2019

Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

CHAPTER 4

HIGH VOLTAGE MEASUREMENTS

1
Nurshahanim binti Mohd Shukri ,
,2
Muhammad Nur Salam bin Zolkepli

1
Centre for Energy and Industrial Environment Studies (CEIES),
Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja, Batu Pahat,
86400 Johor, Malaysia.
2
Advanced Technology Centre (ATC),
Faculty of Engineering Technology,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Parit Raja,
Batu Pahat 86400 Johor, Malaysia.

4.0 INTRODUCTION

In industrial testing and research laboratories, precise measuring of

voltages and currents is crucial, ensuring perfect protection for staff and
equipment involved. Consequently, the individual must be secured at
any cost against overvoltage and against any induced voltage triggered
by stray coupling while controlling the equipment and the metering
devices. Therefore, the position and configuration of the devices are
significant. Besides, high voltage meters and measuring instruments
will not be valid for linear extrapolation of devices because it is outside
of their limits and must be calibrated to the maximum range only.
Another significant issue in impulse voltage and current measurement is
electromagnetic interference that must be minimized or avoided. Hence,
the instruments and devices for measuring currents and high voltages
vary considerably from low voltage and low current devices, although
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

the measurement standards may be the same.

4.1 HIGH VOLTAGES MEASURING SYSTEMS

There is a range of ways to measure the high voltages. It can be around

200 kV or more for direct measurement of high voltages, and there are
many types of voltmeters which can be attached straight to the test
circuit have been developed. By stepping down the voltage using
potential dividers and transformers, high voltages can be measured.
Moreover, for high voltage measurements, the spark-over of sphere
gaps and other gaps are also used, particularly in the calibration of
meters.

Measurement of high voltages ̶ DC, AC, or impulse voltages contains

uncommon difficulties in the standard electrical measurement methods
and techniques that may not be familiar to the specialists, and they will
escalate with the magnitude of the voltage. However, with voltages of
just around 10 kV only, it still easy to be measured while for 100 kV or
even 100 MV will become complicated. To prevent flickering or
flashover by controlling the electrical fields, and sometimes control the
circuits' heat dissipation, the large structures are required, and it related
to the primary difficulties.

It is important to precisely measure the voltage and current in order to

secure perfect protection for personnel and equipment. Linear
extrapolation of the devices has to be calibrated for the full range only,
and they are not valid beyond their ranges for high-voltage measuring
instruments and voltage meters. There is a significant issue that must be
minimized, avoided or reduced in pulse voltage and current
measurement, which is electromagnetic interference.

4.2 MEASUREMENT OF HIGH VOLTAGE

ALTERNATING CURRENT

For direct current, it is simple to calculate the voltage between two

points in the electronic circuit by merely measuring the voltage with a
voltmeter. Nevertheless, the voltage measurement is not that easy with
the alternating current because the condition of voltage in the
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

alternating current circuit is continuously changing.

Measurement of high voltage alternating current uses conventional

methods such as electrostatic voltmeters, potential dividers, series
impedance voltmeters, or potential transformers. However, since the
configuration specification of the insulation design and the loading of
the source is essential parameters or criteria needed, their techniques
vary from those of low voltage meters. Peak voltmeters and spherical
gaps may be used where only peak value measurements are required.

Sphere gaps can also be used for the purpose of calibration. Invariably,
impulse and high-frequency AC measurements use potential cathode
ray oscillograph dividers for recording waveform voltages. Sphere gaps
are mostly used for calibration purposes when peak voltage levels are
needed.

There are three different ways the AC circuit voltage could be

measured, which are peak voltage, peak-to-peak voltage and RMS
voltage. A measurement of the voltage between the highest point on the
AC cycle from 0 V is termed as peak voltage. It is the maximal voltage
that can be surpassed by the AC voltage. While for the difference
between the lowest and highest peaks of the AC voltages is called as
peak-to-peak voltage. The peak-to-peak voltage is also can be classified
as double of the peak voltage in most of the AC voltages.

In the case of RMS voltage, the average voltage of the circuit is often
considered as the mean voltage. It is the most common way to
determine the voltage of an AC circuit for RMS voltage. RMS stands
for root mean square. For example, if the voltage is 120 V AC at a
household electrical outlet, that means that the RMS voltage is also 120
V. The RMS voltage would be equal to 0.707 times the peak voltage if
the AC voltage matches a real sine wave. The peak voltage is
equivalent to about 1.4 times the RMS voltage in order to switch it
around. As a result, it is around 168 V of the actual peak voltage at a
household electrical outlet. As shown in the Figure 4-1 below, that is an
example of what the actual sinusoidal AC voltage are.

