Power in AC Circuits

Rectification
 All AC supplies are sine waves other wave
shapes are encountered occasionally.
A sinusoidal voltage might be described by a
function such as:
v = Vsin(wt)
v(lowercase) is the intantaneous potential
different (p.d); V (uppercase) is a maximum
p.d, which we call the voltage amplitude; and w
is the angular frequency, equal to 2𝞹 times the
frequency f.
i = Isin(wt)

Where i (lowercase) is the instantaneous current

and I (uppercase) is the maximum current or
current amplitude.
A coil rotating in a magnetic field will
produce an alternating current (AC) which is
made to flow by an alternating EMF. Such
generators produce sine wave currents and
voltages.

 Figurebelow shows a simple EMF sine wave

(a current sine wave would be similar) and
we can see that several values are
important:
A sine wave for a 110V AC supply, showing the
maximum, RMS and mean values.
 Instantaneous values – are values at
particular instants in time, and will be
different from instant to instant.
Symbols for instantaneous values are
lower case symbols, v for voltage and i
for current, e for EMF and so on. These
values can be calculated if the
maximum values are known.
 Maximum or Peak Values – are the
greatest values reached during
alternation, usually occurring once in
each half-cycle. Maximum values are
indicated by Um for voltage, Im for
current and so on.
 Averageor Mean Values – are the
average value of current or voltage.
Mean values have symbols, Uav and Iav
etc.
 Mostac ammeters and voltmeters are
designed to measure the R.M.S. R.m.s values
of current and p.d rather than the peak
values. The r.m.s value of a current I is define
by:

Irms = Ipeak/√2

 Inthe same way, the r.m.s value of a

sinusoidal voltage with amplitude (max.value)
V is:
Vrms = Vpeak/√2
1. Certain heavy industrial equipment
uses AC power that has a peak
voltage of 679v. What is the rms
voltage?
Vrms = 679/√2

Ans = 480.13V
 Find
the rms value of an alternating current
whose peak value is 5 amps.
 Ans =3.53A
AC resistive circuit; (a) the circuit; (b) the wave diagram, v and i are
in phase; (c) the phasor diagram. v is the instantaneous voltage and i
is the instantaneous current. I and U are RMS values.
 Current and voltage stay in-phase in a purely
resistive circuit (i.e. a circuit without
inductance or capacitance).
If the alternating voltage of:

is applied to a resistor, the instantaneous

current:

Thus:

or, using RMS values:

2. A 240V AC supply is connected to
an 80Ω resistor. Calculate the
resulting current flow.

I = 240∕80

I = 3A

Note that these current and voltage values are

RMS values.
 If the current in the coil is increasing,
the induced EMF will oppose the
supply voltage limiting the rate of
increase. Similarly, if the current in
the coil is decreasing the induced EMF
will try to keep it flowing.
AC inductive circuit; (a) the circuit; (b) the wave
diagram, e and v are 180° out of phase, i and v are 90°
out of phase; (c) the phasor diagram. e is the
instantaneous induced EMF, v is the instantaneous voltage
and i is the instantaneous current. I and U are RMS values.
 This
property is called the inductive
reactance of the coil (XL) and it can be
shown that:

where:
XL = inductive reactance of the coil (Ω)
U = voltage applied to a coil (V)
I = resulting current flow (A)
f = supply frequency (Hz)
L = coil inductance (H)
ω = 2πf
 Findthe inductive reactance across an
inductor of 0.2H inductance when an a.c
voltage of 60Hz is applied across it.
XL = 2∏fl
= 2∏ x 60 x 0.2
=75.40Ω
 Note that, when f = 0, the inductive reactance
will be zero. Thus if a coil is connected to a DC
supply a steady current will flow through it,
which is limited only by the coil’s resistance.
 If a direct voltage is applied to a capacitor the
current gradually falls off until the capacitor is
fully charged at which point no more current
flows.

 Ifthe capacitor is connected to an AC supply

however, the current constantly changes
direction and the capacitor will charge and
discharge accordingly.

