CH 9

Sinusoids and Phasors

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 Overview
• This chapter will cover alternating current.
• A discussion of complex numbers is
included prior to introducing phasors.
• Applications of phasors and frequency
domain analysis for circuits including
resistors, capacitors, and inductors will be
covered.
• The concept of impedance and admittance is
also introduced.

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 Alternating Current
• Alternating Current, or AC, is the dominant
form of electrical power that is delivered to
homes and industry.
• In the late 1800’s there was a battle between
proponents of DC and AC.
• AC won out due to its efficiency for long
distance transmission.
• AC is a sinusoidal current, meaning the
current reverses at regular times and has
alternating positive and negative values.
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 Sinusoids
• Sinusoids are interesting to us because there
are a number of natural phenomenon that are
sinusoidal in nature.
• It is also a very easy signal to generate and
transmit.
• Also, through Fourier analysis, any practical
periodic function can be made by adding
sinusoids.
• Lastly, they are very easy to handle
mathematically.
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 Sinusoids
• A sinusoidal forcing function produces both a
transient and a steady state response.
• When the transient has died out, we say the circuit is
in sinusoidal steady state.
• A sinusoidal voltage may be represented as:
v ( t ) = Vm sin t
• From the waveform shown below, one characteristic
is clear: The function repeats itself every T seconds.
• This is called the period
2
T=


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 Sinusoids
• The period is inversely related to another
important characteristic, the frequency
1
f =
T
• The units of this is cycles per second, or
Hertz (Hz)
• It is often useful to refer to frequency in
angular terms:
 = 2 f
• Here the angular frequency is in radians per
second
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 Sinusoids
• More generally, we need to account for relative
timing of one wave versus another.
• This can be done by including a phase shift, :
• Consider the two sinusoids:
v1 ( t ) = Vm sin t and v2 ( t ) = Vm sin (t +  )

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 Sinusoids
• If two sinusoids are in phase, then this
means that the reach their maximum and
minimum at the same time.
• Sinusoids may be expressed as sine or
cosine.
• The conversion between them is:
sin (t  180 ) = − sin t
cos (t  180 ) = − cos t
sin (t  90 ) =  cos t
cos (t  90 ) = sin t

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 Complex Numbers
• A powerful method for representing sinusoids is the
phasor.
• But in order to understand how they work, we need
to cover some complex numbers first.
• A complex number z can be represented in
rectangular form as:

z = x + jy
• It can also be written in polar or exponential form as:
j
z = r  = re

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 Complex Numbers
• The different forms can be
interconverted.
• Starting with rectangular form,
one can go to polar:
y
r = x2 + y 2  = tan −1
x
• Likewise, from polar to
rectangular form goes as
follows:
x = r cos  y = r sin 

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 Complex Numbers
• The following mathematical operations are
important

Addition Subtraction Multiplication

z1 + z2 = ( x1 + x2 ) + j ( y1 + y2 ) z1 − z2 = ( x1 − x2 ) + j ( y1 − y2 ) z1 z2 = r1r2 (1 + 2 )
Division Reciprocal Square Root
z1 r1 1 1
=  (1 − 2 ) =  ( − ) z = r  ( / 2 )
z2 r2 z r
Complex Conjugate
z * = x − jy = r  −  = re − j

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 Phasors
• The idea of a phasor representation is based
on Euler’s identity:
e  j = cos   j sin 
• From this we can represent a sinusoid as the
real component of a vector in the complex
plane.
• The length of the vector is the amplitude of
the sinusoid.
• The vector,V, in polar form, is at an angle 
with respect to the positive real axis.
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 Phasors
• Phasors are typically represented at t=0.
• As such, the transformation between time
domain to phasor domain is:
v ( t ) = Vm cos (t +  )  V = Vm 
(Time-domain (Phasor-domain
representation) representation)

• They can be graphically represented as

shown here.

