FUNDAMENTALS OF ELECTRIC CIRCUITS

Part 2: AC CIRCUITS

Chapter 11: AC power analysis

I. Introduction.
II. Instantaneous and average power.
III. Maximum average power transfer.
IV. Effective or RMS value.
V. Apparent power, power factor and complex power
VI. Conservation of AC power.
VII. Power factor correction.
VIII. Applications
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

I. Introduction
 Our effort in ac circuit analysis so far has been focused mainly on calculation
voltage and current, in this chapter, our major concern in power analysis.

 Power is the most important quantity in electric utilities, electronic and

communication system:

 Such systems involves transmission of power from one point to another.

 Each industrial and household electrical device has a power rating (how
much power the equipment requires)

 We will begin this chapter by:

 Power concept, instantaneous power, and average power.

 How power is mesured.

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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

II. Instantaneous and average power

 The instantaneous power p(t) absorted by an element is the product of the
voltage v(t) across the element and the current i(t) through it.
p(t )  v(t ).i (t )

 Under sinusoidal excitation: v(t )  Vm cos( t   v ) ; i (t )  I m cos( t  i )

1 1
p(t )  v(t )i (t )  Vm I m cos( v  i )  Vm I m cos(2 t   v   i )
2 2
part 1 part 2
 Part 1:
 Always constant (time independent) i(t)
 Depend on the phase difference + Passive
Sinusoidal
v(t) linear
source -
 Part 2: network
 Sinusoidal function.
 Positive  power is absorted by the source
 Negative  power is transferred from the circuit to the source (L, C)
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

II. Instantaneous and average power

 The instantaneous power changes with time and is therefore difficult to
measure  using the average power (wattmeter, instrument, powermeter …)

 The average power is the average of the instantaneous power over one period.
T
1 1
P   p(t )dt  Vm I m cos( v  i )
T0 2
On the other hand, we have:
* *
1 1 . . 1 1 . . 
VmI m v  i  V I  Vm I m  cos( v  i )  j sin( v  i )  P  Re  V I 
2 2 2 2  
2
1 1 2 1 .
 For purely resistive circuit: P  Vm I m  RI m  I R
2 2 2
 For purely reactive circuit: P  0 A resistive load (R) absorbs power at all
times, while a reactive load (L, C) absorb
zero average power.
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

II. Instantaneous and average power

Ex 11.1: Find the power generated by each source and the average power
R 20Ω C -j5Ω
absorted by each passive element. + . -
400 A V2
+.
 Applying mesh analysis gives: V1 .
L .

. I1 j10Ω I 2
- 60300 V
 For mesh 1: I 1  4 A
. . .
 For mesh 2: ( ZL  ZC ) I 2  ZL I 1  6030  0  I 2  10,58 79,1 A
0 0

 Calculate average power absortes:

 For voltage source: (The circuit is
. .*
1 1
PVsource  Re V I 2  Re 60300.10,58  79,10  207,8W delivering power
2 2 to the voltage
source)
 For current source:
. . . .
V1  RI 1  ZL ( I 1  I 2 )  184,986,210 V
(The current source
.*
1 .
1 is supplying power
PIsource   Re V1 I 1   Re184,986,210.4  367,8W to the circuit)
2 2
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

II. Instantaneous and average power

Ex 11.1: Find the power generated by each source and the average power
absorted by each passive element. R 20Ω C -j5Ω
+ . -
 Calculate average power absortes: 400 A V2
+.
L .
V1 .
I1 j10Ω I 2
1 1 - 60300 V
 For resistor: PR  RI12  20.42  160W
2 2

 For capacitor & inductor: PC  PL  0

 Considering the sum of average power:

PVsource  PIsource  PR  PL  PC  207,8  367,8  160  0  0  0

 The total power supplied by the current source equals the

power absorted by the resistor and the voltage source.

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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

III. Maximum average power transfer

 In chapter 4, we proved that the maximum power would be delivered to the
load if the load resistance is equal to the Thevenin resistance.

RL  RTh

 Now we extend that result to AC circuit. Linear ZL

circuit
 Consider the ac circuit that is connected to a load ZL and
is represented by its Thevenin equivalent.
. .
ZTh  RTh  jXTh .
VTh VTh
I   ZTh .
I
ZL  RL  jXL ZTh  ZL ( RTh  jXTh )  ( RL  jXL ) .
ZL
VTh
 The average power delivered to the load:
2
.  P
. 2
VTh RL  X  0
1 1  L
P  I RL   maximum  
2 2 ( RTh  RL )2  ( XL  XTh )2  P  0
 RL
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

III. Maximum average power transfer

*
ZL  RL  jXL  RTh  jXth  ZTh

 For maximum average power transfer, the load impedance ZL must be equal
to the complex conjugate of the Thevenin impedance ZTh (Maximum average
power transfer theorem for sinusoidal steady state).
. 2

VTh
PMax 
8RTh

 If ZL = RL, the condition for maximum power transfer becomes:

2 2
RL  RTh  XTh  ZTh

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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

