KVL/KCL of Sinusoidal Signals

RD Gomez 9/14/15

Electrical voltage, current and power are, in general, functions of time.

The time dependence results from transients when an instantaneous
change of conditions occurs, e.g. when circuit is first turned on, or in
cases when there is a deliberate periodic variation imposed on the
circuit. The analysis for these cases is different and we refer to the
previous as a 'transient analysis' and the latter as a 'periodic time
dependent analysis. We will consider the transient analysis later and
for now, we focus on understanding the circuits with periodic or
sinusoidal signals. You will see that the rules for treating time-
independent circuits, which we are now familiar, are the same for time-
dependent circuits. After all, even devices like a battery, which we
assume to be constant or so called direct current, DC, is a special case
of time-dependent voltage (or alternating current, AC) in which the
frequency of oscillation is set to zero.

Kirchhoff laws and terminal relations apply as usual, and these lead to
ordinary differential equations. We will use some trigonometric
identities since were dealing with sinusoidal signals. You should realize
at the onset that solving differential equations would not be ideal for
complex circuits because the equations quickly become unwieldy.
Later, we will learn techniques using complex numbers or so-called
Phasors, that will replace differential equations with algebraic
equations, allowing us to solve even fairly complex circuits with
relative ease. The value of using differential equations is that it gives
answers that are immediately in the time domain (as opposed to the
frequency domain in Phasor analysis) and the results are therefore
directly measureable using oscilloscopes and other instruments. We
will consider a few illustrative circuits to allow us to gain sufficient
insight that will help us appreciate the analysis of more complicated
circuits later.

Let's begin by understanding sinusoidal quantities. A sinusoidal voltage

is expressed in the form

v1 (t) V1 cos t
(1)

V1 is the amplitude which determines the maximum positive and

negative excursion of the voltage. Note that the midpoint is zero, and
the peak-to-peak voltage, Vpp, a common term used by engineers, is
2V1. is the angular frequency
 2
2 f
T (2)

and has the units of radians/s. This means that voltage v1(t) repeats its
value after each period, T. f is the frequency of oscillation and equal to
reciprocal of the period. The frequency of the voltage on the regular
wall outlet in the US is 60 cycles per sec or 60 Hz, and has a root-
mean-square value (RMS) of 120volts. RMS is a way of defining the
average voltage and we will derive the general relation between RMS
and amplitude later when we discuss power. But for the case of a
sinusoid the RMS and amplitude is related as

V1
VRMS
2.

Therefore the voltage in your wall outlet is given by

v1 (t) 170 cos 120 t Volts

.

Other countries have different standards. In Japan, its 100V RMS at

60Hz, in Germany, its 220V RMS at 50 Hz and so on. So universal
chargers for cell phones and other gadgets are designed to operate
under those different conditions.

Another example of periodic voltage is the clock pulse train of

microprocessors. The voltage clock of the ARM Cortex A8 processor
used in IPADs other devices is a square wave operating at 1Ghz, or
=21x109), operating from 0.9-3.6 Volts amplitude.

The other parameter in sinusoidal quantities is , or the phase. This

essentially an indicator of whether the oscillation is ahead or behind in
time relative to another. For instance if the voltage across a device is

v vA cos t

and the corresponding current is

i iA cos t
2 .

The current leads the voltage by /2 or by 1/4 period.

Illustrative Example 1: Voltage source, resistor and capacitor in series

In general, circuit problems will involve calculating both the amplitude

and phase of circuit variables. Let us consider a simple case of a
sinusoidal voltage in series with a resistor R and a capacitor C that has
been running for a long time. The circuit is shown in Figure 1. We wish
to find the steady-state voltage across the capacitor and resistor along
with the steady state current flowing through the devices.

Figure 1. A sinusoidal voltage source connected in series with a resistor

and capacitor.

