Alternating current

An AC circuit consists of circuit elements and a power source that provides an

alternating voltage v . This voltage, which varies with time depending on the
source, is described by:

Equation 1

Where V max is the maximum output voltage of the AC source, or the voltage
amplitude.
The angular frequency of the alternating current voltage is:

Equation 2

Where f is the frequency of the

source and T is the period. The
source determines the frequency of
the current in any circuit that is
connected to it.
We will consider the series RLC
circuit shown in figure (1), where a
resistor R, an inductor L and a
capacitor C are connected in series
to an alternating emf .
1.Fig(1)

For a short time, once the emf is initially applied, the current varies erratically
with time. These variations quickly disappear, after which the current varies
sinusoidally with the same angular frequency as the emf source, and can be
written as:

Equation 3

Where I max is the amplitude of the current and φ is the phase angle indicating
the phase relationship between voltage and current.
To analyze an RLC circuit it is useful to analyze each of the three elements
separately.
Phasor diagrams
A phasor is not a real physical quantity with a
direction in space, such as speed, momentum, or
electric field, but rather it is a geometric entity that
helps us describe and analyze physical quantities that
vary sinusoidally with time. time.
To represent voltages and currents that vary
sinusoidally we will use rotating vector diagrams. In
these diagrams the instantaneous value of a quantity
that varies sinusoidally with respect to time is
represented by the projection onto a horizontal axis of
a vector with length equal to the amplitude of the
quantity. The vector rotates counterclockwise with
constant angular speed ω. These rotating vectors are called phasors, and the
diagrams that contain them are called phasor diagrams.

Resistor
By defining V R as the potential difference across the resistance, we can write

Equation 4

The instantaneous current in the resistor is

Equation 5

Figure (2) shows a graph of voltage and

current versus time. At point a, the current has
a maximum value in one direction, arbitrarily
called the positive direction. Between points a
and b, the current decreases in magnitude, but
is still in the positive direction. At b, the current
is at moment zero; therefore it starts to
increase in the negative direction between
points b and c. At c, the current has reached
its maximum value in the negative direction.
2.Fig.(2)
Because I R and V R both vary as and reach their maximum values at the
same time, as shown in figure (2), they are said to be in phase. Therefore, for
an applied sinusoidal voltage, the current in a resistor is always in phase with
the voltage across the resistor terminals.
To simplify the analysis of circuits containing two or more elements, a graphical
representation called phasor diagrams is used. A phasor is a vector whose
length is proportional to the maximum value of the variable it represents and
that rotates counterclockwise with an angular speed equal to the angular
frequency associated with the variable. The projection of the phasor on the
vertical axis represents the instantaneous value of the quantity it represents.

Figure (3) shows voltage and current phasors for

the circuit of figure (1) at some instant. The
projections of the phasor arrows on the vertical axis
are determined by a sine function of the phasor
angle with respect to the horizontal axis.

3.Fig.(3)
Inductor
The potential difference in the inductor is related to the current according to the
equation:

Equation 6

What can we write as

Equation 7

The quantities V L and i are not in phase, for a sinusoidal applied voltage, the
current in an inductor always lags 90º with respect to the voltage at the
terminals of the inductor (a quarter of a cycle in time)}

4.Fig.(4)
The phasor diagram in figure (4) indicates this relationship between V L and i.
The current in an inductive circuit reaches its maximum or minimum value when
:

Equation 8

Because I max is in amperes and V max is in volts, X L must be measured in ohms.

Therefore, V L has the same units as resistance and is related to current and
voltage in the same way as resistance. It must behave in a way similar to a
resistance, in the sense that it represents opposition to the passage of charge.
Since X L depends on the applied frequency V , the inductor reacts differently,
offering opposition to the current, for different frequencies. For this reason, X L
is the inductive reactance:

Equation 9

Equation (8) indicates that, for a certain applied voltage, the inductive reactance
increases as the frequency increases. This conclusion is consistent with
Faraday's law: the greater the rate of change of current in the inductor, the
greater the back electromotive force, which results in an increase in reactance
and a decrease in current.
Meaning of inductive reactance:
The XL inductive reactance is actually a description of the self-induced emf that
opposes any change in current through the inductor. According to equation 9 for

a given current amplitude I, the voltage between the ends of the

inductor and the self-induced emf They both have an amplitude V L

that is directly proportional to X L . According to equation 9, the inductive
reactance and the self-induced emf increase when the variation of the current is
faster (that is, with the increase of the angular frequency v), considering L
constant.
Capacitor
The potential difference V c at the ends of the capacitor is given by:
 Equation 10

The current is 90º out of phase with the voltage at the capacitor terminals. A
plot of current and voltage versus time (Figure 5a) shows that the current
reaches its maximum value a quarter cycle before the voltage reaches its
maximum value.
Consider point b, where the current is zero. This occurs when the capacitor
reaches its maximum charge, so that the voltage at the capacitor terminals is
maximum (point d). At points like a and e, the current is maximum, which occurs
when the charge on the capacitor becomes zero and begins to charge with the
opposite polarity. When the charge is zero, the voltage across the capacitor
terminals is zero (points c and f). Therefore, the current and voltage are out of
phase.
The phasor diagram in Figure 5b shows that for a sinusoidally applied voltage,
the current always leads 90º to the voltage present at the capacitor terminals.

