by Jerry Peck - Codeman on Tue Feb 04, 2014 12:17 am
A CT is a current transformer.
Visualize a donut where the donut is made from a flat band with it's ends connected to each other and with wire wrapped around the flat band which is now a circle (the donut).
A conductor is run through the opening (the donut hole) and an ac current is flowing through the wire. That ac current creates a magnetic field around the conductor which expends and collapses with the ac current.
The expanding and collapsing magnetic fields induces a current in the wire which is wrapped around the band of the donut. The amount of current in the donut coil is directly related to the amount of current in the conductor running through the donut coil (and depends on several factors, including the number of wraps of wire around the band of the donut coil).
The current transformers can be constructed to fit various sized conductors with smaller diameter coils for smaller size conductors. The number of wraps can be adjusted to produce the ratio desired between the current in the coil and the current in the conductor.
I've simplified the construction of the CT coils quite a bit but I believe it gives a visualization of a current transformer, how they are made and how they work.
Jerry Peck - CodeMan
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