Chapter Two

Chapter two: Electrical and Electronic Instruments
Abrha T.
University of Gondar
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
abrhadbu@gmail.com
05/26/2021 ECEg4155 : ch-2-
abrhaeitm@gmail.com
|Year IV semester I |Control and Power stream | Abrha T.
1. The Galvanometer
A galvanometer is an instrument used for detecting presence of small currents or
voltages in a circuit. They can also be used to measure the magnitude of these small
voltages or currents.
xPrinciple of operation
Galvanometers are based on the principle of magnetic effect.
According to this principle, when a current carrying conductor is placed in a magnetic
field, a mechanical force is experienced on the conductor, which tends to move the
conductor in a direction given by Fleming’s left hand rule.
xTypes of Galvanometers:
 D’Arsonval type
 Ballistic type and
 Vibration type
05/26/2021 ECEg4155 : ch-2- |Year IV semester I |Control and Power stream | Abrha T.
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1. The Galvanometer
xD’ARSONVAL GALVANOMETER Upper Suspension
xConstruction: Moving Coil

Mirror
Iron Core (Stationary)
N l S
Permanent Magnet
d
Former
Fig.1
Lower Suspension
D’Arsonval
Galvanometer
construction
05/26/2021 ECEg4155 : ch-2- |Year IV semester I |Control and Power stream |Abrha T.
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1. The Galvanometer
Moving Coil
It is the current carrying element.
It is either rectangular or circular in shape and consists of a number of turns of fine
wire.
The coil is suspended so that it is free to turn about its vertical axis of symmetry.
It is arranged in a uniform, radial, horizontal magnetic field in the air gap between pole
pieces of permanent magnet and iron core.
Iron core
The iron core is spherical in shape if the coil is circular and cylindrical if the coil is
rectangular.
The iron core is used to provide a flux path of low reluctance and hence provides a
strong magnetic field for the coil to move in.
This increases the deflecting torque and hence the sensitivity of galvanometer.
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1. The Galvanometer
Metal former
The moving coil is mounted on the metal former.
The metal former provides the required damping torque.
The damping torque is produced due to the eddy currents developed in the
metal former.
Damping can also be achieved by connecting a low resistance across the
galvanometer terminals.
Zero setting
A torsion head is provided for adjusting the position of the coil and also for
zero setting.
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1. The Galvanometer
Suspension
The coil is supported by a flat ribbon suspension, which carries the current to coil.
The other current connection is a coiled wire, also called the lower suspension.
 The galvanometer must be leveled carefully so that the coil hangs straight and
centrally without rubbing the poles or the soft iron cylinder.
The upper suspension consists of gold or copper wire of nearly 0.0125 or 0.025
mm diameter, rolled into the form of ribbon.
The controlling torque is usually provided by these suspensions.
Indication
The upper suspension carries a small mirror upon which a beam of light is cast.
The beam of light is reflected on to a scale upon which the deflection is measured.
The scale is usually about 1m away from the instrument.
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1. The Galvanometer
xTorque equation
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1. The Galvanometer
xTorque equation
If the deflection is measured on an mm scale kept 1 meter away, then the
deflection (d) is given by:
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1. The Galvanometer
• Damping in D’Arsonval Galvanometer

Damping is the dissipation of energy of rotation. Damping is achieved in D’Arsonval
galvanometers by two methods:
 Mechanical damping and
 Electro-magnetic damping
Mechanical damping
Mechanical damping is due to the friction produced due to the movement of moving coil
in the air between the magnets. The damping torque due to mechanical effects is given by:,
where Dm is the damping constant.
Electromagnetic damping
The electromagnetic damping is due to:
 Eddy currents produced in metal former and
 Current circulated in the coil circuit by emf generated in the coil when it rotates
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1. The Galvanometer

Electromagnetic damping
Damping due to eddy currents produced in metal former is given by
Where the Damping constant due to resistance of former,

Damping due to the current circulated in the coil circuit
Where the Damping constant due to resistance of circuit,

Total electromagnetic damping
, where =
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1. The Galvanometer

