MODULE-4

RESONANCE CIRCUITS
Introduction:
Resonance is a condition in an RLC circuit in which the capacitive and inductive
Reactance’s are equal in magnitude, there by resulting in purely resistive impedance. If a
sinusoidal signal is applied to the network, the current is out of phase with the applied
voltage. Under special condition, impedance offered by the network is purely resistive and
frequency at which the net reactance of the circuit is zero is called resonant frequency. It is
denoted by f0. At resonance, the power factor is unity and energy released by one reactive
element is equal to the energy released by the other reactive element in the circuit and the
total power in the circuit is the average power dissipated by the resistive element.
At resonance, the impedance Z offered by the circuit is equal to resistance of the circuit. Net
reactance is equal to zero.
There are two types of resonance:
• Series resonance
• Parallel resonance
Resonance Parameters:
1. Z = R
2.

3.

4. Power factor = 1
5. Quality factor

Series Resonance

A series resonance circuit consists of an inductance L, resistance R and capacitance C,

the RLC circuit is supplied with a sinusoidal voltage from an AC source. The resonance
condition in AC circuits can be achieved by varying frequency of the Source. The current
flowing through circuit is I, impedance is Z.

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 ………………………………………………. (1)

The current flowing through the circuit is ………………………………. (2)

The circuit is said to be at resonance when the net reactance of the circuit is zero or
inductive reactance is equal to capacitive reactance. By varying frequency of source, X L is
made equal to XC. From (1), reactance part will become zero and Z=R.

To Derive Expression for Resonant Frequency:

At Resonance, XL = XC, f = f0, ω = ω0

Current at Resonance

Power factor = 1 at resonance

Expressions for fL and fC:

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 Frequencies at which voltage across inductor and capacitor are maximum are fL and
fC .

Voltage across the capacitor (VC) is:

Substituting I from equation 2,

The voltage across the capacitance (Vc) is maximum at frequency (fC). We calculate
the frequency by taking the derivative of equation 5. We take square of the equation to make
the computation easier.

Voltage across the capacitor (VL) is:

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 fL can be computed by equating the derivative of equation 9. We take square of the
equation to make the computation easier.

At resonance, VL=VC in magnitude, but are out of phase. If R is extremely small,

frequencies fL and fC are ≈ f0. The below figure shows voltage variation with frequency:

Problem:
Q: A series RLC circuit has R = 25Ω, L = 0.04H, C=0.01µF. If 1V sine signal of same
frequency as the resonance frequency is to be applied to the circuit, calculate
frequency at which voltage across inductor and capacitor are maximum. Also
calculate voltage across L and C, at resonant frequency.
Ans: Resonant frequency of RLC series circuit is,

The frequency at which voltage across inductor is maximum is,

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 The frequency at which voltage across capacitor is maximum is,

At resonance, Z = R= 25Ω.

Quality Factor of an Inductor:

Let Vm be the peak voltage of applied signal, Im be the peak current through the circuit.
The maximum energy stored in L is

The RMS power dissipated in R is

The energy dissipated in resistor per cycle is power × time period of one cycle.
E = P.T but

Therefore, energy dissipated in R is

Substitute (1) and (3) in Q,

Quality Factor of Capacitor:

Quality Factor at Resonance Q0

The quality factor of a series resonance circuit is quality factor of an inductor or
quality factor of capacitor at resonant frequency.

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f = fo Q = Q0

w.k.t

Voltage Magnification Factor:

At resonance, the magnitude of voltage across the inductor and capacitor will be same and
magnitude will get amplified by the quality factor (Q)

Where V is applied voltage.

Hence, voltage across capacitor and inductor gets amplified by quality factor.

Cut-Off Frequencies:

In series resonance, the current falls to times the maximum current Io. The
corresponding frequencies are called cut-off frequencies f1 and f2 .
At resonance, Z = R, which is the maximum current and maximum power is
when current falls to times maximum value, there are 2 frequencies at .

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 At lower cut-off frequency, power is half the maximum power

At upper cut-off frequency too, power is half the maximum power

Cut-off frequencies are also called Half Power Frequencies.

Bandwidth:
The frequency range between the cut-off frequencies f1 and f2 is called bandwidth.

