How A Capacitor Behaves under Alternating Voltage

Capacitance Versus Frequency.

The behaviour of a capacitor under periodically alternating voltage follows logically
from its behaviour under direct voltage. As the voltage alternates, a direct potential
is applied first in one direction during one half-cycle and in the reverse direction
during the succeeding half-cycle. The di- electric is rapidly flexed or strained to and
fro in step with the alternating electric stress. The amount of polarization per volt
depends on the duration of the half-cycle and therefore on the frequency.
How the amount of polarization called into play depends on the frequency is
pictured schematically in which shows three different polarization times, (a), (b)
and (c), compared with the period of a low-frequency, and with that of a highfrequency alternating applied voltage. At the lower frequency, the half period is so
long, compared with the three polarizations (a), (b) and (c), that every one of them
can be completed even before the voltage passes through maximum during the
half-cycle.
In contrast, at the high frequency illustrated, only the rapid polarization (a) has
time to reach completion; the slower polarizations (b) and (c) are still on the way,
so to speak, when the voltage reverses. Thus, as the frequency rises, a smaller and
smaller pro- portion of the slower polarizations is called into play. At sufficiently
high frequencies only the polarizations which are virtually instantaneous respond
fully during each half-cycle.
The practical outcome is that the apparent or measured capacitance decreases with
rising frequency electrolytic capacitor manufacturers.
The Impedance of a Capacitor.

For a-c operation we are interested in the rate at which a capacitor handles electric
energy and the efficiency with which it does this. Each time the capacitor is
charged or discharged a current flows in the electrodes and connecting leads.
Evidently, the more quickly the capacitor is put through this charge and discharge
process, the larger the total charge flowing per unit time, that is, the larger the
effective current. Under alternating voltage, the capacitor is charged once and
discharged once during each half-cycle, and the current there- fore increases as the

frequency rises. The current flowing through a capacitance (C) under an r.m.s.
voltage (E) at a frequency (/) is 2irfCE, and the corresponding reactive power is
2iTfCE.
The factor i/2ir/C, known as the "reactance," is a measure of the total charge
or energy entering and leaving the capacitor per unit voltage in unit time. From a
circuit or transmission network stand- point, a capacitor appears simply as a means
of supplying negative reactance.

The impedance of the ideal capacitor would be only negative reactance ; that is, it
could absorb energy from an applied source of power and return all of it to the
source without loss. In practice there is an energy loss in the dielectric and another
one as the current flows in the electrodes and connecting leads. A capacitor also
has some inductance which, however small, results in inductive or positive
reactance the magnitude of which increases with rising frequency. Above some
critical frequency, depending on the type of capacitor, the inductive reactance may
dominate and the capacitor then behaves like an inductor. Thus a capacitor
behaves like a two-terminal network consisting of pure capacitance, inductance and
resistance. There- fore the impedance appearing across the terminals is complex
and expressible in the form R jX, where R denotes the resistance and X the
reactance.