MEASUREMENT OF INDUCTANCE ,

CAPACITANCE AND FREQUENCY

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 1

Introduction to A.C Bridges:
 The electrical quantities(majorly) to be measured in A.C
circuits are

1) Self Inductance
2) Capacitance
3) Mutual Inductance
4) Frequency

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 2

Introduction to A.C Bridges contd…
 The following are the requirements for the quantities to be
measured in A.C circuits

1) Source(commonly an A.C source)

2) A.C bridge
3) Detector

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 3

 Source:
 Provides an A.C voltage at the required frequency.
 For measurements at low frequencies, the power line may
act as the source to the bridge.
 For measurements at higher frequencies, electronic
oscillators are universally used as the source to the bridge.

 These oscillators have the following advantages

1. The frequency is constant
2. Frequency is easily adjustable
3. Frequency is easily determinable with accuracy
4. The waveform is very close to a sine wave
5. Power output is sufficient for most bridge measurements
 A typical oscillator has a frequency range of 40Hz to
125KHz with a power output of 7W
19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 4
 Detector:
 For detecting balancing condition of the bridge
 Vibration Galvanometer, CRO, Tunable amplifier and
Headphones are used as detectors.
 Head phones are widely used as detectors at frequencies
of 250Hz and up to 3KHz 0r 4KHz. They are most
sensitive detectors for this frequency range.
 Vibration Galvanometers are used at low audio frequency
range(5Hz to 1000Hz) but most commonly used below
200Hz as they are more sensitive than head phones for this
frequency.
 Tunable amplifier, transistor amplifier can be tuned
electrically, can be made to respond to narrow bandwidth of
the bridge frequency. This detector can be used over a
frequency range of 10Hz to 100KHz.
19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 5
 Basic A.C Bridge:
 For ordinary measurements of Inductance and Capacitance, a
fixed frequency oscillator of 1000Hz and output power of
about 1W is adequate.
 For more specialized work continuously variable oscillators
with output up to 5W is preferable.
 In some cases high power may be necessary but in practice it is
better to limit the power supplied to the bridge.
 The another usual practice followed is to use an untuned
amplifier detector.
 The balance detection is sensed both orally by head phones and
visually by a pointer galvanometer having a logarithmic
deflection(to avoid damage to the galvanometer which may be
caused by unbalance condition).

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 6

 Basic A.C Bridge:
 AC bridge are used to measure impedances.
 All the AC bridges are based on the Wheatstone
bridge.
 In the AC bridge the bridge circuit consists of four
impedances and an ac voltage source.
 The impedances can either be pure resistance or
complex impedance.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 7

 Basic A.C Bridge:

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 8

 Basic A.C Bridge:
 There should be no current through the detector, when the
bridge is balanced.
 The balance is possible when potential difference between
the nodes C and D(VCD) is zero.
 This means VCA(E1)=VDA(E2)

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 9

 Basic A.C Bridge:
 By manipulating the above two equations, we get

(1)
or

When using admittances instead of impedances,

(2)

 Equations 1 and 2 represent the basic equations for balance of an A.C

bridge
 Equation 1 is convenient to use, when dealing with series elements
of a bridge and 2 is convenient, when dealing with parallel elements
of a bridge.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 10

MEASUREMENT OF SELF INDUCTANCE:

1) Maxwell’s Inductance Bridge

2) Maxwell’s Inductance-Capacitance Bridge
3) Hay’s Bridge
4) Anderson’s Bridge
5) Owen’s Bridge

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 11

Maxwell’s Inductance-Capacitance Bridge

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 12

Maxwell’s Inductance-Capacitance Bridge
o L1=unknown inductance
o R1=effective resistance of the inductor L1
o R2, R3 & R4=known non-inductive resistances
o C4=variable standard capacitor

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 13

Maxwell’s Inductance-Capacitance Bridge
o The two variables R4 and C4 appear in one of the two balance
equations.
o Hence two equations are independent.
o Q-factor= wL1/R1=wC4R4