HZ
Where = f2 – f0 or f0 – f1

Selectivity:
At resonance frequency, impedance is minimum, current is maximum. Impedance
varies with frequency. Thus, a series RLC circuit possesses selectivity.
Selectivity of the circuit is defined as the ability of the circuit to distinguish between desired
and undesired frequency. It is ratio of resonant frequency to the bandwidth.

If Q0 is very high, frequency response becomes sharper or narrower and BW reduces.

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Q) Derive Expression for cut-off Frequencies of a Series RLC Circuit

The current flowing through circuit is

At resonance, Z = R

At cut-off points,

Substitute in (1)

Squaring on both sides,

The equation shows that at half power or cut-off frequencies, the reactive part = resistive part.
This equation is quadratic in which gives 2 values of and .

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At upper cut-off frequency, f = f2, .

At lower cut-off frequency, f = f1, .

From (3),

From (4),

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Q) Show that the resonance frequency fo of a series resonance circuit is equal to
geometric mean (GM) of the two cut-off frequencies.

At resonance, Z = R

At cut-off frequencies,

At upper cut-off frequency f = f2,

At lower cut-off frequency, f = f1,

Add equations (4) and (5)

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 Taking square root on both sides,

W.k.t, resonant frequency . Therefore,

This shows that fo is the GM of the cut-off frequencies.

Establish the relation between Quality Factor and Bandwidth in a Series Resonance
Circuit and Thereby Prove That

At resonance, because Z = R

At cut-off frequencies,

At upper cut-off frequency f = f2,

At lower cut-off frequency, f = f1,

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(1) - (2) gives

Substitute (3) in ,

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Problems:
1. A series RLC circuit with R=10Ω, L=10mH, C=1µF has an applied voltage of 200V
at resonance frequency fo. Calculate fo, VL, VR, VC at resonance and also find Q and
BW.

Solution:

w.k.t

At resonance, Z = R. Current (I) is maximum.

At resonance, |VL| = |VC| = QoV

Voltage across L and C is , |VL|=|VC|=2000V
VR=200V [XL=XC]
300V

200V

100V

0V
10Hz 30Hz 100Hz 300Hz 1.0KHz 3.0KHz 10KHz 30KHz 100KHz
V(L1:2)
Frequency

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2. A series RLC circuit has R=10Ω, L=0.01H, C=0.01µF and is connected across 10mV
supply. Calculate fo, Qo, BW, f1, f2, Io.
Solution: At resonance,

For high quality factor [Qo > 5]

3. In a series RLC network at resonance, Vc=400V, impedance Z=100Ω, BW=75Hz

with an applied voltage of 70.7V. Find R, L, C.

Solution:
At resonance, Z = R = 100Ω
VR = 70.7V
At resonance, |VC| = QoV

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To calculate ,

600V

400V

200V

0V
10Hz 30Hz 100Hz 300Hz 1.0KHz 3.0KHz 10KHz 30KHz 100KHz
V(L1:2)
Frequency

4. A series RLC circuit has R=4Ω, L=1mH, C=10µF. Find Q, BW, fo, f1, f2.

Solution:

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 Since Q < 5

BW = f2 - f1 => f2=f1+BW=1940.11Hz
As Qo<5,

600V

400V

200V

0V
10Hz 30Hz 100Hz 300Hz 1.0KHz 3.0KHz 10KHz 30KHz 100KHz
V(L1:2)
Frequency

5. A 220V, 100Hz AC source supplies a series RLC circuit with a capacitor and a coil.
If the coil has 50mΩ and 5mH inductance, find at fo=100Hz, the value of capacitor.
Also calculate Q0, f1, f2.

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Solution:

Since Qo > 5
BW =

15KV

10KV

5KV

0V
10Hz 30Hz 100Hz 300Hz 1.0KHz
V(L1:2)
Frequency

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 6. It is required that a series RLC circuit should resonate a 1Mhz. Determine the
values of R, L, C if BW=5kHz, Z=50Ω at resonance.fo=1MHz, BW=5kHz
40KV

30KV

20KV

10KV

0V
100KHz 300KHz 1.0MHz 3.0MHz 10MHz
V(L1:2)
Frequency

Solution:

At resonance, Z = R = 50Ω

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 7. An RLC circuit has R=1k, L=100mH, C=10µF. If a voltage of 100V is applied
across the circuit, find fo, Q factor, half power frequencies.
Solution:

