Question

Why does a single phase transformer beome purely inductive in open circuit

Answer 1



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AC Inductance and Inductive Reactance

The opposition to current flow through an AC Inductor is called Inductive Reactance and which depends lineally on the supply frequency

  

Inductors and chokes are basically coils or loops of wire that are either wound around a hollow tube former (air cored) or wound around some ferromagnetic material (iron cored) to increase their inductive value called inductance.

Inductors store their energy in the form of a magnetic field that is created when a voltage is applied across the terminals of an inductor. The growth of the current flowing through the inductor is not instant but is determined by the inductors own self-induced or back emf value. Then for an inductor coil, this back emf voltage VL is proportional to the rate of change of the current flowing through it.

This current will continue to rise until it reaches its maximum steady state condition which is around five time constants when this self-induced back emf has decayed to zero. At this point a steady state current is flowing through the coil, no more back emf is induced to oppose the current flow and therefore, the coil acts more like a short circuit allowing maximum current to flow through it.

However, in an alternating current circuit which contains an AC Inductance, the flow of current through an inductor behaves very differently to that of a steady state DC voltage. Now in an AC circuit, the opposition to the current flowing through the coils windings not only depends upon the inductance of the coil but also the frequency of the applied voltage waveform as it varies from its positive to negative values.

The actual opposition to the current flowing through a coil in an AC circuit is determined by the AC Resistance of the coil with this AC resistance being represented by a complex number. But to distinguish a DC resistance value from an AC resistance value, which is also known as Impedance, the term Reactance is used.