AC Circuis

Dr. Ashwini Kumar Nayak

Asst. Professor
School of Electrical Sciences
NIST
 AC system

• A current which varies in these fashions is known as an

alternating current.
• It flows first in one direction and then in the other.
• The cycle of variation is repeated exactly for each direction.
• Alternating current can be abbreviated to a.c., hence a system
with such an alternating current is known as an a.c. system.
• Waveform. The variation of a quantity such as voltage
or current shown on a graph to a base of time or
rotation is a waveform.
• Cycle. Each repetition of a variable quantity, recurring
at equal intervals, is termed a cycle.
• Period. The duration of one cycle is termed its period.
• Instantaneous value. The magnitude of a waveform at
any instant in time. Instantaneous values are denoted
by lower-case symbols such as e, v and i.
• Peak value. The maximum instantaneous value
measured from its zero value is known as its peak value.
• Peak-to-peak value. The maximum variation between
the maximum positive instantaneous value and the
maximum negative instantaneous value is the peak-to-
peak value. For a sinusoidal waveform, this is twice the
peak value. The peak-to-peak value is Epp or Vpp or Ipp.
• Peak amplitude. The maximum instantaneous value
measured from the mean value of a waveform is the
peak amplitude. The peak amplitude is Em or Vm or Im.
• Frequency. The number of cycles that occur in
1 second is termed the frequency of that
quantity. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz).
1
f 
T
 Average & RMS value of an alternating
current
• Let us consider the
current taken by a
transformer on no load.
• If n equidistant mid-
ordinates, i1, i2, etc. are
taken over either the
positive or the negative
half-cycle, then average
value of current over
half a cycle is
i1  i2  ...  in
I av 
n
• Alternatively, average value of current is
Area enclosed over half -cycle
Length of base over half -cycle
• In a.c., the average value is of comparatively little
importance, as the power produced by the electric
current that usually matters.
• If the current represented in Fig. (a) is passed through
a resistor having resistance R ohms, the heating effect
of i1 is i12R, that of i2 is i22R, etc. as shown in Fig. (b).
• The variation of the heating effect during the second half-
cycle is exactly the same as that during the first half-cycle.
i12 R  i22 R  ...  in2 R
Average heating effect =
n
• Suppose I to be the value of direct current through the same
resistance R to produce a heating effect equal to the average
heating effect of the alternating current,
i12 R  i22 R  ...  in2 R
I R
2

n
i12  i22  ...  in2
I  square root of the mean of the squares of the current
n
 root-mean-square (or r.m.s.) value of the current
• This quantity is also termed the effective value of the current.
• It will be seen that the r.m.s. or effective value of an
alternating current is measured in terms of the direct current
that produces the same heating effect in the same resistance.
• Alternatively, the average heating effect can be expressed as
follows:
Average heating effect over half-cycle
area enclosed by curve over half-cycle

length of base
• The r.m.s. value is always greater than the
average except for a rectangular wave, in
which case the heating effect remains
constant so that the average and the r.m.s.
values are the same.
RMS value
Form factor of a wave=
Average value
Peak or maximum value
Peak or crest factor of a wave =
RMS value
Average and r.m.s. values of sinusoidal
currents and voltages
• If Im is the maximum value of a current which varies
sinusoidally as shown in Fig. (a), the instantaneous
value i is represented by
i  I m sin 
where Ө is the angle in radians from instant of zero
current.
• For a very small interval dθ radians, the area of the
shaded strip is i · dθ ampere radians.
• total area enclosed
 
by the current waveover half-cycle
is
0
 id  Im  sin d   Im [cos ]0
0

  I m [1  1]  2 I m Ampere radians

• average value of current over a half-cycle is
2Im [ampere radians]

 radians
• Iav=0.637Im amperes
• If the current is passed through a resistor
having resistance R ohms, instantaneous
heating effect = i2R watts.
• The variation of i2R during a complete cycle is
shown in Fig. (b).
• During interval dθ radians, heat generated is
i2R · dθ watt radians and is represented by the
area of the shaded strip.
• The heat generated during the first half-cycle
is area enclosed by the i2R curve and is
 
