EEE1001

ELECTRIC CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS

Module 2 – Lecture 3

Dr. Arindam Dutta

Assistant Professor
School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
VIT Bhopal

Email: arindamdutta@[Link]
Cabin: C-509
 Resonance in AC circuits
• In ac circuits resonance occurs when two independent energy storing devices are capable of interchanging
energy from one another

• When frequency is variable, the inductive and capacitive reactance of the circuit elements

XL = 2πfL and XC = 1/2πfC

will change

• The current in the circuit will depend upon the values of XL and XC and that of R

• A condition may occur at a particular frequency that the impedance offered to the flow of current is
maximum or minimum

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 Resonance in AC series circuits
The supply voltage is constant but its frequency is variable

As the frequency is changing, both XL and XC will change. Inductive reactance XL will increase as the frequency, f is
increasing while the capacitive reactance, XC will decrease with increasing frequency. The value of R is independent of
frequency.

At some frequency f0, the magnitude of XL will be equal to XC. Since XL and XC are vectorially jXL and –jXC, the two
reactances will cancel each other when frequency is f0. At f0 the impedance of the circuit is equal to R which is the
minimum value of Z. So, at f = f0 maximum current (I = V/R) will flow through the circuit. 3
 Resonance in AC series circuits
This condition of the circuit when XL equals XC, Z = R, and current is maximum is called the resonant condition and the
frequency, f0 at which resonance occurs is called the resonant frequency. At resonance, since XL equals XC,

At resonance, frequency is f0, current I0 = V/R, and power factor (cosφ) is unity.
As VL = VC and they are in phase opposition, the net voltage across L and C in series is equal to zero. Thus, the supply
voltage will be equal to VR.

Since at resonance, current is maximum and is very high, power dissipation I02R is maximum and the rate of energy
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storage in the inductor and the capacitor is maximum and they are equal.
 Quality Factor of series resonant circuit
The ratio of the reactive power to the resistive power is called the quality factor. It is also defined as the ratio of voltage
drop appearing across the inductor or the capacitor to the supply voltage. Higher quality factor means sharper is the
resonant factor curve and better is the ability of the network to accept current or power signals.

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 Bandwidth of series resonant circuit
Bandwidth is the range of frequencies for which the power delivered to the resistor is equal to half the power delivered
to the resistor at resonance. As can be seen from the figure, the range of frequencies is (f2 – f1) and the corresponding
current is I0/√2 i.e., 0.707 I0.

Therefore, the range of frequencies within which current does not drop below 0.707 times the maximum value of
current, i.e., I0 is called the bandwidth. The frequencies f1 and f2 are called the lower and upper cut-off frequencies.

Bandwidth, BW =

At both f1 and f2, the power delivered to R is equal to half the power delivered to R at resonance. 6
 Bandwidth of series resonant circuit

• +
If the quality factor is high, bandwidth will be narrow. The circuit will allow only a narrow band of signal
frequencies which are close to the resonant frequency

• Such a circuit is, therefore, highly selective in allowing signals to pass through

• High-quality-factor resonant circuits are also called ‘tuned circuits’

• We have seen earlier that power dissipated at cutoff frequencies is half the power dissipated at resonant frequency.
Hence, the cutoff frequencies f1 and f2 are also called half-power frequencies. 7
 Resonance in AC Parallel Circuits
Let us consider an inductive coil and a capacitor in parallel connected across a constant voltage variable frequency
supply source. Practically, both the capacitor and the inductor will have some losses represented by a small resistance in
series. Here we assume the capacitor as a loss-less one while the inductor coil has some resistance which has been
shown separately. The line current I is equal to the in-phase component of IL with the voltage V, i.e., I = IL cos φL. At
resonance, the current through the capacitor IC is balanced by IL sinφL. Thus, the reactive component of line current
which is the phasor sum of IC and IL sinφL is zero. The condition for resonance is:

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 Resonance in AC Parallel Circuits

This is the resonance frequency of a parallel L and C circuit.

If we consider the value of R as negligible, then the resonance frequency is

The line current I is equal to IL cos φL which is the minimum current occurring at resonance. If the value of R is reduced,
the cosine component of IL will get reduced. When R is made equal to zero, I cosφL will be zero and the whole of IL will
be reactive or wattless component and will be equal and opposite to IC.

I = IL cos φL is in phase with V when resonance occurs. The circuit impedance, Z0 is calculated as

For resonance:

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 Resonance in AC Parallel Circuits

Therefore:

Z0 is known as the equivalent impedance or ‘dynamic impedance’ of the parallel resonant circuit. It can be noticed that I
= IL cos φL is in phase with the supply voltage. This shows that the circuit behaves like a resistive circuit only since the
reactive component currents cancel each other. The impedance Z0 is therefore resistive only. Since current is minimum,
impedance of the circuit, Z0 = L/CR is maximum under the resonant condition. Since current at resonance is minimum, a
parallel resonant circuit is often referred to as a ‘rejector circuit’ meaning that a parallel resonant circuit tends to reject
current at resonant frequency.

The current drawn from the supply at resonance, i.e., I = IL cos φL is minimum. The current circulating through the
capacitor and the inductor, i.e., IC which is equal to IL sin φL is very high (IC >> I or IL cos φL)..Since IC is many times
more than I, we can say that parallel resonance is a case of current resonance.

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 Q-Factor of parallel resonant circuit
The ratio of circulating current between the two parallel branches, i.e., the capacitor and the inductor to the circuit line
current is called the Q-factor or current magnification factor of the parallel circuit. Thus,

• At resonant frequency f0, the impedance is maximum, i.e., equal

to Z0 = L/CR

• The current at resonance is the minimum and is equal to I0 where

I0 = V/Z0 = VCR/L

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 Bandwidth of parallel resonant circuit

• Bandwidth of a parallel resonant circuit is determined the same way as in the case of the series resonant
circuit

• Bandwidth is the range of frequencies (f2 – f1) where the power dissipated is half of the power dissipated
at the resonant frequency

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 Comparison of series and parallel resonant AC circuits

Resonance in ac series and parallel circuits can take place at a particular frequency when a constant voltage and variable
frequency supply source is applied across the circuit. The frequency at which resonance occurs are

If we neglect the small value of R, f0 for series and parallel resonance is the same. If we have a constant frequency
supply source, a resonance condition can also be achieved if we change the value of L or C creating a condition when

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 Problem
Q: An R–L–C series circuit has R = 10 Ω, L = 0.1 H, and C = 8 μF. Calculate the resonant frequency, Q-factor of the
circuit at resonance, and half-power frequencies and bandwidth.

For resonance

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 Problem
Q: A resistor, a variable iron-core inductor, and a capacitor are connected across a 230 V, 50 Hz supply. By varying the
position of the iron core inside the inductor coil, its inductance is changed. Maximum current of 1.5 A was obtained in
the circuit by changing the inductance of the coil. At that time the voltage across the capacitor was measured as 600 V.
Calculate the values of circuit parameters.

A: Maximum current flows at resonance when XL = XC and Z = R

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 Problem
Q: An inductive coil has a resistance of 10 Ω and inductance of 100 mH. This coil is connected in parallel with a
capacitor of 20 μF. A variable frequency power at 100 V is applied across this parallel circuit. Calculate the frequency at
which the circuit will resonate. Also calculate the Q-factor, dynamic impedance of the circuit, and resonant current.

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 Problem
Q: An inductor having a resistance of 4 Ω and an inductance of 20 mH are connected across a 230 V, 50 Hz supply.
What value of capacitance should be connected in parallel to the inductor to produce a resonance condition? What will
be the value of the resonant current?

Resonant current:

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