Total damping
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1. The Galvanometer
• Damping
 in D’Arsonval Galvanometer
The electromagnetic damping may be classified as open circuit damping and damping due to
coil circuit resistance.
The damping effects produced by friction, elastic hysteresis, and eddy currents in metal
former are always present whether the galvanometer circuit is closed or not and hence the
damping produced by these effects is called open circuit damping.
The damping effect produced by current flowing in the coil is present only when the circuit is
closed.
Let,
Where
R is the Resistance of galvanometer circuit when closed
Rgis the Resistance of galvanometer coil
R e is the External ECEg4155
resistance required|Year
forIVdamping
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1. The Galvanometer
Critical Resistance
It is defined as the resistance of the galvanometer circuit to ensure that the system is
critically damped.
The mechanical damping effects are small compared to electromagnetic damping, and
hence can be neglected.
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1. The Galvanometer
Sensitivity of galvanometer:
The sensitivity of galvanometer is expressed in many ways, such as:
 Current sensitivity
 Voltage sensitivity and
 Mega ohm sensitivity
Current Sensitivity
The current sensitivity of a galvanometer is defined as the deflection produced by unit
current.
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1. The Galvanometer
• Voltage Sensitivity:
The voltage sensitivity is the deflection per unit voltage
But
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1. The Galvanometer
• Mega-ohm Sensitivity:

It is the resistance of the circuit (MΩ) so that the deflection will be 1 scale division with 1
volt supplied to the circuit.
Mega-ohm sensitivity,
The scale divisions are usually in mm, so
A sensitive galvanometer should produce a large deflection for small current.

But as, for good sensitivity, ‘G’ should be high and ‘k’ should be small.
For ‘G’ to be high, either the number of turns (N) or flux density (B) or Area (A) should be
high.
So, for high sensitivity, the moving coil should be wound with large number of turns of
thin wire.
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2. Permanent Magnet Moving Coil instrument (PMMC)
The PMMC instrument is the most accurate type for D.C
measurement.
xPrinciple:
When a current carrying conductor is placed in a magnetic field, a
mechanical force is experienced on the conductor, which tends to
move the conductor in a direction given by Fleming’s left hand rule.
The difference between the galvanometer and PMMC instrument is

that instead of the light and mirror arrangement, here pointer and
scale arrangement is provided for direct reading of the quantity
being measured.
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xConstruction:
Moving Coil
The moving coil is wound with many
turns of enameled or silk covered
copper wire.
The coil is mounted on a rectangular
aluminum former which is pivoted on
jewel bearings.
The coil moves freely in the field of a
permanent magnet.
The voltmeter coils provide the
required electro-magnetic damping.
Most ammeter coils, however are Fig.2
wound on non-magnetic formers
because coil turns are effectively
shorted by the ammeter shunt. Fig.2. Construction of PMMC instrument
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Magnet systems
Old systems consisted of long U shaped permanent magnets having soft iron pole
pieces.
Due to development of materials such as Alnico and Alcomax, which have a high
coercive force, these are replaced by smaller magnets.
 The flux densities used in PMMC instruments vary from 0.1 wb/m2 to 1 wb/m2.
Thus in small instruments, it is possible to use a small coil having small number of
turns and hence reduction of volume is achieved.
Concentric magnetic construction is employed to obtain larger movement of pointer
and long angular swing of coil.
To protect the system from external magnetic fields, core magnetic construction is
used, where the magnet itself acts as core. This construction also eliminates the
magnetic shunting effects. This construction also eliminates the need for magnetic
shielding in the form of cases.
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Control
The control torque is provided by two phosphor bronze hair springs. These
springs also act as current carrying element to the moving coil.
Damping:
Damping torque is provided by movement of the ‘Al’ former in the magnetic
field of the permanent magnet.
Pointer and scale:
The pointer is carried by spindle and moves over a graduated scale. The
pointer is of lightweight construction, and is often twisted to form a fine
blade. This helps to reduce the parallax errors in the reading.
Torque equation: same as torque equation of the D’Arsonval
Galvanometer
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Ammeter shunts for extension of range of ammeters:
The basic PMMC instrument is useful for measuring only small
currents.
To measure heavy currents, major part of current is bypassed
through a low resistance called a “shunt”. The construction of such a
system is as shown:
20
 Ammeter shunts for extension of range of ammeters:
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 Ammeter shunts for extension of range of ammeters:
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 Effect of temperature changes:
As the temperature changes, the resistance of the coil changes, leading to errors in the readings. To
overcome this problem, the following arrangement is used:
Here a ‘swamping resistance’ (Rsw) of Manganin
(negligible temperature coefficient) having a
resistance 20 to 30 times the coil resistance is
connected in series with the coil and a shunt of
Manganin is connected across this combination.
As copper (moving coil material) forms only
a small portion of the series combination,
the current division doesn’t get affected
by change in temperature.
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Multi-range ammeters:
The current range can be extended by using many shunts in parallel to the movement.
Depending on range, the shunt required can be selected by a range switch.
Rsh1 Rsh2 Rsh3 Rsh4

