Measurement

and
Instrumentation
 Measurement and
Instrumentation (EEE 353)

Batch: 18
Credit: 3.0
Level 03, Term 01
Contact Hour: 3 Period/Week

Md. Manjurul Gani

Assistant Professor, EEE, CUET

Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology

Permanent Magnet Moving Coil
(PMMC) Galvanometer
Electromechanical Instrument
PMMC Galvanometer
 The value of the measured parameter is indicated
by a pointer and a calibrated scale.
 It Produces deflection in response to electric
current flowing through its coil
 When a current is passed through the coil in a
magnetic field, the coil experiences a torque
proportional to the current.
 Such "meter movements" are the heart of the
electromechanical instruments (voltmeters and
ammeters)
• Can work without any additional power supply
• User‘s eyes are sensitive to movement of indicator
• Simplicity, reliability and low price
• sensitive to shocks, aging
• Do not provide electrical output signal, need for operator’s
activity during measurements
• Accuracy is affected by parallax error
Deflecting Force
Controlling Force
• Nonmagnetic
• Low resistance

The two forces are equal when

The pointer is stationary

Damping Force
• Oscillations
• Eddy current
Eddy currents induced in the
coil former/spindle set up a
magnetic flux that opposes
the coil motion, thus
damping the oscillations of
the coil
 Some facts of PMMC
• The uniform air gap between the iron core and the
permanent magnet poles make the deflection of the
meter linearly proportional to current.
• Basic meter movements can have full-scale
deflection for currents from about 25
microamperes to 10 milliamperes.
• The pointer acts in opposite directions for each
direction of current.
• Only usable for DC, not AC.
 Construction of DC Ammeter
• The basic movement of a DC ammeter is a PMMC
galvanometer.
•The construction of accurate instrument with
moving coil to carry greater than 100 mA is
impractical.
•When heavy currents are to be measured, the major
current is bypassed through a low resistance called
shunt.
PMMC DC Ammeter
Ammeter

Shunt
Basic movement
Internal resistance

The coil carry small current.

Next same as above
Effect of Temperature Changes in Ammeter
– The moving coil in a PMMC instrument is wound with thin
copper wire
– The heating effect of the PMMC coil current produces a
resistance change, which will introduce an error.
– To minimize the error, a swamping resistance made of
manganin or constantan is connected in series with the coil
– Manganin and constantan have resistance temperature
coefficients very close to zero.
Multirange Ammeters
PMMC DC Voltmeter
 Voltmeter

Series resistance
Internal resistance
Multirange Voltmeter
 Sensitivity of PMMC voltmeter
• The current sensitivity is defined as the deflection per unit current.
• It is the ratio of flux density (G) of the electrical system divided by the
control spring constant (k).
• Sensitivity is to be large when G will be large and k will be small.
• G can be increased when coil is wound with many turns of thin wire.
• G can also be increased when intensity of magnetic flux is boost-up.
• k can be made small by using a light flat spring and coil assembly
lightly pivoted.
• The sensitivity of a voltmeter may defined as

1
Sensitivit y , S v 
Im
RT
or Sensitivit y , S v  (unit  / V )
V
Example 4.1: Which voltmeter meter have a greater sensitivity:
Meter A having a range of 0-10V and a multiplier resistance, Rs of
18kΩ, Meter B with a range of 0-300V and a multiplier
resistance, Rs of 298kΩ. Both meter movements have a
resistance, Rm of 2kΩ.
Solution
Meter A: Total resistance, RT = 2+18 = 20kΩ
Sensitivity, Sv= 20/10 = 2kΩ/V

Meter B: Total resitance, RT = 2+298 = 300kΩ

Sensitivity, Sv = 300/300 = 1kΩ/V

Meter A is more sensitive than B.

 Voltmeter Loading Effects
• When a voltmeter is used to measure the voltage, the voltmeter circuit
itself is in parallel with the circuit component.

• Total resistance will decrease, so the voltage across component will

also decrease. This is called voltmeter loading.

• The resulting error is called a loading error.

