POLARITY TEST

Polarity in electrical terms refers to the Positive or Negative conductors within a d.c. circuit, or to the
Line and Neutral conductor within an a.c. circuit. the resultant voltage appearing across a voltmeter will
be the sum of the high and low voltage windings. This is useful when connecting single phase
transformers in parallel for three phase operations.

Polarity is a term used only with single phase transformers.

Let A1 and A2 denotes the ends of the primary winding.

Let a1 and a2 denotes the ends of the secondary winding.
Ends A1and a1 are joined and a voltmeter is connected across A2and a2.
Single phase supply is given to A1 and A2.
If the direction of the induced emf in primary (Ep) and that of the secondary (Es) is the same.
The voltmeter will read the difference of emf(Ep ~ Es).
If the windings are wound in the opposite direction on the magnetic core,Ep and Es will be in the
opposite direction.
The voltmeter will read Ep+Es.in this case, the polarity is know as additive.
Generally,the polarity used is subtractive

The polarity of a device with mutual inductance designates the relative instantaneous current directions
of such device's winding leads. Leads of primary and secondary windings are said be of the same polarity
when instantaneous current entering the primary winding lead results in instantaneous current leaving
the secondary winding lead as though the two leads were a continuous circuit. In the case of two windings
wound around the same core in parallel, for example, the polarity will be the same on the same ends: A
sudden (instantaneous) current in the first coil will induce a voltage opposing the sudden increase (Lenz's
law) in the first and also in the second coil, because the inductive magnetic field produced by the current
in the first coil traverses the two coils in the same manner. The second coil will therefore show an induced
current opposite in direction to the inducing current in the first coil. Both leads behave like a continuous
circuit, one current entering into the first lead and another current leaving the second lead.

THE IMPORTANCE OF POLARITY An understanding of polarity is essential to correctly construct three

phase transformer banks and to properly parallel single or three phase transformers with existing
electrical systems. A knowledge of polarity is also required to connect potential and current transformers
to power metering devices and protective relays. The basic theory of additive and subtractive polarity is
the underlying principle used in step voltage regulators where the series winding of an autotransformer
is connected to either buck or boost the applied line voltage. Transformer polarity depends on which
direction coils are wound around the core (clockwise or counterclockwise) and how the leads are brought
out, see in figure 1.
 Figure 1. Direction coils are wound around the core

TRANSFORMER POLARITY
Transformer polarity refers to the relative direction of the induced voltages between
the high voltage terminals and the low voltage terminals. Two methods are commonly used to
denote which terminals present the same relative polarity. A dot may be used, or an
alphanumeric designation. Alphanumeric designations are typically in the form H1 for
primaries, and for secondaries, X1, (and Y1, Z1, if more windings present). These markings may
be found on transformer cases beside terminals, winding leads, nameplates, schematic and wiring
diagrams. During the AC half cycle when the applied voltage (or current in the case of a
current transformer) is from H1 to H2 the secondary induced voltage direction will be from
X1 to X2. In practice, Polarity refers to the way the leads are brought out of the transformer.
More often, transformer polarity is shown simply by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) designations of the winding leads as H1, H2 and X1, X2. By ANSI standards, if you face the
low-voltage side of a single-phase transformer (the side marked X1, X2), the H1 connection will
always be on your far left. If the terminal marked X1 is also on your left, it is subtractive polarity. If
the X1 terminal is on your right, it is additive polarity see in figure 2.
Additive polarity is common for small distribution transformers. Large transformers, such as
GSUs at Reclamation powerplants, are generally subtractive polarity. It is also helpful to think of
polarity marks in terms of current direction. At any instant when the current direction is into a
polarity marked terminal of the primary winding, the current direction is out of the terminal with the
same polarity mark in the secondary winding. It is the same as if there were a continuous circuit
across the two windings.

Figure 2. Alphanumeric Designation by ANSI present the same relative polarity

POLARITY TEST
Polarity test in situations where the secondary bushing identification is not available or when
a transformer has been rewound, it may be necessary to determine the transformer polarity by
test. The following procedure can be used. Polarity is a convenient way of starting how leads
are brought out. If you want to test for polarity, connect the transformer as shown in figure 3.
A transformer is said to have additive polarity if, when adjacent high and low-voltage terminals are
connected and a voltmeter placed across the other high- and low-voltage terminals, the voltmeter
reads the sum (additive) of the high- and low-voltage windings. It is subtractive polarity if the
voltmeter reads the difference (subtractive) between the voltages of the two windings. If this test is
conducted, use the lowest AC voltage available to reduce potential hazards. An adjustable ac
voltage source, such as a variac, is recommended to keep the test voltage low.
 Figure 3. Wiring of Polarity Test

