AC BRIDGES

AC BRIDGE CIRCUITS
A bridge circuit is a type of electrical circuit in which two circuit branches (usually
in parallel with each other) are "bridged" by a third branch connected between the
first two branches at some intermediate point along them. The bridge was
originally developed for laboratory measurement purposes and one of the
intermediate bridging points is often adjustable when so used.
They are used for the measurement of unknown electrical quantities like
capacitance, resistance etc.
The output from a balanced bridge will be 0.
MAXWELL BRIDGE
A Maxwell bridge (in long form, a Maxwell-Wien bridge) is a
type of Wheatstone bridge used to measure an
unknown inductance in terms of
calibrated resistance and capacitance.

L4= R1 R3 C2


ADVANTAGES
The frequency does not appear in the final expression of both equations, hence it
is independent of frequency.
Maxwell's inductance capacitance bridge is very useful for the wide range of
measurement of inductance at audio frequencies.
DISADVANTAGE
The variable standard capacitor is very expensive if calibrated to a hig degree of
accuracy.
The bridge is limited to measurement of low quality coils (1 < Q < 10)
ANDERSONS BRIDGE
It is a modification of Maxwells Bridge.
Here the self inductance is measured in
terms of a standard capacitor.
Its is used to measure inductance of low Q
factor.
ADVANTAGES
It is very easy to obtain the balance point in Anderson's bridge as compared
to Maxwell bridge in case of low quality factor coils.
There is no need of variable standard capacitor is required instead of thin a
fixed value capacitor is used.
This bridge also gives accurate result for determination of capacitance in
terms of inductance.

DISADVANTAGES
The equations obtained for inductance in this bridge is more complex as
complex as compared to Maxwells Bridge.
The addition of capacitor junction increases complexity as well as difficulty
of shielding the bridge.
DE SAUTYS BRIDGE
This bridge provide us the most suitable method for
comparing the two values of capacitors.
C1 is the capacitance to be measured. C2 is a standard
capacitance.
Bridge balance is obtained by varying R4 and R3.

The main advantage of this bridge is its simplicity.
DISADVANTAGES
Bridge give inaccurate results for imperfect capacitor (here imperfect
means capacitors which are not free from dielectric losses).
This method only works for lossless capacitor.
SCHERINGS BRIDGE
This bridge is used to measure to the capacitance of a
capacitor.
In this case C1 is the capacitance to be measured. C2
and C4 are standard capacitances.

It has the advantage that the balance equation is
independent of frequency.
It is used for measuring the insulating properties of
electrical cables and equipment.