Original poster: "Gerry Reynolds" <gerryreynolds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hi Aaron,Core saturation is a function of the volts per turn, the core area, the line frequency, and the core material. A core will saturate just as well with the secondary unloaded as not. For the volts per turn, freq, and core area all being fixed, the dphi/dt remains constant and the peak flux (phi) thru the core remains constant. When you load down the secondary and allow current in it to flow, the flux generated by the secondary will be counter to the flux in the core with an unloaded secondary. The current in the primary will then increase enough so the total flux in the core stays the same.
Gerry R.
Original poster: "J. Aaron Holmes" <jaholmes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hey, David! So, what you're saying is that it's tied to core saturation, then? Or am I misunderstanding? But isn't core saturation more a function of power throughput in an AC transformer? Will simply increasing the voltage lead to saturation, or wouldn't you also have to load the transformer down beyond its rated power throughput? I thought the latter was the case, but my mental model of a transformer is over-simplified, I'm sure! Regards, Aaron, N7OE