Simply polarity test :

Additve polarity : V3 = V1+V2

Substractive polarity : V3 = V1-V2

Example below :

If the transformer is actually rated 480 -120 volts, the transformer ratio is
4:1 (480/120 = 4). 480 volt as primary voltage, 120 volt as secondary voltage. Applying a test
voltage of 120 volts to the primary will result in a secondary voltage of 30 volts (120 / 4 =
30). If transformer is subtractive polarity, the voltmeter (V3) will read 90 volts (120-30 = 90).
If the voltmeter (V3) reads 150 volts, the transformer is additive polarity (120 + 30 = 150).

THE DOT IN TRANSFORMER

Since transformers are essentially AC devices, we need to be aware of the phase

relationships between the primary and secondary circuits. Using our SPICE example from
before, we can plot the waveshapes (Figure 4 below) for the primary and secondary circuits
and see the phase relations for ourselves :

spice transient analysis file for use with nutmeg: transformer v1 1 0 sin(0
15 60 0 0) rbogus1 1 2 1e-12 v2 5 0 dc 250 l1 2 0 10000 l2 3 5 100 k l1 l2
0.999 vi1 3 4 ac 0 rload 4 5 1k .tran 0.5m 17m .end nutmeg commands:
setplot tran1 plot v(2) v(3,5)
 Figure 4. Plot The Waveshapes

It would appear that both voltage and current for the two transformer windings are in-
phase with each other, at least for our resistive load. This is simple enough, but it would be
nice to know which way we should connect a transformer in order to ensure the proper phase
relationships be kept. After all, a transformer is nothing more than a set of magnetically-
linked inductors, and inductors don’t usually come with polarity markings of any kind. If we
were to look at an unmarked transformer, we would have no way of knowing which way to
hook it up to a circuit to get in-phase (or 180o out-of-phase) voltage and current.

Figure 5. Ambiguous

As a practical matter, the polarity of a transformer can be ambiguous like figure 5

above. Since this is a practical concern, transformer manufacturers have come up with a sort
of polarity marking standard to denote phase relationships. It is called the dot convention,
and is nothing more than a dot placed next to each corresponding leg of a transformer
winding, show in figure 6 below.
 Figure 6. The Dot Convention

A pair of dots indicates like polarity, show in figure 6. Typically, the transformer
will come with some kind of schematic diagram labeling the wire leads for primary and
secondary windings. On the diagram will be a pair of dots similar to what is seen above.
Sometimes dots will be omitted, but when “H” and “X” labels are used to label transformer
winding wires, the subscript numbers are supposed to represent winding polarity. The “1”
wires (H1 and X1) represent where the polarity-marking dots would normally be placed.

The similar placement of these dots next to the top ends of the primary and secondary
windings tells us that whatever instantaneous voltage polarity seen across the primary
winding will be the same as that across the secondary winding. In other words, the phase shift
from primary to secondary will be zero degrees.

On the other hand, if the dots on each winding of the transformer do not match
up, the phase shift will be 180o between primary and secondary, like this. See in figure 7.

Figure 7. The dots are not match

Out of phase: primary red to dot, secondary black to dot. Of course, the dot convention only
tells you which end of each winding is which, relative to the other winding(s). If you want to
reverse the phase relationship yourself, all you have to do is swap the winding connections
like this, In phase: primary red to dot, secondary red to dot. See in figure 8.
 Figure 8. The dots are match

The phase relationships for voltage and current between primary and secondary
circuits of a transformer are direct: ideally, zero phase shift. The dot convention is a type
of polarity marking for transformer windings showing which end of the winding is which,
relative to the other windings.

The circuit polarity signs '+' and '-' indicate the relative polarities of the induced
voltages in both coils, i.e. how an instantaneous (sudden) magnetic field traversing the
primary and secondary coils induces a voltage in both coils. The instantaneous polarities of
the voltages across each inductor with respect to the dotted terminals are the same. The
circuit arrows indicate example applied and resultant relative current directions. The '+' and '-'
polarities in the diagram are not the voltages driving the currents. The instantaneous
directions of the current entering the primary inductor at its dotted end and the current
leaving of the secondary inductor at its dotted end are the same. Subtractive polarity
transformer designs are shown in the upper circuit diagrams. Additive polarity transformer
designs are shown in the lower circuit diagrams. Show in figure 9.

Figure 9. Subtractive and Additive Polarity in The Circuit Diagram

Thanks for read and good luck, be success. By Muhammad Kurniawan