For Q < 5

8. A series RLC circuit has R=10Ω, L=0.01H, C=0.01µF and it is connected across
10mV supply. Calculate fo, Qo, BW, f1, f2, Io.
Solution:

Since Q0 > 5
BW =

Current at resonance,

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 Parallel Resonance (Anti-Resonance)

Loss-Less Capacitor:
Q 1) Derive the expression for Resonance frequency of a circuit with loss less capacitor
in parallel with a coil of Inductance ‘L’ and Resistance ‘R’.
A Parallel Resonant or Anti resonant circuit consists of an inductance ‘L’ in parallel
with a capacitor ‘C’. A small Resistance ‘R’ is associated with ‘L’.
‘C’ is assumed to be loss less. The tuned circuit is driven by a voltage source. I is the
current flowing through the circuit. IC & IL are the currents through the Capacitor and
Inductor branch respectively.

a) b)

a) Parallel resonance circuit with lossless capacitor b) phase diagram

Admittance of (inductance) branch containing R & L is given by (On rationalization)

The admittance of branch containing capacitor ‘C’ is

Total admittance of the circuit is

At Anti Resonance, the circuit must have unity power factor i.e. at resonance f = far
and the imaginary part of the admittance or the susceptance will be zero (Inductive
Susceptance = Capacitive Susceptance at anti resonance).

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 At resonance f = far or ω=ωar.

On simplifying we get,

Or Anti resonant frequency or parallel resonance frequency is

This parallel resonance is possible iff otherwise “far” will be imaginary. It

can be expressed by:

far can be expressed in another form (In terms of )

For series resonance,

Quality factor at resonance is

From equation (6)

In term of series resonant frequency ‘ ’ where ,

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 For 10, as 1.

The equation shows the anti-resonant frequency differs from that of series resonant
circuit with the same circuit elements by the factor .This factor shows that if <1
then, the frequency of parallel resonance because imaginary.

Admittance of anti-resonance circuit at Anti-resonance ‘far’:

Admittance of parallel resonance circuit is

To get the admittance at anti resonance the susceptance part is considered as zero and
consider only real part at anti resonance BL=BC or BL − BC = 0.
∴ At anti-resonance,

We have,

At resonance far, this is called dynamic resistance of the parallel resonant circuit at
resonance.
Zar terms of Q:
At anti-resonance ω =
We have,

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 This is the impedance at anti-resonance and is also called dynamic resistance. For
high ‘Q’, Rar = RQo2 . When the coil resistance is small, Zar becomes high with the current
will be minima at resonance frequency .Parallel tuned circuit is a rejecter circuit. Current at
Anti resonance is:

From equation (3), , the impedance at anti resonance is a pure resistance;

which indicates that Rar is a function of the ratio and Rar can be large if inductors of low
resistance are employed. In terms of ‘Q’ and Resonance frequency .

Multiply and divide by ,

Similarly,

Quality Factor:
In a parallel - tuned circuit, the quality factor at resonance

Bandwidth:
B.W = f2 – f1

(Variation of reactance with frequency)

SELECTIVITY AND BANDWIDTH:

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 The half power frequency points f1& f2 for a parallel resonant circuit are obtained
when the impedance ‘Z’ of the circuit becomes equal to 0.707 times the value of maximum
impedance “Zar” at resonance.
At anti resonance

In terms of ‘Qo’:

Impedance of parallel resonance circuit in terms of ‘Q0’:

Fractional frequency deviation,

The condition for half power frequencies is given as = 0.707

Hence, =

From equations (1) & (3) =

Comparing imaginary terms we get,

At upper half power frequency f = f2, (f > far & )

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Similarly, at lower half power frequency f = f1 , (f < far & = − )

Adding equations (4) and (5),

The higher the value of ‘Q’, the more selective will the circuit be and lesser will be
the BW. At resonance, quality factor:

Selectivity:

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EFFECT OF GENERATOR RESISTANCE ON B.W AND SELECTIVITY:

At resonance Impedance Z =Rar , with generator resistance ‘Rg’.At anti resonance then total
impedance is Rar Rg

Q factor is decreased by a factor .

For matched condition and to get maximum power transfer condition Rg is selected as Rar .

