It's easy to lose sight of what voltage regulation means in the real world.

Many people mistake this to mean that a transformer with 10% regulation will keep the output voltage to a value within 10% of nominal. That's simply not so. Let's take a look at what transformer voltage regulation is, and why it's useful to you. In any step down transformer, the secondary current produces voltage drop across the resistive and reactive components of the transformer's secondary side. On the other side, the primary current produces voltage drops across the resistive and reactive components of the transformer's primary side. From this, it's easy to see the primary voltage will be less than the supply voltage, and the secondary (output) will be less than either of those. Let's assume you have no load connected to your transformer. In such a case, no secondary current flows. With no current, you have no voltage drop across those resistive and reactive components of the transformer's secondary side. But, another thing happens. Without a secondary current, the primary current drops to the no-load currentwhich is nearly zero. This means the voltage drop across the resistive and reactive components of the transformer's primary side becomes very small. What's the net effect? In a no-load situation, the voltage on the primary is almost equal to the supply voltage, and the secondary voltage nearly equals the supply voltage times the ratio of primary windings to secondary windings. You might assume the transformer's output voltage is highest at no load. It would then make sense that (under loaded conditions) the transformer's resistive and reactive components cause the output voltage to drop below its no-load level. This is a logical assumption, but one that's not necessarily so. Depending on the power factor of the load, the output full-load voltage may actually be larger than the no-load voltage. The voltage regulation of the transformer is the percentage change in the output voltage from noload to full-load. And since power factor is a determining factor in the secondary voltage, power factor influences voltage regulation. This means the voltage regulation of a transformer is a dynamic, load-dependent number. The numbers you see in the nameplate data are fixed; the number of primary windings won't change; the number of secondary windings won't change, etc. But, the voltage regulation will vary as power factor varies. Ideally, there should be no change in the transformer's output voltage from no-load to full-load. In such a case, we say the voltage regulation is 0%. To get the best performance out of your transformer, you need the lowest possible voltage regulation. You should calculate the voltage regulation and save the result as a troubleshooting and predictive maintenance benchmark. Suppose the percentage change is too high. What do you do? You now know you need to look at power factor correction for the loads on that transformer. A power factor meter can be very helpful in this case.

Voltage regulation
As we saw in a few SPICE analyses earlier in this chapter, the output voltage of a transformer varies some with varying load resistances, even with a constant voltage input. The degree of variance is affected by the primary and secondary winding inductances, among other factors, not the least of which includes winding resistance and the degree of mutual inductance

(magnetic coupling) between the primary and secondary windings. For power transformer applications, where the transformer is seen by the load (ideally) as a constant source of voltage, it is good to have the secondary voltage vary as little as possible for wide variances in load current. The measure of how well a power transformer maintains constant secondary voltage over a range of load currents is called the transformers voltage regulation. It can be calculated from the following formula:

Regulation percentage = Eno-load - Efull-load (100%) Efull-load

9.6. VOLTAGE REGULATION 249 Full-load means the point at which the transformer is operating at maximum permissible secondary current. This operating point will be determined primarily by the winding wire size (ampacity) and the method of transformer cooling. Taking our first SPICE transformer simulation as an example, lets compare the output voltage with a 1 k load versus a 200 load (assuming that the 200 load will be our full load condition). Recall if you will that our constant primary voltage was 10.00 volts AC: freq v(3,5) i(vi1) 6.000E+01 9.962E+00 9.962E-03 Output with 1k ohm load freq v(3,5) i(vi1) 6.000E+01 9.348E+00 4.674E-02 Output with 200 ohm load Notice how the output voltage decreases as the load gets heavier (more current). Now lets take that same transformer circuit and place a load resistance of extremely high magnitude across the secondary winding to simulate a no-load condition: (See transformer spice list) transformer v1 1 0 ac 10 sin rbogus1 1 2 1e-12 rbogus2 5 0 9e12 l1 2 0 100 l2 3 5 100 k l1 l2 0.999 vi1 3 4 ac 0 rload 4 5 9e12 .ac lin 1 60 60 .print ac v(2,0) i(v1) .print ac v(3,5) i(vi1) .end freq v(2) i(v1) 6.000E+01 1.000E+01 2.653E-04 freq v(3,5) i(vi1) 6.000E+01 9.990E+00 1.110E-12 Output with (almost) no load So, we see that our output (secondary) voltage spans a range of 9.990 volts at (virtually) no load and 9.348 volts at the point we decided to call full load. Calculating voltage regulation with these figures, we get:

Regulation percentage = (100%) 9.990 V - 9.348 V Regulation percentage = 6.8678 % 9.348 V

