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Parallel RLC Circuit Analysis

The Parallel RLC Circuit is the exact opposite to the series circuit we looked at in the previous tutorial
although some of the previous concepts and equations still apply.

However, the analysis of a parallel RLC circuits can be a little more mathematically dif cult than for series RLC
circuits so in this tutorial about parallel RLC circuits only pure components are assumed in this tutorial to keep
things simple.

This time instead of the current being common to the circuit components, the applied voltage is now common to
all so we need to nd the individual branch currents through each element. The total impedance, Z of a parallel
RLC circuit is calculated using the current of the circuit similar to that for a DC parallel circuit, the difference this
time is that admittance is used instead of impedance. Consider the parallel RLC circuit below.

Parallel RLC Circuit

 
In the above parallel RLC circuit, we can see that the supply voltage, VS is common to all three components
whilst the supply current IS consists of three parts. The current owing through the resistor, IR, the current
owing through the inductor, IL and the current through the capacitor, IC.

But the current owing through each branch and therefore each component will be different to each other and
to the supply current, IS. The total current drawn from the supply will not be the mathematical sum of the three
individual branch currents but their vector sum.

Like the series RLC circuit, we can solve this circuit using the phasor or vector method but this time the vector
diagram will have the voltage as its reference with the three current vectors plotted with respect to the voltage.
The phasor diagram for a parallel RLC circuit is produced by combining together the three individual phasors for
each component and adding the currents vectorially.

Since the voltage across the circuit is common to all three circuit elements we can use this as the reference
vector with the three current vectors drawn relative to this at their corresponding angles. The resulting vector
IS is obtained by adding together two of the vectors, IL and IC and then adding this sum to the remaining vector
IR. The resulting angle obtained between V and IS will be the circuits phase angle as shown below.

Phasor Diagram for a Parallel RLC Circuit

 
We can see from the phasor diagram on the right hand side above that the current vectors produce a
rectangular triangle, comprising of hypotenuse IS, horizontal axis IR and vertical axis IL – IC  Hopefully you will
notice then, that this forms a Current Triangle and we can therefore use Pythagoras’s theorem on this current
triangle to mathematically obtain the magnitude of the branch currents along the x-axis and y-axis and then
determine the total current IS of these components as shown.

Current Triangle for a Parallel RLC Circuit

 
Since the voltage across the circuit is common to all three circuit elements, the current through each branch can
be found using Kirchoff’s Current Law, (KCL). Kirchoff’s current law or junction law states that “the total current
entering a junction or node is exactly equal to the current leaving that node”, so the currents entering and
leaving node “A” above are given as:

 
Taking the derivative, dividing through the above equation by C and rearranging gives us the following Second-
order equation for the circuit current. It becomes a second-order equation because there are two reactive
elements in the circuit, the inductor and the capacitor.
 
The opposition to current ow in this type of AC circuit is made up of three components: XL XC and R with the
combination of these three values giving the circuits impedance, Z. We know from above that the voltage has
the same amplitude and phase in all the components of a parallel RLC circuit. Then the impedance across each
component can also be described mathematically according to the current owing through, and the voltage
across each element as.

Impedance of a Parallel RLC Circuit

 
You will notice that the nal equation for a parallel RLC circuit produces complex impedance’s for each parallel
branch as each element becomes the reciprocal of impedance, ( 1/Z ) with the reciprocal of impedance being
called Admittance.

In parallel AC circuits it is more convenient to use admittance, symbol ( Y ) to solve complex branch impedance’s
especially when two or more parallel branch impedance’s are involved (helps with the math’s). The total
admittance of the circuit can simply be found by the addition of the parallel admittances. Then the total
impedance, ZT of the circuit will therefore be 1/YT Siemens as shown.

Admittance of a Parallel RLC Circuit

 
The new unit for admittance is the Siemens, abbreviated as S, ( old unit mho’s ℧, ohm’s in reverse ). Admittances
are added together in parallel branches, whereas impedance’s are added together in series branches. But if we
can have a reciprocal of impedance, we can also have a reciprocal of resistance and reactance as impedance
consists of two components, R and X. Then the reciprocal of resistance is called Conductance and the reciprocal
of reactance is called Susceptance.

Conductance, Admittance and Susceptance

The units used for conductance, admittance and susceptance are all the same namely Siemens ( S ), which can
also be thought of as the reciprocal of Ohms or ohm-1, but the symbol used for each element is different and in a
pure component this is given as:

Admittance ( Y ) :
Admittance is the reciprocal of impedance, Z and is given the symbol Y. In AC circuits admittance is de ned
as the ease at which a circuit composed of resistances and reactances allows current to ow when a voltage
is applied taking into account the phase difference between the voltage and the current.

The admittance of a parallel circuit is the ratio of phasor current to phasor voltage with the angle of the
admittance being the negative to that of impedance.

