetic
field.
 Power in DC circuits
• Power
P  I LV L
• Can be carried out using a voltmeter and an ammeter
(generally)
• Two measurement arrangements
• Wattmeters:
– Dynamometer
– Digital wattmeter
– Thermal wattmeter
– Hall-power meter
 DC circuits
a) Ammeter measures
current which flow
into the voltmeter
and load
b) Voltmeter
measures voltage
drop across the
ammeter in
addition to that
dropping across
the load
 Dynamometer
• Power (direct)
measurement device for
DC and AC systems
• Accuracy better than
0.25 %
• Two coils: static and
movable
• Torque is proportional
product of current in
current coil and current
in voltage coil
• Fixed coil :
• carry the current of the circuit.
• They are divided into two halves.
• As current coils is that they can be made more
massive and can be easily constructed to carry
considerable current since they present no
problem of leading the current in or out.
• The fixed coils are wound with heavy wire.
This wire is stranded especially when carrying
heavy current in order to avoid eddy current
losses in conductors.
• The fixed coils of earlier wattmeter were
designed to carry a current of 100 A.
• but modern design usually limit the maximum
current ranges of wattmeter in conjunction
with a current transformer of suitable range.
• 20A
• For power measurements involving large load
currents,5A wattmeter in conjunction with a
current transformer.
• Moving coil: the moving coil is on pivoted
spindle. Spindle is entirely embraced by the
fixed current coils.
• Spring control is used for this movement. The
use of moving coil as pressure coil is a natural
consequence of design requirements.
• Since the current of the moving coil is carried
by the instrument spring, it is limited to values
which can be carried safely by spring without
appreciable heating.
• A series resister is used in the voltage circuit,
and the current limited to the small value ,
usually up to 100 mA.Voltage-600V.
• Control: spring control is used for the
instrument.
• Damping: air friction damping is used.
• Scale and pointer: They are equipped with
mirror type scale and knife edge pointers to
remove reading error due to parallax.
Theory of EDM Wattmeters
Instantaneous torque is given by

Instantaneous Voltage is

Instantaneous current
• Instantaneous current in current coil

• Average Deflecting Torque

• At balanced condition,
 Errors in EDM Watt meters
1. Pressure coil inductance
2. Pressure coil capacitance
3. Error due to mutual inductance effects
4. Errors due to connections
5. Eddy current errors
6. Stray magnetic field errors
7. Errors caused by vibration of moving system
8. Temperature errors
Measurement of power in three
phase circuits
Only for balanced load
 Measurement of Energy
• Motor meters:
They are used for measurement of energy on
both d.c and a.c circuits.
For d.c, the meter may be an ampere hour meter
or a watt hour meter.
In motor meters, the moving system revolves
continuously.
Speed of rotation α power-watt hour meters
α ampere hour- ampere hour meters
• Meter constant: Number of revolutions per
kWh.. Marked.
• Braking System: speed control. PM-Eddy
currents in moving system.-Retarding torque.-
Aluminium disc. Moving system.
• Emf generated in the disc E=k1Φn
Single phase Induction type watt-
hour meters
 Main parts
1. Driving system
2. Moving system
3. Breaking system
4. Registering system
• Driving system: Two electro magnets. Core-
silicon steel laminations.
• one coil excited by load current-Current coil.
• Coil of second electromagnet across supply-
Pressure coil.
• Series and shunt magnets.
• Copper shading bands on central limb.
• The position of shading band is adjustable,
• To bring flux produced by the shunt magnet
exactly in quadrature with the supply voltage.
• Moving system: Aluminium disc –light alloy
shaft.
• Disc in the air gap b/w series and shunt
magnets.
• Rotor runs on a hardened steel pivot-shaft.
• Pivot –jewel bearing.
• Rotating shaft has a small magnet at each end,
upper magnet of the shaft –upper bearing.
Lower magnet of the shaft-lower bearing.
• Moving system floats without touching the
bearing surface-reducing friction.
Braking system:
PM positioned near the edge of the aluminium
disc forms the braking system.
Disc moves in magnetic field, thus providing a
braking Torque.
Adjustable –shifting the PM to different radial
positions.
Registering system:
To record continuously a number which is
proportional to the revolutions made by the
moving system.
Theory of operation
Arrangements for adjusting mmf of
lag coil
1. Adjustable resistance
2. Shading bands-lag adjustment, pf Quadrature,
inductive load adjustment.
3. Lag plate
 Compensation
1. Light load or friction compensation
2. Creep
3. Overload compensation
4. Voltage compensation
5. Temperature compensation
 Errors
1. Incorrect magnitude of fluxes
2. Incorrect phase angles
3. Lack of symmetry in magnetic circuit
 Adjustments
1. Preliminary light load adjustment.
2. Full load unity factor adjustment
3. Lag adjustment(Low power factor
adjustment)
4. Rated supply voltage
5. Light load adjustment
6. Full load.
7. Half power factor.
8. Creep adjustment.
Two Element Energy meter
 Testing of Energy meters
1. At 5% of marked current-Upf
2. At 100 or 125% of marked current-Upf.
3. At one intermediate load –Upf
4. At marked current and 0.5 lagging pf.
Creep test-110 % of its marked value and current
circuit open, the meter should not revolve
through more than one revolution-it should not
creep.
• Starting test: At 0.5 % of marked value of
current and with normal voltage, the meter
should start and run.-No need of accuracy.

• Phantom loading-Fictitious loading

• Testing methods
Method A-long period dial test.
Method B-substandard test.
Method C-Precision grade indicating
instruments.
 Meter testing circuits
• Pressure circuit supply
• Current circuit supply.
• Phase shifting arrangement