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A TRANSFORMER TUTORIAL
By Frank W. Smith (http://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/contributor/frank-w.-smith)

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Much as we learn about ourselves from our mistakes, we can learn a great deal about
transformers from their imperfections. Most electronics hobbyists understand the basic
principles of ideal transformers; that the winding voltages are directly proportional to
turns, currents are inversely proportional to turns, and an impedance connected to one
winding is seen from the other winding as being multiplied by the square of the turns ratio.
Figure 1 illustrates these fundamentals.
 FIGURE 1. Ideal Transformer Principles Illustrated

However, all these conditions are only applicable if:

1. All of the magnetic eld generated in the any one winding links and induces voltage in other windings
2. There is negligible resistance in either or all of the windings
3. There is no hysteresis or eddy current loss in the core
4. The self-inductance of the excited winding approaches innity, so that the magnetizing current that produces
the ux in the core is near zero
5. Capacitance effects are negligible

While many iron core transformers operating at low frequency come remarkably close to meeting
some of these criteria, none actually completely meet any of them, and hence never quite live up to
the ideal principles stated above. For some purposes it is okay to assume ideal transformers, but for
others it is necessary to consider the imperfections of the devices.

The equivalent circuit of Figure 2 is helpful in visualizing the transformers imperfections. In this two
winding transformer, Rs represents the combined AC winding resistances of the primary and
secondary windings. The term Xs represents the winding leakage reactance.

FIGURE 2. Equivalent Circuit with Lumped Winding Resistance and Leakage Reactance

In an ideal transformer where every line of magnetic ux generated in the primary winding links the
secondary windings and vice versa, ux generated by the load currents would completely cancel in
accordance with Lenzs Law, and the core ux would remain constant for all load conditions.

In a real transformer, however, ux linkage is not perfect, and the transformer introduces inductive
reactance, usually small, in series with the circuit.

The parallel resistance Rc represents the energy losses due to hysteresis and eddy currents in the
core. These are real energy losses and hence can be represented by resistance. The parallel
reactance, Xm, is the inductive reactance of the excited winding, and it is the current in this branch
that produces the principal magnetic eld in the core. The turns ratio is represented by the ideal
transformer, the dots showing terminals which have the same instantaneous polarity.

Values for the resistance and reactance components in the equivalent circuit are readily obtained
from two simple tests: an open circuit or no load test in which one winding of the transformer is
energized at rated voltage with the other winding(s) open; and a short circuit test in which voltage on
one winding is applied to achieve rated current with the other winding(s) short-circuited.

In both tests, voltage, current, and power are measured on the energized winding. See Figure 3.

FIGURE 3. Instrumentation for Tests and Formulas for Calculation of Equivalent Circuit Parameters

The current in the open circuit test will be quite small, so that the power losses and voltage drops in
Rs and Xs are considered negligible, and it is assumed that all power losses are core losses
(hysteresis plus eddy current). The core parameters Rc and Xm are calculated as shown in Figure 3a,
using applied voltage. The series parameters Rs and Xs are calculated in a similar manner from
the short circuit test.

In this test, the voltage will be much less than rated voltage, and it is assumed that core losses, which
are voltage sensitive, are negligible. While the instrumentation is basically the same as for the open
circuit test, it is now the current through the series elements which is known, rather than the voltage
across the the parallel core elements. See Figure 3b.

While the above tests are normally associated with large power transformers, the same principles
should apply reasonably well to small transformers with some loss of accuracy. To make the point, an
off-the-shelf transformer rated 120 to 12.6 volts, 1.2 amp, was purchased at a local electronics store
and tested with the results shown in Table 1.

V1 (volts) I (amps) P (watts) V2 (volts)

Open Circuit Test 120 0.048 2.30 14.4

Short Circuit Test 13.83 0.126 1.63 0

TABLE 1 Test Data on Transformer Rated 120V to 12.6V @ 1.2A, 60Hz

Using the methods described previously, the equivalent circuit shown in Figure 4 was developed.
 FIGURE 4. Equivalent Circuit of Tested Transformer

Impedance transformation is not only an important application of transformers, but enables us to

further simplify the equivalent circuit. To understand how impedance transformation works, refer
back to Figure 1. By tracing back from the load resistor to the source generator using ideal
transformer concepts, it is easy to see that the generator sees an impedance which is a 2 times the
load impedance, where a is the turns ratio, N1/N2.

If we interchanged the source and load, the impedance seen by the source would be divided by a 2,
again with a = N1/N2, to give an apparent resistance of one ohm. One very common application of
this principle is in matching the impedance of an amplier to that of a speaker so as to optimize
power transfer in accordance with the maximum power transformer theorem.

