Electrodynamic Instruments

Mr.S.Kumaravel,AP/EEE 1
Construction
• Fixed coil: The magnetic field is produced by the fixed coil which is
divided into two sections to give more uniform field near the centre
and to allow passage of the instrument shaft.

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Construction
• Moving coil: The moving coil is wound either as a self-sustaining coil
or else on a non-magnetic former. A metallic former cannot be used,
as eddy currents would be induced in it by alternating field. Light but
rigid Construction is used for the moving coil. It should be noted that
both fixed and moving coils are air cored.

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Functional Diagram

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Construction
• Springs: The controlling torque is provided by two control springs.
These hairsprings also act as leads of current to the moving coil.
• Dampers: Air friction damping is employed for these instruments and
is provided by a pair of Aluminum-vanes attached to the spindle at
the bottom. These vanes move in a sector shaped chamber.

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Construction
• Shielding: Since the magnetic field produced by fixed coils is weaker
than that in other types of instruments, these meters need a special
magnetic shielding

• The moving coil of wattmeter is connected in series with a high non–

inductive resistance.

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Circuit Diagram
• The fixed coil of wattmeter is connected in series with load to have
the same load current

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Deflecting torque
• For a d.c circuit, the fixed coil current is the load current,
and the moving–coil current has a value V/R. The
deflecting torque in a d.c circuit is proportional to the
power and it is given by

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• For a.c circuit: Let the applied voltage and the
currents through the moving and fixed coils are given
by

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Deflecting torque

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• Where V and I are the r.m.s values of load voltage and current
respectively. It may be noted that the developed torque must be
equal to the controlling torque at steady state. In other words, the
controlling torque Tc ∝ θ and this implies that θ ∝ power (average).

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Advantages

• Applicable to both dc and ac circuits.

• Free from hysteresis and eddy current errors.

• Precision grade accuracy for 40 Hz to 500 Hz.

• Electro-dynamic voltmeters give accurate R.m.s values of voltage
irrespective of waveforms.

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Disadvantages

• Low torque/weight ratio, hence more frictional errors.

• More expensive than PMMC or MI instruments.
• Power consumption higher than PMMC but less than MI instruments.

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Power Measurement
• The current coils of the wattmeters, 1 & 2, are in
series with the two phases, R&B
• The pressure or voltage coils being connected across
R−Y and B−Y respectively
• The total instantaneous power consumed in the
circuit is,

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Power Measurement
• From the connection diagram, the current in, and the
voltage across the respective coils in the wattmeter
and instantaneous power

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Power Measurement

Substituting the above expression for in the earlier one,

it can be concluded that the sum of the two wattmeter readings is

the total power consumed in the three-phase circuit

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Phasor diagram for a three-phase balanced
star-connected circuit

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