Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 1 of 11

Electrical Resonance Circuits

Resonance

 A system will vibrate at the frequency at which it is forced to.

 When the frequency of forcing function is equal to the natural frequency of the system, we can observe
maximum amplitude in the vibration.
 This maximum amplitude is called Resonance.
 Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate with greater amplitude at some frequencies than at
other frequencies.

Energy storing elements

• Inductor
– Energy stored in electromagnetic filed.
i(t)
1 2
– The energy is maximum when the current is maximum. Energy stored  Li
2 i()

– Used as temporary current source.

– Used as frequency discrimination element.
– Used for converting pulsating dc voltage into relatively smoother dc voltage.

• Capacitor
– Energy stored in electrostatic field.
v(t)
1
– The energy is maximum when the voltage is maximum. Energy stored  Cv 2
2 v()

– Used as temporary voltage source.

– Used as frequency discrimination element.
• Energy doesn’t change unless dissipated by the circuit resistances.

Electrical resonance conditions

• Resonance occur when a quantity such a Voltage or a Current becomes maximum.

– Also, know that maximum in one quantity corresponds to a condition of minimum in other
quantity.
– For instance, in a series circuit maximum current for a given source voltage would occur when
impedance of the circuit is minimum.

Main three conditions (situations)

a. V = Minimum
 Given
current

Maximum b.
source

1. Current becomes Z = Minimum

Given
voltage
source c. Y = Maximum


a. I = Minimum
 Given
voltage

Maximum b.
source

2. Voltage becomes Z = Maximum

Given
current
source c. Y = Minimum


 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 2 of 11

a. Z is purely resistive

3. Circuit Power Factor  unity (1) b. Y is purely real
c. V & I are in phase

• Conditions 1 occur in Series Resonance.
• Conditions 2 occur in Parallel Resonance.
• While the condition 1 & 2 are exclusive, unity power factor corresponds to either series or parallel
resonance.

Series Resonance Circuit

 1 
At an angular frequency () the total impedance of series RLC Circuit is Z  R  j   L -
C 
•

• In a series RLC circuit impedance has to be minimum to have resonance.

1 1 1 1
Minimum Z   L -  0  L   0  rad/s or f  Hz
C C LC 2 LC

Vs Vm e j
• Let’s look at the current in the circuit. I  
Z  1 
R  j L 
  C 

1 Vm
• The current will be maximum when L   0  Im 
C R

Peak Power, P  RI m2
2
1 I 
Half-power, P1/ 2 = RI m2  R  m   P1/ 2  RI12/ 2
2  2 R
1
rms value

Current versus Frequency

R2 R <R <R
• The graph of current versus frequency for different resistance 1 2 3
values show peaks at the resonance frequency.
– Smaller value of resistance yielded large resonance
current and narrow peak response.
– Larger value of resistance gave smaller resonance R3
amplitude with broad peak in the response.
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 3 of 11

Behavior: current versus  and impedance versus 

Maximum current at
Circuit behaves resonance
capacitive below
resonance
frequency. Circuit behaves inductive
above resonance frequency.

Impedance is
minimum at
resonance
frequency

Phase versus Frequency

• The phase angel is zero at resonance but changes rapidly above and below it.
• At low frequencies capacitor makes the phase of the current ahead of voltage.
• At high frequencies inductor makes the phase of the current lag that of voltage.

Below resonance frequency, Above resonance frequency,

At resonance frequency,
current leads the applied current lags the applied
current and voltage are in
voltage. voltage.
phase.
Circuit is capacitive in Circuit is inductive in
Circuit is resistive in nature.
nature. nature.
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 4 of 11

The Quality Factor, Q

• The quality factor (Q) is a measure of the sharpness or selectivity of the resonance peak.
– In other words, Q of a resonance circuit is measure of goodness or quality of the circuit.
– Higher value of this figure of merit corresponds to a narrower bandwidth, which is desirable in
many applications.
• Q-factor is the ratio of power stored in the circuit reactance to power dissipated in the circuit
resistance.
Energy stored I2X L 1
Q= = 2  0 
Energy dissipated I R R 0CR
X  Capacitive or Inductive reactance at resonance

• Q-factor can also be defined as the ratio of resonance frequency to the bandwidth.

Resonant frequency 0
Q= = B is also written as BW or 
Bandwidth B

The relationship between the B, Q and 0

R 
B   0  02CR
L Q

Bandwidth

 The bandwidth is the difference between the two frequencies where the power dissipated by the circuit
is one half of the peak power.

 The band of frequencies within which the current in the circuit is 0.707 of the maximum value is
called bandwidth. Or in other words, the range of frequencies between ω1 and ω2 (see above figure) is
referred to as bandwidth (abbreviated BW or B) of the resonant circuit.
 Since the resonant circuit is used to select a band of frequencies, the curve is also called a selectivity
curve.
 The half-power frequencies are 1 and 2 . That is, the frequencies at which the amplitude is 70.7% of
the maximum value. These points are also called 3 dB or corner or cutoff frequencies.
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 5 of 11

Half-power Frequency

• The half power frequencies can be obtained as:

2 2
R  R  1 R  R  1
1       and 2     
2L  2L  LC 2L  2L  LC

 Bandwidth, B  1  2.
And two half-power frequencies are related to the resonant frequency by 0  12

2 2
R  R  1 R  R  1
Derivation of       Or       
2L  2L  LC 2L  2L  LC

Vs Vm e j
Current in series RLC is given by I  
Z  1 
R  j L 
  C 
Vm  1 
At resonance the current will be I  since j   L   0
R   C 
Im 1 Vm Vm
Also the rms value of current (i.e. at half power), I rms   Im 
2 2 R R
Vm 1 Vm
Therefore we can equate 
 1  2 R
R  j  L 
  C 

1 1
 
 1  2R
R  j  L 
  C 
2
 1   1 
 R2    L    2R
2
 R    L  ...(eq.X)
 C    C 
2
R 1 R  R  1
 2    0        
L LC 2L  2L  LC
2 2
R  R  1 R  R  1
      Or       
2L  2L  LC 2L  2L  LC
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 6 of 11

Derivation of 0  ul
We see that R equals both positive and negative part of the expression (see eq.X).

