#1 Bachelor of Science in

Electrical Engineering

FLEX Course Material

EECKT230

Electrical
Circuits 2

Introduction to AC Systems
AC Fundamentals

Christian L. Pao
Faculty, BS Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering
 FOCAL POINTS

• Lesson 1
• Introduction to AC Systems

?
• Lesson 2
• Measurements of AC Magnitude

• Lesson 3
• Phasors

• Lesson 4
• Circuit Elements in AC Systems
INSIDE
• Lesson 5
• Impedance and Admittance
 #1

Familiarize with the

behavior of AC Systems. Introduction to
AC Systems
Cite the main advantage
of using AC over DC
Systems.

3
Shift from DC to AC Systems

• Thus far analysis has been limited for the most part to dc circuits:
those circuits excited by constant or time-invariant sources.

• We have restricted the forcing function to dc sources for the sake of

simplicity, for pedagogic reasons, and also for historic reasons.

• Historically, dc sources were the main means of providing electric

power up until the late 1800s.

• At the end of that century, the battle of direct current versus

alternating current began.

• Both had their advocates among the electrical engineers of the time.
Because ac is more efficient and economical to transmit over long
distances, ac systems ended up the winner.

• Thus, it is in keeping with the historical sequence of events that we

considered dc sources first.

4
AC Systems vs DC Systems

• As useful and as easy to understand as DC is, it is not the only “kind”

of electricity in use.
• Certain sources of electricity (most notably, rotary electromechanical
generators) naturally produce voltages alternating in polarity, reversing
positive and negative over time.

• One might wonder why anyone would bother with such a thing as
AC.

• It is true that in some cases AC holds no practical advantage over DC.

• In applications where electricity is used to dissipate energy in the

form of heat, the polarity or direction of current is irrelevant, so long
as there is enough voltage and current to the load to produce the
desired heat (power dissipation).

• However, with AC it is possible to build electric generators, motors

and power distribution systems that are far more efficient than DC,
and so we find AC being used predominantly across the world in high
power applications.

5
Generation of Alternating Current

• This is the basic operating principle of an AC generator, also known

as an alternator.

• Notice how the polarity of the voltage across the wire coils reverses
as the opposite poles of the rotating magnet pass by.

• Connected to a load, this reversing voltage polarity will create a

reversing current direction in the circuit. The faster the alternator’s
shaft is turned, the faster the magnet will spin, resulting in an
alternating voltage and current that switches directions more often
in a given amount of time.

6
Transmission of Alternating Current

• Transmission of alternating current over long distances can be

achieved with the help of transformers.

• The fundamental significance of a transformer is its ability to step

voltage up or down from the powered coil to the unpowered coil.

• The transformer’s ability to step AC voltage up or down with ease

gives AC an advantage unmatched by DC in the realm of power
distribution in figure below.

• When transmitting electrical power over long distances, it is far more

efficient to do so with stepped-up voltages and stepped-down
currents (smaller-diameter wire with less resistive power losses),
then step the voltage back down and the current back up for
industry, business, or consumer use.

7
 #2

Identify the variables

involved in an AC Signal. Measurements
of AC
Determine ways to easily
interpret an AC signal.

Magnitude

8
Sinusoids

• A sinusoid is a signal that has the form of the sine or cosine function.

• A sinusoidal current is usually referred to as alternating current (ac).

• Such a current reverses at regular time intervals and has alternately positive
and negative values.

• Circuits driven by sinusoidal current or voltage sources are called ac

circuits.

• Consider the sinusoidal voltage:

𝑣 𝑡 = 𝑉𝑚 sin(ω𝑡 + ϕ)
2π 1
𝑇= 𝑓=
ω 𝑇
• Where:
• Vm = amplitude
• ω = angular frequency in radian/s
• ωt = argument
• ϕ = phase
• T = period (amount of time to complete one cycle)
• f = frequency (number of cycles per unit time)

9
Ways of Expressing the Magnitude of an AC
Waveform

• One way to express the intensity, or magnitude (also called the

amplitude), of an AC quantity is to measure its peak height on a
waveform graph. This is known as the peak or crest value of an AC
waveform.

