School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering

Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Periodic functions, Average & Rms values

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Sinusoidal Alternating Voltage and Current

Commercial alternators produce sinusoidal alternating
voltage i.e. alternating voltage is a sine wave. A
sinusoidal alternating voltage can be produced by
rotating a coil with a constant angular velocity in a
uniform magnetic field. The sinusoidal alternating
voltage can be expressed by the equation:

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 Sinusoidal voltages always produce sinusoidal currents,

unless the circuit is non-linear. Therefore, a sinusoidal current
can be expressed in the same way as voltage.

 Sinusoidal voltage or current not only changes direction at

regular intervals but the magnitude is also changing
continuously.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Important A.C. Terminology

 Waveform: The shape of the curve obtained by plotting the
instantaneous values of voltage or current as ordinate against
time is called its waveform.

 Instantaneous value: The value of an alternating quantity at any

instant is called instantaneous value. The instantaneous values of
alternating voltage and current are represented by v and i
respectively. As an example, the instantaneous values of voltage
at 0º, 90º and 270º are 0, + Vm, −Vm respectively.

 Cycle: One complete set of positive and negative values of an

alternating quantity is known as a cycle. A cycle can also be
defined in terms of angular measure. One cycle corresponds to
360º or 2π radians.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 Time period: The time taken in seconds to complete one cycle of an alternating
quantity is called its time period. It is generally represented by T.

 Frequency: The number of cycles that occur in one second is called the
frequency (f) of the alternating quantity. It is measured in cycles/sec (C/s) or
Hertz (Hz). The frequency of power system is low, the most common being 50
C/s or 50 Hz. It means that alternating voltage or current completes 50 cycles in
one second.

 Amplitude: The maximum value (positive or negative) attained by an alternating

quantity is called its amplitude or peak value. The amplitude of an alternating
voltage or current is designated by Vm (or Em) or Im.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Values of Alternating Voltage and Current

 An alternating voltage or current varies from instant to instant. A natural question arises
how to express the magnitude of an alternating voltage or current. There are four ways
of expressing it:
(i) Peak value (ii) Average value or mean value (iii) R.M.S. value or effective value
(iv) Peak-to-peak value

 Although peak, average and peak-to-peak values may be important in some engineering
applications, it is the r.m.s. or effective value which is used to express the magnitude of
an alternating voltage or current.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 Peak value is the maximum value attained by an alternating quantity. The peak or
maximum value of an alternating voltage or current is represented by Vm or Im.
 The average value of a waveform is the average of all its values over a period of
time. In performing such a computation, we regard the area above the time axis
as positive area and area below the time axis as negative area. The algebraic
signs of the areas must be taken into account when computing the total (net)
area. The time interval over which the net area is computed is the period T of the
waveform.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech
 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 .

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 The half-cycle average value of a.c. is that value of steady current (d.c.) which would send the
same amount of charge through a circuit for half the time period of a.c. as is sent by the a.c.
through the same circuit in the same time. It is represented by Iav. This can be obtained by
integrating the instantaneous value of current over one half cycle (i.e. area over half-cycle) and
dividing the result by base length of half-cycle

Average Value of Sinusoidal Current

 The average value of alternating current (or voltage) over one cycle is zero. It is because the
waveform is symmetrical about time axis and positive area exactly cancels the negative area.
However, the average value over a half-cycle (positive or negative) is not zero. Therefore,
average value of alternating current (or voltage) means half-cycle average value unless stated
otherwise.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

R.M.S. or Effective Value

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 The effective or r.m.s. value of an alternating current is that steady current (d.c.) which
when flowing through a given resistance for a given time produces the same amount of
heat as produced by the alternating current when flowing through the same resistance
for the same time.

 For example, when we say that the r.m.s. or effective value of an alternating current is
5A, it means that the alternating current will do work (or produce heat) at the same rate
as 5A direct current under similar conditions.

 A.C. ammeters and voltmeters record r.m.s. values of alternating current and voltage
respectively.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Form Factor and Peak Factor

 There exists a definite relation among the peak value, average value and r.m.s. value of an
alternating quantity. The relationship is expressed by two factors, namely : form factor and
peak factor.

Form factor

 The ratio of r.m.s. value to the average value of an alternating quantity is known as form
factor. The value of form factor depends upon the waveform of the alternating quantity. Its
least value is 1 (e.g. for square wave, rectangular wave) and may be as high as 5 for other
waveforms. The form factor for an alternating voltage or current varying sinusoidally is
1.11.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 The form factor gives a measure of the “peakiness” of the waveform. The peakier the
wave, the greater is its form factor and vice-versa. For instance, a sine wave is peakier
than a square wave. Hence the former has a greater form factor (1·11) than the latter.
Similarly, a triangular wave is more peaky than a sine wave and has a form factor of
1·15.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Peak factor
 Peak factor: The ratio of maximum value to the r.m.s. value of an alternating
quantity is known as peak factor.

 The value of peak factor also depends upon the waveform of the alternating
quantity. For an alternating voltage or current varying sinusoidally, its value is
1·414.

 The peak factor is of much greater importance because it indicates the maximum
voltage being applied to the various parts of the apparatus. For instance, when an
alternating voltage is applied across a cable or capacitor, the breakdown of
insulation will depend upon the maximum voltage. The insulation must be able to
withstand the maximum rather than the r.m.s. value of voltage.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

 Peak factor is also called crest factor or amplitude factor.

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech

 School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Course Code : BEE01T1003 Course Name: BEEE

Summary

 Sinusoidal Alternating Voltage and Current

 Important A.C. Terminology
 Average Value
 RMS Value
 Form Factor
 Peak Factor

Name of the Faculty: Dr.Yogesh Kumar Program Name: B.Tech