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 Sinusoid-Phasor
Transformation
• Here is a handy table for transforming
various time domain sinusoids into phasor
domain:

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 Sinusoid-Phasor
Transformation
• Note that the frequency of the phasor is not
explicitly shown in the phasor diagram
• For this reason phasor domain is also known
as frequency domain.
• Applying a derivative to a phasor yields:
dv
 jV
dt (Phasor domain)
(Time domain)

• Applying an integral to a phasor yeilds:

V
 vdt
(Time domain)

j
(Phasor domain)

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 Phasor Relationships for
Resistors
• Each circuit element has a
relationship between its current and
voltage.
• These can be mapped into phasor
relationships very simply for
resistors capacitors and inductor.
• For the resistor, the voltage and
current are related via Ohm’s law.
• As such, the voltage and current are
in phase with each other.

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 Phasor Relationships for
Inductors
• Inductors on the other hand have
a phase shift between the voltage
and current.
• In this case, the voltage leads the
current by 90°.
• Or one says the current lags the
voltage, which is the standard
convention.
• This is represented on the phasor
diagram by a positive phase angle
between the voltage and current.

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 Phasor Relationships for
Capacitors
• Capacitors have the opposite
phase relationship as
compared to inductors.
• In their case, the current leads
the voltage.
• In a phasor diagram, this
corresponds to a negative
phase angle between the
voltage and current.

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Voltage current relationships

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 Impedance and Admittance
• It is possible to expand Ohm’s law to capacitors and
inductors.
• In time domain, this would be tricky as the ratios of
voltage and current and always changing.
• But in frequency domain it is straightforward
• The impedance of a circuit element is the ratio of the
phasor voltage to the phasor current.
V
Z= or V = ZI
I
• Admittance is simply the inverse of impedance.

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 Impedance and Admittance
• It is important to realize that in
frequency domain, the values
obtained for impedance are
only valid at that frequency.
• Changing to a new frequency
will require recalculating the
values.
• The impedance of capacitors
and inductors are shown here:

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 Impedance and Admittance
• As a complex quantity, the impedance may
be expressed in rectangular form.
• The separation of the real and imaginary
components is useful.
• The real part is the resistance.
• The imaginary component is called the
reactance, X.
• When it is positive, we say the impedance is
inductive, and capacitive when it is negative.

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 Impedance and Admittance
• Admittance, being the reciprocal of the impedance,
is also a complex number.
• It is measured in units of Siemens
• The real part of the admittance is called the
conductance, G
• The imaginary part is called the susceptance, B
• These are all expressed in Siemens or (mhos)
• The impedance and admittance components can be
related to each other:
R X
G= B=−
R2 + X 2 R2 + X 2

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Impedance and Admittance

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Kirchoff’s Laws in Frequency
Domain
• A powerful aspect of phasors is that
Kirchoff’s laws apply to them as well.
• This means that a circuit transformed to
frequency domain can be evaluated by the
same methodology developed for KVL and
KCL.
• One consequence is that there will likely be
complex values.

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 Impedance Combinations
• Once in frequency domain, the impedance
elements are generalized.
• Combinations will follow the rules for
resistors:

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 Impedance Combinations
• Series combinations will result in a sum of
the impedance elements:
Z eq = Z1 + Z 2 + Z 3 + + ZN
• Here then two elements in series can act like
a voltage divider
Z1 Z2
V1 = V V2 = V
Z1 + Z 2 Z1 + Z 2

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 Parallel Combination
• Likewise, elements combined in parallel will
combine in the same fashion as resistors in
parallel:
1 1 1 1 1
= + + + +
Z eq Z1 Z 2 Z 3 ZN

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 Admittance
• Expressed as admittance, though, they are
again a sum:
Yeq = Y1 + Y2 + Y3 + + YN
• Once again, these elements can act as a
current divider:
Z2 Z1
I1 = I I2 = I
Z1 + Z 2 Z1 + Z 2

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