14 Current Measurement

0908341 Measurements & Instrumentation Chapter 14 Current Measurement (Revision 3.0, 16/5/2008)

1. Introduction Current measurement relies on two principles: 1. In general the circuit in which the current has to be measured has to be interrupted to allow the meter to be inserted Hence the ammeter (as opposed to the voltmeter) must have very low impedance compared to the circuit into which it is inserted (as opposed to the voltmeter that must have very high impedance compared to the circuit it is measuring). Interruption of the circuit has to be done with great care in order not to cause damage or lead to an unsafe situation in the circuit under test. The recent advent of the split core clamp meters has now removed this need, as the clamp can be temporarily opened and the wire inserted inside the clamp and clamp closed again. 2. Most methods of measuring current rely on the principle of converting the current into voltage and then measuring the voltage. The model of a real lift ammeter is an ideal ammeter in series with its own internal resistance. This internal resistance should be as low as possible so that it does not interfere with the circuit under test. There are a number of methods for measuring current. These are discussed in the rest of this Chapter. 2. Electromechanical indicating devices The analogue devices described in the last Chapter used for the measurement of voltage can also be used to measure current. In fact all of those devices are current actuated rather than voltage actuated. 3. Digital ammeters Digital multi-meters can also be used to measure in-circuit current. They usually have a number of internal resistors that allow different ranges to be measured. Digital multi-meters (as opposed to analogue indicating devices) are voltage actuated rather than current actuated). 4. Measuring voltage across a shunt A low resistance shunt is inserted into the circuit in which the current is to be measured. The voltage across the shunt is then measured using a voltmeter (Figure 1). This method suffers from the following disadvantages: 1. The shunt will heat up due to the current passing through (especially in the case of large currents). This heating effect could damage the shunt and could also change its resistance (which will affect the accuracy of the measurement). Lowering the value of the resistance would reduce the heat dissipated. However, when the value of the resistance is Copyright held by the author 2008: Dr. Lutfi R. Al-Sharif Page 1 of 6

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reduced, this reduces the value of the voltage measured across, reducing the sensitivity and increasing the susceptibility to noise interference. 2. Especially for high current a.c. circuits, the shunt has to be designed to match the circuit under test (resistance and reactance matching). 3. The error in the value of the shunt from the assumed value will lead to errors in the final measurement of the current.

Shunt (RSH)

Figure 1: Using a shunt resistor to measure the current in a circuit.

Figure 2: Example of a shunt.

All of the three methods above require the current path to be interrupted and the current passed through the instrument (or the shunt). This is very inconvenient and can be very risky in the case of large currents or high voltage systems. This disadvantage is solved by the use of the following two methods. 5. Current Transformer The problem with the shunt method above is that it is not suitable for use in power circuits as the value of its resistance needs to be impractically small. The other disadvantage is that it does not offer any isolation between the high voltage power circuit and the current measuring circuit. In these cases, it is more suitable to use a current transformer. An a.c. current transformer is effectively made of a toroidal ferrite core that has one or more turns of the circuit to be tested and a large number of turns of the Copyright held by the author 2008: Dr. Lutfi R. Al-Sharif Page 2 of 6

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secondary. The secondary must then be shorted to allow the secondary current to flow1. The primary can have just one turn (i.e., the wire just passes through the toroid). This device can only measure a.c. currents. Figure 3 shows an 22 KV outdoor oil immersed dead tank type current transformer.

Figure 3: Example of a 22 kV current transformer (courtesy of Delta Power Systems).

6. Contact-less d.c. current measurement The current transformer cannot be used with d.c currents. Hence a different method has to be used. Two methods can be used: saturable core reactor and Hall effect transducers. 1. Saturable reactor configuration [2]: By passing the wire carrying the current under test through 2 toroidal ferrite cores, and passing an a.c. current I the secondary of the transformer, the a.c. current flowing through the secondary is roughly proportional to the d.c. current in the primary. This is because the d.c. current in the primary changes the point BH curve and thus effectively changes the effective value of (the slope of the BH curve).

The secondary of the current transformer is effectively a current source. A voltage source must not be short circuited otherwise it will draw a large current and may be damaged. Similarly, a current source must never be left open circuited and must be short circuited to allow the required current to flow.

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A.C. current source

Wire carrying current d.c. under test Ferrite core toroid Ferrite core toroid

Figure 4: Using the staturable reactor concept to measure d.c. current.

2. Hall Effect transducer: By using piece of semiconductor and subjecting it to a magnetic field (B) and passing an orthogonal current I through it, a voltage V is produced that is proportional to the current flowing and is also orthogonal to both B and I (Figure 5). By using a ferrite core toroid and inserting the hall effect semiconductor piece in a slot inside it (Figure 6), the magnetic flux proportional to the primary circuit (the current under test) would produce a voltage across the semiconductor block assuming a constant current is passed through the block. The advantage of this method is that the toroidal core can be temporarily opened to place the core around the wire to be tested (i.e., a current clamp). The magntidue of the voltage produced also depends on the type of material. This is discussed in more detail in [4]. B B I V V
Figure 5: Hall effect.

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Toroid B dc current carrying conductor i

Hall Effect Transducer

v(B)

Figure 6: Application of Hall Effect Principle in contactless dc current measurement.

Figure 7 shows a Hall Effect dc transducer from LEM. It is available with 0-5 V, 0-10 V or 4-20 mA outputs. It requires an external 24 V dc supply. Figure 8 shows clamp split core dc current transducer from Fluke (US).

Figure 7: Contactless DC current transducer (Model DHR, courtesy of LEM, Switzerland).

Figure 8: split core clamp on contactless DC current transducer (courtesy of Fluke Instruments, US).

The contact-less dc current arrangement the employs the Hall Effect transducer can be used either in open loop mode (as shown before) or in a closed loop mode [3]. The closed loop is implemented by feeding back a current into a coil on the same toroid opposing the magnetic flux that is produced by the current to be measured (see Figure 9). This current is adjusted until it nulls the effect of the original current. The null condition occurs when the voltage out of the Hall Effect transducer become zero. At this point, the current to be measured can be calculated from the number of turns of the coil and the feedback current. This method improves the accuracy of the measurement from 1.5% for the open loop device to 0.5% Copyright held by the author 2008: Dr. Lutfi R. Al-Sharif Page 5 of 6

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to the closed loop device. One of the reasons for the improvement in accuracy is the elimination of the non-linear relationship between the current and the magnetic flux density in the toroid by using the null method.

Figure 9: Diagram of a closed loop dc current probe (Courtesy of LEM [3]).

References & Bibliography [1] Measurement & Instrumentation Principles, Alan S. Morris, Elsevier, 2001. [2] Fundamentals of Electrical Measurements, C.T. Baldwin, George G. Harrap & Co Ltd., 1961. [3] Closed Loop Transducers with small footprint up to 100 A nominal, Technical Information, Publication CH 99102 aE/US (02.03 8 CDH) LEM Components, Switzerland. [4] Principles of Measurement Systems, John P. Bentley, Pearson Prentice Hall, Fourth Edition 2005.

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