Accurate Measurement of the Air-Core Inductance of Iron-Core Transformers With a Non-Ideal Low-Power Rectifier

The air-core inductance of power transformers is measured using a nonideal low-power rectifier. Its dc output serves to drive the transformer into deep saturation, and its ripple provides low-amplitude variable excitation. The principal advantage of the proposed method is its simplicity. For validation, the experimental results are compared with 3-D finite-element simulations.