Series Resonance

This is the characteristics of the circuit if a supply voltage of fixed

amplitude but of different frequencies was applied to the circuit.

In a series RLC circuit there becomes a frequency point where the inductive

reactance of the inductor becomes equal in value to the capacitive reactance of the

capacitor. In other words, XL = XC. The point at which this occurs is called

the Resonant Frequency point, ( ƒr ) of the circuit, and this resonance frequency

produces a Series Resonance.

Series RLC Circuit

From the above equation for inductive reactance, if either the Frequency or

the Inductance is increased the overall inductive reactance value of the inductor

would also increase. The same is also true for the capacitive reactance formula

above but in reverse. If either the Frequency or the Capacitance is increased the

overall capacitive reactance would decrease. As the frequency approaches infinity

the capacitors reactance would reduce to zero causing the circuit element to act like

a perfect conductor of 0Ω’s.

But as the frequency approaches zero or DC level, the capacitors reactance would

rapidly increase up to infinity causing it to act like a very large resistance acting

like an open circuit condition. This means then that capacitive reactance is

“Inversely proportional” to frequency for any given value of capacitance.

At a higher frequency XL is high and at a low frequency XC is high. Then there

must be a frequency point were the value of XL is the same as the value of XC.

Series Resonance Frequency

where: ƒr is in Hertz, L is in Henry and C is in Farads.

Electrical resonance occurs in an AC circuit when the two reactances which are

opposite and equal cancel each other out as XL = XC. In a series resonant circuit,

the resonant frequency, ƒr point can be calculated as follows:

Since XL = XC, XL − XC = 0 so that

Since the impedance at resonance Z equals the resistance R, the impedance is a

minimum. With minimum impedance, the circuit has maximum current determined

by I = V / R. The resonant circuit has a phase angle equal to 0° so that the power

factor is unity.

At frequencies below the resonant frequency (Fig. above), XC is greater than XL so

the circuit consists of resistance and capacitive reactance. However, at frequencies

above the resonant frequency (Fig. above), XL is greater than XC so the circuit

consists of resistance and inductive reactance.

At resonance in series RLC circuit, two reactances become equal and cancel each

other. So in resonant series RLC circuit, the opposition to the flow of current is due
to resistance only. At resonance, the total impedance of series RLC circuit is equal

to resistance i.e Z = R, impedance has only real part but no imaginary part and

this impedance at resonant frequency is called dynamic impedance and this

dynamic impedance is always less than impedance of series RLC circuit.

Before series resonance i.e. before frequency, fr capacitive reactance dominates and

after resonance, inductive reactance dominates and at resonance the circuit acts

purely as resistive circuit causing a large amount of current to circulate through the

circuit.

Impedance in a Series Resonance Circuit

Then in a series resonance circuit as VL = VC the resulting reactive voltages are

zero and all the supply voltage is dropped across the resistor.

Therefore, VR = Vsupply.

Series RLC Circuit at Resonance

Series Circuit Current at Resonance

The current in series resonance circuit is given by

 Variation of current with frequency in series resonance circuit

The frequency response curve of a series resonance circuit shows that the

magnitude of the current is a function of frequency and plotting this onto a graph

shows us that the response starts at near to zero at zero frequency, reaches

maximum value at the resonance frequency when IMAX = IR and then drops again to

nearly zero as ƒ becomes infinite. The result of this is that the magnitudes of the

voltages across the inductor, L and the capacitor, C can become many times larger

than the supply voltage, even at resonance but as they are equal and at opposition

they cancel each other out.

Series Circuit Voltage at Resonance

The voltages across the inductor (VL ) and the capacitor (VC) are 180° out of phase

with each other. They are both 90° out of phase with the voltage across the resistor.

The current I and VR are always in phase. Figure shows the phasor diagram of the

voltages in the series RLC circuit below and above the resonant frequency and at

the resonant frequency fr.

Phase Angle of a Series Resonance Circuit

Figure below shows the overall variation of phase as the frequency is varied.
The phase angle is positive for frequencies above ƒr and negative for frequencies

below ƒr and this can be proven by,

Effect of resistance on current variation in series resonance

Phasor diagram of series resonance circuit

Quality Factor (Q)

The Q, quality factor, of a resonant circuit is a measure of the “goodness” or

quality of a resonant circuit.

