Sharyn D.

Villarez
BSCE-II
Alternating Current Source
In electricity, alternating current (AC) occurs when charge carriers in a conductor
orsemiconductor periodically reverse their direction of movement. Household utility
current in most countries is AC with a frequency of 60 hertz (60 complete cycles per
second), although in some countries it is 50 Hz. The radio-frequency (RF) current in
antennas and transmission lines is another example of AC.
An AC waveform can be sinusoidal, square, or sawtooth-shaped. Some AC
waveforms are irregular or complicated. An example of sine-wave AC is common
household utility current (in the ideal case). Square or sawtooth waves are produced
by certain types of electronic oscillators, and by a low-end uninterruptible power
supply (UPS) when it is operating from its battery. Irregular AC waves are produced
by audio amplifiers that deal with analog voice signals and/or music.
The voltage of an AC power source can be easily changed by means of a power
transformer. This allows the voltage to be stepped up (increased) for transmission
and distribution. High-voltage transmission is more efficient than low-voltage
transmission over long distances, because the loss caused by
conductor resistance decreases as the voltage increases.
The voltage of an AC power source changes from instant to instant in time.
The effective voltage of an AC utility power source is usually considered to be the
DC voltage that would produce the same power dissipation as heat assuming a pure
resistance. The effective voltage for a sine wave is not the same as the peak
voltage . To obtain effective voltage from peak voltage, multiply by 0.707. To obtain
peak voltage from effective voltage, multiply by 1.414. For example, if an AC power
source has an effective voltage of 117 V, typical of a household in the United States,
the peak voltage is 165 V.
Sinusoid

The graphs of the sine and cosine functions are sinusoids of different phases.

The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical curve that describes a smooth

repetitive oscillation. It is named after the function sine, of which it is the graph.

It occurs often in pure and applied mathematics, as well asphysics, engineering, signal
processing and many other fields. Its most basic form as a function of time (t) is:
where:
A, the amplitude, is the peak deviation of the function from zero.
f, the ordinary frequency, is the number of oscillations (cycles) that occur each second of time.
= 2f, the angular frequency, is the rate of change of the function argument in units
of radians per second
, the phase, specifies (in radians) where in its cycle the oscillation is at t = 0.
When is non-zero, the entire waveform appears to be shifted in time by the
amount / seconds. A negative value represents a delay, and a positive value represents an
advance.
The sine wave is important in physics because it retains its waveshape when added to another
sine wave of the same frequency and arbitrary phase and magnitude. It is the only periodic
waveform that has this property. This property leads to its importance in Fourier analysis and
makes it acoustically unique.
General form
In general, the function may also have:
a spatial dimension, x (aka position), with wavenumber k
a non-zero center amplitude, D
which is
The wavenumber is related to the angular frequency by:.

where is the wavelength, f is the frequency, and c is the speed of propagation.

This equation gives a sine wave for a single dimension, thus the generalized equation given
above gives the amplitude of the wave at a position x at time t along a single line. This could, for
example, be considered the value of a wave along a wire.
In two or three spatial dimensions, the same equation describes a travelling plane wave if
position x and wavenumber k are interpreted as vectors, and their product as a dot product. For
more complex waves such as the height of a water wave in a pond after a stone has been
dropped in, more complex equations are needed.
Phasor
In physics and engineering, a phase vector, or phasor, is a representation of a sinusoidal
function whose amplitude (A),frequency (), and phase () are time-invariant. It is a subset of a
more general concept called analytic representation. Phasors separate the dependencies
on A, , and into three independent factors. This can be particularly useful because the
frequency factor (which includes the time-dependence of the sinusoid) is often common to all
the components of a linear combination of sinusoids. In those situations, phasors allow this
common feature to be factored out, leaving just the A and features. The result is that
trigonometry reduces to algebra, and linear differential equations become algebraic ones. The

termphasor therefore often refers to just those two factors. In older texts, a phasor is also
referred to as a sinor.
Definition
Euler's formula indicates that sinusoids can be represented mathematically as the sum of
two complex-valued functions:

[1]

or as the real part of one of the functions:

The term phasor can refer to either

or just the complex constant,
. In the latter
case, it is understood to be a shorthand notation, encoding the amplitude and phase of an
underlying sinusoid.
An even more compact shorthand is angle notation:
A phasor can be considered a vector rotating about the origin in a complex plane. The cosine
function is the projection of the vector onto the real axis. Its amplitude is the modulus of the
vector, and its argument is the total phase
. The phase constant represents the angle
that the vector forms with the real axis at t = 0.

Phasor Diagrams
We can understand AC circuits in terms of phasor diagrams. Here a vector of
length Vo rotates with angular velocity

. Its projection onto the vertical axis is

v = Vo sin

and that is just the AC voltage from a generator or a power supply.

The current iR through a resistor R is in phase with the voltage v R across the resistor
so we may show that on a phasor diagram by drawing a vector I R which lines up
with the voltage VR.