Incidentally, this would be considered rather poor (or loose) regulation for a power transformer. Powering a simple resistive load like this, a good power transformer should exhibit 250 CHAPTER 9. TRANSFORMERS a regulation percentage of less than 3%. Inductive loads tend to create a condition of worse voltage regulation, so this analysis with purely resistive loads was a best -case condition. There are some applications, however, where poor regulation is actually desired. One such case is in discharge lighting, where a step-up transformer is required to initially generate a

high voltage (necessary to ignite the lamps), then the voltage is expected to drop off once the lamp begins to draw current. This is because discharge lamps voltage requirements tend to be much lower after a current has been established through the arc path. In this case, a step-up transformer with poor voltage regulation suffices nicely for the task of conditioning power to the lamp. Another application is in current control for AC arc welders, which are nothing more than step-down transformers supplying low-voltage, high-current power for the welding process. A high voltage is desired to assist in striking the arc (getting it started), but like the discharge lamp, an arc doesnt require as much voltage to sustain itself once the air has been heated to the point of ionization. Thus, a decrease of secondary voltage under high load current would be a good thing. Some arc welder designs provide arc current adjustment by means of a movable iron core in the transformer, cranked in or out of the winding assembly by the operator. Moving the iron slug away from the windings reduces the strength of magnetic coupling between the windings, which diminishes no-load secondary voltage and makes for poorer voltage regulation. No exposition on transformer regulation could be called complete without mention of an unusual device called a ferroresonant transformer. Ferroresonance is a phenomenon associated with the behavior of iron cores while operating near a point of magnetic saturation (where the core is so strongly magnetized that further increases in winding current results in little or no increase in magnetic flux). While being somewhat difficult to describe without going deep into electromagnetic theory, the ferroresonant transformer is a power transformer engineered to operate in a condition of persistent core saturation. That is, its iron core is stuffed full of magnetic lines of flux for a large portion of the AC cycle so that variations in supply voltage (primary winding current) have little effect on the cores magnetic flux density, which means the secondary winding outputs a nearly constant voltage despite significant variations in supply (primary winding) voltage. Normally, core saturation in a transformer results in distortion of the sinewave shape, and the ferroresonant transformer is no exception. To combat this side effect, ferroresonant transformers have an auxiliary secondary winding paralleled with one or more capacitors, forming a resonant circuit tuned to the power supply frequency. This tank circuit serves as a filter to reject harmonics created by the core saturation, and provides the added benefit of storing energy in the form of AC oscillations, which is available for sustaining output winding voltage for brief periods of input voltage loss (milliseconds worth of time, but certainly better than nothing). (Figure 9.39) In addition to blocking harmonics created by the saturated core, this resonant circuit also filters out harmonic frequencies generated by nonlinear (switching) loads in the secondary winding circuit and any harmonics present in the source voltage, providing clean power to the load. Ferroresonant transformers offer several features useful in AC power conditioning: constant output voltage given substantial variations in input voltage, harmonic filtering between the power source and the load, and the ability to ride through brief losses in power by keeping a reserve of energy in its resonant tank circuit. These transformers are also highly tolerant 9.7. SPECIAL TRANSFORMERS AND APPLICATIONS 251

AC power input AC power output Resonant LC circuit

Figure 9.39: Ferroresonant transformer provides voltage regulation of the output. of excessive loading and transient (momentary) voltage surges. They are so tolerant, in fact, that some may be briefly paralleled with unsynchronized AC power sources, allowing a load to be switched from one source of power to another in a make -before-break fashion with no interruption of power on the secondary side! Unfortunately, these devices have equally noteworthy disadvantages: they waste a lot of energy (due to hysteresis losses in the saturated core), generating significant heat in the process,

and are intolerant of frequency variations, which means they dont work very well when powered by small engine-driven generators having poor speed regulation. Voltages produced in the resonant winding/capacitor circuit tend to be very high, necessitating expensive capacitors and presenting the service technician with very dangerous working voltages. Some applications, though, may prioritize the ferroresonant transformers advantages over its disadvantages. Semiconductor circuits exist to condition AC power as an alternative to ferroresonant devices, but none can compete with this transformer in terms of sheer simplicity. REVIEW: Voltage regulation is the measure of how well a power transformer can maintain constant secondary voltage given a constant primary voltage and wide variance in load current. The lower the percentage (closer to zero), the more stable the secondary voltage and the better the regulation it will provide. A ferroresonant transformer is a special transformer designed to regulate voltage at a stable level despite wide variation in input voltage.