The voltage applied to the series RLC circuit is V, and the current at resonance is I,

then the voltage across L is VL= IXL = (V/R) ωL

Similarly, the voltage across C

VC = IXC= (V/R) (1/ ωC)

Q is termed the Q factor or voltage magnification, because VC equals Q multiplied

by the source voltage V:

 Fig. Voltage magnification Q in series resonant circuit

The capacitive and inductive reactance’s store energy that oscillates between them,

the energy being at one moment stored as electrostatic energy in the capacitor, and

a quarter of a cycle later as magnetic energy in the inductor. At the resonant

frequency, when the capacitive and inductive reactances are equal, they transfer

equal energy, and the circuit appears resistive. The maximum magnetic energy
stored in L at any instant is (1/2)LIm2 joules, where Im is the maximum value of

current in the inductor, and the maximum electrostatic energy in C is (1/2)CVm2

joules, where Vm represents the maximum value of the voltage across the capacitor.

However, energy is dissipated as I2R losses in the resistance of the circuit as the

energy is passed backwards and forwards between L and C.

This leads to a more general definition of Q factor. It is defined as the ratio of

the reactive power, of either the capacitor or the inductor to the power

dissipated in the resistor at resonance:

For inductive reactance XL at resonance:

For capacitive reactance XC at resonance:

Bandwidth of series resonance circuit

Variation of current with frequency in series resonance circuit

The bandwidth of a circuit is defined as the frequency range between the half-

power points when I = Imax/√2. This is illustrated in Figure above.

The value of current that is 70.7% of its maximum resonant value which is defined

as: 0.707IMAX.
The bandwidth, BW, equals ωH- ωL, where the frequencies ωH and ωL are referred

to as half-power points or frequencies. They are also referred to as cut-off

frequencies. The term half-power frequency can be justified by consideration of the

conditions for maximum and half-power for the series RLC

circuit.

At maximum power, when ω = ωr,

For ω = ωL, and ω = ωH the current I = =0.707 Imax = 0.707(V/R) ……………….

(1)

The point corresponding to the lower frequency is called the “lower cut-off

frequency”, labelled ƒL with the point corresponding to the upper frequency being

called the “upper cut-off frequency”, labelled ƒH. The distance between these two

points, i.e. ( ƒH – ƒL ) is called the Bandwidth, (BW).

Half Power Frequency

Half power frequencies is the frequency when the magnitude of the current is

decrease by the factor of 1/√2 from its maximum value.

The equation of current is I =

The value of current I is

(1/√2)(V/R) = for ω = ωL and ω = ωH

Or 2R2 = , R=± for ω = ωL and ωH

Solving for ω

and
The bandwidth, BW = ωH - ωL = R / L.

Slectivity
The sharpness of the resonance curve depends on the Q factor. The bandwidth, the

range of frequencies for which the power half-power, is narrower, the higher Q is.

A circuit is said to be selective if the response has a sharp peak and narrow

bandwidth and is achieved with a high Q factor. Q is therefore a measure of

selectivity.

Q = ωr / Δω = ωr L / R

 Δω is the width of the curve, measured between the two values of ω

for which Pavg has half of its maximum value.

 These points are called the half-power points.

A high-Q circuit responds only to a narrow range of frequencies.

  Narrow peak

In order to obtain higher selectivity, Q must be large.

The effect of Q on Imax and on the bandwidth (BW)

thus, for high selectivity, R must be small. This means that the total series

resistance of the circuit including the source resistance must be small. Therefore a

series tuned circuit must be driven by a voltage source having a low internal

resistance if it is to exhibit a resonance peak and be selective.

Power in a Series Resonant Circuit

The average power dissipated in a series resonant circuit can be expressed in terms

of the rms voltage and current as follows:

Where

Substitution now gives the expression for average power as a function of

frequency.
This expression shows that at resonance, when ω = ω r, the average power is a

maximum and the value of the average power is

since at the resonant frequency ωr the reactive parts cancel so that the circuit

appears as just the resistance R.

The above Figure is a plot of average power versus frequency for two values of R

in a series RLC circuit. As the resistance is made smaller, the curve becomes

sharper in the vicinity of the resonance frequency.

