ACCIRCUITS.docVIP

AC CIRCUITS OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of alternating currents on various electrical quantities in circuits containing resistors, capacitors and inductors. THEORY: If the current in a resistor R, a capacitor C, and/or an inductor L is given by: where and f is the frequency, then the corresponding voltages across each element can be written as: since since since This means that the voltage across a resistor, VR , is in phase with the current, I; the voltage across a capacitor, Vc lags the current by 90° (?/2); and the voltage across an inductor, VL, leads the current by 90°. These angles (between voltage and current) are called phase angles. NOTE: a DMM can only give rms values (, ); a dual trace oscilloscope can be made to show the relative phase differences. In terms of rms values only (those measured by a DMM), where where The XC is called the capacitive reactance; the XL is called the inductive reactance. Even though from conservation of energy (Kirchoffs Law), ?V(t) = 0, when we have phase differences we may have ?Vrms 0! To take into account the phase difference between these voltages, we can use a construct called the phasor diagram. We have constructed phasor diagrams for two types of circuits in the examples below (see Figs. 1b and 2b). Note that VL and VC are drawn +90° and -90° out of phase with I while VR is in phase with I. Note also that R does not depend on frequency, XC decreases with increasing frequency, and XL increases with increasing frequency. 1. Series LR Circuit In the above figures, ; the inductive reactance is ; (1) and the impedance of the circuit is (2) Note that the relation of V to I no longer depends just on R. This is due to the presence of the inductor. We need to replace R with Z, the impedance (or generalized resistance). Also note that due to the presence of the phase angle, we cannot just add R and XL together like we c