Parallel Circuit

Parallel RL Circuit

In RL parallel circuit resistor and inductor are connected in parallel with each other and this

combination is supplied by a voltage source, Vin. Since the resistor and inductor are connected in

parallel, the currents flowing in resistor and inductor are different.

IT = the total electric current flowing from voltage source in amperes.

IR = the electric current flowing in the resistor branch in amperes.

IL = the electric current flowing in the inductor branch in amperes.

θ = the angle between IR and IL.

From the Kirchhoff’s current law

IT = IR + IL = Vin/ ZR + Vin/ ZL = Vin (1/ ZR +1/ ZL) = Vin (YR +YL) = VinY

where the symbol Y represents the reciprocal of impedance and is called admittance. The resultant

current in parallel RL branch is the product of the input voltage and the sum of the reciprocals of

branch impedances.
 Phasor Diagram of Parallel RL circuit

The total electric current IT can also be calculated from the phasor diagram as

and the phase angle is given by

= tan-1 ((V/XL) / (V / R)) = tan-1 (R/XL)

= tan-1(R/ωL)

Also the phase angle again be given by, θ = cos-1 (IR / IT) = cos-1(Z/R)

The total phase angle of a parallel RL circuit always lies between 0° to -90°. It is 0° for pure

resistive circuit and -90° for pure inductive circuit.

In complex form the currents are written as,

Where G is the conductance and BL is the inductive suseptance of a parallel RL circuit. Thus if

the admittance of the circuit is (0.2-j0.1) mho, such a circuit can be represented as a resistance of

5 Ω(ohm) in parallel with an inductive reactance of 10Ω; whereas if the impedance of a circuit is

(5+j10)Ω, such a circuit can be represented as a resistance of 5Ω in series with an inductive

reactance of 10Ω.

Parallel RLC Circuit

In parallel RLC Circuit the resistor, inductor and capacitor are connected in parallel across

a voltage supply. The parallel RLC circuit is exactly opposite to the series RLC circuit. The

applied voltage remains the same across all components whilst the supply current IS consists of

three parts. The current flowing through the resistor, is IR, the current flowing through the inductor

is IL and the current through the capacitor is IC.

But the current flowing through each branch and therefore each component will be different to

each other and to the supply current, IS. The total current drawn from the supply will not be the

mathematical sum of the three individual branch currents but their vector sum.

Since the voltage across the circuit is common to all three circuit elements, the current through

each branch can be found using Kirchoff’s Current Law, (KCL).

Phasor Diagram for a Parallel RLC Circuit

IR is the electric current flowing in the resistor, R in amps.

IC is the electric current flowing in the capacitor, C in amps.

IL is the electric current flowing in the inductor, L in amps.

Is is the supply electric current in amps.

In the parallel RLC circuit, all the components are connected in parallel; so the voltage across

each element is same. Therefore, for drawing phasor diagram, take voltage as reference vector

and all the other currents i.e IR, IC, IL are drawn relative to this voltage vector.
Using Pythagoras’s theorem

Impedance of a Parallel RLC Circuit

The admittance of the circuit and the impedance with respect to admittance as: