University College Cork EE2016 Lab 1

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

University College Cork

EE2016 Laboratory Assignment 1

PRELAB EXERCISES

Prelab exercises should be completed PRIOR to starting the lab. Pre-lab exercises are
INDIVIDUAL assignments.

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn the basics of electromagnetic induction and investigate
Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction, inductor design and the coupling between
magnetic circuits.

This symbol indicates laboratory steps that require entries in your laboratory
report. This will form your final laboratory grade and will be submitted
electronically after you complete the in-lab assignment.

Part A: Self-inductance

1. In this lab you will use the EPCOS horizontal coil former to wind two identical
inductors. Calculate what length of wire you will need in order to wind two full layers
(i.e., two layers of complete windings along the 25.7mm former cylinder) on each
former. In addition to the winding length, add approximately 10 cm to allow slack for
breadboard connection during the in-lab. Assume an effective wire diameter (including
insulation) of 1.3 mm.
2. Calculate approximately how many total turns (N) of 1.3 mm wire (including
insulation) will theoretically fit on the two layers of windings.

Figure 1. The EPCOS ETD 39/20/13 1 former used in this laboratory. All dimensions in mm.

1
https://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/coil-formers/1253677/

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3. Calculate the approximate DC resistance of each winding using the usual relationship
for the resistance of a circular wire. Assume that the actual copper wire diameter
(excluding insulation) is 0.4 mm and the wire is composed of copper (electrical
conductivity at room temperature of 1.68 x 10-8 Ω∙m).

4. Calculate the approximate self-inductance of the 2-layer coil using the Wheeler
formula 2 for self-inductance of an air-core inductor in terms of the number of turns,
N, and other geometric parameters in units of metres as shown below:

Figure 2. The Wheeler formula for the two-layer air-core coil 3 in units of Henrys. Note that this
expression differs from that in the appendix as dimensions (l, R) are in metres above.

Part B: Electromagnetic Induction

5. Explain, in words, what is Faraday’s Law of electromagnetic induction by considering
a coil with N turns that is subject to a time-varying magnetic field from a nearby
source. What is the effect of (a) the amplitude and (b) frequency of the source on the
voltage induced across the terminals of the coil?

6. Consider what happens when an inductor is connected to a time-varying voltage

source with amplitude V1, operating at frequency of ω radians per second, with an
internal resistance of 50 Ω as shown in the circuit diagram below.

Figure 3. The effect of internal resistance on a circuit driving an inductor.

Write an expression in terms of V1, f and L for the output voltage, Vout, in terms of the
input voltage V1 where Z1 = 50 Ω and Z2 is the frequency-dependent impedance of the
inductor L. Assume the input signal is of the form V1 cos (ωt) where ω = 2π f and f is
the frequency in Hertz.

2
Written in 1928 by Harold Wheeler, the Wheeler’s formulae remain remarkably accurate even today, up to 1%
for short coils such as those used here. A copy of Wheeler’s famous paper is included at the end of the lab.
3
https://coil32.net/theory/faq.html

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IN LAB EXERCISES

You will require your own wire stripper and a USB stick to complete this lab. All other
materials are provided.

This symbol indicates laboratory steps that require entries in your laboratory
report. This will form your final laboratory grade and will be submitted
electronically after you complete the in-lab assignment.

Part A: Self inductance

1. Wind two layers of the insulated wire provided on the EPCOS former provided. After
winding is complete, leave about 5 cm of slack wire at the either end to connect to the
breadboard. Strip the last 1 cm of insulation for connection to the breadboard. The coil
should be wound as tightly as possible on the former and fill two complete layers of
windings (i.e., two layers of windings in depth). You should fit approximately 15-18
turns per layer.

Tip: Wrap the slack wire around the pins at the bottom of the former in order to prevent
it from unravelling during winding.

2. Repeat step 1 for a second identical former and coil.

3. Measure the resistance and inductance of the two coils using the LCR meters provided
in the Laboratory. Record these values in your Laboratory Report and take care to
differentiate between the two coils. We will refer to one coil as the Drive Coil and the
second coil as the Sense Coil (although it makes no difference which you choose to call
the Drive Coil). Include the theoretical predictions for inductance and resistance from
(3) and (4) of your in-lab exercises.
Coil L (uH) R (Ω)
Theory
A (Drive Coil)
B (Sense Coil)

Tip: For making your resistance measurements, use the benchtop multimeter in
Ohmeter mode for more accurate results. The Ohmeter function is indicated by
the Ω symbol and the multimeter probes are connected to the black and white
ports for resistance measurements.

a) Explain what may cause differences in measured values between the two coils.
b) Compare these values to your theoretical predictions. What do you think may give
rise any differences that you observe?

4. Arrange the two coils as shown in the breadboard below. The two coils should be
separated by approximately 25mm (so that the formers are approximately 5 mm apart).
The metal pins of the former should be placed into the breadboard in order to fix them
in place. The two leads from the drive coil should also be inserted into the breadboard
and, in the case of the Drive Coil, connected to the coloured terminal sockets using
jumper cables as shown. The two wires from the Sense Coil will be directly connected

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to the oscilloscope during measurement. Note that in the main sections of the
breadboard, the rows are electrically connected.