Let us assume that the voltage source is given by

v1 (t) vo cos t
. (3)

KVL around the loop yields

(4)
vo cos( t) vR vC 0

or

iR vC vO cos( t) . (5)

Recalling the terminal relation for the capacitor,

dvC
iC C
dt , (6)

and the fact that the current i, flowing through the resistor is the same
as the current through the capacitor, we obtain
 dvC
RC vC vo cos( t)
dt . (7)

This is the differential equation we need to solve. Since we know that

the voltage vc should contain sinusoidal terms, we assume that the
solution has the general form

. (8)
vC Acos( t) Bsin t

The game is to figure out the values of A and B is terms of the known
quantities: vo, , R and C. The logical step to this end is to substitute
(8) into the differential equation (7), which gives

RC Asin( t) Bcos( t) Acos( t) Bsin( t) vo cos( t)

. (9)

Or,

( RCA B)sin( t) ( RCB A)cos( t) vo cos( t) . (10)

We do this step in (10) to be able to compare the coefficients of the

cos(t) and sin(t) terms, to yield the two equations,

RCA B 0 RCB A vo . (11)

Solving for A and B,

vo vo RC
A , B
1 2 R2C 2 1 2 R2C 2 (12)

Therefore, the solution for vc(t) is

. (13)

vo v RC
vo cos t o 2 2 2 sin t
1 R C
2 2 2
1 R C

This is the correct solution but hardly insightful. We need to cast it in a

form similar to (1) to be able to easily compare it with the source
voltage.
We need a theorem known as Phase-Shift Theorem, which will become
very handy as you will see. Let us digress a little and derive the
theorem. Recall the trigonometric sum of angle identity,

K cos t K cos t cos( ) K sin t sin

.

We can express this as

K cos t P cos t Qsin t

(14)

where

P K cos and Q K sin

(15)

Squaring each term and adding,

Q2 P 2 K 2 cos2 K 2 sin 2 K 2

or

K Q2 P 2 . (16)

Similarly, taking the

Q K sin
tan
P K cos
or
Q
tan 1
P . (17)

In short, the Phase-Shift theorem converts expressions that have sine

and cosine terms of the same argument but different coefficients into a
single cosine term with a phase.

Applying this to our example, we can express

vo v RC
vc (t) cos t o 2 2 2 cos t P cos t Qsin t
1 R C
2 2 2
1 R C (18)

Or,
vo
vc (t) cos t tan 1 RC
1 R C
2 2 2
. (19)
Work this out for your satisfaction.

From the expression, we can deduce a few salient observations.

First, (19) reduces to simply vo in the DC case, =0 as it should. After
all, this is just the case with a DC battery as a source. Second, the
amplitude decreases with increasing frequency. This is an example of
a high pass filter, where the low frequencies are allowed to go through
while the high frequencies are attenuated. An application of this can
be found inside a loudspeaker, which directs only the low frequency
audio signal to the large woofers, which minimizes high frequency
distortions to the sound. Third, because the argument of the arctan
function is negative, then the phase is also a negative number. This
means that the voltage on the capacitor, vc(t) lags the driving voltage,
v1(t) . This should be intuitively clear to us, since it takes a finite
amount of time for the supply voltage to charge capacitor and hence,
there has to be a delay. Furthermore, the delay increases as the
capacitance value increases because it takes more charge to elevate
the voltage of a large capacitor than a small one.

From voltage given in (19), we can calculate the current of the system
from the terminal relation (6). Applying the operation gives,

dvc (t) Cvo

ic (t) C sin t tan 1 RC
dt 1 R C
2 2 2
. (20)

Note that at DC, the current is zero as expected. Unlike the voltage on
the capacitor which gets attenuated as the frequency increases, the
current behaves in the opposite way. It is zero for =0, but increases
as increases and levels off to an asymptotic value of vo/R at very high
frequencies.

