EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

Name - . Roll # - . Section - . Date - .

• Understanding the importance of polarity at secondary side of a transformer

(dot convention). Demonstrate Polarity Test on Single-Phase Step-Down
Transformer.
• Operate auto transformer to perform Turn Ratio Test on Single Phase Multi
Tap Transformer, Find the Winding Resistance of High Voltage (HV) and Low
Voltage (LV) Sides of both step up and step-down Transformers.
Literature
1. Polarity Test of Transformer
Polarity means the direction of the induced voltages in the primary and the secondary winding
of the transformer. If the two transformers are connected in parallel, then the polarity should
be known for the proper connection of the transformer. There are two types of polarity one
is Additive, and another is Subtractive.

Additive Polarity: In additive polarity the same terminals of the primary and the secondary
windings of the transformer are connected

Subtractive Polarity: In subtractive polarity different terminals of the primary and

secondary side of the transformer is connected.

• Explanation with Connection Diagram

Each of the terminals of the primary as well as the secondary winding of a transformer is
alternatively positive and negative with respect to each other as shown in the figure below.
Let A1 and A2 be the positive and negative terminal respectively of the transformer primary
and a1, a2 are the positive and negative terminal of the secondary side of the transformer.

Either A1 is connected to a1 or A2 is connected to a2 that means similar but single terminals of

the transformer are connected physically, then the polarity is said to be additive, and thus the
voltmeter will read the additive polarity. If A1 is connected to a2 or A2 to a1, this means that
opposite terminals are connected to each other, and thus the voltmeter will read the subtractive
polarity.

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

It is essential to know the relative polarities at any instant of the primary and the secondary
terminals for making the correct connections if the transformers are to be connected in parallel
or they are used in a three-phase circuit.

In the primary side, the terminals are marked as A1 and A2 and from the secondary side the
terminals are named as a1 and a2. The terminal A1 is connected to one end of the secondary
winding, and a voltmeter is connected between A2 and the other end of the secondary winding.

When the voltmeter reads the difference that is (V1 – V2), the transformer is said to relate to
opposite polarity know as Subtractive polarity and when the voltmeter reads (V1 + V2), the
transformer is said to have additive polarity.

2. Turn Ratio Test

A single-phase transformer is a device which steps up or down a given voltage (although it can be
thought of as stepping current up or down as well, in some cases). Typically, a transformer has two
windings. One is called the primary (usually the source side) and the other is called the secondary
(usually the load side). If there are more than two windings, the additional windings are called tertiary
windings. The windings are wound on a core made of ferromagnetic material. There is usually no
direct electrical connection between the pairs of windings. When a given time-varying voltage is
applied to one of the windings, a time-varying magnetic flux is established in the core. The current
required to produce this flux is called the exciting current. High permeability (µ) iron is usually used
to facilitate the creation of this flux. The flux will link all other windings, which are wrapped around
the core encompassing the flux path. The time-varying flux linking the windings induces a time-
varying voltage in the other coils. This time variation is usually sinusoidal. The magnitude of the
induced voltage is determined approximately by the number of turns in each coil. That is, if 120 V is
applied to a coil of N turns, and 30 V is induced in a test coil of ten turns, then the source coil has N =
40 turns. This test is called the coil turn test and can be used to approximate the number of turns if the
number is not known. A transformer with high voltage turns N1 and low-voltage turns N2 is considered
an a:1 (a to one) transformer where a=N1/N2. When two coils are connected in series or parallel, the

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

physical direction of turn-wrapping determines how the respective induced voltages will behave
relative to each other. The physical arrangement of the windings is not always easily determined after
manufacturing. A method called the polarity test is used to determine if two coils have “additive” or
“subtractive” polarity. This method is used to specify polarity marks for each winding.

• Explanation with Connection Diagram

The true ratio is based on turn-ratio. If the secondary and primary voltages are measured on no
load, their ratio is very nearly equal to the true value. Measurement of primary and secondary
currents in short circuit test also gives accurate result.

Here primary and secondary voltages are measured by separate DMM. Primary relates to the
output of auto transformer. Secondary is not connected with load.
3. Winding Resistance Test

Primary & secondary side of transformers often have different resistance. It is due to different
no. of turns and cross-sectional area of windings. To specify the input and output terminal of
any single-phase step down or step up transformer, winding resistance test is performed. This
test is simply performed by connecting DMM (Ohm Meter) across primary and secondary
windings separately. Make sure transformer is not connected to any supply while conducting
this experiment.

LAB TASK 1
❖ Write down the equipment you are going to use while performing Polarity Test.

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

❖ Write down the procedure you followed while conducting Polarity Test.

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❖ Fill the table 1 using experimental calculations.

S.No Primary Voltage Secondary Potential Polarity

Voltage Between
Primary &
Secondary

LAB TASK 2
❖ Write down the equipment you are going to use while performing “Turn Ratio Test”.

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

❖ Write down the procedure you followed while conducting “Turn Ratio Test”.
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❖ Fill the table 2 using experimental calculations.

S.No Transformer Primary Voltage Secondary Voltage Turn Ratio

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

LAB TASK 3
❖ Write down the equipment you are going to use while performing “Winding Resistance
Test”.

❖ Write down the procedure you followed while conducting “Winding Resistance Test”.
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❖ Fill the table 3 using experimental calculations.

S.NO Transformer LV Resistance HV Resistance

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

❖ Write down the conclusion of Polarity Test & discuss the industrial application of this
test.

❖ Why one end of primary and secondary windings is connected to perform polarity test.
Why not both ends are connected?

❖ What will happen if polarity test is not followed while connecting two transformers?

❖ Discuss the results obtained in table 1, 2 & 3 after performing above experiments.

❖ Write down the safety measures and precautions you followed.

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus
EL221-Electromechanical System Lab 02

❖ What would be the resistance of LV side in comparison with HV in step up transformer?

Why they are different? Is there any case where both winding might end up having same
resistance, explain that case?

Marks Awarded: ___________ / Out of 10.

Lab Supervisor Signature/Date: ___________________

Prepared by. Lab Engr Nouman Shabbir

NUCES FAST PWR Campus