 InAC circuits, although no current flows right

through the capacitor, an alternating current
does exist in the circuit.
AC capacitive circuit; (a) the circuit; (b) the wave
diagram, v and i are 90° out of phase; (c) the phasor
diagram. v is the instantaneous voltage and i is the
instantaneous current. I and U are RMS values.
 Likeinductive circuits it is clear that the
current is limited by a property other than
resistance. This property is called capacitive
reactance (XC). It can be shown that:

where:
Xc = capacitive reactance (Ω)
U = supply voltage (V)
f = supply frequency (Hz)
I = circuit current (A)
C = capacitance (F)
ω = 2πf
With capacitance in microfarads

 And (for circuits with capacitance only):

A 2μF capacitor is connected directly across a
150Vrms, 60Hz a.c source. Find (a) the rms value
of the current (b) the peak value of current.
Xc = 1/ 2∏fC
Xc = 1/ 2∏x 60 x (2x10-6) Ω
Xc = 1324.4Ω
From V = IXc, we have
Irms = Vrms/ Xc
Irms = 150/ 1324.4
Irms = 0.113A
Peak current, I₀ = √2 x Irms
= 0.160A
 Sofar so good we’ve looked at circuits that
contain only resistance, inductance or
capacitance. However we also mentioned
that circuits cannot, in practice, be solely
inductive. Therefore we must take account
of circuits that have resistance and
inductance and we can represent a coil as a
pure inductor in series with a resistor
(a) The resistive and inductive circuit; (b) the phasor
parallelogram; (c) the phasor triangle; (d) the wave
diagram.
Simple trigonometry also applies, so that:

For a resistor, the effect limiting the current:

 For a pure inductor, the effect limiting
current is

In a circuit that has both resistance and inductance,

both effects contribute to limiting the voltage, and:
 Foran AC circuit, the ratio U/I is know as
impedance (Z) which has the units of ohms
(Ω). The impedance in ohms may be defined
as the applied voltage in volts needed to
drive a current of one ampere. Therefore:
The impedance for resistive and inductive AC series
circuits.
A series circuit consisting of an inductor of
negligible resistance and a pure resistor of 12Ω
is connected to a 30V, 50Hz AC supply. If the
current is 2A, calculate:
1. the PD across the resistor
2. the PD across the inductor
3. the inductance of the inductor
4. the phase angle between applied voltage
and current.
5. the impedance of the circuit
(1.) the PD across the resistor, since the
resistor obeys Ohm’s law:

(2) the PD across the inductor:

therefore:
(3) inductance of the inductor:

(4) phase angle:

Therefore:
 Some types of capacitor have
considerable current leakage and the
effect of this is similar to that of a
resistor in series with the capacitor. Even
if the leakage current is small, a resistor
is often connected in series with a
capacitor and the circuit arrangement is
shown in figure b below.
(a) The resistive and capacitive circuit; (b) the phasor
parallelogram; (c) the phasor triangle; (d) the wave
diagram.
 From the figure it is seen that the voltages U,
UR and UL together form a right angled
triangle, to which Pythagoras’ theorem applies.
Thus:

Simple trigonometry also applies, so that:

The impedance of the resistive-capacitive series
circuit can be found from:
 Therefore

Once again, the impedance circuit can be defined as the

applied voltage needed to drive a current of one ampere
through it. Also, once again we can draw an impedance
triangle
The impedance for resistive and capacitive AC series
circuits.
A 50 μF capacitor in series with a 40 Ω
resistor and a 12 V AC signal with a frequency
of 60 Hz
 A) Calculate the capacitive reactance
 B) Determine the impedance of the circuit
 C) What is the rms current in the circuit
 D) Calculate the voltage across the capacitor
and the resistor
 E) How much power is absorbed by the
circuit
 A) Calculate the capacitive reactance
1
 𝑋𝑐 =
2∗𝜋∗𝑓∗𝐶
106
 𝑋𝑐 = = 53.05 Ω
2∗𝜋∗60∗50
 B) Determine the impedance of the circuit
𝑍 = 𝑅2 + 𝑋𝑐2
𝑍 = 402 + 53.052
 𝑍 = 66.44 Ω
 C)What is the rms current in the circuit
 𝑈 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑍
𝑈 12
 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 = = = 0.1806
𝑍 66.44
 D) Calculate the voltage across the capacitor
and the resistor
 𝑈𝑅 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑅
 𝑈𝑅 = 0.1806 ∗ 40
 𝑈𝑅 = 7.224 𝑉

