Introduction to DC & AC CIRCUITS

1. Introduction: As we know there are two types of supply which are alternating current and
direct current. Both the currents are used in their suitable applications. AC supply mostly is
preferred for our daily home appliances like washing machines, refrigerator, drilling machines,
transformers while DC supply is used for laptops, cell phones, battery charging applications. Both
the supplies have their advantages and disadvantages.

AC supply: It is basically defined as a supply in which magnitude and directions both vary with
respect to time.

DC supply: It is defined as a supply in which magnitude and directions both are constant at any
instant of time.

2. Basic electrical elements:

Resistance: It is the property of resistor which opposes the flow of charge or free electrons. It
is represented by R and its unit is in ohm.

Inductance: It is property in which property of inductor by virtue of which it opposes any

change of magnitude and direction of electric current passing through conductor. It stores
energy in the form of magnetic field. It is represented by L and its unit is henry.

Capacitance: It is the property of two plate capacitor which stores energy in the form of
electric field. It is represented by C and its unit is in farad.

3. Types of elements: On the basis of different parameters there are different types of
elements such as:

1. Active and passive

2. Linear and non-linear
3. Unilateral and bi-lateral

Active and passive elements: Active elements are those elements in which they have their
own source of energy. They do not require any external source of energy.

exp. Voltage source, current source

Passive elements are those which need external source of energy.

exp. resistance, inductance and capacitance

Linear and non-linear elements: Linear elements are those elements in which they show
linear characteristics.

They follow ohm's laws.

exp. Resistance, inductance, capacitance

Non-linear elements are those which do not follow ohm’s law hence these are called non-linear
elements.
exp. Diode, transistor

Unilateral and bilateral elements: Unilateral elements are those in which conduction of
current is in one direction.

exp. Diode, rectifier

Bilateral element are those in which conduction of current is in both direction.

exp. Voltage source, current source, resistance, inductance, capacitance.

4.Classification of sources:

Fig.1. Classification of sources

Ideal and practical voltage source: An ideal voltage source is that source in which any
variation in current does not impact on voltage source otherwise it is called practical voltage
source.

Fig.2. Ideal and practical voltage source

Ideal and practical current source: An ideal current source is defined as a source in which
any variation in voltage does not impact on current otherwise it is called practical current source.
Fig.3. Ideal and practical current source

Above figures show the characteristics of ideal and practical voltage and current source. For
practical due to presence of internal resistance there will be some slight drop in response. In
practical voltage source internal resistance is connected in series while for practical current
source it is connected in parallel with current source.

Independent and dependent source:

Fig.4. Types of different sources

Independent source: These are those sources in which any electrical quantity does not
depend upon any other electrical quantity like voltage, current.
Fig.5. Independent voltage source

Dependent source: It is defined as a source in which any electrical quantity depends

upon other electrical quantity like voltage, current.

Fig.6. Independent current source

5. Ohm’s law: It is defined as in any closed circuit if the physical properties like pressure,
temperature etc. are not changed then voltage drop in the circuit is directly proportional to the
current flow in the circuit.

Applications of ohm’s law:

1. Applicable to linear circuits only.

2. Applicable to bilateral elements only.
3. Use for determining current in the circuit.
4. Determine voltage current relationship in the circuit.

Introduction to Kirchhoff’s Laws

Introduction: Kirchhoff’s laws were introduced by Gustav Kirchhoff in 1845. They

introduced kirchhoff’s laws which were based on conservation of energy and
conservation of charge. There are basically two types of laws such as kirchhoff’s voltage
law and kirchhoff’s current law.

Kirchhoff’s voltage law: It states that in any closed loop circuit the algebraic sum of all
voltage drops is zero.

ΣV = 0

Or

In other words, in any closed loop path the algebraic sum of all voltage drops and total
emf sources is zero.

ΣV + Σemf = 0

Fig.1. KVL circuit

From above it is shown that

ΣV = Σ(V1 + V2 + V3)
Exp. Find out the current in the circuit by using kvl.

Sol. We will consider that when we go from (-) polarity to (+) polarity we will take value
as positive.

45-5xI-10xI-7.5xI = 0

(22.5x10^3)x I = 45

I = 45/( 22.5x10^3)

I = 2mA Ans

Kirchhoff’s current law: It states that at any node the algebraic sum of currents is zero.

ΣI = 0

Or

At any node or junction the algebraic sum of incoming voltage and outgoing voltage is zero.
 ΣIinc = ΣIout

From figure we will consider incoming current is positive and outgoing current is negative.

i1+i2+i6 = i3 +i4 +i5

Exp. Find current I3 in given figure if I1 = 3A, I2 =5A, I4 = 1A

Sol. We will write equation:

I1 +I2 = I3 +I4

3 + 5 = I3 + 1

I3 = 7Amp Ans

Series RL & RC Circuit Analysis

Analysis of Series RL Circuit:

A circuit that contains a pure resistance R ohms connected in series with a coil having a pure
inductance of L (Henry) is known as RL Series Circuit. When an AC supply voltage V is applied,
the current, I flows in the circuit.
So, IR and IL will be the current flowing in the resistor and inductor respectively, but the amount
of current flowing through both the elements will be same as they are connected in series with
each other. The circuit diagram of RL Series Circuit is shown below:

Fig.1 Series RL circuit

Where,

 VR – voltage across the resistor R

 VL – voltage across the inductor L
 V – Total voltage of the circuit

Phasor Diagram of the RL Series Circuit

The phasor diagram of the RL Series circuit is shown below:

Fig.2 Phasor dig of RL circuit

The following steps are given below which are followed to draw the phasor diagram step by
step:

 Current I is taken as a reference.