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Figure 4-1: Example of a sinusoidal AC voltage.

The true RMS voltage is quite difficult to determine because it requires

some sort of complex arithmetic. By sampling the actual voltage in very
tiny increments, the RMS can be measured. The average of all the
squared values can be calculated when the voltages squared from the
sample voltages are added up and lastly, the average square root is
eventually measured. This is where the actual RMS value is obtained.

The previous approximation turned out to be very similar to multiplying

the peak voltage by 0.707 in the case of a true sine wave. Nevertheless,
the actual RMS value may be contrast from the "multiply by 0.707"
workaround for AC voltages that are not true sine waves.

Almost all of the AC voltmeters record the RMS voltage, but there are
only high-cost AC voltmeters measure the actual RMS by sampling the
input voltage and performing the sum-of-the-squares. While, low-cost
voltmeters essentially measure the peak voltage and just multiply it by
0.707. Providentially, both of the results are similar enough to most of
the uses.

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

4.3 MEASUREMENT OF HIGH VOLTAGE DIRECT

CURRENT

High current may have been important in the power system, such as
testing circuit breaker, cable light arrester, and others. Thus, during
lighting discharge, switching transients and shunt faults, the high
current will be directly connected to them. However, special techniques
are required for this current to calculate, including the use of high direct
current, hall generators and high-frequency currents [3].

4.3.1 High Direct Currents

Low resistance shunts can be used for calculation of high direct

currents. In addition, the millivoltmeter will be used to calculate the
voltage drop through the shunt resistance. Thus, the resistance range is
usually set between 10 mΩ and 13 mΩ. However, all of this will
depend on the heating effect and the load permitted in the circuit.
Besides, the voltage drop must be less than 1V and will also be limited
to a few millivolts. Therefore, in order to obtain a good accuracy in the
measurement of the voltage, a separate terminal must be built. As a
result, the resistance will be an oil-immersed and will consist of three or
four-terminal resistors for voltage calculation.

4.3.2 Hall Generators

Lorenz force is capable of deflecting the electron from the metal surface
in the opposite direction between the direction of the magnetic field and
the current flow. Thus, this situation will happen when the electrical
current flows through the metal-plated when it is put in a magnetic field
in the opposite direction. In addition, the EMF is generated when the
charge moves in a perpendicular direction or is known as Hall voltage.
Besides, the Hall coefficient is known as R and depends on the material
and the temperature of the plate. In comparison, the Hall coefficient for
metal would be much lower than that for semiconductor material, which
is higher than that. Next, as shown in Figure 4-2, the current conductor
will be managed to pass through the Iron Cored Magnetic Circuit in
order to test high DC current. Thus, between the air gap and the small
fixed DC current, the Hall element needs to be positioned between it

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

and moved through the element. Finally, the value of the current I can
be obtained by using the expression of the Hall voltage and by
completing the measurement of the flux density B when the voltage is
calculated across the Hall component.

Figure 4-2: Hall generator.

4.3.3 High Power Frequency Currents

The current transformer is normally used to measure the high-power

frequency current that causes low-resistance shunts to cause
unnecessary power loss. In addition, isolation can be achieved by using
high voltage circuit current transformers, making the safe environment
area work on the HV circuit. Next, it is shown in Figure 4-3 that the
current conceptual measurement model uses the current transformer and
the electro-optical technique for current measurement purposes.
Besides, the electro-optical device is capable of generating and
transmitting a voltage signal that is proportional to the current to be
measured on the ground. Also, the light pulse proportional to the
voltage signal can be transferred to the photodetector using the glass
optical fiber bundle and converted back to the analogue voltage signal.
Adequate current and voltage transformers are therefore required to
obtain the required power for both the signal converter and the optical
device.

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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

Figure 4-3: Diagram for high AC current calculation of current

transformers and electro-optical device.