 𝑈𝑐 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑋𝑐
 𝑈𝑐 = 0.1806 ∗ 53.05
 𝑈𝑐 = 9.581
 E) How much power is absorbed by the
circuit
2
 𝑃 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑅
 𝑃 = 0.1806 2 ∗ 40
 𝑃 = 1.305 𝑊
The general series circuit (a) the circuit diagram; (b)
the phasor diagram; (c) the impedance triangle.
The impedance diagram is shown above and the
inductive and capacitive impedances are drawn
in different directions, their difference (XL – XC)
becomes the effective circuit reactance.
A choke of inductance 0.318 H resistance
30Ω is connected in series with 53μF
capacitance across a 24V, 50Hz supply.
Calculate the circuit impedance, current
and phase angle. Draw scale phasor and
impedance diagrams.
Since  comes out as a positive value and we
have taken the current as a reference, the
current lags U and we say the phase angle is
53.1° lagging. The phasor and impedance
diagrams are shown below:
A 40 μF capacitor is in series with a 100 mH
inductor, a 30 Ω resistor and a 15 V AC signal
with a frequency of 60 Hz
 A) Calculate the capacitive reactance and
the inductive reactance in the circuit
 B) Determine the impedance
 C) Calculate the current in the circuit
 D) Calculate the voltage across the resistor,
the inductor and the capacitor
 E) How much power is consumed in he circuit
 A)Calculate the capacitive reactance and
the inductive reactance in the circuit
1
 𝑋𝑐 =
2∗𝜋∗𝑓∗𝐶
106
 𝑋𝑐 = = 66.3 Ω
2∗𝜋∗60∗40

 𝑋𝐿 =2∗𝜋∗𝑓∗𝐿
 𝑋𝐿 = 2 ∗ 𝜋 ∗ 60 ∗ 0.1
 𝑋𝐿 = 37.7 Ω
 B) Determine the impedance
𝑍 = 𝑅2 + 𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋𝑐 2

𝑍 = 302 + 37.7 − 66.3 2

 𝑍 = 41.45 Ω
 C) Calculate the current in the circuit
𝑈
 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 =
𝑍
15
 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 = = 0.3619 𝐴
41.45
 D) Calculate the voltage across the resistor, the inductor
and the capacitor
 𝑈𝑅 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑅
 𝑈𝑅 = 0.3619 ∗ 30
 𝑈𝑅 = 10.857 𝑉

 𝑈𝐿 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑋𝐿
 𝑈𝐿 = 0.3619 ∗ 37.7
 𝑈𝐿 = 13.64 𝑉

 𝑈𝑐 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑋𝑐
 𝑈𝑐 = 0.3619 ∗ 66.3
 𝑈𝑐 = 23.99 𝑉
 E) How much power is consumed in the
circuit
2
𝑃 = 𝐼 ∗𝑅
 𝑃 = 0.36192 ∗ 30
 𝑃 = 3.929 𝑊
1. A 20μF capacitor is placed across an ac generator
that applies a potential drop with an amplitude
(peak value) of 100V. Find the capacitive
reactance and the current amplitude when the
frequency is 60Hz and when the frequency is
6000Hz.
answer
i. At 60Hz, Xc = 133Ω, I = 0.752A

ii. At 6000Hz, Xc = 1.33Ω, I = 75.2A

A transformer is a device used to raise
or lower the voltage in a circuit without
an appreciable loss of power.

Transformers are made up from primary

and secondary coils (called windings)
that are made from turns of insulated
wire.
 If 100% efficiency is assumed:
NOTE:

 Fora transformer with more turns in

the primary than the secondary U1 >
U2, such a transformer is called a step-
down transformer.

