INSTRUMENTATION AND

MEASUREMENTS
ELE 4111

LECTURE III

Lecturer: Jomo N. Gill

CONCEPTS TO BE EXAMINED

- Permanent magnet moving coil meters

- The D’Arsonval Movement
- Ammeters

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 PERMANENT-MAGNET MOVING
COIL METERS (PMMCMs)

Analog meters indicate the quantity to

be measured by a pointer and scale that is
interpreted by the user. The D'Arsonval
ammeter uses a simple electromechanical
movement to indicate the current.

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 … cont’d

The most popular type of analog meter is a

permanent magnet moving-coil (PMMC)
type that responds to direct current and
moves a pointer against a calibrated scale
by an amount proportional to the current in
the meter. PMMC meters respond directly to
current but can easily be designed to read
voltage and resistance.

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 THE D’ARSONVAL
MOVEMENT
The D'Arsonval-type meter is a PMMC
meter that consists of a moving coil
suspended between the poles of a
permanent magnet, as shown in the Figure.

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… cont’d

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 … cont’d

Current in the coil induces a magnetic field

that interacts with the magnetic field of the
permanent magnet. The interaction of the
fields produces a force proportional to the
current, which rotates the coil.

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 … cont’d

In turn, this force is opposed by spiral

springs mounted on each end of the coil. A
pointer is attached to the same axis that
holds the coil. The position of the pointer
along the calibrated scale is interpreted by
the user to measure the current.

The sensitivity of the meter is measured by

the full scale deflection current Ifs.
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 … cont’d
The torque developed by the moving coil in
a D’Arsonval movement is given by:

T = BAIN
Where T is the deflecting torque
B is the flux density of the air gap
A is the effective coil area
I is the current through the coil
N is the number of turns in the coil
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 AMMETERS

- The D’Arsonval meter is sensitive to a

relatively small current: 50 μA to 1mA

- We may modify the meter to measure

larger currents by providing a parallel path
for current through a shunt resistance Rsh
as shown in the Figure.

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 …cont’d

Rm – meter resistance
Im – meter current
Rsh – shunt resistance
Ish – shunt current 11
 AMMETERS

At maximum current, we see that:

IT = Ifs + Ish
and
Ish = IT - Ifs

where IT = total current entering meter

Ifs = full-scale meter current
Ish = shunt current

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 AMMETERS
To determine the shunt resistance, we note
that the voltage across the shunt is equal to
the voltage across the meter.
That is,
Vshunt = Vm
IshRsh = IfsRm
IfsR m
and R sh =
Ish
IfsR m
=
I T − Ifs 13
 …cont’d

The unknowns are the meter resistance Rm

and the basic current sensitivity Ifs.

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