Electromotive Force Characteristics of Current Transformer According to the Magnetic Properties of Ferromagnetic Core

The most common structure of the current transformer (CT) consists of a length of wire wrapped many times around a silicon steel ring passed over the circuit being measured. Therefore, the primary circuit of CT consists of a single turn of the conductor, with a secondary circuit of many tens or hundreds of turns. The primary winding may be a permanent part of the current transformer, with a heavy copper bar to carry the current through the magnetic core. However, when the large current flows into a wire, it is difficult to measure its magnitude of current because the core is saturated and the core shows magnetic nonlinear characteristics. Therefore, we proposed a newly designed CT which has an air gap in the core to decrease the generated magnetic flux. Adding the air gap in the magnetic path increases the total magnetic reluctance against the same magnetic motive force (MMF). Using a ferrite core instead of steel also causes the generation of low magnetic flux. These features can protect the magnetic saturation of the CT core compared with the steel core. This technique can help the design of the CT to obtain a special shape and size.