 The Voltage drop across the resistance VR = IR is drawn in phase with the current I.
 The voltage drop across the inductive reactance VL =IXL is drawn ahead of the current I.
As the current lags voltage by an angle of 90 degrees in the pure Inductive circuit.
 The vector sum of the two voltages drops VR and VL is equal to the applied voltage V.
Where,

Z is the total opposition offered to the flow of alternating current by an RL Series circuit and is
called impedance of the circuit. It is measured in ohms (Ω).

Phase Angle

In RL Series circuit the current lags the voltage by 90 degrees angle known as phase angle. It is
given by the equation:

Series RC Circuit Analysis:

A circuit that contains pure resistance R ohms connected in series with a pure capacitor of
capacitance C farads is known as RC Series Circuit. A sinusoidal voltage is applied and current
I flows through the resistance (R) and the capacitance (C) of the circuit.
Fig.3 Series RC circuit

The following steps are used to draw the phasor diagram of RC Series circuit

 Take the current I (r.m.s value) as a reference vector

 Voltage drop in resistance VR = IR is taken in phase with the current vector
 Voltage drop in capacitive reactance VC = IXC is drawn 90 degrees behind the current
vector, as current leads voltage by 90 degrees (in the pure capacitive circuit)
 The vector sum of the two voltage drops is equal to the applied voltage V (r.m.s value).

Phase angle

From the phasor diagram shown above, it is clear that the current in the circuit leads the applied
voltage by an angle ϕ and this angle is called the phase angle
 Series RLC Circuit Analysis

When a pure resistance of R ohms, a pure inductance of L Henry and a pure capacitance of C
farads are connected together in series combination with each other then RLC Series Circuit is
formed. As all the three elements are connected in series so, the current flowing through each
element of the circuit will be the same as the total current I flowing in the circuit.

Fig.1. Series RLC Circuit

In the RLC Series circuit

XL = 2πfL and XC = 1/2πfC

When the AC voltage is applied through the RLC Series circuit the resulting current I flows
through the circuit, and thus the voltage across each element will be:
  VR = IR that is the voltage across the resistance R and is in phase with the current I.
 VL = IXL that is the voltage across the inductance L and it leads the current I by an
angle of 90 degrees.
 VC = IXC that is the voltage across capacitor C and it lags the current I by an angle of 90
degrees.

Phasor Diagram of RLC Series Circuit

The phasor diagram of the RLC series circuit when the circuit is acting as an inductive circuit that
means (VL>VC) is shown below and if (VL< VC) the circuit will behave as a capacitive circuit.

Fig.2. Phasor diagram of Series RLC Circuit

Steps to draw phasor diagram:

 Take current I as the reference as shown in the figure above

 The voltage across the inductor L that is VL is drawn leads the current I by a 90-
degree angle.
 The voltage across the capacitor c that is Vc is drawn lagging the current I by a
90-degree angle because in capacitive load the current leads the voltage by an
angle of 90 degrees.
 The two vector VL and VC are opposite to each other.
Where

It is the total opposition offered to the flow of current by an RLC Circuit and is known
as Impedance of the circuit.

Phase Angle

From the phasor diagram, the value of phase angle will be

The three cases of RLC Series Circuit

 When XL > XC, the phase angle ϕ is positive. The circuit behaves as RL series
circuit in which the current lags behind the applied voltage and the power factor
is lagging.
 When XL < XC, the phase angle ϕ is negative, and the circuit acts as a series RC
circuit in which the current leads the voltage by 90 degrees.
 When XL = XC, the phase angle ϕ is zero, as a result, the circuit behaves like a
purely resistive circuit. In this type of circuit, the current and voltage are in
phase with each other. The value of the power factor is unity.
Impedance Triangle of RLC Series Circuit

When the quantities of the phasor diagram are divided by the common factor I then the
right angle triangle is obtained known as impedance triangle. The impedance triangle of
the RL series circuit, when (XL > XC) is shown below:

If the inductive reactance is greater than the capacitive reactance than the circuit
reactance is inductive giving a lagging phase angle otherwise it will be called as
leading phase angle

Fig.3. Impedance Triangle

Applications of RLC Series Circuit

The following are the application of the RLC circuit:

 It acts as a variable tuned circuit

 It acts as a low pass, high pass, bandpass, bandstop filters depending upon the
type of frequency.
 The circuit also works as an oscillator
 Voltage multiplier and pulse discharge circuit.