CHAPTER 4

BRIDGE MEASUREMENTS
Dr. Gamal Sowilam

Introduction
Precision measurements of component values have been made

for many years using various forms of bridges.

The simplest form of bridge is for the purpose of measuring
resistance and is called Wheatstone bridge.
There is entire group of ac bridge for measuring inductance,
capacitance, admittance, conductance, and any of the
impedance parameters.
Bridge circuits are also frequently used in control circuit. When
used in such applications. One arm of the bridge contains a
resistive elements that is sensitive to the physical parameter
(temperature, pressure, etc.) being control.

Some specialized measurements, such as impedance at high

frequencies are still made with a bridge.
The bridge circuit still forms the backbone of some
measurements and for the interfacing of transducers.

Basic Operation

The bridge has four resistive arms, together with a source of emf
(a battery), and a null detector, usually a galvanometer or other
sensitive current meter.
The current through the galvanometer depends on the potential
difference between points A and B.
The bridge is said to be balanced when the potential difference
across the galvanometer is 0 V so that there is no current through
the galvanometer.

The bridge is balanced when

I1 I 3 and I 2 I 4
I 1 R1 I 2 R2 and
I 3 R3 I 4 R4
I 1 R3 I 2 R4
When the galvanometer current is zero,
E
I1 I 3
R1 R3 and

I2 I4

E
R2 R4

Combining the equations above and simplifying,

R1 R2

R3 R4

R1 R4 R2 R3

Expression for balance of the Wheatstone bridge.

If Rx R4 is unkown resistance

Unknown resistor can be determined as

R2
Rx R3
R1
Resistor R3 is called the standard arm and Resistor R2
called the ratio arms.

and R1 are

R2 / R1
Sensitivity of the Wheatstone bridge
S=millimeters/A or degrees/ A or radians/ A
Therefore, if follows that total deflection D is:
D=S*I

Example 1:
Determine the value of the unknown resistor, in the circuit of the
following figure, assuming a null exists (the current through the
galvanometer is zero.

Solution:
The bridge is balanced when:

Measurement Errors

The main source of error: limiting errors of the three known

resistors.
Insufficient sensitivity of the null detector.
Prevention: calculate the galvanometer current to determine
whether or not the galvanometer has the required sensitivity to
detect an unbalance condition.
Changes in resistance of the bridge arms due to the heating effect
of the current through the resistors.
Prevention: The power dissipation in the bridge arms must be
computed in advance and the current must be limited to a safe
value.

 Thermal emfs in the bridge circuit of the galvanometer circuit

can also cause problems when low-value resistors are being

measured.
Prevention: the more sensitive galvanometers sometimes have
copper coils and copper suspension systems to avoid having
dissimilar metals in contact with one another and generating
thermal emfs.
Errors due to the resistance of leads and contacts exterior to the
actual bridge circuit.
Prevention: may be reduced by a Kelvin bridge.

Thevenin Equivalent Circuit

It is necessary to calculate the galvanometer circuit to determine
whether or not the galvanometer has the required sensitivity to detect
an unblance conditions.
Different galvanometer not only may require different currents per
unit deflection (current sensitivity), but also may have a difference
internal resistance.
Converting the Wheatstone bridge to its Thevenin equivalent circuit in
order to find the current follows in the galvanometer:

There are two steps must be taken:

Finding the equivalent voltage
when the galvanometer is
removed from the circuit (the open voltage between A and B of
bridge).
Finding the equivalent resistance, with the battery replaced by its
internal resistance (removing the voltage source and makes its side
short circuit and removing current source makes its side open
circuit).

Calculate

Calculate

Example 2
Calculate the current passes in the galvanometer of the following
circuit.

Solution:
1. Find Vth

RTh

2. Find rth
VTh

3. Find IG

GA

Problem 1
The schematic diagram of a Wheatstone bridge with values of the elements
is shown in figure. The battery voltage is 5 V and its internal resistance
negligible. The galvanometer has a current sensitivity of 10 mm/A and an
internal resistance of 100 . Calculate the deflection of the galvanometer
caused by the 5 unbalance in arm BC. R1=100, R2 = 1000, R3=200
and R4=2005[ IG = 3.32A and Deflection=33.2mm].

Problem 2
The galvanometer of problem 1 is replaced by one with an internal resistance of
500 and a current sensitivity of 1 mm/A. Assuming that a deflection of 1 mm
can be observed on galvanometer scale, determine if this new galvanometer is
capable of detecting the 5munbalance in arm BC of figure.
[ IG = 2.24A and Deflection=32.24mm].

5V

2. Digital Readout Bridges:

Applications on dc Bridges
Murray Loop

AC Bridges

The ac bridge is a natural outgrowth of the dc bridge and in its

basic form consists of four bridge arms, source of excitation
and a null detector.
The power source supplies an ac voltage to the bridge at the
desired frequency.
For measurements at low frequencies, the power line may
serve as the source of excitation; at higher frequencies, an
oscillator generally supplies the excitation voltage. The null
detector must respond to ac unbalance currents and in its
cheapest (but very effective) form consists of a pair of
headphones.
In other applications, the null detector may consist of an ac
amplifier with an output meter, or an electron ray tube (tuning
eye) indicator.

1. ac Wheatstone bridge

The four bridge arms Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4 are indicated as unspecified
impedances and the detector is represented by headphones.
The balance condition in this ac bridge is reached when the detector
response is zero, or indicates a null.
Balance adjustment to obtain a null response is made by varying one
or more of the bridge arms.
The general equation for bridge balance is obtained by using
complex notation for the impedances of the bridge circuit. (boldface
type is used to indicate quantities in complex notation.)
The quantities may be impedances or admittance as well as voltages
or currents.

Balance of ac Wheatstone bridge

The condition for bridge balance requires that the potential

difference from b to c be zero.
This will be the case when the voltage drop from a to b equals the
voltage drop from a to c, in both magnitude and phase.

The voltage difference between a, b equal a,c

Vab Vac I 1 Z1 I 2 Z 2
The voltage difference between b, d equal c, d
Vbd Vcd I 3 Z 3 I 4 Z 4

The current folows in bc 0,

I 1 I 3 and I 2 I 4

Thus:

The above equations can be arranged as:

and
The balance conditions of bridge are:

Example 3
The impedance of the basic ac bridge are given as follows:

Z1 300 30o

Z3 250 40o

Z 2 150
Z 4 unknown

Determine the constants of the unknown arm.

Solution
From the balance condition of bridge

If the frequency of source is 60Hz. Find the value of

capactance

Example 4
The ac bridge in the figure is in balance with the following constants:
arm AC, R = 450 ; arm AD, R = 300 in series with C = 0.4 F; arm
BD, unknown; arm BC, R = 200 in series with L = 15.9 mH. The
oscillator frequency is 1 kHz. Find the constants of arm BD.
C

Solution

From the balance condition of bridge

2. Maxwell Bridge
To measure the inductive reactance

and

The balance condition

Equation zzzz

Equating the real part of the equation zzzzz

Equating the imaginary part equation zzzz

3. Similar Angle bridge

To measure the capacitive reactance

The balance condition

Equation xxx
Equating the real part of the equation xxx

Equating the imaginary part equation xxx

Note that the unknown impedance can be any impedance whose

reactance is more capacitive than inductive. In other works, the
unknown can be either an RC or RLC combination whose reactive
component is negative. For this reason, the unknown resistance and
capacitance obtained are referred as the equivalent series resistance
and the equivalent series capacitance.

THANK YOU FOR

YOUR ATTENTION!!