MAPPING OF FEEDBACK VOLTAGE GENERATED BY GENERATING
VOLT METER WITH ITS LINEAR AND ANGULAR VARIATIONS WITH
RESPECT TO THE HEMISPHERICAL HV SOURCE*
A. Kasliwal*(Apollo@rrcat.gov.in), R. Banwari, T.G. Pandit
Power Supplies Division
RRCAT, Indore-13, India
Abstract
A control system is needed for stabilization and control
of the energy of accelerated electrons in the high voltage
DC Accelerators. This effectively requires control of the
output voltage of the high voltage rectifier as it directly
affects the dose quality. This in turn necessitates the use
of a proper method for measuring the high voltage. Two
most prominent methods being used today are resistive
divider or generating voltmeter (GVM). However with
required energies of accelerated electrons beyond 2 MeV,
the resistive divider of voltage is not reliable enough.
Therefore the generating voltmeter is used at energies
beyond this level. Operation principle of the generating
voltmeter is based on the effect of inducing charges on
the metal surface in the electric field which renders the
advantage of connectionless measurement. This paper
presents the study of the feedback voltage generated by
the generating volt meter with variation in its distance and
angle with respect to the hemispherical high voltage
source. Mapping curves have been developed between
high voltage value of the source at 100 kV and the
variable generating voltmeter distances. The curves
developed can be utilized to study the feedback voltage
generated by generating voltmeter installed at different
distances and angles with respect to the high voltage
surface.
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
The Generating voltmeter comprises essentially of an
insulated stator mounted facing the high voltage terminal.
It is periodically shielded from this high voltage terminal
by the rotation of a grounded sectored disk at a constant
speed. The stator to terminal capacitance is thus caused to
vary periodically which induces a stator current, which is
the measure of the terminal voltage. It is rectified with a
precision rectifier and is read on a Digital Meter.
This current ‘i’ follows the equation:
i = Ut * dC/dt (1)
Ut= terminal voltage
C = terminal - signal - plate capacitance
It is well known that the flow of current in a capacitor
takes place due to the rate of change of charge.
Mathematically, we can write I=-dQ/dt, where Q is the
charge in a capacitor. Again we know that Q=CV, where
C is the value of the capacitor and V is the voltage
applied to the capacitor. If C and V are both variable, then
the expression of current is given by
I=- dQ/dt = -(C * dV/dt + V * dC/dt) (2)
When a capacitor is connected to a dc source the
capacitor can only be charged, but the current flow is not
possible unless there is a rate of change of charge. If there
is a rate of change of capacitance the current flow is
possible in case of dc also, as is evident from equation
(3).
I = -V * dC/dt (3)
(in the case of dc, dV/dt=0).
This resultant current is a measure of the DC voltage
under test.
THE EXPERIMENT
RRCAT will be setting up a 2.5 MeV High Power
Industrial Accelerator ( HPIA ) facility at Indore. A
generating volt meter will be needed to measure the high
voltage generated. A GVM along with the HV Generator
has been procured from BINP, Russia. An experiment has
been carried our to study the voltage generated by the
GVM for a high voltage source of 100 kV. A
hemispherical dome raised at high voltage using
RRCAT’s high voltage lab facility, was used as a source.
The high voltage was varied in the range from 10 kV to
100 kV and both linear and angular variations were made
between the GVM and the HV source to study their
effects on GVM readback voltage generated for future
references.
The dome was placed atop a epoxy made insulated
sheet rested over cylindrical insulators. The GVM was
placed in a circular groove in a earthed metallic sheet
above dome top. The metallic sheet was supported by
epoxy nuts over four numbers of threaded insulating rods
of epoxy mounted at the four corners of the sheet. The
distance and the angle of the metallic sheet and hence the
GVM with respect to the dome was varied by sliding the
nut supports of the sheets mounted on the four threaded
rods. The figures 4 and 5 show the arrangement used.
MEASUREMENTS
The measurements were made with GVM rotated at a
constant speed of 1000 RPM. Measurements were done at
linear distance of 135 mm, 150 mm , 200 mm and 300
mm between the GVM and the Dome top with GVM
kept parallel to the dome base plate. The results are
recorded in Table 1 and plotted as shown in Figure 1.
Measurements were repeated at 150 mm but with angle
between GVM plane and dome base plate varied to 5
degrees and 10 degrees. The results are shown in Table 2
and plotted in Figure 2. High voltage was varied from 10
kV to 100 kV in steps of 10 kV. The graphs plotted GVM Readback with Angular Variation
at Linear Distance of 150 mm
indicate a fairly linear behaviour of the GVM read back.
Figure 3 shows the GVM used for the experiment.
3
2.5
Table 1 : Measurements with Linear Variations 2

Volts
1.5
S. No. kV 135 mm 150 mm 200 mm 300 mm
1
1 10 0.4 0.4 0.44 0.44 0.5
2 20 0.56 0.49 0.44 0.38 0
0 50 100 150
3 30 0.85 0.76 0.59 0.41
Kilo Volts
4 40 1.15 1.04 0.77 0.48
5 50 1.49 1.36 0.99 0.6 0 Degree 5 Degrees 10 Degrees

6 60 1.8 1.61 1.2 0.72 Figure 2 : Angular Variation Readings

7 70 2.14 1.88 1.4 0.83
8 80 2.43 2.13 1.58 0.95
9 90 2.7 2.35 1.76 1.05
10 100 2.99 2.61 1.91 1.12

Table 2: Measurements with Angular Variations

S. No. kV 0 Degree 5 Degrees 10 degrees
1 10 0.4 0.38 0.38
2 20 0.49 0.49 0.48
3 30 0.76 0.74 0.73
4 40 1.04 1 0.97
5 50 1.36 1.29 1.26
6 60 1.61 1.56 1.5
7 70 1.88 1.79 1.77 Figure 3 : GVM used for the experiment
8 80 2.13 2.09 2.02
9 90 2.35 2.26 2.18
10 100 2.61 2.49 2.4

GVM Readback with linear variation

3.5
3
2.5
Volts

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Kilo Volts

135 mm 150 mm 200 mm 300 mm

Figure 1 : Linear Variation Readings Figure 4 : Experimental Arrangement

 Figure 5 : Closer View of the arrangement

CONCLUSION
The GVM was used to measure DC High Voltage upto
100 kV and GVM readback data was recorded for linear
and angular variations of GVM plane with respect to the
HV Hemispherical source plane. It was observed that
GVM readback varies fairly linearly with its distance
from the HV source. Hence the data generated can be
utilized to extrapolate the GVM readback for high
voltages beyond 100 kV.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks
to Shri Rajesh Nagdeve for his help to build the required
electronics and to Shri Nathan Singh to build the required
experimental structure.

REFERENCES
[1] Yu.I. Golubenko, N.K. Kuksanov, P.I. Nemytov, I.K.
Chakin, Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics
SB RAS Lavrentyev av. 11, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.
Direct methods of measuring and stabilization of DC
accelearating voltage ELV accelerators designed on
the basis of cascade generators.