Jon Elmer edited Bath Power System.tex  over 9 years ago

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\subsection{Current Measurement}  Electrical current is the rate of flow of electrons. In Direct Current (DC) applications such as electroforming, this flow is one-way and directly relates to the flow of ions through the electrolysis medium. Measuring current is therefore key to calculating the mass transfer during the electroforming process.  The most basic form of current measurement can be undertaken using a sub-ohm ``current sense'' resistor. resistor of known value.  The resistor is placed in series with the circuit under test, and the voltage drop across it is measured using one of the techniques discussed in \ref{volt-meas}. The current through the resistor, and therefore the circuit under test (see Kirchoff's Current Law \cite{kirchoff}), can be calculated using Ohm's Law \cite{ohm} $V = I \times R$. The benefit of using a small resistance value is that the power dissipated is low. For stability of measurement, it is important that the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the resistor is low, so that it is unaffected by resistive heating. An alternative to the current sense resistor is to use an inductor's DC resistance. An idea inductor has no DC resistance, however in reality they exhibit resistances of sub-milliohm levels. This means that the power loss is much less than in the current sense reistor method, however due to the high TCR of copper, the current measurement varies greatly with temperature.  An alternative to current-sense reistors  \subsection{Current Control}