How does the phase of the current compare with the voltage? To
answer this question, we can use the trigonometric identity

cos( ) sin
2 (21)
to convert the sine factor into cosine. Using this, we obtain

Cvo
ic (t) cos t tan 1 RC
1 2 R2C 2 2 . (22)

In this form, it is quite clear that the current leads the voltage by /2,
equivalent to half the period. Again, this is intuitively understandable
since the current delivers the charge needed to increase the voltage
across the capacitor and this has a characteristic time lag that is
reflected in the phase.

Next, we turn our attention to the voltage across the resistor. We know
that the voltage across the resistor is just the current multiplied by the
resistance according the Georg Ohm. This is given by

RCvo
vR (t) iC R cos t tan1 RC
1 2 R2C2 2 . (23)

It has similarly properties as the current, including the frequency and

the phase dependence. In our loudspeaker application, the voltage
across the resistor is fed to the tweeter to give it only the highs that it
can reproduce and omit the lows that it cant.

We know that the sum of the voltage across the resistor and capacitor
must equal the source voltage. But the equations seem complicated, it
helps to see this explicitly. From (19) and (23), we get

RCvo vo
vR (t) vC (t) sin t tan 1 RC cos t tan 1 RC
1 R C
2 2 2
1 R C
2 2 2

(24)

We again make use the phase shift theorem by making the

assignments,

RCvo vo
Q P=
1 2 R2C 2 1 2 R2C 2

so that
2 R2C 2 vo2 vo2
K P Q 2 2
vo
1 2 R2C 2
Q
tan 1 tan RC
1

P .

Therefore (24) reduces to

vR (t) vC (t) v0 cos t tan 1 RC tan 1 RC v0 cos t .

(25).
It is refreshing to arrive at the expected result despite the apparent
complexity of our analysis.

Illustrative Example 2: Sinusoidal current source in parallel with a

resistor, a capacitor and inductor

The circuit in Example 1 we considered is commonly referred to as first

order since it involves only a single derivative. Other circuits, involving
more derivatives are called higher order. A good example of 2nd order
circuit is one that involves a sinusoidal current source in parallel with a
resistor, capacitor and inductor. It is shown below, and let us analyze it.

Figure 2. Current source in parallel with a resistor, a capacitor and

inductor.

Using KCL on the top node.

vR dv
i0 cos t iR iC iL C C iL
R dt (26)

But KVL on all loops tells us that

vR vC vL , (27)

so that
vL dv
i0 cos t C L iL
R dt
2
L diL di
LC L iL
R dt dt . (28)

This is a second order differential equation for iL and we assume that

the solution has the form

iL t Acos t Bsin t
(29)
so we write

L diL t AL BL
sin t cos t
R dt R R
diL2 t
LC 2
2 ALC cos t 2 BLCsin t
dt (30)

Addition of all terms (28)+(29)+(30) should equal i0cos(t). We also

group the coefficients of the cosine and sine terms. This process leads
to the following.

BL
A 2 ALC io
R
AL
B 2 BLC 0
R
(31)
We solve for A and B, and follow the following steps,

BL
A 2 ALC io
R
R 2 LCR
B( ) A
L
R 2 LCR BL R 2 LCR
B( ) B
2
LC io
L R L
R2 2 LCR2 2 L2 B R2 2 LCR2
B( ) 2 B( )LC io
LR LR LR
R2 2 L2 4 L2C 2 R2
B io
LR
LR
B io 2 4 2 2 2
R L L C R
2 2

R2 2 LCR2
A io 2 4 2 2
R L L C
2 2
(32)

Finally, combining the terms,

R2 2 LCR2 LR
iL io 4 2 2
cos t io 2 4 2 2 2
sin t
R L L C R L L C R
2 2 2 2 2
(33)
Using the usual Phase Shift Theorem trick, we arrive at the solution we
sought,

iL (t) io
R LCR L R
2 2 2 2 2 2 2

cos
1
t tan
LR

R L L C
2 2 2 4 2 2 2



R2
2
LCR
2 2
LR
(34).