Technical College of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

AC Circuit

Prepared by /Ayad Saeed Ahmed

Section/ electric power

The first stage

Evening study type

 AC Circuits
Alternating current

Direct current (DC) circuits involve current flowing in one direction. In

alternating current (AC) circuits, instead of a constant voltage supplied by a
battery, the voltage oscillates in a sine wave pattern, varying with time as:

In a household circuit, the frequency is 60 Hz. The angular frequency is

related to the frequency, f, by:

Vo represents the maximum voltage, which in a household circuit in North

America is about 170 volts. We talk of a household voltage of 120 volts,
though; this number is a kind of average value of the voltage. The particular
averaging method used is something called root mean square (square the
voltage to make everything positive, find the average, take the square root),
or rms. Voltages and currents for AC circuits are generally expressed as rms
values. For a sine wave, the relationship between the peak and the rms
average is:

rms value = 0.707 peak value

Resistance in an AC circuit

The relationship V = IR applies for resistors in an AC circuit, so

In AC circuits we'll talk a lot about the phase of the current relative to the
voltage. In a circuit which only involves resistors, the current and voltage
are in phase with each other, which means that the peak voltage is reached at
the same instant as peak current. In circuits which have capacitors and
inductors (coils) the phase relationships will be quite different.
Capacitance in an AC circuit

Consider now a circuit which has only a capacitor and an AC power source
(such as a wall outlet). A capacitor is a device for storing charging. It turns
out that there is a 90° phase difference between the current and voltage, with
the current reaching its peak 90° (1/4 cycle) before the voltage reaches its
peak. Put another way, the current leads the voltage by 90° in a purely
capacitive circuit.

To understand why this is, we should review some of the relevant equations,
including:

relationship between voltage and charge for a capacitor: CV = Q

The AC power supply produces an oscillating voltage. We should follow the

circuit through one cycle of the voltage to figure out what happens to the
current.

Step 1 - At point a (see diagram) the voltage is zero and the capacitor is
uncharged. Initially, the voltage increases quickly. The voltage across the
capacitor matches the power supply voltage, so the current is large to build
up charge on the capacitor plates. The closer the voltage gets to its peak, the
slower it changes, meaning less current has to flow. When the voltage
reaches a peak at point b, the capacitor is fully charged and the current is
momentarily zero.

Step 2 - After reaching a peak, the voltage starts dropping. The capacitor
must discharge now, so the current reverses direction. When the voltage
passes through zero at point c, it's changing quite rapidly; to match this
voltage the current must be large and negative.
Step 3 - Between points c and d, the voltage is negative. Charge builds up
again on the capacitor plates, but the polarity is opposite to what it was in
step one. Again the current is negative, and as the voltage reaches its
negative peak at point d the current drops to zero.

Step 4 - After point d, the voltage heads toward zero and the capacitor must
discharge. When the voltage reaches zero it's gone through a full cycle so it's
back to point a again to repeat the cycle.

The larger the capacitance of the capacitor, the more charge has to flow to
build up a particular voltage on the plates, and the higher the current will be.
The higher the frequency of the voltage, the shorter the time available to
change the voltage, so the larger the current has to be. The current, then,
increases as the capacitance increases and as the frequency increases.

Usually this is thought of in terms of the effective resistance of the

capacitor, which is known as the capacitive reactance, measured in ohms.
There is an inverse relationship between current and resistance, so the
capacitive reactance is inversely proportional to the capacitance and the
frequency:

A capacitor in an AC circuit exhibits a kind of resistance called capacitive

reactance, measured in ohms. This depends on the frequency of the AC
voltage, and is given by:

We can use this like a resistance (because, really, it is a resistance) in an

equation of the form V = IR to get the voltage across the capacitor:

Note that V and I are generally the rms values of the voltage and current.

Inductance in an AC circuit

An inductor is simply a coil of wire (often wrapped around a piece of

ferromagnet). If we now look at a circuit composed only of an inductor and
an AC power source, we will again find that there is a 90° phase difference
between the voltage and the current in the inductor. This time, however, the
current lags the voltage by 90°, so it reaches its peak 1/4 cycle after the
voltage peaks.

