C

A
P CAPACITORS
A
C and
I
SUPERCAPACITORS
T
ATT3035 Engineering Study Skills
O Assignment 2
R Role of Capacitors in Electric Vehicles
S
 What is a Capacitor?
How does a capacitor work? What
does that have to do with electric
vehicles (Evs)?
C Learning Outcomes
A
(a) Future of Electric Vehicles in relation to power
P source (Do the Supercapacitors replace Lithium
A Ion batteries?)

C (b) Understand the function of capacitors in simple

circuits.
I
(c) Define capacitance and the farad.
T
(d) Use formulae and work out the Total
O Capacitance and Energy stored for capacitors in
series and parallel.
R
(e) Perform simulations for Capacitors in series and
S
parallel.
 Future of Electric Vehicles
Supercapacitors are yet to take over from lithium-ion batteries
as the primary power source, but electric and hybrid vehicles
are advancing year on year, so there’s a lot of potential for
supercapacitors to play a bigger role in next-generation
electric cars and charging infrastructure to support them.
As supercapacitors pretty much rely on physics rather than
chemistry to store their energy, they don’t degrade in the same
fashion as lithium-ion batteries. That could present a huge
opportunity in improving the lifespan of an electric car, as
well as reducing the environmental impact of using lithium-
ion power cells.
 Future of EVs
In the future, it appears possible that large
capacitors called ultracapacitors or ultracaps
could replace batteries altogether. Large
ultracaps can be very quickly charged.
However, ultracaps today will not hold energy
for long, and cannot yet be relied on for long
term storage like batteries. Research is ongoing.
 Definition
A supercapacitor or ultracapacitor is an
electrochemical capacitor that has an unusually high
energy density when compared to common capacitors.
They are of particular interest in automotive applications
for hybrid vehicles and as supplementary storage for
battery electric vehicles.
As the energy density of supercapacitors (or
ultracapacitors - these two terms can be used
interchangeably) is bridging the gap with batteries, it
could be expected that in the near future the automotive
industry will implement ultracapacitors as a replacement
for chemical batteries.
 Advantages
 Such energy storage has several
advantages relative to batteries:
 Very high rates of charge and discharge.
 Little degradation over hundreds of
thousands of cycles.
 Low toxicity of materials used.
 High cycle efficiency (95% or more)
 Disadvantages
 The amount of energy stored per unit
weight is considerably lower than that of
an electrochemical battery (3-5 W.h/kg for
an ultracapacitor compared to 30-40
W.h/kg for a battery).
 The voltage varies with the energy stored.
To effectively store and recover energy
requires sophisticated electronic control
and switching equipment.
C Key formulas
A
Q=CV
P
A
C
I
T
O
R
S
 Capacitors: Introduction
Capacitor is an electronic component which is used
to store charge(electrons) and release electrons
when desired.

Important point to remember!!!

Capacitor cannot produce new electrons
 Capacitors: Introduction
• A capacitor has “two conducting plates” separated by an
“insulating material or dielectric” so that they can hold
equal but opposite charges.
• Some of the non-conducting material used as di-electric
Mica
Ceramic,
Plastic,
Paper,
cellulose,
Porcelain
Air 
Note: The types of capacitors are named after this dielectric
 Capacitors: Introduction
• Capacitor is a 2 terminal device
• The capacitors are represented by the electrical symbol shown
below.

• The formula letter of capacitors is ‘C’.

• Capacitance is a measure of a capacitor’s ability to store charge
The unit for capacitance is Farad(F)
Unit of Capacitance
C Common applications
A
• A. C. rectification
P • Ignition system
A • Energy storing device
C • Smoothing out fluctuations

I
T
O
R
S
CAPACITORS IN SERIES AND IN
PARALLEL
 CAPACITORS IN SERIES
Consider capacitors in series.

The total capacitance is given by

Note:
Charge(Q) is always the same for series circuit
Voltage is different for a series circuit
 ACTIVITY 1: Calculate the total capacitance of
the following series circuits

1) 2)

3)
 CAPACITORS IN PARALLEL
Consider capacitors in parallel.

The total capacitance is given by

Note:
Charge(Q) is different for parallel circuit
Voltage is same for a parallel circuit
ACTIVITY 2: Solve for total capacitance for
the parallel circuit
1)

2)
C
Capacitors in series
A
The charge on each
P capacitor is the same.
+Q
A C1 V1 V = V1 + V2 + V3
-Q
C
V
C2
+Q Q Q Q Q
I V2   
-Q C C1 C 2 C 3
T +Q
C3 V3
O -Q 1

1

1

1
C C1 C 2 C 3
R
S Q = Q1 = Q2 = Q3
C Energy storage in capacitor
A
Energy stored in capacitor = ½ QV = ½ CV2
P
A Q) Calculate the energy stored in the capacitor for the following
circuit
C
I
T
O
R
S
 ACTIVITY 4:
Calculate the voltage and the total Energy stored
across each components of the following series
circuit
Useful Equations:
Q =CV
V=Q/C
C
Capacitors in parallel
A
P
A The p.d. across each
capacitor is the same.
C V
Q1 = C1V
I + Q1 C - Q1
1
Q2 = C2V
T
+ Q2 - Q2
O
C2 Q3 = C3V

R + Q3 C - Q3
3

S
C
Capacitors in parallel
A Total charge
P Q = Q1 + Q2 + Q3
A
V = C1V + C2V + C3V
C
+ Q1 C - Q1
I 1
If C = total capacitance
T + Q2 - Q2
C2 then Q = CV
O
+ Q3 C - Q3 So CV = C1V + C2V + C3V
R 3
C = C1 + C2 + C3
S
Q = Q1 + Q2 + Q3
 ACTIVITY 5:
Calculate the voltage and energy across each
components of the following parallel circuit
Useful Equations:
Q =CV
V=Q/C
 Summary
Capacitors are used to store and release charges whenever
desired.
Capacitance in terms of voltage and current is given by
C=Q/V
Total capacitance of a series circuit

Total capacitance of a parallel circuit

C
A
P
A
C
I
T
O
R
S