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12.6 AC Instrumentation Transducers
Just as devices have been made to measure certain physical quantities and repeat that information in the form of DC electrical signals (thermocouples, strain gauges, pH probes, etc.), special devices have been made that do the same with AC. It is often necessary to be able to detect and transmit the physical position of mechanical…
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12.5 AC Bridge Circuits
As we saw with DC measurement circuits, the circuit configuration known as a bridge can be a very useful way to measure unknown values of resistance. This is true with AC as well, and we can apply the very same principle to the accurate measurement of unknown impedances. How Does a Bridge Circuit Work? To review, the bridge circuit…
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12.4 Power Quality Measurement
It used to be with large AC power systems that “power quality” was an unheard-of concept, aside from power factor. Almost all loads were of the “linear” variety, meaning that they did not distort the shape of the voltage sine wave, or cause non-sinusoidal currents to flow in the circuit. This is not true anymore. Loads controlled…
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12.3 Power Measurement
Power measurement in AC circuits can be quite a bit more complex than with DC circuits for the simple reason that phase shift complicates the matter beyond multiplying the voltage by current figures obtained with meters. What is needed is an instrument able to determine the product (multiplication) of instantaneous voltage and current. Fortunately, the…
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12.2 Frequency and Phase Measurement
An important electrical quantity with no equivalent in DC circuits is frequency. Frequency measurement is very important in many applications of alternating current, especially in AC power systems designed to run efficiently at one frequency and one frequency only. If the AC is being generated by an electromechanical alternator, the frequency will be directly proportional to…
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12.1 AC Voltmeters and Ammeters
AC electromechanical meter movements come in two basic arrangements: those based on DC movement designs, and those engineered specifically for AC use. Permanent-magnet moving coil (PMMC) meter movements will not work correctly if directly connected to alternating current, because the direction of needle movement will change with each half-cycle of the AC. (Figure below) Permanent-magnet meter movements,…
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11.4 Practical Power Factor Correction
When the need arises to correct for poor power factor in an AC power system, you probably won’t have the luxury of knowing the load’s exact inductance in henrys to use for your calculations. You may be fortunate enough to have an instrument called a power factor meter to tell you what the power factor…
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11.3 Calculating Power Factor
As was mentioned before, the angle of this “power triangle” graphically indicates the ratio between the amount of dissipated (or consumed) power and the amount of absorbed/returned power. It also happens to be the same angle as that of the circuit’s impedance in polar form. When expressed as a fraction, this ratio between true power…
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11.2 True, Reactive, and Apparent Power
Reactive Power We know that reactive loads such as inductors and capacitors dissipate zero power, yet the fact that they drop voltage and draw current gives the deceptive impression that they actually do dissipate power. This “phantom power” is called reactive power, and it is measured in a unit called Volt-Amps-Reactive (VAR), rather than watts.…
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11.1 Power in Resistive and Reactive AC circuits
Consider a circuit for a single-phase AC power system, where a 120 volt, 60 Hz AC voltage source is delivering power to a resistive load: (Figure below) Ac source drives a purely resistive load. In this example, the current to the load would be 2 amps, RMS. The power dissipated at the load would be…
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10.8 Harmonic Phase Sequences
In the last section, we saw how the 3rd harmonic and all of its integer multiples (collectively called triplen harmonics) generated by 120° phase-shifted fundamental waveforms are actually in phase with each other. In a 60 Hz three-phase power system, where phases A, B, and C are 120° apart, the third-harmonic multiples of those frequencies…
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10.7 Harmonics in Polyphase Power Systems
In the chapter on mixed-frequency signals, we explored the concept of harmonics in AC systems: frequencies that are integer multiples of the fundamental source frequency. With AC power systems where the source voltage waveform coming from an AC generator (alternator) is supposed to be a single-frequency sine wave, undistorted, there should be no harmonic content…
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10.6 Three-phase Transformer Circuits
Since three-phase is used so often for power distribution systems, it makes sense that we would need three-phase transformers to be able to step voltages up or down. This is only partially true, as regular single-phase transformers can be ganged together to transform power between two three-phase systems in a variety of configurations, eliminating the…
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10.5 Three-phase Y and Delta Configurations
Three-phase Wye(Y) Connection Initially, we explored the idea of three-phase power systems by connecting three voltage sources together in what is commonly known as the “Y” (or “star”) configuration. This configuration of voltage sources is characterized by a common connection point joining one side of each source. (Figure below) Three-phase “Y” connection has three voltage…
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10.4 Polyphase Motor Design
AC Motors Perhaps the most important benefit of polyphase AC power over single-phase is the design and operation of AC motors. As we studied in the first chapter of this book, some types of AC motors are virtually identical in construction to their alternator (generator) counterparts, consisting of stationary wire windings and a rotating magnet…