 i Rd  I R  sin 2  d
2 2
0 m 0

I m2 R 

2 0
(1  cos 2 )d

I m2 R 1
 [  sin 2 ]0
2 2

 I m2 R watt radians
2
• Average heating effect is

( ) I m2 R [ watt radians ]
2 1 2
 I m R watts
 [radians ] 2
• If I is the value of direct current through the same
resistance to produce the same heating effect
1 2
I R  Im R
2

2
I
I  m  0.707 I m
2
• I is IR.M.S.
• Since the voltage across the resistor is directly
proportional to the current, it follows that the
relationships derived for currents also apply to
voltages.
• Hence, in general, average value of a
sinusoidal current or voltage is
0.637  maxi mum value
I av  0.637 I m
• r.m.s. value of a sinusoidal current or voltage
is 0.707  max imum value
I  0.707 I m
0.707 I m
• Form factor 
0.637 I m
k f  1.11
• Peak or crest factor of a sine wave is
max imum value
0.707  max imum value
k p  1.414
 Example
• An alternating current of sinusoidal
waveform has an r.m.s. value of 10.0 A. What
are the peak values of this current over one
cycle?
• Solution: I  I  10  14.14 A
m
0.707 0.707

The peak values therefore are 14.14 A and

−14.14 A.
 Example
• An alternating voltage has the equation v =
141.4 sin 377t; what are the values of:
(a) r.m.s. voltage; (b) frequency; (c) the
instantaneous voltage when t = 3 ms?
Solution: (a) Vm = 141.4 V = √2V
141.2
Hence V  100V
2
(b) w=377 rad/s=2πf
377
f   60 Hz
2
v  141.4sin 377t
t  3 103 s
3
v  141.4sin(377  3 10 )  141.4sin1.131
 141.4  0.904  127.8V
 Sinusoids
• Let us consider the sinusoidal voltage
v(t )  Vm sin wt
where Vm=the amplitude of the sinusoid
w=the angular frequency in radians/s
wt=the argument of the sinusoid
• From both the plots,
wT  2
2
T
w
• T is called the period of the sinusoid, repeats
itself every T seconds.
v(t  T )  Vm sin w(t  T )
2
 Vm sin w(t  )
w
 Vm sin( wt  2 )
 Vm sin wt  v(t )
• T is the period of one complete cycle or the
number of seconds per cycle.
• The reciprocal of this quantity is the number
of cycles per second, known as the cyclic
frequency f of the sinusoid.
1
f 
T
2
w  2 f
T
• Let us now consider a more general
expression for the sinusoid,
v(t)=Vm sin(wt+ )
where (wt+ɸ) is the argument & ɸ is the phase.
• Both argument and phase can be in radians or
degrees.
• Let us examine the two sinusoids
v1 (t)=Vmsinwt and v 2 (t)=Vm sin(wt+ )

The starting point of v2 occurs

first in time. Therefore, we say
that v2 leads v1 by ɸ or that v1
lags v2 by ɸ. If ɸ≠0, we also say
that and are out of phase. If
ɸ=0, then v1& v2 are said to be
in phase; they reach their
minima and maxima at exactly
the same time.
 Example
• Find the amplitude, phase, period, and
frequency of the sinusoid
v(t )  12 cos(50t  10o )
• Solution: Amplitude, Vm=12V
Phase, ɸ=10
Angular frequency w=50 rad/sec
2 2
period T    0.1257 sec
w 50
1 1
frequency f    7.958 Hz
T 0.1257
 Example
Calculate the phase angle between v1=-
10cos(wt+50) and v2=12sin(wt-10). State which
sinusoid is leading.
Solution:

The phase difference between v1 & v2 is 30o.

• Alternate method

• Comparing the two shows that v1 lags v2 by

30.