Sinusoids and Phasors (Part 1)

Pradita O. Hadi
School of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Institute of Technology Bandung

Sinusoids and Phasors 1

 Learning Objectives
• Understand the concept of alternating current (ac).
• Understand the characteristics of sinusoids.
• Nature characteristics, e.g. the motion of a pendulum, the vibration of a string, the ripples on
the ocean surface, etc.
• Sinusoidal signal is easy to generate and transmit.
• Through Fourier analysis, any practical periodic signal can be represented by a sum of
sinusoids.
• A sinusoid is easy to handle mathematically.
• Understand the concept of phasors.
• Understand the concept of impedance and admittance.
• Understand the Kirchhoff’s Laws in the frequency domain.
• Understand the combination of impedance.
• Know ac application in the circuit.

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 Introduction (1)
• Any steady state voltage or current in a linear circuit with a sinusoidal
source is a sinusoid.
• All steady state voltages and currents have the same frequency as the source.
• Will be illustrated using an example.
• In order to find a steady state voltage or current, all we need to know is its
magnitude and its phase relative to the source (we already know its
frequency).
• We do not have to find this differential equation from the circuit, nor do
we have to solve it.
• Instead, we use the concepts of phasors and complex impedances.
• Phasors and complex impedances convert problems involving differential
equations into circuit analysis problems.

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 Introduction (2)
• A phasor is a complex number that represents the magnitude and phase of
a sinusoidal voltage or current.
• Remember, for AC steady state analysis, this is all we need to compute - we
already know the frequency of any voltage or current.
• Complex impedance describes the relationship between the voltage across
an element (expressed as a phasor) and the current through the element
(expressed as a phasor).
• Impedance is a complex number.
• Impedance depends on frequency.
• Phasors and complex impedance allow us to use Ohm’s law with complex
numbers to compute current from voltage and voltage from current.

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 AC Signals
• Sawtooth Waves – waves that rise and fall in straight lines
• Can rise faster than it “decays” or decay faster than it rises
• When a signal rises and decays at the same rate, we call it triangular

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 AC Signals
• Square wave – alternating wave whose magnitude does not change; only the
polarity changes

• Often centered around 0, with the top and bottom at the maximum value but different
polarities
• Can also be shifted so that the bottom part of the “square” is at 0

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 AC Signals
• Sine-wave or sinusoidal waves – direction of current reverses at
regular intervals and the magnitude has the shape of a trigonometric
sine wave

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 Period and Frequency
• A periodic AC wave repeats itself after a certain period of time
• Period (T) – the length of time between one repetition of the pattern

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 The AC Cycle
• Degrees or Radians
• The ac cycle is broken down into smaller parts for analysis
• Once complete cycle is similar to the rotation of a point around a circle

Degrees – the AC cycle is divided into 360 equal parts

Radians – the AC cycle is divided into

6.28 (2π) equal parts

We will use degrees in this class

Any angle θ is the same as that angle θ ± 360o

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 Phase Difference
• AC signals may have the same magnitude and frequency, but they may not have
the same phase
• Phase is determined by the angle or part of the cycle where the signal “starts”
• These two signals are out of phase:

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 Phase Difference
• This becomes incredibly important when you are adding two signals
together

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 Amplitude of AC Signal
• Amplitude is the same as magnitude, level, or intensity
• Measured in amperes, volts, or watts depending on the kind of wave

Instantaneous Amplitude
• Instantaneous Amplitude – the amplitude
at some precise moment in time
• Peak Amplitude – the maximum
magnitude, positive or negative, that the
instantaneous amplitude achieves Peak Amplitude Peak-to-Peak
• Peak-to-Peak Amplitude – the difference Amplitude
between the positive peak amplitude and
the negative peak amplitude

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 Direct Current Offset
• A DC offset is a constant source and shifts the AC wave so that it is
centered around the DC offset value.

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 Sinusoids
Vm

v(t )  Vm  cos(ω  t )
Where:
Vm = the amplitude of the sinusoid
ω = the angular frequency in radians/sec
ω t = the argument of the sinusoid
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 Sinusoids
• Angular frequency and period are related according to the following
equations:
2 2
T 
 T
• We often refer to the frequency of the wave in Hz, as mentioned before,
and f = 1/T
• We can relate angular frequency to frequency, too: ω = 2π f
• The sinusoidal waves repeat once every period, so we know that
v(t )  v(t  T )  v(t  n  T )
for all time values t and all integers n

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 Sinusoids - Rules

sin(t  90)  cos(t )

sin(t  90)   cos(t )

sin(t )  cos(t  90)

 sin(t )  cos(t  90)

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 Sinusoids
• We can add two sine waves or cosine waves using the following
properties:
sin( A  B)  sin( A) cos( B)  cos( A)sin( B)

sin( A  B)  sin( A) cos( B)  cos( A)sin( B)

cos( A  B)  cos( A) cos( B)  sin( A)sin( B)

cos( A  B)  cos( A) cos( B)  sin( A)sin( B)

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 Sinusoids
• Now consider the GENERAL expression for a sinusoid
x(t )  X M sin  t   