Rm
Switch (S)
Let m1, m2, m3and m4 be the shunt multiplying power for currents I1, I2, I3 and I4
respectively. Then,
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Multi-range ammeters:
Rsh1 Rsh2 Rsh3 Rsh4

Rm
Switch (S)
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Another arrangement used for extension of range of ammeter is the Universal
Ayrton Shunt shown below:
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Ayrton Shunt …… cont’d
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Ayrton Shunt …… cont’d
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PMMC voltmeter
Next Class
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PMMC voltmeter
A D’Arsonval basic movement is converted into a voltmeter by connecting a series
resistance with it.
This series resistance is known as a multiplier.
The combination of meter movement and multiplier is put across the circuit whose
voltage is to be measured. I m
v
Im = Ifs= full scale deflection current of meter
Rm
Supply Voltage (V)
Rm = meter resistance Load
Rs = multiplier resistance
Rs(Multiplier)
V = full range voltage of instrument
v = voltage across meter for current Im
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• PMMC voltmeter------cont’d 

• Let
From the figure above
The essential requirements of multiplier are:

Their resistance should not vary with time
Change in resistance with temperature should
be small
Usually Manganin and Constantan are used
for multipliers.
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Multi-range D.C voltmeters
The voltmeters can be used for multi-ranges by any one of the methods
described below:
Use of individual multipliers
Use of potential divider arrangement.
05/26/2021 ECEg4155 : ch-2- |Year IV semester I |Control and Power stream | Abrha T..
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Multi-range D.C voltmeters--cont’d
•
Rs1 Rs2 Rs3 Rs4
Switch (S)
Rm
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Multi-range D.C voltmeters--cont’d
Potential divider arrangement
•
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Multi-range D.C voltmeters--cont’d •
Potential divider arrangement
Similarly,
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Multi-range D.C voltmeters Example
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End of chapter -2-

Back to chapter -1-
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Chapter One: Basics of Measurement and Instrumentation
Statistical Analysis of Experimental Data
Arithmetic Mean: When a set of readings of an instrument is taken, the individual
readings will vary somewhat from each other, and the experimenter is usually concerned
with the mean of all the readings.
 If each reading is denoted by xi and there are n readings, the arithmetic mean is given by
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05/26/2021 ECEg4155 : ch-2- |Year IV semester I |Control and Power stream |Abrha T.
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Static characteristics of instruments
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 Environmental effects
 In general, the output O depends not only on the signal input I but on
environmental inputs such as ambient temperature, atmospheric
pressure, relative humidity, supply voltage, etc.
 Thus if adequately represents the behavior of
the element under ‘standard’ environnemental conditions, e.g.
 20 °C ambient temperature
 1000 millibars atmospheric pressure
 50% RH and
 10 V supply voltage
 then the equation must be modified to take account of deviations in
environmental conditions from ‘standard’.
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• Environmental effects --- CONT’D

There are two main types of environmental input.
Modifying input :-causes the linear sensitivity of an element to change.
 K is the sensitivity at standard conditions when = 0.
If the input is changed from the standard value, then IM is the deviation from standard
conditions, i.e. (new value –standard value).
The sensitivity changes from K to K + , whereis the change in sensitivity for unit change in .
Interfering input :- causes the straight line intercept or zero bias to change.
a is the zero bias at standard conditions when = 0.
If the input is changed from the standard value, then is the deviation from standard
conditions, i.e. (new value –standard value).
The zero bias changes from a to a + , where is the change in zero bias for unit change in.
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 Environmental effects --- CONT’D
 The equation is then modified as
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Chapter Two

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Chapter two: Electrical and Electronic Instruments

xConstruction: Moving Coil

Where the Damping constant due to resistance of former,

Where the Damping constant due to resistance of circuit,

A sensitive galvanometer should produce a large deflection for small current.

The difference between the galvanometer and PMMC instrument is

Rsh1 Rsh2 Rsh3 Rsh4

Rsh1 Rsh2 Rsh3 Rsh4

The essential requirements of multiplier are:

Use of individual multipliers

Use of potential divider arrangement.

End of chapter -2-

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