• The voltmeter loading can be reduced by using a highly sensitive

voltmeter.
Cont’d…
Example 4.2: In Fig. below R1 is 100kΩ and R2 50kΩ. It is desired to
measure the voltage across a 50kΩ resistor. The circuit is driven by
150V dc source. Two voltmeters are available for this purpose.
Voltmeter A with a sensitivity of 1000Ω/V and Voltmeter B with a
sensitivity of 20,000Ω/V. Both meters have 0-50V range. Calculate:
(a) the reading of each meter
(b) the error in each reading expressed as a percentage of true value.
(c) the accuracy of each meter

150V

Solution
True value of voltage across the 50kΩ resistor =
 R 2 
V T    V
 R1  R 2 
 50 
    150  50 V
 100  50 
Cont’d…
Voltmeter A: Resistance of voltmeter

R v  S v V  1000  50  50 k 
When this voltmeter to be connected with R2, the resistance of parallel
combination of voltmeter and resistor
R c  R 2 // R v  25 k 

Voltage across the combination of voltmeter and resistor

 Rc 
V M    V
 R1  R c 
 25 
    150  30 V
 100  25 

Voltmeter B: Resistance of voltmeter

R v  S v V  20 , 000  50  1000 k 
Cont’d…
When this voltmeter to be connected with R2, the resistance of parallel
combination of voltmeter and resistor
R c  R 2 // R v  47 . 6 k 

Voltage across the combination of voltmeter and resistor

 Rc 
V M    V
 R1  R c 
 47 . 6 
    150  48 . 37 V
 100  47 . 6 

Percentage error in Voltmeter A

X t  X m 50 V  30 V
% Error   100 %   40 %
X t 50 V

Percentage error in Voltmeter B

X t  X m 50 V  48 . 37 V
% Error   100 %   3 . 26 %
X t 50 V

V wm
For accuracy of each meter the formula is, Accuracy 
V wom
 Ammeter insertion effects
• Inserting an ammeter in a circuit always increases the resistance of the
circuit and, thus always reduces the current in the circuit. The expected
current:

E
Ie  A
R1

• Placing the meter in series with R1 causes the current to reduce to a value
equal to:

E
Im 
R1  R m
32
Cont’d…

• Dividing equation Im by Ie yields:

Im R1

Ie R1  R m

• The ammeter insertion error is given by :

 Im 
Insertion Error   1    100 %
 Ie 

33
 Rectifier type instruments
• Permanent-magnet moving coil (PMMC) meter
movements will not work correctly if directly
connected to ac, because the direction of needle
movement will change with each half-cycle of the ac.
• Rectifier type instruments are used for measurement
of ac voltages and currents by employing rectifier
element which converts ac to dc
• Then using a PMMC meter movement which is
responsive to dc to indicate the value of rectified ac.
• This method is very attractive since PMMC instruments
have a higher sensitivity
Cont’d…

The diodes are arranged in a bridge. Four diodes will serve to steer
AC through the meter movement in a constant direction
throughout all portions of the ac cycle:

Basic Arrangement of a rectifier type

Instrument to measure ac quantity. 35
PMMC Movement with Half-Wave Rectification
• Figure below is the DC voltmeter circuit modified to measure AC
voltage.
• The diode, assume to be ideal diode, has no effect on the
operation of the circuit .
• If sine-wave input is fed as the source of the circuit, the voltage
across the meter movement is just the positive half-cycle of the
sine wave due to the rectifying effect of the diode.

36
Cont’d…

• When a dc voltage Vdc  V is applied to the circuit, the current through the meter
is I m  V /( Rs  Rm ) which produce full scale deflection.

• Now v  Vm sin t  2V is applied to the same circuit.