Magnification in Resonance

The voltage applied to the series RLC circuit is V, and the current at resonance is I,

then the voltage across L is VL=IXL= (V/R) ωL

Similarly, the voltage across C

VC = IXC= (V/R) (1/ ωC)

Since Q = 1/ωrCR = ωr L/R

Where ωr is the frequency at resonance.

Therefore VL = VQ

VC = VQ

The ratio of voltage across either L or C to the voltage applied at resonance can be

defined as magnification.

Magnification = Q = VL / V or VC / V

Quality factor is the voltage magnification that circuit produces at resonance.

Series resonance by varying inductance (L) only

When L is varied to produce resonance, the equations for current and voltage drops

are given by

For any value of current the drop across resistance

Similarly the drop across the inductance and capacitance are respectively

And
It is noted that becomes a maximum at resonance whereas the maximum value

of across inductance occurs after resonance. Since and is

constant, the maximum drop across condenser will occur when the current is

maximum. In case of , both are increasing before resonance and

the product must be increasing. At resonance, I is not changing but is increasing

and hence drop is increasing. The drop is increasing until the reduction in current

offsets the increase in . This point can be determined from d .

Differentiating the equation and setting the result equal to zero yield
The variation in phase angle between V and I as L varied can be seen to vary from

(a negative angle) when L is zero to +90 0 when L becomes ∞. Hence the

power factor varies from (when L is 0) to 0 (when L becomes infinite).

Series resonance by varying capacitance (C) only

When C is varied to produce resonance, The equations for current and voltage

drops are given by

For any value of current the drop across resistance

Similarly the drop across the inductance and capacitance are respectively

And

Here the drop across the inductance is maximum when the current in the circuit is

maximum, since XL is constant. The maximum drop across the condenser occurs

before resonance. At resonance, XC is decreasing whereas the current is not

changing (slope being zero). The drop IXC must, therefore, be decreasing.

Consequently, the drop must have been a maximum before resonance. At

resonance the drops across the inductance and capacitance are equal and opposite.

The conditions for maximum VC may be determined analytically by setting the first

derivative with respect to C or XC equal to zero.

For capacitance the capacitive reactance is infinite and the current is therefore zero.

For infinite capacitance the capacitive reactance is zero and the current is

The power factor varies from , when C is infinite, to zero when C is zero.

Application of Series RLC Resonant Circuit

The receiving circuit of a radio is an important application of a resonant

circuit. One tunes the radio to a particular station (which transmits a specific

electromagnetic wave or signal) by varying a capacitor, which changes the

resonant frequency of the receiving circuit. When the resonance frequency

of the circuit matches with that of the incoming electromagnetic wave, the

current in the receiving circuit increases. This signal caused by the incoming
 wave is then amplified and fed to a speaker. Because many signals are often

present over a range of frequencies, it is important to design a high-Q circuit

to eliminate unwanted signals. In this manner, stations whose frequencies are

near but not equal to the resonance frequency give signals at the receiver that

are negligibly small relative to the signal that matches the resonance

frequency.

★ Metal Detectors in Airports

An airport metal detector is essentially a resonant circuit. The portal you step

through is an inductor (a large loop of conducting wire) that is part of the

circuit. The frequency of the circuit is tuned to the resonant frequency of the

circuit when there is no metal in the inductor. Any metal on your body

increases the effective inductance of the loop and changes the current in it.

When you walk through with metal in your pocket, you change the effective

inductance of the resonance circuit, resulting in a change in the current in the

circuit. This change in current is detected, and an electronic circuit causes a

sound to be emitted as an alarm.

Summary
For a series RLC circuit at certain frequency called resonant frequency, the

following points must be remembered. So at resonance:

1. Inductive reactance XL is equal to capacitive reactance XC.

2. Total impedance of circuit becomes minimum which is equal to R i.e Z = R.

3. Circuit current becomes maximum as impedance reduces, I = V / R.

4. Voltage across inductor and capacitor cancels each other, so voltage across

resistor Vr = V, supply voltage.

5. Since net reactance is zero, circuit becomes purely resistive circuit and

hence the voltage and the current are in same phase, so the phase angle

between them is zero.

6. Power factor is unity.

7. Frequency at which resonance in series RLC circuit occurs is given by