Conductance ( G ) :
Conductance is the reciprocal of resistance, R and is given the symbol G. Conductance is de ned as the ease
at which a resistor (or a set of resistors) allows current to ow when a voltage, either AC or DC is applied.

Susceptance ( B ) :
 Susceptance is the reciprocal of of a pure reactance, X and is given the symbol B. In AC circuits susceptance
is de ned as the ease at which a reactance (or a set of reactances) allows an alternating current to ow
when a voltage of a given frequency is applied.

Susceptance has the opposite sign to reactance so Capacitive susceptance BC is positive, (+ve) in value
while Inductive susceptance BL is negative, (-ve) in value.

We can therefore de ne inductive and capacitive susceptance as being:

In AC series circuits the opposition to current ow is impedance, Z which has two components, resistance R and
reactance, X and from these two components we can construct an impedance triangle. Similarly, in a parallel
RLC circuit, admittance, Y also has two components, conductance, G and susceptance, B. This makes it possible
to construct an admittance triangle that has a horizontal conductance axis, G and a vertical susceptance axis, jB
as shown.

Admittance Triangle for a Parallel RLC Circuit

 
Now that we have an admittance triangle, we can use Pythagoras to calculate the magnitudes of all three sides
as well as the phase angle as shown.

from Pythagoras
Then we can de ne both the admittance of the circuit and the impedance with respect to admittance as:

Giving us a power factor angle of:

 
As the admittance, Y of a parallel RLC circuit is a complex quantity, the admittance corresponding to the general
form of impedance Z = R + jX for series circuits will be written as Y = G - jB for parallel circuits where the real
part G is the conductance and the imaginary part jB is the susceptance. In polar form this will be given as:

Parallel RLC Circuit Example No1

A 1kΩ resistor, a 142mH coil and a 160uF capacitor are all connected in parallel across a 240V, 60Hz supply.
Calculate the impedance of the parallel RLC circuit and the current drawn from the supply.

Impedance of a Parallel RLC Circuit

In an AC circuit, the resistor is unaffected by frequency therefore R = 1kΩ

Inductive Reactance, ( XL ):

Capacitive Reactance, ( XC ):
Impedance, ( Z ):
Supply Current, ( Is ):

Parallel RLC Circuit Example No2

A 50Ω resistor, a 20mH coil and a 5uF capacitor are all connected in parallel across a 50V, 100Hz supply.
Calculate the total current drawn from the supply, the current for each branch, the total impedance of the circuit
and the phase angle. Also construct the current and admittance triangles representing the circuit.

Parallel RLC Circuit

1). Inductive Reactance, ( XL ):

2). Capacitive Reactance, ( XC ):
3). Impedance, ( Z ):

4). Current through resistance, R ( IR ):

5). Current through inductor, L ( IL ):

6). Current through capacitor, C ( IC ):

7). Total supply current, ( IS ):

8). Conductance, ( G ):

9). Inductive Susceptance, ( BL ):

10). Capacitive Susceptance, ( BC ):

11). Admittance, ( Y ):
12). Phase Angle, ( φ ) between the resultant current and the supply voltage:

Current and Admittance Triangles

Parallel RLC Circuit Summary
In a parallel RLC circuit containing a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor the circuit current IS is the phasor sum
made up of three components, IR, IL and IC with the supply voltage common to all three. Since the supply voltage
is common to all three components it is used as the horizontal reference when constructing a current triangle.

Parallel RLC networks can be analysed using vector diagrams just the same as with series RLC circuits. However,
the analysis of parallel RLC circuits is a little more mathematically dif cult than for series RLC circuits when it
contains two or more current branches. So an AC parallel circuit can be easily analysed using the reciprocal of
impedance called Admittance.

Admittance is the reciprocal of impedance given the symbol, Y. Like impedance, it is a complex quantity
consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. The real part is the reciprocal of resistance and is called
Conductance, symbol Y while the imaginary part is the reciprocal of reactance and is called Susceptance,
symbol B and expressed in complex form as: Y = G + jB  with the duality between the two complex impedance’s
being de ned as:

Series Circuit Parallel Circuit

Voltage, (V) Current, (I)

Resistance, (R) Conductance, (G)

 Reactance, (X) Susceptance, (B)

Impedance, (Z) Admittance, (Y)

As susceptance is the reciprocal of reactance, in an inductive circuit, inductive susceptance, BL will be negative
in value and in a capacitive circuit, capacitive susceptance, BC will be positive in value. The exact opposite to XL
and XC respectively.

We have seen so far that series and parallel RLC circuits contain both capacitive reactance and inductive
reactance within the same circuit. If we vary the frequency across these circuits there must become a point
where the capacitive reactance value equals that of the inductive reactance and therefore, XC = XL.

The frequency point at which this occurs is called resonance and in the next tutorial we will look at series
resonance and how its presence alters the characteristics of the circuit.

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