 Fora transformer with more turns in

the secondary than the primary U1 <
U2, such a transformer is called a step-
up transformer.
A 75kVA transformer has a step-down ratio
of 12:1, with 2400 primary turns and a
primary voltage of 3.3kV. Calculate:
1. the number of secondary turns,
2. the secondary voltage,
3. the volts per turn,
4. the full load primary and secondary
currents.
(1.) number of secondary turns:

so:
 (2.) secondary voltage:

so:
 (3.) volts per turn:

or:
(4.) full load primary and secondary currents:

I1= 75000V A/U1 75000/3300 = 22.7 A

I2 = 75000V A/U2 = 75000/275 = 273 A

A transformer has 400 primary turns and 1800
secondary turns. The input voltage is 12 V
and the output current is 3 A when
connected across a resistor
 A) What is the output voltage
 B) Determine the input current
 C) What is the value of the resistor
 D) How much power is dissipated by the
resistor
 A) What is the output voltage

𝑁1 𝑈
 = 1
𝑁2 𝑈2
400 12
 =
1800 𝑈2
 𝑈2 = 54 𝑉
 B) Determine the input current

𝑁1 𝐼
 = 2
𝑁2 𝐼1
400 3
 =
1800 𝐼1
 𝐼1 = 13.5 𝐴
 C) What is the value of the resistor

𝑈2
𝑅 =
𝐼2
54
𝑅 = = 18 Ω
3
 D)How much power is dissipated by the
resistor

𝑃 = 𝐼2 𝑅
 𝑃 = 32 ∗ 18
 𝑃 = 162 𝑊
A doorbell requires 0.4A at 6V. It is connected to a
transformer whose primary, containing 2000 turns,
is connected to a 120V ac line.
(a) how many turns should there be in the
secondary?
(b) what is the current in the primary?
Answer
(a.) N2 = 100 turns

(b.) I1 = 0.02A
 The process of CLIPPING a SIGNAL or WAVEFORM
such that either the positive or negative portion
of it is completely eliminated. This technique can
be used to convert ALTERNATING CURRENT into
DIRECT CURRENT.

 Types of rectification are shown below:

 half-wave, in which only the positive or negative

portions of the signal remain;

 full-wave,in which either positive or negative

portions are inverted so that the entire signal has
the same polarity.
 Now we come to the most popular application
of the diode: rectification. Simply defined,
rectification is the conversion of alternating
current (AC) to direct current (DC).

 Thisinvolves a device that only allows one-

way flow of electrons.
 As we have seen, this is exactly what a
semiconductor diode does.

 The simplest kind of rectifier circuit is the

half-wave rectifier. It only allows one half of
an AC waveform to pass through to the load.
(Figure below).
 Ifwe need to rectify AC power to obtain the
full use of both half-cycles of the sine wave,
a different rectifier circuit configuration must
be used. Such a circuit is called a full-wave
rectifier.

 One kind of full-wave rectifier, called the

center-tap design, uses a transformer with a
center-tapped secondary winding and two
diodes, as in Figure below.
 Rectification is the conversion of alternating
current (AC) to direct current (DC).
 A half-wave rectifier is a circuit that allows only
one half-cycle of the AC voltage waveform to be
applied to the load, resulting in one non-
alternating polarity across it. The resulting DC
delivered to the load “pulsates” significantly.
 A full-wave rectifier is a circuit that converts both
half-cycles of the AC voltage waveform to an
unbroken series of voltage pulses of the same
polarity. The resulting DC delivered to the load
doesn't “pulsate” as much.
1.What is the average power consumption of a
120-V AC microwave oven that draws 10.0A?
Solution
Using the equation
𝑃𝑎𝑣𝑒 = 𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠
we can calculate the average power given the rms
values for the current and voltage:

𝑃𝑎𝑣𝑒=𝐼𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑉𝑟𝑚𝑠 = 10.0𝐴 120𝑉 =1.20𝐾𝑊

2.What capacitance should be used to
produce a 2.00MΩ reactance at 60.0Hz?
Solution
Using the equation:

𝑋𝑐 = 1
2𝜋𝑓𝐶

1 1 -9
C = = 2𝜋 60.0𝐻𝑧 2.00 𝑥 106 𝛺 = 1.326 x 10 F = 1.33nF
2𝜋𝑓𝑋𝑐