Construction and uses of the Wheatstone bridge

Alejandro Portillo S.
Universidad Politecnica de Victoria
Ciudad Victoria, Mxico




























Abstract

The circuit known as a Wheatstone bridge is most commonly used to
determine the value of an unknown resistance to an electrical current. Firstly
described by British mathematician and scientist Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833,
the circuit came to bear the name of Sir Charles Wheatstone, the English
physicist who popularized it in the 1840s.
In a typical Wheatstone bridge, four resistors are positioned in a circuit
designed in such a way that the current from a battery splits, flows through the
sequence of resistors, then recombines into a single conductor. Three of these
resistors have known values, one of which is variable, or adjustable. The value of
the fourth resistor is not known. By studying and manipulating the paths the
current can take through the Wheatstone bridge grid, that fourth, unknown
resistance can be identified and with this other magnitudes can be found.

Keywords: Wheatstone, resistance, circuit



















Introduction

The Wheatstone bridge was named in honor of the English physicist Sir
Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), who was associated with Michael faraday and
was professor at the kings college of London. The bridge circuit is widely used to
make accurate measurements of resistance. This characteristic allows using the
bridge circuit in science and industry, as a method to transform temperature,
deformation, distortion, sound, light and other physical effects into an electric
signal, for its accurate measurement.



























Development

The Wheatstone bridge circuit

Even though the potentiometer circuit has several benefits, the drawback of
having a large common-mode voltage on the top of a small signal voltage makes
its use impractical for static strain measurements, except in rare cases when used
with semiconductor gages. Even then, separating from is troublesome.
By far the most common electrical circuit used with strain gages, and forming the
basis of strain- gage instrumentation, is the Wheatstone bridge.
Samuel hunter Christie invented what was called the diamond method in
1833 and used the technique to compare resistances of wires with different
thicknesses. The method went mostly unrecognized until 1843 when Charles
Wheatstone proposed it in a paper to the royal society, for measuring resistance
in electrical circuits.

Measurements of voltages and resistances

The Wheatstone bridge is an arrangement of four resistances used for
measuring one of them in terms of the other three. Fig. 5.78 represents
Wheatstones bridge circuit where P, Q, R and S are connected to form a mesh. A
battery of emf E is connected between the junctions A and C through a key KB
called the battery key. A galvanometer of resistance G is connected between the
resistances B and D through a key KG called galvanometer key. It is always the
battery key which is closed first and then the galvanometer key.
The currents through the various branches are indicated in fig. 5.78. In order
to reduce the number of unknowns at the outset, Kirchhoffs first rule is used at
every junction.
When current through the galvanometer is zero, the potential difference
between B and D is zero.




The resistances P, Q, R and S are so adjusted that the galvanometer gives
zero deflection. This would be possible if B and D are at the same potential and
therefore, no current would flow through the galvanometer i.e., Ig=0. In this
situation the Wheatstone bridge is said to be balanced.
Note: the Wheatstones bridge method is unsuitable for the measurement of very
low and very high resistances.

Resistance of balanced Wheatstone bridge between A and C

(P + Q) (R + S)
P + Q + R +S










Application of the Wheatstone bridge for temperature measurement

The Wheatstone bridge has been widely used for a long time with manual
adjustment for the zero, or null, galvanometer reading. Now-a-days, it is
increasingly used with electronic and mechanicals arrangements to make it self-
balancing. The measurements are recorded on a paper chart. In this form, the
Wheatstone bridge is the basis for many measurement and control devices used
in industry. Any quantity such as temperature, humidity, strain, displacement,
liquid level in a tank etc. which can be made to produce a change in the value of
a resistance can be measured with a Wheatstone bridge.
Experimental arrangement for measurement of temperature and temperature
coefficient of resistance is shown on fig. 5.79.


We know that the resistance of a wire varies with temperature. A coil of fine
copper wire is put into a water bath. A Wheatstone bridge is used to measure its
resistance at various moderate temperatures. By plotting a graph between
temperature and resistance, we can also find temperature coefficient of
resistance.



Transforming pressure waves into electrical signals: the electrical
strain gauge
Pressure measurements systems today generally use electrical strain gauges
based on the principle of the Wheatstone bridge. In its simple form, the strain
gauge is variable resistance transducer whose operation depends on the fact that
when an electrical wire is stretched, its resistance to the flow of current increases.
As long as the strain remains well below the elastic limit of the wire, there is a
wide range within which the increase in resistance is accurately proportional to
the increase in length.
Figure 7.7 illustrates how the Wheatstone bridge uses the principle in
converting a pressure signal to an electrical signal. In this schematic
representation of a pressure transducer, pressure is transmitted through port P
and acts on diaphragm D, which is vented to atmospheric pressure on its opposite
side.






Applications of a Wheatstone bridge

The Wheatstone bridge is basically a D.C. bridge and used to measure the
resistances in the range 1 to low mega ohm.

It is used to measure the D.C. resistance of various types of wires for the
purpose of quality control of wire.

It is used to measure the resistance of motor winding, relay coils etc.

It is used by the telephone companies to locate the cable faults. The faults
may be of the type line to the line short or line to ground short








Bibliographic references
Narinder Kumar 2004 Comprehensive Physics XII
Laxmi Publications
Pages 398-399


Donald S. Baim 26/10/2005 Grossmans Cardiac Catheterization, Angiography,
and Intervention Volume 1

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Pages 138-139-140


U.A.Bakshi, A.V.Bakshi , 01/01/2009 Instrumentation Engineering

Technical Publications
Pages 2-17, 2-18


William N. Sharpe, Jr. 04/12/2008 Springer Handbook of Experimental Solid
Mechanics

Springer
Pages 287






Note about the author
Alejandro Portillo Soto
Mechatronics student at the Universidad Politecnica de Victoria (UPA)
Email: alexportilo@hotmail.com