Working Principle of a Transformer

A transformer is a static piece of apparatus used for transferring power from one
circuit to another without change in frequency. It can raise or lower the voltage with a
corresponding decrease or increase in current. In its simplest form, a transformer
consists of two conducting coils having a mutual inductance. The primary is the
winding which receives electric power, and the secondary is the one which may
deliver it. The coils are wound on a laminated core of magnetic material.

The physical basis of a transformer is mutual inductance between two circuits linked
by a common magnetic flux through a path of low reluctance as shown in Fig. 2.1.

The two coils possess high mutual inductance. If one coil is connected to a source of
alternating voltage, an alternating flux is set up in the laminated core, most of which is
linked up with the other coil in which it produces mutually induced emf (electromotive
force) according to Faraday's laws electromagnetic induction, i.e.

e = M di

where, e = induced emf

M = mutual inductance If the second circuit is closed, a current flows in it and so

electric energy is transferred (entirely magnetically) from the first coil (primary
winding) to the second coil (secondary winding).