Lecture 3: R-L-C AC Circuits

AC (Alternative Current):

Most of the time, we are interested in the voltage at a point in the circuit will concentrate on voltages here rather than currents. We encounter AC circuits whenever a periodic voltage is applied to a circuit. The most common periodic voltage is in the form of a sine (or cosine) wave: V (t ) = V0 cos t or V (t ) = V0 sin t

V o

amplitude

Volts

-Vo

period

V0 is the amplitude: V0 = Peak Voltage (VP) V0 = 1/2 Peak-to-Peak Voltage (VPP) VPP: easiest to read off scope V0 = 2 VRMS = 1.41 VRMS VRMS: what multimeters usually read
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K.K. Gan

is the angular frequency: = 2f, with f = frequency of the waveform. frequency (f) and period (T) are related by: T (sec) = 1/f (sec-1) Household line voltage is usually 110-120 VRMS (156-170 VP), f = 60 Hz.

It is extremely important to be able to analyze circuits (systems) with sine or cosine inputs Almost any waveform can be constructed from a sum of sines and cosines. This is the heart of Fourier analysis (Simpson, Chapter 3). The response of a circuit to a complicated waveform (e.g. a square wave) can be understood by analyzing individual sine or cosine components that make up the complicated waveform. Usually only the rst few components are important in determining the circuits response to the input waveform.

R-C Circuits and AC waveforms

There are many different techniques for solving AC circuits All are based on Kirchhoff's laws. When solving for voltage and/or current in an AC circuit we are really solving a differential eq. Different circuit techniques are really just different ways of solving the same differential eq: brute force solution to differential equation complex numbers (algebra) Laplace transforms (integrals)

K.K. Gan

L3: R-L-C AC Circuits

We will solve the following RC circuit using the brute force method and complex numbers method. Let the input (driving) voltage be V(t) = V0cost and we want to nd VR(t) and VC(t).
V( t ) R C

Brute Force Method: Start with Kirchhoff's loop law: V (t ) = VR (t ) + VC (t ) V0 cos t = IR + Q / C = RdQ(t ) / dt + Q(t ) / C We have to solve an inhomogeneous D.E. The usual way to solve such a D.E. is to assume the solution has the same form as the input: Q(t ) = sin t + cos t

Plug our trial solution Q(t) back into the D.E.: V0 cos t = R cos t R sin t + ( / C ) sin t + ( / C ) cos t = (R + / C ) cos t + ( / C R ) sin t V0 = R + / C / C = R

= =

RC 2V0 1 + ( RC ) CV0 1 + ( RC )
2 2

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L3: R-L-C AC Circuits

We can now write the solution for VC(t): VC (t ) = Q / C = ( sin t + cos t ) / C RCV0 V0 = sin t + cos t 2 2 1 + ( RC ) 1 + ( RC ) We would like to rewrite the above solution in such a way that only a cosine term appears. In this form we can compare it to the input voltage. V0 RC 1 VC (t ) = sin t + cos t 2 2 2 1 + ( RC ) 1 + ( RC ) 1 + ( RC ) We get the above equation in terms of cosine only using the following basic trig: cos( 1 2 ) = sin 1 sin 2 + cos 1 cos 2

We can now dene an angle such that: 1 cos = 1 + ( RC )2 RC sin = 1 + ( RC )2 tan = RC V0 VC (t ) = cos(t ) 2 1 + ( RC ) VC(t) and V0(t) are out of phase.
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Using the above expression for VC(t), we obtain: VR (t ) = IR dQ =R dt dV = RC C dt RCVo = sin(t ) 2 1 + ( RC ) We would like to have cosines instead of sines by using: sin = cos( + ) 2

VR (t ) =
C

RCVo 1 + ( RC )
2

cos(t + ) 2

V (t), VR(t), and I(t) are all out of phase with the applied voltage. I(t) and VR(t) are in phase with each other. VC(t) and VR(t) are out of phase by 900. The amplitude of VC(t) and VR(t) depend on .