• This voltage gets rectified and a unidirectional pulsating voltage/current produces
pulsating torque
• Due to inertia of the moving parts, PMMC indicates a deflection corresponding to
average value of applied voltage

1
V av 
2 V
0
m sin  t d ( t )  0 .318 V m  0 .318  2V  0 .45V

• Therefore, current through the meter I m  0.45V /( Rs  Rm ) which produces a

deflection that is 0.45 time that produced with dc of equal magnitude, V.
• Sensitivity of half wave rectifier type instrument with ac 0.45 its sensitivity with dc.
S ac  0 .45 S dc
 Cont’d…
Example 4.3 Compute the value of the multiplier resistor for a 10
Vrms ac range on the voltmeter shown below

Solution:

1 450
S ac  0.45S dc  0.45  
I fs V
Rs  S ac  Rangeac  Rm
450 10V
 *  300  4.2 K
V 1 38
PMMC Movement with Full-Wave
Rectification
• The full-wave rectifier provide higher sensitivity rating compare to
the half-wave rectifier.
• Bridge type rectifier is the most commonly used as given in the
following figure.

39
Cont’d…

• When a dc voltage Vdc  V is applied to the circuit, the current through the meter
is I m  V /( Rs  Rm ) which produce full scale deflection.

• Now v  Vm sin t  2V is applied to the same circuit.

• This voltage gets rectified and a unidirectional pulsating voltage/current produces
pulsating torque
• Due to inertia of the moving parts, PMMC indicates a deflection corresponding to
average value of applied voltage

1
V av 
 V
0
m sin  t d ( t )  0 . 636 V m  0 .636  2V  0 .90V

• Therefore, current through the meter I m  0.90V /( Rs  Rm ) which produces a

deflection that is 0.45 time that produced with dc of equal magnitude, V.
• Sensitivity of full wave rectifier type instrument with ac 0.90 its sensitivity with dc.
S ac  0 .90 S dc
Cont’d…
Example 4.4 Each diode in the full-wave rectifier circuit in Figure below has an
average forward bias resistance of 50 Ohm and is assumed to have an infinite
resistance in the reverse direction. Calculate,
(a) The multiplier Rs.
(b) The AC sensitivity.
(c) The DC sensitivity.

Solution:

Calculate the current shunt and total current,

Em 1mA  500
I sh    1mA
Rsh 500
and
IT  I sh  I m  1mA  1mA  2mA 41
Cont’d…

Vav  0.9  10V  0.9  10V  9.0V

Vav 9.0V
RT    4.5K
IT 2mA

Rm Rsh
Rs  RT  2 Rd 
(a) The multiplier resistance Rm  Rsh
500  500
(b) The ac sensitivity,  4500  2  50   4.15K
500  500

RT 4500
S ac    450 / V
(c.) The dc sensitivity, Range 10V

1 1
S dc    500 / V
I T 2mA
or
S ac 450 / V
S dc    500 / V
0.9 0.9 42
 Factor Affecting the Performance of
Rectifier Type Instruments
• Effect of Waveforms
 As a convention, currents and voltages are expressed in rms values.
 The meter scales are also calibrated in terms of rms values.
 However, the meters responds to average value. V
 The form factor relating to waveshapes is expressed as k f 
V
av

V V / 2
 For full wave rectification k f   m  1.11
Vav Vm / 

V V / 2
 For half wave rectification k f   m  2.22
Vav 2Vm / 

To read true value of sinusoidal input, the scales

are marked with a multiplying factor of kf
Cont’d…

Practice : A rectifier type instrument uses a bridge rectifier and has its scale
calibrated in terms of rms value of a sine wave. It indicates a voltage of
2.22 V when measuring a voltage of triangular waveshape. Estimated the
peak and rms values of applied voltage. Also calculate the error.
Cont’d…

• Effect of rectifier resistance:

Cont’d…

Effect of Temperature Changes

• Error may arises due to variation of resistance of
rectifying element with temperature.
• Rectifying element has a negative temperature co-
efficient.
• Compensation carried out by making a part of series
resistor of copper, which has a positive temperature co-
efficient.
• If extremely large changes in temperature is expected,
the meter should be enclosed in temperature controlled
box.
Cont’d…

• Effect of rectifier capacitance: The rectifier

instruments show a decreased reading which
may be as large as 0.5% per kHz rise in
frequency.