We may also use this principle to eliminate the ideal transformer in the transformer equivalent circuit
and thus provide for analysis at a single voltage level.

Consider the 120 to 12.6 volt transformer described previously connected to a 120 volt, 60 Hz source
and with a resistance load of 10 ohms connected to the 12.6 volt winding.

The complete equivalent circuit, neglecting source impedance, is shown in Figure 5a. The same
equivalent circuit with the load resistance referred to the source side is shown in Figure 5b. This was
accomplished by simply multiplying the 10-ohm load by (8.3)2.

FIGURE 5. Equivalent Circuits with 10 Ohm Load

In many instances, it is more convenient to work from the low-voltage side of the transformer rather
than the high-voltage side.

The same principle used to refer the load impedance to the source side in Figure 5 can be used to
refer all impedances to the low-voltage side.

To accomplish this, we divide all high side impedances by a 2. Again, in the example used above, we
convert the transformer equivalent circuit to the 12.6 volt side by dividing high side impedances by
(8.3)2 and placing the ideal transformer at the high voltage terminals. See Figure 6. (This is the same
transformer equivalent circuit that would be obtained if the unit was tested from the low-voltage
side.)

FIGURE 6. Equivalent Circuit Referred to Low Voltage Side

Circuit analysis using a complete equivalent circuit as described above can be fairly tedious, and
requires skill at complex algebra techniques. Fortunately, for many purposes, including most small
transformer applications, substantial simplications are possible.

While the parallel magnetizing branch components Rc and Xm introduce some error in the ideal
current transformation ratio, their effects on circuit behavior are often minimal in comparison with the
series components Rs and Xs and consequently may often be omitted.

This results in a very simple equivalent circuit, consisting of merely a series impedance and an ideal
transformer, or, if all parts of the system are referred to a single voltage level as in the preceding
paragraphs, of just a series impedance.

Moreover, in small transformers such as that described in this article, the series resistance Rs is
usually much higher than the leakage reactance, Xs, so that Rs + jXs does not differ greatly from Rs.
Thus, Xs for small transformers can often be neglected, which allows us to reduce the equivalent
circuit to a mere series resistance.

To illustrate, suppose we wish to nd the secondary voltage of the transformer described previously
when the load on the full secondary winding is 25 ohms. If we reect this resistance to the primary
side so as to eliminate the turns ratio, we have 8.32x25 = 1722 ohms. Our ultra-simplied equivalent
circuit is then as shown in Figure 7.

FIGURE 7. Ultra Simplied Equivalent Circuit with 25 Ohm Load

With 120 volts applied, the primary current is 120/(103+1722) = 66 mA, and the drop across the load
 referred to the primary is .066x1722 = 114 volts. Now, we re-insert the turns ratio, and our
secondary voltage is 114/8.3, or 13.7 volts.

We can check the legitimacy of our approximate equivalent circuit by calculating the secondary
voltage at full rated load; it should be 12.6 volts.

The full load resistance is 12.6/1.2 = 10.5 ohms, which is 8.32x10.5 = 723 ohms reected to the
primary. The resistance seen from the source is 723+103 = 826 ohms, and the primary current is
120/826 = 0.145 amperes.

The load drop referred to the primary is 0.145x723 = 105 volts.

Finally, dividing 105 volts by the turns ratio of 8.3 gives us 12.65 volts, which is very close to the
winding rating of 12.6 volts.

A solution using the complete equivalent circuit and complex algebra yielded a load voltage of 12.638
volts. NV

COMMENTS
3 Comments Nuts & Volts
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Join the discussion

Bob Turner 2 months ago

Hi Donnie, looks like a typo.
My best guess (looking at figure 3) is
the first column is the input voltage, V12 (i.e. voltage between nodes 1,2)
The second column is the input current, I1 (amps going into pin1, about 120mA which is ~ 1/8 of
the output current)
The third column is a mystery, I'm guessing it's the input power P1 (going into pin 1) its about 2.3W
when open circuit , and 1.6W when short circuit, So when open circuit 2.3W total is dissipated,
mostly in the iron core ~2W and less in the copper windings ~0.3w in the iron core of the
transformer, when short circuit a total of 1.63 watts is dissipated, mostly in the copper, ~ 1.5W and
negligible amount in the iron core ~.13w
The fourth column is the output voltage V34 , 14.4v at no load, about 20% above rated voltage, this
is typical for small transformers.
Reply Share

Donnie Agema 2 months ago

Nice article, but I do not understand the column headers in Table 1.
Reply Share

Larry Lemieux Mod > Donnie Agema 2 months ago

There were a couple typos in the table header that have now been fixed. Thanks for
pointing them out.
Reply Share

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