Figure 4. Breadboard set-up for the two coils in the experiment.

5. Connect the Drive Coil to the 50Ω output of the function generator. To do this, use a
BNC/banana plug cable where the BNC connector is connected to channel 1 of the
oscilloscope and the banana plugs are connected to the breadboard terminal sockets
(the red and yellow sockets in Figure 3).

Figure 5. BNC connector

6. Connect channel 2 of the oscilloscope to the Sense Coil as shown in Figure 3. To do
this, you will require a cable with a pair of crocodile clips on one end and a BNC
connector at the other. Connect the crocodile clips to the exposed ends of the coil
winding as shown in Figure 3 and the BNC connector to channel 2 of the
oscilloscope.

7. Adjust the input of the function generator input to the Drive Coil to provide an
alternating source of 20V peak-to-peak sinewave at 100 kHz. Note that 20 V p-p is the
maximum amplitude available from the function generator.

Tip: In order to verify that the function generator is operating as expected, you will
need to disconnect it temporarily from the Drive Coil which will have a loading effect
on the function generator. To check that the function generator is operating as
expected, connect the oscilloscope channel directly to the 50 Ω output of the function

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generator and use the Auto Set function to automatically adjust the axes settings. The
Measure function can be used to verify the true frequency and amplitude of the
waveform which may differ slightly from that indicated on the function generator.

8. Record the peak value of the voltage across the Drive Coil and note its frequency in
your Lab Report.

9. Record the peak value of the voltage across the Sense Coil and note its frequency in
your Lab Report.

10. Explain why the voltage across the Drive Coil is not 20V peak-to-peak? What is the
approximate impedance (frequency-dependent resistance) associated with the Drive
Coil that accounts for this voltage drop?

11. Increase the frequency input of the function generator to 500 kHz. What happens to the
voltage measured across the Sense Coil? Explain in Lab Report why this happens.

Part B: Mutual Inductance

12. Insert an AC ammeter into the circuit as shown in the Figure below to measure the
current which is flowing in the Drive Coil. The ammeter is one of the instruments
contained in the Multimeter and is connected using the pair of banana plug connectors
provided. Bear in mind that current is a through measurement so you need to disconnect
one of the Drive Coil terminal ports from the function generator in order to insert the
ammeter probes inline as shown in the diagram. Make sure that you have adjusted the
multimeter to measure AC instead of DC current and that you have connected the
probes to the black and white terminal ports (mA range for current measurement).

Figure 6. Ammeter connection to measure the Drive Coil current.

13. Record the peak induced voltage across the Sense Coil and the peak AC current in the
Drive Coil as read by the multimeter for a 20 V peak-to-peak input voltage from the
function generator. Increase the frequency to complete the Table below noting the peak
Drive Coil and Sense Coil voltages (similarly to Part A) and the Peak Drive Coil current

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(as measured by the multimeter) in each case. Record three values (approximately
maximum, minimum and median) for each table entry in order to plot the variance.

NOTE: For the 10 kHz measurement the coil current may exceed the 100mA capability of
the multimeter (Display will flash). If this occurs use the white 10 A connection instead for
this 10kHz measurement only. You will need to switch the range of the multimeter to Manual
and select the 10 A Range option in this case.

Drive Coil Source: 10 kHz 100 kHz 200 kHz 500 kHz 1 MHz 2 MHz
Peak Drive Coil
Voltage (V)
Peak Drive Coil
Current (mA)
Peak Sense Coil
Voltage (V)

14. We expect the voltage across the Sense Coil voltage, vs, to be related to the current by
the usual expression as indicated below:

𝑑𝑑𝑖𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝑑𝑑
𝑣𝑣𝑠𝑠 (𝑡𝑡) = L =L (𝐼𝐼0 sin(𝜔𝜔𝜔𝜔)) = L 𝐼𝐼0 ω cos ω𝑡𝑡 = 2π 𝐿𝐿 𝐼𝐼0 𝑓𝑓 cos ω𝑡𝑡 (1)
𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑

Using the values for Peak Drive Coil Voltage and Peak Drive Coil Current, determine
the self-inductance of the Drive Coil (L). What frequency do you think will give you
the most accurate result and why?

15. Use the resultant dataset to plot the relationship between Peak Sense Coil Voltage
versus frequency (kHz). Use Matlab, Python or Excel to plot the relationship using error
bars to indicate any variance from the mean across all three measurements, as shown
below. Clearly label your axes labels and numbering as shown below.

16. Faraday’s Law states that the relationship between the induced voltage (i.e., the Peak
Sense Coil Voltage) and frequency should be approximately linear in the absence of
any other changing variable. What variable accounts for the non-linearity in the plot
from the previous part (15)? How might you go about addressing this discrepancy?

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Figure 7. Error bar plot for Sensed Voltage versus Frequency. For indication purposes only; please use the
values of frequency provided in the table.

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