Alternating Current Circuits

E. Arguelles

Alternating current has long been realized by Nikola Tesla as an effective means of
transporting power over long distances (e.g. from power plants to the community).
This works differently from direct current (dc) in which requires thicker wires and
tends to lose more power during power transmission as this makes electrons flow
from the source directly towards the load and back to the source, thus increasing
the chance to collide with other ions and losing energy. In alternating current
(ac), electrons are pushed and pulled to and from the source (one electron at a
time) thus the name ac. This paved the way the possibility of long distance power
transmission using thinner wires. The nature of the ac circuit will be discussed
shortly.

a b
Fig 1: a. DC circuit. b. AC circuit

In alternating current circuits, electromotive force provides periodic sinusoidal

voltage in the form of
   0 sint  1
Where  0 is the voltage amplitude (maximum emf) and the sine function is chosen
for convenience,  is the usual angular frequency.

THE TRANSFORMER (AC)

Our goal in this section is to change the value of the maximum emf  0 ; either to
make it lower or higher. The device that allows us to do this is called the
transformer. The transformer works using the principle of Faraday:

d B
  N 2
dt

A transformer is composed of:

1. Core (typically iron or any ferromagnetic material; allows magnetic field to

flow inside)
2. Primary coil (loop)
3. Secondary coil
4. EMF source (AC)

When an alternating current is applied in the primary coil, it sets up magnetic field
lines inside the solenoid which then is directed all throughout the core (being
ferromagnetic). These magnetic fields pass through the secondary coil creating
magnetic flux. Since the emf source provides an alternating current, the magnetic
field changes as this current changes and therefore changing the magnetic fluxes in
both primary and secondary coils. The changing flux in the primary coil creates self
inductance which is related to the emf by

dI1
1   L 3
dt

The negative sign reflects Lenz’s law. On the other side of the core, the changing
flux generates an emf which depends on the mutual inductance

dI1
 2  M 4
dt
If we solve for the derivative of the current in (3) and substitute it in (4) we will
have
 1  1 M
 2  M   
 L L
We rearrange further we arrive at

2 M
 5
1 L
Equation (5) gives us the ratio of two emf’s in the primary and secondary coils and
this ratio is equal to a constant M/L. This only shows that the emf’s have the same
sinusoidal dependence.

We recall the mutual inductance of two solenoids as

 0 N1 N 2 A 6
M
l1

And the self-inductance of the a coil is

 0 N12 A
L 7
l1

If we substitute (6) and (7) in equation (5) we will get

 0 N1 N 2 A
2 l1

1  0 N12 A
l1
2 N2

1 N 1
V2 N 2

V1 N1 8

Equation (8) is a very simple yet powerful relationship between the voltages of
primary and secondary coils. The emfs are proportional to the number of turns in
each respective coil. Example, if N2 is increased, so as the emf in the secondary coil
and etc.

Two types of transformer:

1. Step Up N 2  N1

If N 2  100 turns, N1  10 turns and V1  220V

The voltage across the secondary coil is

V2 
220V 100  2200V ,which clearly increased the
10
voltage thus the name step up.
 2. Step Down N1  N 2

This is just the reverse of the step up transformer. In

this type we can convert higher voltages to lower
voltages as seen in the figure.

There are so many uses of transformers. They are used in counteracting the
power generation energy loss by stepping up the voltage across power lines,
also, they are used to supply voltages to circuits with specific voltage ratings
and many more.

THE RESISTIVE CIRCUIT

We now include AC currents in our circuit and analyze using each single circuit
element. The first is the resistor. If we connect a resistor to an AC source we have
a resistive circuit:

We use Kirchhoff’s loop rule that says “the sum of all the potential drops and rise
across each element in a closed loop is zero.”

Then our circuit equation is

 0 sint   IR  0 9

If we solve for the current we get

IR   0 sin t 
 0 sin t 
I 10
R
I  I max sin t 

0
Where I max  is called the current amplitude.
R

According still to Kirchhoff’s rule, VR   0 sint   Vmax sin t 

If we then plot current and voltage against the angle t we have

In this illustration we see that the current

is in phase with the voltage which means
that if the voltage is zero, so as the
current, if it’s at maximum, so as the
current. They certainly don’t have the
same amplitude.