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CURRENT AMPLIFICATION FACTOR:
At anti resonance current through capacitor is IC = Qo*I
I= at resonance. Similarly, the current through inductor is IL = Qo*I

∴ Since Qo >1 the current through inductor and capacitor is Q times the total current at
resonance.

GENERAL CASE – RESISTANCE PRESENT IN BOTH BRANCHES:

Q1) Derive the expression for the resonance frequency in parallel resonant circuit
containing resistance in both branches.

Admittance of the Inductive branch is

By rationalizing

The admittance of capacitance branch is

Total admittance Y = YL+YC

At resonance the Susceptance (imaginary part of Y) becomes zero

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 Substituting for and and we get:

Anti-resonant frequency is

Q2) Prove that the circuit will resonate at all frequencies if RL= RC =

When net Susceptance of the circuit is zero with

In this case, the circuit acts as a pure resistive circuit irrespective of frequency i.e. the
circuit resonates at all frequencies. The admittance of the circuit is

With

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 Substitute R4 for in denominator

Take common from denominator and simplifying, we get:

Therefore, Impedance of the circuit at resonance is Z = R = . So, circuit is purely resistive,

hence circuit resonates at all frequencies.

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PROBLEMS:

1. Determine RL and RC for which the circuit shown resonates at all frequencies.

Solution:

On substituting we get,

2. For the network shown find the resonant frequency and the current ‘I’ as indicated
in the figure.

SOLUTION:

On substituting the values, we get

far = 722.93 Hz

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3. In the circuit shown, an inductance of 0.1 H having a Q of 5 is in parallel with a
capacitor. Determine the value of capacitance & coil resistance at resonant
frequency of 500 rad/sec.

Solution:

Or

∴ C = 3.84 x 10-5 = 38.4 µF

We have , therefore

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4. Determine the RLC parallel circuit parameters whose response curve is shown.
What are the new values of & bw if ‘C’ is increased 4 times.

Solution:
From the resonance curve, we have
Zar = = 10 Ω
BW = 0.4 rad/sec
War = 10 rad/sec
Q factor = = = 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . (1)
We have,
=R , ∴ R=

R= = 0.01597 Ω . . . . . . . . . . . . (2)

We have
Zar =

= = 10x0.01597= 0.1597
Or
L = (0.1597) x C . . . . . . . . . . . (3)
By definition,

= *

Squaring on both sides and rearranging the eqn

LC = * = 9.984 x 10-3 . . . . . . . . . . . (4)

Substituting eq (3) in (4)

(0.1597C)C= 9.984 x 10-3
∴ C = 0.25 F
From eq (3) L = (0.25) (0.1597) = 0.0399 H

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Therefore, to achieve resonance at 10 rad/sec & to have BW of 0.4 rad/sec the RLC
parameters are

R = 0.01597 Ω
L = 0.0399 H
C = 0.25 F

If ‘C’ is increased 4 times i.e. C'= 4C = 4x0.25 = 1 F

Then the new Anti-resonant frequency is

BW = 0.4 rad/sec
5. A two branch anti-resonant circuit contains L= 0.4 H, C= 40 µF, resonance is to
achieved by variation of RL & RC . Calculate the resonant frequency far for the
following cases :
i) RL = 120 Ω, RC = 80 Ω ii) RL = RC = 100 Ω
Solution:
Case 1:

Hence resonance is not possible.

Case 2:

Hence resonance is possible at all frequencies.

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 6. For the circuit shown. Find the resonant frequency ωar, Q and band-width, if R=
25Ω; L= 0.5H, C= 5 µF.

Solution:

ωar = 630.49 rad/s

Q = 12.61 rad/s

7. For the parallel resonant circuit, Find IC,IL, IO, fO & dynamic resistance.

SOLUTION:

fO = ; On substituting we get

fO = 5.03 x 106 Hz.

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At resonance dynamic resistance
ZO = = 10000 Ω

IO= = 0.01 A

Q= = = 31.6

IL= IO*Q = 31.6 x 0.01 = 0.316 A

IC= IO*Q = 31.6 x 0.01 = 0.316 A

8. Find the value of RL for which the circuit is resonant.

SOLUTION:
The admittance of the ckt at resonance is the real part of Y.

At resonance, the imaginary part of ‘Y’ is zero.

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