The reason for this has to do with the law of induction:

Applying Kirchoff's loop rule to the circuit above gives:

As the voltage from the power source increases from zero, the voltage on the
inductor matches it. With the capacitor, the voltage came from the charge
stored on the capacitor plates (or, equivalently, from the electric field
between the plates). With the inductor, the voltage comes from changing the
flux through the coil, or, equivalently, changing the current through the coil,
which changes the magnetic field in the coil.

To produce a large positive voltage, a large increase in current is required.

When the voltage passes through zero, the current should stop changing just
for an instant. When the voltage is large and negative, the current should be
decreasing quickly. These conditions can all be satisfied by having the
current vary like a negative cosine wave, when the voltage follows a sine
wave.

How does the current through the inductor depend on the frequency and the
inductance? If the frequency is raised, there is less time to change the
voltage. If the time interval is reduced, the change in current is also reduced,
so the current is lower. The current is also reduced if the inductance is
increased.

As with the capacitor, this is usually put in terms of the effective resistance
of the inductor. This effective resistance is known as the inductive
reactance. This is given by:

where L is the inductance of the coil (this depends on the geometry of the
coil and whether its got a ferromagnetic core). The unit of inductance is the
henry.

As with capacitive reactance, the voltage across the inductor is given by:
Where does the energy go?

One of the main differences between resistors, capacitors, and inductors in

AC circuits is in what happens with the electrical energy. With resistors,
power is simply dissipated as heat. In a capacitor, no energy is lost because
the capacitor alternately stores charge and then gives it back again. In this
case, energy is stored in the electric field between the capacitor plates. The
amount of energy stored in a capacitor is given by:

In other words, there is energy associated with an electric field. In general,

the energy density (energy per unit volume) in an electric field with no
dielectric is:

With a dielectric, the energy density is multiplied by the dielectric constant.

There is also no energy lost in an inductor, because energy is alternately

stored in the magnetic field and then given back to the circuit. The energy
stored in an inductor is:

Again, there is energy associated with the magnetic field. The energy
density in a magnetic field is:

RLC Circuits

Consider what happens when resistors, capacitors, and inductors are

combined in one circuit. If all three components are present, the circuit is
known as an RLC circuit (or LRC). If only two components are present, it's
either an RC circuit, an RL circuit, or an LC circuit.
The overall resistance to the flow of current in an RLC circuit is known as
the impedance, symbolized by Z. The impedance is found by combining the
resistance, the capacitive reactance, and the inductive reactance. Unlike a
simple series circuit with resistors, however, where the resistances are
directly added, in an RLC circuit the resistance and reactances are added as
vectors.

This is because of the phase relationships. In a circuit with just a resistor,

voltage and current are in phase. With only a capacitor, current is 90° ahead
of the voltage, and with just an inductor the reverse is true, the voltage leads
the current by 90°. When all three components are combined into one
circuit, there has to be some compromise.

To figure out the overall effective resistance, as well as to determine the

phase between the voltage and current, the impedance is calculated like this.
The resistance R is drawn along the +x-axis of an x-y coordinate system.
The inductive reactance is at 90° to this, and is drawn along the +y-axis. The
capacitive reactance is also at 90° to the resistance, and is 180° different
from the inductive reactance, so it's drawn along the -y-axis. The
impedance, Z, is the sum of these vectors, and is given by:

The current and voltage in an RLC circuit are related by V = IZ. The phase
relationship between the current and voltage can be found from the vector
diagram: its the angle between the impedance, Z, and the resistance, R. The

angle can be found from:

If the angle is positive, the voltage leads the current by that angle. If the
angle is negative, the voltage lags the currents.

The power dissipated in an RLC circuit is given by:

Note that all of this power is lost in the resistor; the capacitor and inductor
alternately store energy in electric and magnetic fields and then give that
energy back to the circuit.

http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/PY106/ACcircuits.html