Wheatstone Bridge

FEBRUARY 19, 2015 BY ADMINISTRATOR 3 COMMENTS

Table of Contents
 Introduction to Wheatstone Bridge
 What is Wheatstone Bridge?
 Wheatstone Bridge Working Principle
 Example of Wheatstone Bridge
 Wheatstone Bridge for Strain Measurement
 Wheatstone Bridge Applications:

Introduction to Wheatstone Bridge

In the real world we come across various signals, some of them are measured by
changes in resistance and some of them are with inductance and capacitance.

If we consider the resistance, most of the industrial sensors like temperature, strain,
humidity, displacement, liquid level, etc. produces the change in value of the
resistance for a variable change. Therefore, there is a need for a signal conditioning
for every resistance sensor.

Generally the resistance measurement is divided into three types, low resistance
measurement, medium resistance measurement and the high resistance
measurement. If the resistance measurement is possibly from a few milliohms to
micro ohms, then it is considered as a low resistance measurement.

This measurement is actually used for research purpose. If the measurement is from
1 ohm to 100 k is generally referred as a medium resistance measurement.
Potentiometer, thermistors, etc. measurement comes under this category.

And very high resistance measurement is considered from 100 kilo ohm to greater
than 100 mega ohms. For finding the medium value of the resistance different
methods are used, but mostly Wheatstone bridge is used.

What is Wheatstone Bridge?

The most common and simplest bridge network to find the resistance is the DC
Wheatstone Bridge. This bridge is used where small changes in resistance are to be
measured like in sensor applications. This is used to convert a resistance change to
a voltage change of a transducer.

The combination of this bridge with operational amplifier is used extensively in

industries for various transducers and sensors. A Wheatstone bridge consists of four
resistors that are connected in the shape of a diamond with the supply source and
indicating instruments as shown in figure.
This bridge is used to find the unknown resistance very precisely by comparing it
with a known value of resistances. In this bridge null or balanced condition is used to
find the resistance.

For this bridge balanced condition voltage at points C and D must be equal. Hence,
no current flows through the galvanometer. For getting the balanced condition one of
the resistors must be variable.

From the figure,

The voltage at point D = V × RX / (R3 + RX)

The voltage at point C = V × R2 / (R1 + R2)

The voltage (V) across galvanometer or between C and D is,

VCD = V × RX / (R3 + RX) − V R2 / (R1 + R2)

When the bridge is balanced VCD = 0,

So,

V × RX / (R3 + RX) = V R2 / (R1 + R2)

 RXR1 + RXR2 = R2R3 + R2RX

R1RX= R2R3

R2/R1= RX/R3

This is the condition to balance the bridge. And for finding the unknown value of
resistance

RX = R3 × (R2 / R1)

From the above equation R4 or Rx can be computed from the known value of
resistance R3 and the ratio of R2/R1. Therefore, most of the cases R2 and R1
values are fixed and the R3 value is variable so that null value is achieved and the
bridge gets balanced.

Wheatstone Bridge Working Principle

Without the galvanometer, the bridge circuit just looks like a voltage divider circuit as
shown in the figure below. Consider R1= 20 ohm, R2= 40 ohm for one arm and for the
other consider same values of R3 and R4 respectively.
Current flow in first arm is

I1 = V/ (R1+R2)

I1 = 12V/ (20+40)

I1 = 0.2 A

And voltage at point C is equal to the voltage drop at resistor R2,

VR2 = I1 × R2= 0.2 × 40 = 8V

Similarly the voltage across R1 is 4V (0.2 × 20). Due to the same resistance values,
voltages at R4 and R3 will be same as that of R1 and R2 respectively. Hence at the
points A and B voltages are same, therefore the galvanometer shows zero reading
as the potential difference is zero. In this case the bridge is said to be in balanced
condition.
Suppose if we reverse the resistors in the second arm, current flow is same due to
the series circuit. But the voltage across the resistor R4 changes, i.e., 0.2 * 20 = 4V.
So at this condition voltage across the points A and B are different and exists a
potential difference of 8 – 4 = 4V. This is the unbalanced condition of the bridge.

Example of Wheatstone Bridge

From above, the Wheatstone bridge is unbalanced when the voltmeter reading is not
zero. This reading can be positive or negative depends on the magnitudes of the
voltages at the meter terminals. Let us consider the below circuit of Wheatstone
bridge which is connected to find the unknown resistance value with use of resistor
decade box to get the variable resistance of R3.
We know that the condition for bridge balance is

R4 = R3 × R2 / R1

Rx = RBOX × (10 x 103)/ (10 x 103)

Rx = RBOX

Here in this case, the Wheatstone bridge is balanced by adjusting the decade
resistance box until the voltmeter reads zero value. And the corresponding
resistance value in the box is equal to the unknown resistance. Suppose if the
voltage null condition occurs at 250 ohms of the resistance decade box, then the
unknown resistance is also 250 ohms.

Wheatstone Bridge for Strain Measurement

Most commonly for measuring the strain, strain gages are used whose electrical
resistance varies with proportionate strain in the device. In practice, the range of
strain gauge resistance is from 30 ohms to 3000 ohms. For a given strain, the
resistance change may be only a fraction of full range. Therefore, to measure
extremely a fraction of resistance changes with high accuracy, Wheatstone bridge
configuration is used. The below figure shows the Wheatstone bridge where the
unknown resistor is replaced with a strain gauge.
In the above circuit, two resistors R1 and R2 are equal to each other and R3 is the
variable resistor. With no force applied to the strain gauge, rheostat is varied and
finally positioned in such that the voltmeter will indicate zero deflection. This is called
a bridge balancing condition. This condition represents that there is no strain on the
gauge.

If the strain gauge is either tensed or compressed, then the resistance can increase
or decrease. Therefore, this causes unbalancing of the bridge. This produces a
voltage indication on voltmeter corresponds to the strain change. If the strain applied
on a strain gauge is more, then the voltage difference across the meter terminals is
more. If the strain is zero, then the bridge balances and meter shows zero reading.

This is about the resistance measurement using a Wheatstone bridge for precise
measurement. Due to the fractional measurement of resistance, Wheatstone bridges
are mostly used in strain gauge and thermometer measurements.

Wheatstone Bridge Applications:

1. The Wheatstone bridge is used for measuring the very low resistance values
precisely.
2. Wheatstone bridge along with operational amplifier is used to measure the
physical parameters like temperature, strain, light, etc.
3. We can also measure the quantities capacitance, inductance and impedance
using the variations on the Wheatstone bridge.