25/09/2024

AC CIRCUITS

The War of the Currents: AC vs. DC Power

In the late 1880s, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were involved in a conflict known as the War of
the Currents. Edison supported direct current (DC), which flows in one direction, like a battery. At that time,
DC was the standard in the U.S., but it had a drawback — it was hard to change the voltage.
Tesla believed alternating current (AC) was a better solution. AC changes direction multiple times
per second and can easily switch between high and low voltages with the help of a transformer.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

To protect his DC patents, Edison tried to convince people that AC was dangerous. He even staged
public events where animals were electrocuted with AC to make his point.
In 1893, at the Chicago World’s Fair, George Westinghouse, using Tesla's AC system, won the
contract to power the fair at a lower cost than General Electric's DC proposal. That same year, the Niagara
Falls Power Company chose Westinghouse and Tesla to use AC to generate power from Niagara Falls. By
1896, the city of Buffalo, New York, was lit up using AC, and General Electric started using it too.
Though AC became the standard, DC has made a comeback for specific uses, like in solar panels,
computers, and electric cars. It’s also now possible to use DC for long-distance power transmission with less
energy loss.
Today, both AC and DC are used together in different ways, showing that both Tesla and Edison’s
contributions are still important in modern electricity.
Reference: [Link]

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Advantages of AC system over DC system

 AC voltages can be transported through a long-distance transmission lines with lower power losses.
 AC voltages can be efficiently stepped up/down using transformer.
 AC motors are cheaper and simpler in construction than DC motors.
 Switchgear for AC system is simpler than DC system.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

Electricity entering a substation from the primary side is dropped to a lower voltage by transformers
and sent on to the secondary side.

Generation of a Sine Wave of Voltage

Electromotive Force (emf) – the voltage which is produced by a moving winding in a magnetic field or by
altering the direction of the flux. Alternating voltage may be generated by rotating a magnetic field within a
stationary coil.
As the coil rotates anti-clockwise around the central axis which is perpendicular to the magnetic
field, the wire loop cuts the lines of force set up between the north and south poles at different angles as the
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

loop rotates. The amount of induced emf in the loop at any instant is proportional to the angle of rotation of
the wire loop. When the loop rotates one complete cycle of the waveform being produced for each revolution
of the coil. As the coil rotates within the magnetic field, the electrical connections are made to the coil by
means of carbon brushes and slip rings which are used to transfer the electrical current induced in the coil.

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Sinusoidal waveform
Sinusoid is a signal that has a form of sine or cosine function.

An alternating function or AC waveform is defined as one that

varies in both magnitude and direction in more or less an even manner
with respect to time making it a “Bi-directional” waveform. The term AC
or to give its full description of Alternating Current, generally refers to a
time-varying waveform with the most common of all being called a
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

sinusoid better known as sinusoidal waveform. Sinusoidal waveforms

are more generally called by their short description as sine waves.

Waveforms are basically a visual representation of the variation of

a voltage or a current plotted to a base of time. Generally, for AC
waveforms this horizontal base line represents zero condition of either
voltage or current. The most common periodic signal waveforms that
are used are sinusoidal waveform. AC waveforms can also take the
shape of either complex waves, square waves or triangular waves, etc.

Periodic waveforms (i.e., waveforms that repeat at regular

intervals), regardless of their waveshape, may be described by a group
of attributes such as frequency, period, amplitude, peak value, and so
on.

Parameters
Frequency is the number of cycles per second of a Period, T is the duration of one cycle. It is the
waveform. It is denoted by the lowercase f. In SI inverse of frequency
system, its unit is hertz (Hz) which is named in honor
of Heinrich Rudorf Hertz.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

Heinrich Rudorf Hertz (1857–1894), a German

experimental physicist, demonstrated that
electromagnetic waves obey the same fundamental laws
as light. His work confirmed James Clerk Maxwell’s
celebrated 1864 theory and prediction that such waves
existed.

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Parameters
Amplitude - It is the maximum value attained by an
alternating quantity. Also called as maximum or peak
value. In a sine wave, it is the distance from its
average to its peak. (Em)
Peak-to-peak voltage – is measured between
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

minimum and maximum peaks

Peak Value – max value with respect to zero.
Instantaneous Value – It is the value of the emf
induced in the conductor at any instant.

Parameters
Angular Frequency (ω) – Angular frequency is defined as the number of radians covered in one second (ie
the angle covered by the rotating coil) or the rate at which generator coil rotates. The unit of angular
frequency is rad/sec.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

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Sine Wave Equation

Ex.1 100-Hz sinusoidal voltage source has an
amplitude of 150 volts. Write the equation for e
as a function of time. If t=1.25ms, what will be
the value of voltage as a function of time?
Where,
e or i= Instantaneous value (votage or
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

current in function of time

Em = amplitude of the sinusoid
α = the instantaneous angular
position of the coil.

EXAMPLES
Ex.2 If ω=240 rad/s, what are T and f? How many Ex.3 If 56 000 cycles occur in 3.5 s, what is ω?
cycles occur in 27 s?
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

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Phasors
A phasor is a rotating line whose projection on a vertical Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865–1923), a
axis can be used to represent sinusoidally varying quantities. It German-Austrian mathematician and
can be represented using complex numbers. engineer, introduced the phasor method in ac
circuit analysis.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

Phasors
A sinusoidal waveform can be created by plotting
the vertical projection of a phasor that rotates in the
counterclockwise direction at constant angular velocity
ω. If the phasor has a length of Vm, the waveform
represents voltage; if the phasor has a length of Im, it
represents current. Phasors apply only to sinusoidal
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

waveforms.

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Phase shift and phase difference

If a sine wave does not pass through zero at t =0s, it has phase shift. Waveforms may be shifted to
the left or to the right.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

Phase difference refers to the angular displacement between different waveforms of the same
frequency.

Phase shift and phase difference

Ex. 4. Given v(t) = 20cos(100t +25˚) V find the Ex. 5 The equation for an AC voltage is given as
ffg: v=0.04 sin(2000t+60°)V.
Determine the frequency, the angular frequency,
a. Amplitude instantaneous voltage when t= 160µs.
Fundamentals of Alternating Current Circuits

b. Phase Angle

c. frequency

d. angular frequency

e. period