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L3: R-L-C AC Circuits

Example: RC Circuit
R1 1E3

+ C2

60 Hz + Vp = 1 V

VSIN0 SIN

1E-5F
-

V out

in

out

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L3: R-L-C AC Circuits

Solving circuits with complex numbers: PROS: don't explicitly solve differential equations (lots of algebra). can nd magnitude and phase of voltage separately. CONS: have to use complex numbers! No physics in complex numbers. What's a complex number? (see Simpson, Appendix E, P835) Start with j 1 (solution to x2 + 1 = 0). A complex number can be written in two forms: X = A + jB A and B are real numbers X = R ej R = (A2 + B2)1/2 and tan = B/A (remember ej = cos + j sin) Dene the complex conjugate of X as: X * = A jB or X * = R e j The magnitude of X can be found from: | X |= ( XX *)1/2 = ( X * X )1/2 = ( A 2 + B 2 )1/2 Suppose we have 2 complex numbers, X and Y with phases and respectively, j X e X j ( ) X Z = = = e j Y Y Ye magnitude of Z: |X|/|Y| phase of Z: - So why is this useful? K.K. Gan L3: R-L-C AC Circuits 7

 Consider the case of the capacitor and AC voltage: V (t ) = V0 cos t = Re al V0 e jt

Q = CV dV I (t ) = C dt = CV0 sin t = Re al jCV0 e jt

V e jt = Re al 0 1 j C V = Re al XC V and XC are complex numbers We now have Ohm's law for capacitors using the capacitive reactance XC: 1 XC = jC

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 We can make a similar case for the inductor: dI V =L dt 1 I (t ) = V dt L 1 = V0 cos t dt L V sin t = 0 L V e jt = Re al 0 jL V = Re al XL V and XL are complex numbers We now have Ohms law for inductors using the inductive reactance XL: XL =jL XC and XL act like frequency dependent resistors. They also have a phase associated with them due to their complex nature. XL 0 as 0 (short circuit, DC) XL as (open circuit) XC 0 as (short circuit) XC as 0 (open circuit, DC)
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Back to the RC circuit. Allow voltages, currents, and charge to be complex: Vin = V0 cos t = Re al V0 e jt

V( t )

R C

= Re al(VR + VC ) We can write an expression for the charge (Q) taking into account the phase difference () between applied voltage and the voltage across the capacitor (VC). Q(t ) = CVC (t ) = Ae j (t ) Q and VC are complex A and C are real We can nd the complex current by differentiating the above: I (t ) = dQ(t ) / dt = jAe j (t ) = jQ(t ) = jCVC (t ) Vin = VC + VR = VC + IR = VC + jCVC R

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Vin 1 + jRC 1 jC = Vin 1 R+ jC XC = Vin R + XC looks like a voltage divider equation!!!!! We can easily nd the magnitude of VC : XC VC = Vin R + XC VC = 1 C = 2 R + (1 C )2 V0 = V0 1 + ( RC )
2

same as the result on page 4.

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Is this solution the same as what we had when we solved by brute force page 3? Vin VC = Re al 1 + jRC V e jt = Re al 0 1 + j RC V0 e jt = Re al is given by tan = RC 2 j 1 + (RC ) e V e j (t ) 0 = Re al 2 1 + (RC ) V cos(t ) = 0 1 + (RC )2 YES the solutions are identical.

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We can now solve for the voltage across the resistor. Start with the voltage divider equation in complex form: V R VR = in R + XC

VR = = =

Vin R R + XC V0 R R 2 + (1 C )2 V0RC

1 + (RC )2 This amplitude is the same as the brute force differential equation case! In adding complex voltages, we must take into account the phase difference between them. the sum of the voltages at a given time satisfy: 2 2 2 V0 =| VR | + | VC | V0 =| VR | + | VC |

R-C Filters
Allow us to select (reject) wanted (unwanted) signals on the basis of their frequency structure. Allow us to change the phase of the voltage or current in a circuit. Dene the gain (G) or transfer (H) function of a circuit: G(j) = H(j) = Vout/Vin (j is often denoted by s). G is independent of time, but can depend on , R, L, C.
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K.K. Gan

 For an RC circuit we can dene GR and GC: VR R R GR = = R V in R+XC R + 1/j C V( t ) 1/j C V XC C GC C = = V in R+XC R + 1/j C We can categorize the G's as follows: GR High Frequencies Low Frequencies 1, no phase shift high pass filter jCR 0, phase shift GC 1/jCR 0, phase shift 1, no phase shift low pass filter

Decibels and Bode Plots: Decibel (dB) describes voltage or power gain: dB = 20 log(Vout / Vin ) = 10 log(Pout / Pin ) Bode Plot is a log-log plot with dB on the y axis and log() or log(f) on the x axis.

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 3 dB point or 3 dB frequency: also called break frequency, corner frequency, 1/2 power point At the 3 dB point: Vout 1 = since 3 = 20 log(Vout / Vin ) Vin 2 Pout 1 = since 3 = 10 log(Pout / Pin ) Pin 2 RC = 1 for high or low pass lter
R

R R GR V R = = V in R + X CV(t) R + 1/j Vout C

C

V(t)

1/j C XC = GC V C = V in R + XC R + 1/j C

V(t)

Vout

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Phase vs frequency for capacitor

V(t)

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