The current iC through a capacitor C is ahead of the voltage v C across the capacitor
by 90 degrees so we may show that on a phasor diagram by drawing a vector
IC which leads the voltage V by 90 degrees.

The current iL through an inductor L is behind the voltage v L across the resistor so
we may show that on a phasor diagram by drawing a vector I L which lags the
voltage V by 90 degrees.

At any given time, the sum of the voltages across the three components, R, C, and
L, must equal the voltage of the AC source. This is just energy conservation or
Kirchoff's Loop Rule,
v(t) = vR(t) + vC(t) + vL(t)
or
v = vR + v C + v L
Remember that the phase relationship between the AC voltage v and each of the
other voltages differs for each of the voltages. We can handle this graphically with
the following phasor diagram:

or

For convenience, we may want to rotate this diagram,

Now we can see that the voltages form the sides of a right triangle with the voltage
of the AC source forming the hypotenuse. That means
V = I SQRT[ R2 + (XL - XC)2 ]
or, since V = I Z, we can now write the total impedence for this series RCL circuit as
Z = SQRT[ R2 + (XL - XC)2 ]
where R is the resistance, XC is the capacitive reactance, and XL is the inductive
capacitance.
[ Of course, the "SQRT" needs to be replaced with a properly written radical sign in
the equations].

What is Peak, R.M.S. & Average Value, power factor

The amplitude (or peak value) of waveform is a measure of the extent of its voltage or current
excursion from the resting value (usually zero). The peak-to-peak value for a wave which is
symmetrical about its resting value is twice its peak value as shown here.
The R.M.S. (or effective) value of an alternating voltage or current (AC) is the value which would
produce the same amount of heat energy in a resistor as a direct voltage or current (DC) of the
same magnitude. The R.M.S. (root mean square) value of a waveform is very much dependent
upon its wave shape. The R.M.S. values are, therefore, only meaningful when dealing with a
waveform of known shape. When it is an irregular waveform, the R.M.S. value is normally
assumed to refer to sinusoidal (or sine) waveform.
Calculations of R.M.S. value of AC voltage: Suppose an AC voltage has peak voltage (Vp) of
10V. Then its peaktopeak voltage (Vpp) will be 20V. But due to changing nature of AC
voltage, what is its effective value? The AC voltage is always measured in effective value, which
is called ROOT MEAN SQUARE (R.M.S.) value. Its value is given by

Note: the R.M.S. value of sine wave is calculated at 45 which is 70.7% of its peak voltage.
Peak, R.M.S. & Average AC values of E and I:

The R.M.S. Value of an Alternating Current (or Voltage)

Consider the two circuits shown below:

If the bulbs light with the same brightness (that is, they are working at the same power), then it
would be logical to regard the current Iac as being equivalent to the current Idc.
However, the simple mathematical average value of Iac is, of course, equal to zero.
We therefore use a different method of finding an "average" or effective value of an alternating
current (or voltage).
In general, if an a.c. generator is connected to a component of resistance R,
the instantaneous power dissipated in the component is equal to iR
Therefore, the mean power is given by
mean power = (mean value of i)R

The mean value of i is equal to , where I is the maximum (or peak) value of i.
The root mean square value of the current is therefore

(and so the mean power = Irms2R)

Similarly, to calculate the r.m.s. value of the voltage of an a.c. supply, we have

The r.m.s. value of an a.c. supply is the steady d.c. which would
convert electrical energy to thermal energy at the same rate in a given
resistance.

Inductive Reactance

We can rewrite the above equation for inductive reactance into a more familiar form that uses
the ordinary frequency of the supply instead of the angular frequency in radians, and this is
given as:

Where: is the Frequency and L is the Inductance of the Coil and 2 = .

From the above equation for inductive reactance, it can be seen that if either of
the Frequency orInductance was increased the overall inductive reactance value would also
increase. As the frequency approaches infinity the inductors reactance would also increase to
infinity acting like an open circuit.
However, as the frequency approaches zero or DC, the inductors reactance would decrease to
zero, acting like a short circuit. This means then that inductive reactance is "Proportional" to
frequency and is small at low frequencies and high at higher frequencies and this demonstrated
in the following graph:
Inductive Reactance against Frequency

The slope shows that the "Inductive Reactance" of an inductor increases

as the supply frequency across it increases.
Therefore Inductive Reactance is proportional to frequency. ( XL )

Then we can see that at DC an inductor has zero reactance (short-circuit), at high frequencies
an inductor has ininite reactance (open-circuit).