• Where
•   “Phase Angle” in Radians
• Graphically, for POSITIVE 

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 Leading, Lagging, In-Phase
• Consider two sinusoids with
the SAME angular frequency
x1 (t )  X M 1 sin  t   
x2 (t )  X M 2 sin  t   
 Now if  > 
• x1 LEADS x2 by (-) rads or Degrees
• x2 LAGS x1 by (-) rads or Degrees
Sinusoids and Phasors
 If  = , Then The Signals are IN-PHASE
 If   , Then The Signals are OUT-of-
PHASE
 Phase Angle Typically Stated in
DEGREES, but Radians are acceptable
• Both These Forms OK
x(t )  X M sin  t   2
 X M sin  t  90
19
 Example (1)
• Find the amplitude, phase, period, and frequency of the sinusoid represented by
the equation: v(t )  12  cos(50t  10)
• Solution:
• The amplitude is Vm = 12 V.
• The phase is φ = 10o.
• The angular frequency is ω = 50 rad/sec.
2 2
• The period T    0.1257 s
 50
1 1
• The frequency is f    7.958Hz
T 0.1257 s

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 Example (2)
• Given the following sinusoid, calculate its amplitude, phase, angular frequency,
period, and frequency. v(t )  5  cos(4 t  60)
• Solution:
• The amplitude is Vm = 5 V.
• The phase is φ = -60o.
• The angular frequency is ω = 4π rad/sec.
2 2
• The period T    0.5s
 4
1 1
• The frequency is f    2 Hz
T 0.5s
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 Phasors
• A phasor is a complex number that represents the amplitude and
phase of a sinusoid
• Provide a simple means of analyzing linear circuits that would be
impossible to solve mathematically otherwise
• In DC Circuits : V = IR (scalar)
• In AC Circuits : V = IZ (phasor)
• Z = R + jX

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 Complex Numbers
• In rectangular form:
• z= x + jy
• where j =  1
• In polar / exponential form:
• z= r  re j

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 Imaginary

Complex Numbers
A
• Complex Number b
z  a  jb 
a
Real
 This can be thought of as a VECTOR in the  Where
complex plane
 This vector can be expressed in Polar j   1  j  j  1
(exponential) form thru the Euler Identity  Then from the Vector Plot
a  jb  Ae j A  a2  b2
 A(cos   j sin  ) b
  tan 1

a
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 Complex Number Arithmetic
• Consider Two Complex Numbers
n  a  jb  Ae j
m  c  jd  De j
 The SUM, Σ, and DIFFERENCE, ,
for these numbers
n  m  a  c   j b  d 
n  m  a  c   j b  d 
Sinusoids and Phasors
 The PRODUCT n•m
n  m  a  jb c  jd 
 ac  j bc  ad   j 2bd
 ac  bd   j bc  ad 
n  m  Ae j  De j  ADe j   
 Complex DIVISION is Painfully Tedious
25
 Complex Number Division
• For the Quotient n/m in  Use the complex CONJUGATE to clear
Rectangular Form the complexed
n a  jb n a  jb c  jd
  
m c  jd m c  jd c  jd
n ac  j bc  ad   j 2bd
 The generally accepted form of a  2
complex quotient does NOT contain m c  j dc  cd   d 2
complex or imaginary DENOMINATORS n ac  bd   j bc  ad 

m c2  d 2
 The Exponential Form is Cleaner

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 Complex Number Division
• For the quotient n/m in exponential form
j
n Ae  A  j   
 j
  e
m De D
• However must still calculate the magnitudes A & D...

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 Phasors
• This is based on Euler’s identity, • We represent sinusoids using Euler’s
which says identity
• The sinusoid v(t )  Vm  cos(ω  t   )
e  j  cos   j sin 
• Can be represented by the phasor
• We can consider cos and sin as the
real and imaginary parts of the V  Vm  e j  Vm
number
• Because we say
 
cos   Re e j


v(t )  Re V  e jωt 
sin   Im  e j

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Phasor

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Phasor

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Sinusoid-Phasor Transformation

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 Example (1)
• Transform this sinusoid to a phasor: i  6cos  50t  40  A

Solution:
• For this problem, we only have to match the elements of the
sinusoid equation with what we know of the desired phasor:
Im = 6 and  = 40o

j 40
• So we end up with: I  6e A  640 A

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 Example (2)
• Transform this sinusoid to a phasor: v  4sin  30t  50 V
Solution:
We use that  sin(t )  cos(t  90)
v  4sin  30t  50 V  4 cos(30t  50  90)
 4 cos  30t  140 

The phasor form of v, is then

V  4  e j140V  4140V

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 Practice Problem (1)
• Express these sinusoids as phasors:
a) v  7 cos  2t  40 V

b) i  4sin 10t  10  A

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 Example (3)
• Find the sinusoids represented by this phasor: I  3  j 4 A

Solution:
• First we need to transform the rectangular complex number into a phasor:
 4 
I  3  j 4 A   3   4   tan 1    5126.87
2 2

 3 
• We can now write the time domain equation:
i(t )  5cos t  126.87  A
• We use ω for the angular frequency since it was not given in the problem.

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 Example (4)
 j 20
• Find the sinusoids represented by this phasor: V  j8e V
Solution:
• For this problem, we first need to get rid of the j in the first problem. It is given that:
j  190
• Now we just need to multiply these two phasors together:
V  j8e  j 20V  190  8  20  870
• Converting to the time domain, we end up with:
v(t )  8cos t  70 

Sinusoids and Phasors 36

Practice Problem (2)
• Find the sinusoids corresponding to these phasors:
a) V  1030V

b) I  j  5  j12  A

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