L j5Ω
III. Maximum average power transfer R1
4Ω
Ex 11.2: Find ZL that maximizes the average power. R2
8Ω
ZL
What is the maximum average power? 100 V 0
-j6Ω
C
 Find the Thevenin equivalent at the load terminal
4(8  j 6)
ZTh   R1 / /  R2  ZC    ZL   j 5  2,93  j 4,47
4  8 j6
.
10
VTh   R2  ZC   7.454  10,30 V
R1  R2  ZC
 In order to have the maximum average power transfer, the load impedance is:
*
ZL  ZTh  2,93  j 4,47
 In this case, the maximum average power transfer is:
. 2

VTh
7,4542
Pmax    2,37W
8RTh 8.2,93
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

-j30Ω
40Ω
III. Maximum average power transfer
R C
j20Ω
Ex 11.3: Find RL that will absorb the maximum average L RL
150300 V
power. Calculate that power?
 Find the Thevenin equivalent at the terminal of RL
( R ZC ) ZL
ZTh  ( R ZC ) / / ZL   9,412  j 22,35
R ZC  ZL
.
15030
VTh  ZL  72,761340 V
R  ZC  ZL
 The value of RL that will absorb the maximum average power is
RL  ZTh  9,4122  22,352  24,25
.
VTh .
72,761340
 The current through the load is: I    1,8100,20 A
ZTh  R:L 33,39  j 22,35
2
1 .
 The maximum average power absorbed by RL: Pmax  I RL  39,29W
2
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

IV. Effective or RMS value

 The idea of effective value arises from the need to measure the effectiveness
of a voltage or current source in delivering power to a resistive load.

 The effective value (rms (root mean square)) of a periodic current is the DC
current that delivers the same average power to a resistor as the periodic
current
T T
1 2 1 2 for sinusoidal Im Vm
I  i (t )dt ; V  v ( t ) dt   I  ; V
T0 T 0 signal
2 2

2V2
P  RI 
R

 In fact, the voltmeter, ampemet, powermet are designed to read the rms value
of voltage, current, and power, respectively.
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

V. Apparent power, power factor and complex power

 The apparent power [VA] is the product pf the rms values of voltage and
current.
S  V.I
P
P  V.I .cos( v  i )  S.cos( v  i )  cos( v  i )  pf  (power factor)
S
.
V V v V
Z    v   i
.
I I  i I

 The power factor is the cosine of the phase difference between voltage and
current. It is also the cosine of the angle of the load impedance

 The power factor is said to be leading (capacitive load) or lagging (inductive

load).
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

V. Apparent power, power factor and complex power

 The complex power [VA] is the product of the rms voltage phasor and the
complex conjugate of the rms current phasor. As a complex quantity, its real
part is real power P and its imaginary part is reactive power Q

* 2
~
1 . . 2 Vrms
S  P  jQ  V .I  I rms Z  *
2 Z
jQ jXL
P L R
 For a give load: φ ~ φ
S Z
 The complex power contains all the -jQC -jXC

relevant power information. Power impedance Impedance triangle

 The power triangle, impedance triangle (voltage or current triangle) are

always similar.

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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

VI. Conservation of ac power

 The principble of conservation of power applies to ac circuits as well as to dc

circuit.

 The total power supplied by the source equals to the total power delivered to
the load.

n
 k
~ n  Psources   Pload
k  k 1
Ssources   Sload  n
k 1 Q k
 sources 
 Qload
k 1

The complex, real, and reactive powers of the sources equal the respective
sums of the complex, real and reactive powers of the individual loads.

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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

VI. Conservation of ac power 4Ω j2Ω

Lline
Ex 11.4: Find the real power and reactive power Rline
15Ω
Rload
absorbed by the source, the line and the load
-j10Ω
22000 V
 The total impedance: Cload

Z  Rline  Rload  ZLline  ZCload  19  j 8

Source Load
Line
 The current
.
through the circuit:
. VS ~ . .* 2347,4  22,830
I  10,67 22,830 A  Ssource  VS I  VA
Z 2163,5  j 910,8
 The voltage across the line:
. . ~ . .*
509,2 26,57 0
Vline  ( Rline  ZLline ) I  47,72 49,40 V  Sl ine  Vline I  VA
455,4  j 227,7
 The voltage across the load:
. . ~ . 2053  33,70
.*
Vload  ( Rload  ZLload ) I  192,38  10,870 V  Sl oad  Vload I  VA
1708  j 1139

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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

VII. Power factor correction

 Most domestic loads (washing machine, air conditioner, refrigerators, …) and
industrial loads (induction motors) are inductive and operate at a low lagging
power factor .
.
IC IC
C
. .
I IL .
V
.

Inductive load I Inductive load 1 2 .

. .
I
+ V - + V -
.
IL

 The process of increasing the power factor without altering the voltage or
current to the original load is knows as power factor correction.

 The real power P dissipated by the load is not affected by the power factor
correction beacause the average power due to the C is zero.
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 Chapter 11: AC power analysis

VIII. Applications
 The Wattmeter is the instrument for measuring the average power.

 A wattmeter consists of 2 coils:

 Current coil:

 Very low inpedance

 Connect in series with the load

 The + terminal is toward the source

 Voltage coil:

 Very high impedance

 Connect in parallel with the load

 The + terminal is connected to the same line as the current coil

 Reactive power is measured by an instrumentation called the VAmeter.

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