(note: RMS values of current and voltage

will be discussed orally)

THE CAPACITIVE CIRCUIT

The figure on the left shows a capacitor connected

to an AC voltage source. We use again Kirchhoff’s
rule

 0 sint   VC  0 11

 0 sin t  
Q
0
C

We solve for Q in this equation we have

Q  C 0 sint  and take the time derivative to get the current I   C 0 cost  .
dQ
dt

We denote I max  C 0 the current now becomes I  I max cost  . We recall a
 
trigonometric identity sin      cos  , we can rewrite the equation for current as
 2
 
I  I max sin t   12
 2

When we plot eqs. (11 & 12) we have


In a capacitive circuit, the current leads the voltage by
2
or 90 degrees.
If we then go back to eq. (12), we see that I max  C 0 . This can be thought of as
V 1
similar to Ohm’s law I  having  0  V and denoting C  , we can rewrite this
R XC
equation as

0
I max  12
XC

Where X C is called the effective resistance of the capacitor or simply the capacitive
reactance.

THE INDUCTIVE CIRCUIT

The circuit diagram on the left represents an inductive

circuit. This circuit is composed of an AC emf source
and an inductor. We again for the third time use KLR to
analyze the circuit

 0 sint   VL  0 13

 0 sin t   L
dI
0
dt
We solve for the current

  0 sin t 
dI
L
dt
dI  0
 sin t 
dt L
0
dI  sin t dt
L
0
I
L  sin t dt
0
I  cos t 
L
  
I  0 sin  t   14
L  2
An interesting case about (14) is when t=0, the current is negative maximum
current, and the voltage across the inductor is zero. If we express (14) in terms of
  
the maximum current we have I  I mas sin  t   where I max 
0
. Using Ohm’s
 2 L
law, it is easily seen that L is the effective resistance of an inductive circuit better
known as the inductive reactance, L  X L . Eq. (14) can now be expressed as

  
I  I max sin t   and I max  0 . We then plot the current and the voltage against
 2 XL

the angle, which shown below. In an inductive circuit, the current lags voltage by .
2

THE LRC CIRCUIT (AC) phasor approach

In an LRC circuit with a sinusoidal emf source, the circuit elements namely inductor,
resistor, capacitor are connected in series. This type of circuit behaves similarly as
the driven damped harmonic oscillator with a sinusoidal (periodic) driving force.

When the potential differences across these circuit

elements are plotted, they give different phases. We
have already known that the voltage across a resistor
in a resistive circuit is in phase with the current, in the
inductor, the voltage leads by 90 degrees and in the
capacitive circuit, the voltage lags by 90 degrees.

The voltages are given by

 
1. VL   L sin t     L cost 
 2
 
2. VC   C sin t     C cost 
 2
3. VR   R sin t 

The current in the circuit varies by

I  I mas cost   
Our goal is to get the value of the maximum current and the phase angle (the angle
between the current and the applied voltage). To help us get these values, we
must use the concept of a phasor. We can represent voltage and current as
phasors, arrows extending from the origin of a coordinate system which flips and
goes around a circle. The rate of change of its angle is similar to the angular
velocity (frequency) in circular motion. We then represent the voltages and currents
in our AC circuits using phasor diagrams below:

The diagrams above give a visual representation of the relationship between the
maximum current and the voltages across each circuit element. One will see for
example in (b) that in the inductor the voltage leads the current by 90 degrees,
consistent with our graphical representations. One will also notice below if we plot
all our voltages with the
maximum current, we get
figure(a) which shows the
vector sum of all the
voltages resulting to a
maximum voltage which
makes an angle  with the
horizontal (or appropriately
with the maximum current)

From these two figures we

can see that

Vmax   L   C 2   R2
With  L  I max X L ,  C  I max X C ,  R  I max R

The maximum voltage now becomes

Vmax  I max X L  I max X C 2  I 2
max
R2

Vmax  I max  X L  X C 2  R 2
Vmax
I max 
 X L  X C 2  R 2
The above equation shows the maximum current (current amplitude) of an LRC
circuit. If we define the denominator in the above equation as

Z  X L  X C 2  R 2 the impedance (the effective resistance of the circuit) and use

the phasor diagram, we get the relationship between the capacitive reactance,
inductive reactance and the resistance. Furthermore we
can also get the phase angle by

  X L  X C 
  tan 1  
 R 
Exercise #1

Solution:

Exercise #2