Advantages:
1) Balance equations are independent if we choose R4 and C4
as variable.
2) The frequency does not appear in any of the two equations.
3) This bridge yields simple expression for L1 and R1 in terms
of known bridge elements.
4) Very useful for measurement of a wide range of inductance
at power and audio frequencies.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 14

Maxwell’s Inductance-Capacitance Bridge
Disadvantages:
1) Requires a variable standard capacitor which may be
very expensive if calibrated to a high degree of accuracy.
This can be overcome by varying R2 and R4 or by
connecting another resistor in series with L1 and varying
this resistor and R4.
2) Limited to measurement of low Q coils(1<Q<10). For
higher Q, the R4 should be high.
 Suited for measurement of only medium Q coils.
 For high Q coils, Hay’s bridge is used.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 15

MEASUREMENT OF CAPACITANCE:

1) De Sauty’s Bridge
2) Schering Bridge
3) High Voltage Schering Bridge

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 16

 Schering Bridge:

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 17

 Schering Bridge:
• C1=capacitor whose capacitance is to be measured
• r1=a series resistance representing the loss in C1
• C2=a standard capacitor( this is either an air or gas
capacitor hence loss free)
• R3=a non-inductive resistance
• C4= a variable capacitor
• R4=a variable non-inductive resistance in parallel with
variable capacitor C4

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 18

 Schering Bridge:

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 19

MEASUREMENT OF MUTUAL INDUCTANCE:

1) Mutual Inductance measured as self-Inductance

2) Heaviside Mutual Inductance Bridge
3) Campbell’s modification of Heaviside Bridge
4) Heaviside Campbell equal ratio Bridge
5) Carey Foster Bridge( Heydweiller Bridge)
6) Campbell’s Bridge

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 20

Mutual Inductance measured as self-Inductance

 From fig.a Le1=L1+L2+2*M

 From fig.b Le1=L1+L2-2*M
 Mutual Inductance, M=(Le1-Le2)/4
 This method is of advantage when fairly high coupling between
the two coils is obtained.
19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 21
 Heaviside Mutual Inductance Bridge

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 22

 Heaviside Mutual Inductance Bridge
 M=unknown mutual inductance
 L1=self inductance of secondary of mutual inductance
 L2=known self inductance
 R1, R2, R3 and R4=non-inductive resistors

 At balance voltage between b and c must be equal to the

voltage between d and c.
 Also the voltage between abc must be equal to the voltage
between adc.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 23

 Heaviside Mutual Inductance Bridge
 At balance

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 24

 Heaviside Mutual Inductance Bridge
 In order to measure M, self inductance(L1) of the secondary of
the mutual inductance should be known.
 If R3=R4, M=(L2-L1)/2 and R1=R2
 This bridge can be used to measure self inductance. Let L2 be
the self inductance to be measured

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 25

MEASUREMENT OF FREQUENCY:

1) Wien’s Bridge
2) Universal Impedance Bridge

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 26

 Wien’s Bridge:

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 27

 Wien’s Bridge:

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 28

 Wien’s Bridge:
 R4/R3=2(If R1=R2=R and C1=C2=C)
 f=1/(2*∏*R*C)
 Resistors R1 and R2 are mechanically linked so as to fulfill
R1=R2=R
 Suitable for measurement of frequencies from 100Hz to
100kHz.
 May be difficult to balance unless the waveform of the applied
voltage is sinusoidal because of its frequency sensitivity.
Bridge is not balanced for any harmonics present in the applied
voltage. This can be overcome by connecting a filter in series
with the detector.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 29

 Wien’s Bridge:
May be used for measurement of capacitance also.
May be employed in a harmonic distortion analyzer,
where it is used as a notch filter.
Also finds applications in audio and HF oscillators as the
frequency determining device.

19 February 2020 Mr.P.Krishna, EEE Department, IIITN 30