• Another way is to measure the total height between opposite peaks.

This is known as the peak-to-peak (P-P) value of an AC waveform.

10
Ways of Expressing the Magnitude of an AC
Waveform

• One way of expressing the amplitude of different wave shapes in a

more equivalent fashion is to mathematically average the values of
all the points on a waveform’s graph to a single, aggregate number.
This amplitude measurement is known simply as the average value
of the waveform.

• If we average all the points on the waveform algebraically (that is, to

consider their sign, either positive or negative), the average value for
most waveforms is technically zero, because all the positive points
cancel out all the negative points over a full cycle.

• This, of course, will be true for any waveform having equal-area

portions above and below the “zero” line of a plot. However, as a
practical measure of a waveform’s aggregate value, “average” is
usually defined as the mathematical mean of all the points’ absolute
values over a cycle.

11
Ways of Expressing the Magnitude of an AC
Waveform

• Root Mean Square (RMS) amplitude measurement is the best way to

relate AC quantities to DC quantities, or other AC quantities of
differing waveform shapes, when dealing with measurements of
electric power.

• The behavior of RMS value of an AC system is used to compare with

the DC system equivalent.

12
Ways of Expressing the Magnitude of an AC
Waveform

• Mathematically, RMS value can be computed by the following

formula:

• Where:
• T = Period
• x = Function

13
Relationship of Peak, Peak-to-Peak,
Average, and RMS

• For “pure” sinusoidal waveforms, simple conversion coefficients exist

for equating Peak, Peak-to-Peak, Average (practical, not algebraic),
and RMS measurements to one another.

𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
𝑅𝑀𝑆 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 =
2
2
𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = ∗ 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
π

𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 − 𝑡𝑜 − 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 = 2 ∗ 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

14
Sample Problems 2.1

1. Find the amplitude, phase, period, frequency, RMS Value,

average value, and peak-to-peak value of the sinusoid.

𝑣 𝑡 = 12 cos (50𝑡 + 10°)

2. Given the sinusoid, find its amplitude, phase, period, frequency,

RMS Value, average value, and peak-to-peak value.

𝑖 𝑡 = 5 sin (4π𝑡 − 60°)

3. Given the sinusoid, find its amplitude, period, frequency, and v(t)
at t = 10 ms.

𝑣 𝑡 = 50 cos 30𝑡 + 10° 𝑉

15
#3

Phasors

16
Sinusoids and Phasors

• Sinusoids are easily expressed in terms of phasors, which are more

convenient to work with than sine and cosine functions.

• A phasor is a complex number that represents the amplitude and

phase of a sinusoid.

• Phasors provide a simple means of analyzing linear circuits excited by

sinusoidal sources; solutions of such circuits would be intractable
otherwise.
• A phasor may be regarded as a mathematical equivalent of a sinusoid with
the time dependence dropped.

17
Phasors

• By suppressing the time factor, we transform the sinusoid from the

time domain to the phasor domain. This transformation is
summarized as follows:

• Graphical representation of phasors is known as a phasor diagram.

18
Sinusoid-Phasor Transformation

19
Sample Problems 3.1

1. Transform the following sinusoids to phasors:

• −10 cos 4𝑡 + 75°
• 5 sin 20𝑡 − 10°
• 4 cos 2𝑡 + 3 sin 2𝑡

2. Using phasors, find:

• 3 cos 20𝑡 + 10° − 5 cos 20𝑡 − 30°
• 40 sin 50𝑡 + 30 cos 50𝑡 − 45°
• 20 sin 400𝑡 + 10 cos 400𝑡 + 60° − 5 sin 400𝑡 − 20°

3. Find a single sinusoid corresponding to each of these phasors:

• 𝑉 = 40∠ − 60° V
• 𝑉 = −30∠10° + 50∠60° V
• 𝐼 = 𝑗6𝑒 −𝑗10° A
2
• 𝐼 = + 10∠ − 45° A
𝑗

20
#4

Circuit Elements
in AC Systems

21
Phasor Relationships for Circuit Elements

• Now that we know how to represent a voltage or current in the

phasor or frequency domain, one may legitimately ask how we apply
this to circuits involving the passive elements R, L, and C.