9.7 Special transformers and applications

9.7.1 Impedance matching
Because transformers can step voltage and current to different levels, and because power is transferred equivalently between primary and secondary windings, they can be used to convert the impedance of a load to a different level. That last phrase deserves some explanation, so lets investigate what it means. The purpose of a load (usually) is to do something productive with the power it dissipates. In the case of a resistive heating element, the practical purpose for the power dissipated is to 252 CHAPTER 9. TRANSFORMERS heat something up. Loads are engineered to safely dissipate a certain maximum amount of power, but two loads of equal power rating are not necessarily identical. Consider these two 1000 watt resistive heating elements: (Figure 9.40)
250 V I=4A Rload 62.5 Pload = 1000 W 125 V I=8A Rload 15.625 Pload = 1000 W

Figure 9.40: Heating elements dissipate 1000 watts, at different voltage and current ratings. Both heaters dissipate exactly 1000 watts of power, but they do so at different voltage and current levels (either 250 volts and 4 amps, or 125 volts and 8 amps). Using Ohms Law to determine the necessary resistance of these heating elements (R=E/I), we arrive at figures of 62.5 and 15.625 , respectively. If these are AC loads, we might refer to their opposition to current in terms of impedance rather than plain resistance, although i n this case thats all theyre composed of (no reactance). The 250 volt heater would be said to be a higher impedance load than the 125 volt heater. If we desired to operate the 250 volt heater element directly on a 125 volt power system, we would end up being disappointed. With 62.5 of impedance (resistance), the current would only be 2 amps (I=E/R; 125/62.5), and the power dissipation would only be 250 watts (P=IE; 125 x 2), or one-quarter of its rated power. The impedance of the heater and the voltage of our source would be mismatched, and we couldnt obtain the full rated power dissipation from the heater. All hope is not lost, though. With a step-up transformer, we could operate the 250 volt heater element on the 125 volt power system like Figure 9.41.

1000 watts dissipation at the load resistor 125 V I=8A I=4A 250 V

62.5 Rload !
Figure 9.41: Step-up transformer operates 1000 watt 250 V heater from 125 V power source The ratio of the transformers windings provides the voltage step -up and current step-down we need for the otherwise mismatched load to operate properly on this system. Take a close look at the primary circuit figures: 125 volts at 8 amps. As far as the power supply knows, its powering a 15.625 (R=E/I) load at 125 volts, not a 62.5 load! The voltage and current figures for the primary winding are indicative of 15.625 load impedance, not the actual 62.5 of the load itself. In other words, not only has our step-up transformer transformed voltage and current, but it has transformed impedance as well. The transformation ratio of impedance is the square of the voltage/current transformation ratio, the same as the winding inductance ratio:

uses
1. The importance of transformers in industries<br />In this present world, two things are very important and they are electricity and vehicles and without these things, many people struggle a lot. I think, I am not wrong when considering these points because without electricity the world gets stumbled and many activities do not take place and this depletes the economy of any country. Hope, no much more introductions needed for vehicles and the same drawbacks suits for vehicles. Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything. Says Benjamin Franklin and I hope everyone will accept his quotes with the help of industries both the people and country economy gets improved. <br /> In our daily life, electricity has become the major part of a life and life without electricity cant be imagined. Industries definitely need continuous supply of electricity and they definitely need transformers for avoiding voltage fluctuations and the malfunction of some machines is due to voltage problems. A transformer is a solution for all these problems and it has the capacity to rectify it. Different types of transformers exist and each have their own benefits and rectify the voltage fluctuations in one or other way. Custom current transformer, fly back transformer, high transformer voltage, high voltage transformer and electrical transformer are the different types of transformers available. <br />Current transformers has the capability to provide additional current to produce current and helps the industries to get current from various applications like metering and relaying and provide safe measurement of large currents from high voltage transformer. A FBT or LOPT is a special type of transformer that can generate high voltage signals even at high frequency. The fly back transformer is much smaller and lighter comparable to other transformers and minimizes the leakage induction of primary coil. Reliability, fast turnaround and dependability make the electrical transformer as attractive one and it response frequently with the sources and then supply the current using the input. The electrical transformers are supplied on low cost with high quality and they generally stores energy and transfer it to another source with appropriate impedance and function properly in any case of mild fault. <br />If the industries use any specialized machines, then they dont need to worry about transformers because high voltage transformers are designed for those specialized applications. Generally the industries use heavy current applications and the workers who are working there are subjected to some dangerous shocks, but this has been wiped off by custom current transformer because it measures the electric current and even if the circuit is too high, the custom current transformer produces a reduced current. So the modern industries dont need

to worry about any problems that are existing due to electricity failures and the production of the industries can able to be develop well if they have proper transformers that suits their industries. Get the best transformers from the manufacturers who can offer you in an affordable price with quality in type. <br />