5.Fig.(5)

Equation (9) shows that the current in the circuit reaches its maximum value
when :

Equation 11

In analogy with the inductive reactance, the capacitive inductance X c is defined

 Equation 12

When the frequency of the voltage source increases, the capacitive reactance
decreases and therefore the maximum current increases.
Again, the frequency of the current is determined by the frequency of the
voltage source driving the circuit. As the frequency approaches zero, the
capacitive reactance approaches infinity and, therefore, the current approaches
zero. This conclusion makes sense because the circuit approaches direct
current conditions as ω approaches zero and the capacitor represents an open
circuit.
Meaning of capacitive reactance
The capacitive reactance of a capacitor is inversely proportional to both the
capacitance C and the angular frequency v; the higher the capacitance and
frequency, the lower the capacitive reactance XC. Capacitors tend to pass high
frequency current and block low frequency currents and dc ; exactly the
opposite of inductors. A device that allows high-frequency signals to pass
preferentially is called a high-pass filter.
RLC
Once the analysis of the elements R, L and C separately has been completed,
we return to the analysis of the circuit in Figure 1, in which the three elements
are present.
The instantaneous voltage applied is

Equation 13

While the current varies as

Equation 14
First, because the elements are in series, the current anywhere in the circuit
must be the same at any instant. That is, the current in an AC series circuit has
the same amplitude and phase at any point. In terms of the previous sections, it
is known that the voltage at the terminals of each element has different
amplitude and phase. In particular, the voltage at the resistor terminals is in
phase with the current, the voltage at the inductor terminals leads the current by
90º, and the voltage at the capacitor terminals lags the current by 90º. The sum
of the three voltages must equal the voltage of the AC source, but it is important
to recognize that since the three voltages have different phase correspondence
with current they cannot be added directly.

6.Fig.(6)
Figure 6 represents the phasors at an instant in which the current of the three
elements is, momentarily,
zero. The zero current is
represented by the current
phasor along the horizontal
axis in each part of the
figure. The voltage phasors
are drawn with the phase
angle appropriate to the
current for each element.
In Figure 7a the voltage
phasors of Figure 6 are 7.Fig.(7)
combined in the same axis
coordinates. Figure 7b shows the vector sum of the voltage phasors. The
voltage phasors V L and V C are in opposite directions along the same line, so
that the difference phasor can be constructed , which is perpendicular to
the phasor V R . This diagram shows that the vector sum of the voltage
amplitudes V R , V L and V C is equal to a phasor whose length is the maximum
applied voltage, V max , and which makes an angle φ with the current phasor I max
. From the right triangle in figure 7b:

Because of this, the maximum current is expressed as:

 Equation 15

The denominator of the equation is called the impedance of the series RLC
circuit and is measured in ohms.

Equation 16

Therefore, we can write equation (12) as

Equation 17

The impedance and therefore current of an AC circuit depend on resistance,

inductance, capacitance and frequency (because reactances are frequency
dependent).
By the right triangle in the phasor diagram in Figure 7b, the phase angle φ
between current and voltage is

When (which occurs at high frequencies), the phase angle is positive;

This means that the current lags the applied voltage, as seen in Figure 7b. In
this case the circuit is more inductive than capacitive. When , the phase
angle is negative, meaning that the current leads the applied voltage, and the
circuit is more capacitive than inductive. When , the phase angle is
zero and the circuit is completely resistive.
Resonance
A series RLC circuit is said to be in resonance when the driving frequency is
such that the rms current has its maximum value. In general, the rms current
can be written as
 Equation 18

Where Z is the impedance. Substituting the expression for Z from equation (13)
into (15) gives

Since the impedance depends on the source frequency, the current of the RLC
circuit also depends on the frequency. The frequency ω 0 at which It
is called the resonance frequency of the circuit.

This frequency also corresponds to the natural

oscillation frequency of an LC circuit. Therefore, the
rms current in a series RLC circuit reaches its
maximum value when the frequency of the applied
voltage is equal to the natural frequency of the
oscillator, which depends only on L and C.
Furthermore, at this frequency the current is in phase
with the applied voltage.
A graph of rms current versus frequency for a series
RLC circuit is illustrated in Figure 8. The data
assumes a constant
V rms =5.0 mV, that L=5.0 mH and that C=2.0 nF. The
three curves correspond to three values of R. In each
8.Fig.(8)
case, the rms current reaches its maximum value at
the resonant frequency ω 0 . Additionally, the curves become narrower and
higher as the resistance is reduced.