 1 
R    L  ...(eq.X)
  C 
 1   1 
  L      L 
 C    C 
1  1 1 
 u  l  L    
C  u l 
1 1 1
 LC  since 0  , LC  2
ul LC 0
 02  ul or 0  ul

0 L 1
Derivation of Q= 
R 0CR

 1 
R    L  ...(eq.X)
  C 
 1   1 
  u L     l L    2R
 u C   l C  0 0
Q  or
B 
1  u  l 
 u  l  L     2R 0 0 L
C  ul  Q  
R / L R

 L   2R 0 L 1 L 1 L 1
C 02 Q    
R LC R R C RC

 L   2R LC
 1  1
C 
 LC  Q 
0 RC
  L    L  2 R
R
  
L
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 7 of 11

Q-Factor versus Bandwidth

• Higher value of Q corresponds to smaller the bandwidth.

(Higher the selectivity)
• Lower value of Q will result into larger bandwidth. (Lower
the selectivity)

Max Power dissipation

Vm
Resonant current, Im = I 
2
 1 
R2    L 
  C 
V
The maximum power is dissipated when I= m
R
1 Vm2
Thus maximum power dissipated is P(0 )=
2 R

• Half-power frequencies ω1 and ω2 are frequencies at which the dissipated power is half the maximum
value:
2
 Vm 
1  2  V
P(1)=P(1)   m
2 R 4R

Voltage magnification @ resonance

Q-factor is also called magnification.

Vm
VR  R I m  R  VR  Vm
R  1 
1 1 Vm V
V  L  VC  Im   j m  j  Vm
VL  j0 LI m  j0 L m  j  0  Vm j0C j0C R 0CR 
 0 CR 
R  R 
 VC   j Q  Vm
 VL  j Q  Vm

 At resonance the source voltage appears across resistor element only.

 The inductor and capacitor will have voltage across them equal to Q times the source voltage.
 Caution: normally Q is of the order of 1000. Therefore the voltage actor L and C would be of the order
of 1000X.
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 8 of 11

Parallel resonance circuit

 The input admittance of the

circuit is

I 1 1
Y   jC 
V R j L
1  1 
Y  j  C 
R   L 
 Resonance occurs when imaginary part is 0.
1
 Therefore resonant frequency is 0  rad / s
LC
 Half power frequencies are:

2 2
1  1  1 1  1  1
1       and 2     
2RC  2RC  LC 2RC  2RC  LC
1
 The bandwidth is given by B  2  1 
RC
0 R
 The Q-factor of the circuit is Q   0 RC 
B 0 L
 For high Q circuit i.e. if Q  10 half power frequency can be approximated as:
B B
1  0  and 2  0 
2 2

Summary
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 9 of 11

Applications

 One of the applications of resonance circuits are in FILTERS.

 A filter is a circuit that is designed to pass signals with desired frequencies and reject or attenuate
others.
 4 types of filters:
1. Low-pass filter: passes low frequencies and stops high frequencies
2. High-pass filter: passes high frequencies and rejects low frequencies
3. Band-pass filter: passes frequencies within a frequency band and blocks or attenuates frequencies
outside the band
4. Band-stop filter: passes frequencies outside a frequency band and blocks or attenuates frequencies
within the band

Ideal frequency response of four types of filters

The ratio of Laplace transform of output

function to input function is called Transfer
function.

Vo ( )
That is H ( ) 
Vi ( )

Low-pass Filters - is designed to pass only

frequencies from dc up to the cutoff frequency
ωc.
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 10 of 11

Low-pass filters

 The transfer function is

V0 1/ jC 1
H ( )   
Vi R  1/ jC 1  j RC
1 1 1
H (C )   where cutoff frequency is C 
1  R C
2
C
2 2
2 RC

High-pass filter

 A high-pass filter is designed to pass all frequencies above its cutoff frequency ωc

 The transfer function is

V0 R j RC 1
H ( )    
Vi R  1/ jC 1  j RC 1  1
j RC
1 1
H (C )  
1 2
1 2 2 2
C R C
1
Where cutoff frequency is C 
RC
 Basic Electrical Engineering (Lecture2&3 ) Tutor: Nima Dukpa Page 11 of 11

Band-pass Filter

 A band-pass filter is designed to pass all frequencies within a band of frequencies, ω1 < ω0 < ω2

 The transfer function is

V0 R 1
H ( )   Where cutoff frequency is 0 
Vi R  j L  1/ C  LC

Band-stop Filter

 A band-stop filter is designed to stop or eliminate all frequencies within a band of frequencies, ω1 <
ω0 < ω2

 The transfer function is

V0 j  L  1/ C  1
H ( )   Where cutoff frequency is 0 
Vi R  j  L  1/ C  LC