Capacitive Inductance
So far you have been dealing with the capacitor as a device which passes ac and in which the only
opposition to the alternating current has been the normal circuit resistance present in any conductor.
However, capacitors themselves offer a very real opposition to current flow. This opposition arises from
the fact that, at a given voltage and frequency, the number of electrons which go back and forth from plate
to plate is limited by the storage ability-that is, the capacitance-of the capacitor. As the capacitance is
increased, a greater number of electrons change plates every cycle, and (since current is a measure of the
number of electrons passing a given point in a given time) the current is increased.
Increasing the frequency will also decrease the opposition offered by a capacitor. This occurs because the
number of electrons which the capacitor is capable of handling at a given voltage will change plates more
often. As a result, more electrons will pass a given point in a given time (greater current flow). The
opposition which a capacitor offers to ac is therefore inversely proportional to frequency and to
capacitance. This opposition is called CAPACITIVE REACTANCE.
You may say that capacitive reactance decreases with increasing frequency or, for a given frequency, the
capacitive reactance decreases with increasing capacitance. The symbol for capacitive reactance is XC.
Now you can understand why it is said that the XC varies inversely with the product of the frequency and
capacitance. The formula is:

Where: XC is capacitive reactance in ohms f is frequency in Hertz C is capacitance in farads 2 is 6.28 (2

X 3.1416) The following example problem illustrates the computation of X C.

IMPEDANCE
From your study of inductance and capacitance you know how inductive reactance and capacitive
reactance act to oppose the flow of current in an ac circuit. However, there is another factor, the
resistance, which also opposes the flow of the current. Since in practice ac circuits containing reactance
also contain resistance, the two combine to oppose the flow of current. This combined opposition by the
resistance and the reactance is called the IMPEDANCE, and is represented by the symbol Z.
Since the values of resistance and reactance are both given in ohms, it might at first seem possible to
determine the value of the impedance by simply adding them together. It cannot be done so easily,
however. You know that in an ac circuit which contains only resistance, the current and the voltage will be
in step (that is, in phase), and will reach their maximum values at the same instant. You also know that in

an ac circuit containing only reactance the current will either lead or lag the voltage by one-quarter of a
cycle or 90 degrees. Therefore, the voltage in a purely reactive circuit will differ in phase by 90 degrees
from that in a purely resistive circuit and for this reason reactance and resistance are rot combined by
simply adding them.
When reactance and resistance are combined, the value of the impedance will be greater than either. It is
also true that the current will not be in step with the voltage nor will it differ in phase by exactly 90
degrees from the voltage, but it will be somewhere between the in-step and the 90-degree out-of-step
conditions. The larger the reactance compared with the resistance, the more nearly the phase difference
will approach 90. The larger the resistance compared to the reactance, the more nearly the phase
difference will approach zero degrees.
If the value of resistance and reactance cannot simply be added together to find the impedance, or Z, how
is it determined? Because the current through a resistor is in step with the voltage across it and the current
in a reactance differs by 90 degrees from the voltage across it, the two are at right angles to each other.
They can therefore be combined by means of the same method used in the construction of a right-angle
triangle.
Assume you want to find the impedance of a series combination of 8 ohms resistance and 5 ohms
inductive reactance. Start by drawing a horizontal line, R, representing 8 ohms resistance, as the base of
the triangle.
Then, since the effect of the reactance is always at right angles, or 90 degrees, to that of the resistance,
draw the line XL, representing 5 ohms inductive reactance, as the altitude of the triangle. This is shown in
figure (5). Now, complete the hypotenuse (longest side) of the triangle. Then, the hypotenuse represents
the impedance of the circuit.

Figure (5). - Vector diagram showing relationship of resistance, inductive reactance, and impedance in a
series circuit.
One of the properties of a right triangle is:

Now suppose you apply this equation to check your results in the example given above.

When you have a capacitive reactance to deal with instead of inductive reactance as in the previous
example, it is customary to draw the line representing the capacitive reactance in a downward direction.
This is shown in figure (6). The line is drawn downward for capacitive reactance to indicate that it acts in
a direction opposite to inductive reactance which is drawn upward. In a series circuit containing
capacitive reactance the equation for finding the impedance becomes:

Figure (6). - Vector diagram showing relationship of resistance,

capacitive reactance, and impedance in a series circuit.

In many series circuits you will find resistance combined with both inductive reactance and capacitive
reactance. Since you know that the value of the reactance, X, is equal to the difference between the values
of the inductive reactance, XL, and the capacitive reactance, XC, the equation for the impedance in a series
circuit containingR, XL, and XC then becomes:

In figure (7) you will see the method which may be used to determine the impedance in a series circuit
consisting of resistance, inductance, and capacitance.

Figure (7). - Vector diagram showing relationship of resistance, reactance

(capacitive and inductive), and impedance in a series circuit.
Assume that 10 ohms inductive reactance and 20 ohms capacitive reactance are connected in series with
40 ohms resistance. Let the horizontal line represent the resistance R. The line drawn upward from the
end of R, represents the inductive reactance, XL. Represent the capacitive reactance by a line drawn
downward at right angles from the same end of R. The resultant of XL and XC is found by
subtracting XL from XC. This resultant represents the value of X.
Thus:

The line, Z, will then represent the resultant of R and X. The value of Z can be calculated as follows:

You will notice that in this case the inductive reactance is smaller than the capacitive reactance and is
therefore subtracted from the capacitive reactance.
These two examples serve to illustrate an important point: when capacitive and inductive reactance are
combined in series, the smaller is always subtracted from the larger and the resultant reactance always
takes the characteristics of the larger.