• What we need to do is to transform the voltage-current relationship

from the time domain to the frequency domain for each element.

• Each passive element results to a unique behavior for voltage and

current.

• When passive components are combined to form a series or parallel

combination, the resulting behavior will also vary.

• Frequency will play a vital role in the behavior of this combinations.

22
V and I Relationships in a Purely Resistive
AC Circuit

• In a purely resistive circuit, the voltage across a resistor is in phase

with the current through it.

• Both the voltage and current pass through the zero points and reach
the maximum points of the same polarity at the same time.

23
V and I Relationships in a Purely Inductive
AC Circuit

• In a sine – wave ac circuit environment, voltage across an inductor

leads the current through the inductor by 90° (in a pure inductance).

24
V and I Relationships in a Purely Capacitive
AC Circuit

• In a sine – wave ac circuit environment, current across a capacitor

leads the voltage through the capacitor by 90° (in a pure
capacitance).

25
Phasor Relationship for Circuit Elements

26
Sample Problems 4.1

1. Determine the current that flows through an 8 Ω resistor

connected to voltage source 𝑣𝑠 = 110 cos 377𝑡 V.

2. The voltage across a 4 mH inductor is 𝑣 = 60 cos 500𝑡 − 65°

V. Find the instantaneous current through it.

3. A current source 𝑖 𝑡 = 10 sin(377𝑡 + 30°) 𝐴 is applied to a

single – element load. The resulting voltage across the element
is 𝑣 𝑡 = −65 cos 377𝑡 + 120° 𝑉. What type of element is
this? Calculate its value.

27
#5

Impedance
and
Admittance

28
Impedance and Admittance

• In the preceding section, we obtained the voltage-current relations

for the three passive elements as

• These equations may be written in terms of the ratio of the phasor

voltage to the phasor current as

• From these three expressions, we obtain Ohm’s law in phasor form

for any type of element as

• Where Z is a frequency-dependent quantity known as impedance,

measured in ohms.

29
Impedance

• The impedance Z of a circuit is the ratio of the phasor voltage V to

the phasor current I, measured in ohms (Ω).

• The impedance represents the opposition that the circuit exhibits to

the flow of sinusoidal current. Although the impedance is the ratio of
two phasors, it is not a phasor, because it does not correspond to a
sinusoidally varying quantity.

• As a complex quantity, the impedance may be expressed in

rectangular form as

• Where R is the resistance and X is the reactance. The reactance X

may be positive or negative.
• If X is positive, then X is inductive.
• If X is negative, then X is capacitive

30
Admittance

• It is sometimes convenient to work with the reciprocal of impedance,

known as admittance.

• The admittance Y is the reciprocal of impedance, measured in

siemens (S).

• As a complex quantity, we may write Y as

• where G is called the conductance and B is called the susceptance.

Admittance, conductance, and susceptance are all expressed in the
unit of siemens (or mhos).

31
Impedance and Admittance of Passive
Elements

32
Impedance and Admittance

• From:

• We will have:

• Thus:

33
Sample Problems 5.1

1. Find v(t) and i(t) in the circuit shown

2. Find ix when is = 2 sin 5t A is supplied to the circuit.

3. A series RL circuit is connected to a 110 V ac source. If

the voltage across the resistor is 85 V, find the voltage
across the inductor.

4. Find current Io in the network below.

34
 REFERENCES

• Fundamentals of Electric Circuits 4th Ed.

• By: Alexander and Sadiku

• Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis 9th Ed.

• By: Irwin and Nelms

• Basic Engineering Circuit Analysis 10th Ed.

• By: Nillson and Riedel

• Electrical Technology
• By: B.L. Theraja and A.K. Theraja

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