EE 132 Study Guide

Sinusoidal Steady-State Power Calculations

Learning Outcomes:
1. Understand the following ac power concepts, their relationships to one another, and how to calculate them in a circuit: a. Instantaneous power; b. Average (real) power; c. Reactive power; d. Complex power; and e. Power factor. 2. Understand the condition for maximum real power delivered to a load in an ac circuit and be able to calculate the load impedance required to deliver maximum real power to the load.

Mastering the Objectives:

Refer to Chapter 10 of the book Electric Circuits 8th ed. by Nilsson & Riedel. 1. Read the Introduction and Section 10.1. a. Define instantaneous power. b. What is the relationship between the frequency of the voltage and current signals in Fig. 10.1 and the frequency of the instantaneous power? c. Look at the plots in Fig. 10.2. The voltage and current plots are symmetric about the time axis but the instantaneous power plot is not why? (Hint look at Eq. 10.8). 2. Read Section 10.2 a. Define average power. What are the units for average power? Is the average power in a resistor positive or negative why? What is the average power in a capacitor or an inductor why? b. Define reactive power. What are the units for reactive power? What is the reactive power in a resistor why? Is the reactive power in an inductor positive or negative why? Is the reactive power in a capacitor positive or negative why? c. Define power factor. What is the power factor angle? Rewrite the equations for average power (Eq. 10.10) and reactive power (Eq. 10.11) in terms of the power factor. What is the power factor of i. A purely resistive load? ii. A purely inductive load? iii. A purely capacitive load? iv. An RL load? v. An RC load? d. Solve Assessment Problem 10.1 3. Read Section 10.3. a. Rewrite the equations for average power (Eq. 10.10) and reactive power (Eq. 10.11) in terms of rms voltage, rms current, and power factor. What simplification is achieved in these equations when using the rms values? We will generally use rms values to take advantage of this simplification. b. Start a table that will contain all of the formulas in this chapter. You should consult this table as you solve power problems to help you choose the formula that best suits the

problem at hand. Add the formulas for instantaneous power, average power, reactive power, and power factor that you have encountered so far. c. Solve Assessment Problem 10.3. 4. Read Section 10.4. a. Given the formula for complex power (Eq. 10.23), why is average power also called real power? What units do we use for complex power to distinguish it from average power and reactive power? b. The power triangle is an important tool for solving power problems. Using right triangle geometry, find the following relationships: i. Express |S| in terms of P and Q. ii. Express in terms of P and Q. iii. Express Q in terms of |S| and . iv. Express P in terms of |S| and . v. Express the power factor in terms of P and Q. c. Answer the following questions about power triangles: i. If a load consists only of resistors and inductors, what does the power triangle look like? ii. If a load consists only of resistors and capacitors, what does the power triangle look like? iii. If a load consists only of resistors, what does the power triangle look like? d. Solve Chapter Problem 10.16. 5. Read Section 10.5. a. This section contains lots of alternative formulas for complex power, average power, and reactive power. Add these formulas to your table as you encounter them and think about what quantities must be known to use a particular formula. Note that several of these formulas use phasors, and be sure to distinguish phasor voltages and currents from voltage and current magnitudes in your table this can be a source of confusion when using the formulas. Also note that Eq. 10.36 holds only for a purely resistive element, and Eq. 10.37 holds only for a purely reactive element. b. Read Example 10.6 carefully. It presents a concept known as power-factor correction. Note that because of the impedance of the line connecting the power source to the load in Fig. 10.13, real power generated by the source is lost in the line. One way to reduce this power loss is to reduce the resistive impedance of the line, but in real applications there will always be some non-zero line resistance. Another way to reduce the power loss is to reduce the magnitude of the line current. This is particularly effective, since the real power lost in the line is proportional to the square of the current magnitude. (See Eq. 10.33). This example shows that the magnitude of the line current is minimum when the load is purely resistive and its power factor is 1. To change, or correct, the power factor, we place a component in parallel with the load that exactly cancels the reactive power of the load if the load is inductive, we place a capacitor in parallel, and if the load is capacitive, we place an inductor in parallel. You can see this cancellation in the power triangles of Fig. 10.16. Solve Assessment Problem 10.6 and then calculate the value of a third load to be added in parallel that would correct the power factor of the combined loads to 1. c. Read Example 10.7 carefully. It demonstrates a very useful feature of complex power calculations. Recall that in Chapter 4 we could check the results of our circuit analysis by calculating the power associated with each component; we sum the powers and expect the sum to equal zero and the power to balance. Up to this point we had no analogous method to check the results of our analysis of frequency-domain circuits. Complex power gives us a method to compute power for every component in our frequencydomain circuit, add the complex powers together, and expect the sum to be zero, so

that the complex power balances. Perform this power balance by solving Assessment Problem 10.4 and Chapter Problem 10.18. 6. Read Section 10.6. a. The condition for maximum power transfer to a load is similar to the condition for minimizing the power lost in the line connecting the source and the load in Example 10.6. When the condition for maximum power transfer is satisfied for the circuit in Fig. 10.19, what is the power factor of the impedance seen by the voltage source? What is then true about the impedance of the impedance seen by the voltage source? b. List the three restrictions on impedance discussed on this section. Then review Examples 10.8 10.10 that illustrate maximum power transfer for each of these restricted impedance conditions. For each of the impedance restrictions on your list, note the condition that must be satisfied for maximum power to be transferred to the load. c. Solve Chapter Problems 10.33, and 10.43.

Assessing Your Mastery:

Review the Objectives for this chapter. Once you are satisfied that you have achieved these Learning Outcomes, solve problem numbers 3, 9, 13, 17, 19, 21, 27, 31, 33, 35, 39, 41, 43, 45, 49, 53, 57 of Chapter 11, Engineering Circuit Analysis, 7th edition by Hayt, Kemmerly, and Durbin.

Submission:
Submit everything on or before 1:00 PM on September 12, 2011. Use substance 20, short-bond paper.