4.4 MEASUREMENT OF HIGH VOLTAGE TRANSIENT

IMPULSES

In the application of the power system, the current amplitude will be

between a few amperes and a few hundred kilos of amperes, and the
highest rate of increase of current can be as low as 1010A/sec. It will be
in the range of microseconds to a few macro seconds in the increase of
time. In addition, in order to measure this current, the equipment used
will need to have a better frequency response over a large scale of the
frequency band. Some of the methods generally used are therefore the
use of resistive shunts, induction elements, Faraday and Hall Effect
equipment. Finally, using all of this method, the accuracy of
measurements can vary from 1 to 10 per cent.

4.4.1 Resistive Shunts

First, the impulse current i(t) will cause the voltage to pass through the
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

shunt resistance R and to be fed to the oscilloscope by means of the

delay cable D. In addition, in order to obtain a precise measurement of
the voltage and also to avoid the reflection of the voltage that is to be
measured, the delay cable will be completely terminated by using an
impedance of Z equal to the surge impedance. In addition, the
inductance L and the stray capacitance C will be residual due to the
larger dimension of the resistive element. Besides in low frequency, the
inductance will be neglected, but in high frequency, it will be
comparable to the shunt resistance. Normally, the value is then greater
than 1 MHz for the effect of inductance and capacitance. Not only that,
the resistance and the voltage drop value will be between 10m and a
few m and the voltage drop in a few volts. Besides, the measurement of
pulse current over a long period of time using resistive shunts will only
be at a significant amount of expense for thermal reasons. In addition,
the increased time can be created in a few Nanoseconds of magnitude in
a short period of time using a resistive shunt. Also, a parallel carbon
film resistor or a low inductance wire resistor can be made for the
resistance element of some parallel resistance wires or foil. Figure 4-4
shows some of the circuits of the general circuit diagram method used
for measurement of high current impulses.

Figure 4-4: A commonly used circuit for measurement of high impulse

current.

4.4.2 Elements using Induction Effects

di
The expression for voltage across the coil terminal will be V ( t ) =M
dt
, while the inductance between the coil and the conductor, if we want to
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` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

measure the current flowing through the conductor surrounded by the

coil, and M, is the inductance between the coil and the conductor. As a
result, the coil would normally be wound to a non-magnetic form, and it
would be like a toroid and would have a high turn to have enough
voltage induced.
In addition, the output voltage expression is given as:
t
1 1 di M M
v 0 ( t )= ∫ v ( t ) dtA= ∫ M dt= ∫ di= i(t ) or
RC 0 RC dt RC RC
RC
v ( t )= v (t).
M 0
The frequency response of the Rogowski coil is, however, equal to 100
MHz, but at the top, it is affected by the electrical, magnetic and skin
effects of the stray coil [4]. Figure 4-5 shows the high-impulse current
measurement diagram for the Rogowski coil.

Figure 4-5: High impulse current measurement diagram for Rogowski

coil.

4.4.3 Hall Generators

The Hall Generator is capable of measuring high amplitude AC and

impulse currents. In addition, for the measurement of current using the
Hall Generator, the Hall voltage will be directly proportional to its
measurement current, and the flow of the control current will be
constant and permeated by the magnetic field of the current to be
measured. Thus, having a sufficiently high value of Hall constant, it
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Combustion
` Control Strategies – Internal Combustion Engines Series 1
ISBN 978-967-0764-94-8

becomes attractive in the development of a semiconductor. Finally,

using the appropriate balancing device and feedback, the bandwidth
will be as 50MHz.

4.5 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it has become important to measure high voltage and

current in order to ensure the safety of personnel and equipment. There
is therefore some method used to measure high voltage and current in
alternating current (AC), direct current (DC) and transient pulse.
Measurement of the high voltage method is required because the
limitation of the existing commonly used method is beyond their range
for high voltage measuring instruments and voltage meter. Thus, in
high-voltage tests, measurements of voltage and current are difficult
because the amplitudes are high and cannot be measured directly using
conventional measurement and recording systems. Thus, different
methods are used to determine high AC, DC and impulse currents, such
as electrostatic voltmeters, potential dividers, high direct currents, hall
generators, high-frequency currents, high-frequency and impulse
currents. In this chapter, all of this is explained in order to be used for
measuring high voltage for alternating current, direct current and
transient pulse.

REFERENCES

[1] .
[2] .
[3] C. L. Wadhwa, High voltage engineering, 2nd ed. New age
international publisher, 2007.
[4] H. M. Ryan, High-voltage engineering and testing, 3rd ed.
Stevenage: Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2013.

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