RMS Values of Sinusoids

Determine the rms values of (a) a sinusoidal voltage of v(t)=Vm sin(t),

(b) a full-wave rectified sine wave of v(t) =|Vm sin(t)|, and (c) a half-
wave rectified sine wave of v(t) = Vm sin(t) for 0 < t < T/2 and zero
otherwise.

An equivalent expression uses ωt as the variable of integration.

Note that the rms value
is independent of the
frequency.

Full-wave rectified sinusoid

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 1

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 2
Half-wave rectified sinusoid

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 3

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 4
 Neutral Conductor Current in a Three-Phase System
An office complex is supplied from a three-phase four-wire voltage
source (Fig. 2-8a). The load is highly nonlinear as a result of the
rectifiers in the power supplies of the equipment, and the current in
each of the three phases is shown in Fig. 2-8b. The neutral current is
the sum of the phase currents. If the rms current in each phase
conductor is known to be 20 A, determine the rms current in the
neutral conductor.

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 5

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 6
Note that the rms neutral current is larger than the phase currents
for this situation.
This is much different from that for balanced linear loads where the
line currents are sinusoids which are displaced by 120 and sum to
zero. Three-phase distribution systems supplying highly nonlinear
loads should have a neutral conductor capable of carrying √3 times
as much current as the line conductor.

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 7

Orthogonality in this context means using an inner product like

This inner product measures scalar projections by averaging two

functions together.

So let's look at the integral of the product of two sine curves of

differing frequency. Let's use ϕ1=sin(x) and ϕ2=sin(2x). Note that
the frequency of ϕ1 is 1 and the frequency of ϕ2 is 2
The basic idea is that if the frequencies of the two sine curves are
different, then between 0 and 2π, the two sine curves are of
opposite sign as much as they are of the same sign:
Thus their product will be positive as much as it is negative. In the
integral, those positive contributions will exactly cancel the negative
contributions, leading to an average of zero:
If a periodic voltage is the sum of two periodic voltage waveforms,

The rms value of v(t) is determined from Eq. (2-37) as

The term containing the product v1v2 in the above equation is zero
if the functions v1 and v2 are orthogonal.

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 12

 If a voltage is the sum of more than two periodic voltages, all
orthogonal, the rms value is

Similarly

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 13

 RMS Value of the Sum of Waveforms
Determine the effective (rms) value of v(t) = 4 + 8sin(ω1t +10o)
+5sin(ω2t +50o) for (a) ω2 =2ω1 and (b) ω2 =ω1
(a)
The rms value of a single sinusoid is Vm /√2 , and the rms value of a
constant is the constant. When the sinusoids are of different
frequencies, the terms are orthogonal and Eq. (2-39) applies.

(b)
For sinusoids of the same frequency, Eq. (2-39) does not apply
because the integral of the cross product over one period is not zero.
First combine the sinusoids using phasor addition:

The voltage function is then expressed as

The rms value of this voltage is

determined from Eq. (2-39) as
Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 14
 RMS Value of Triangular Waveforms
(a) A triangular current waveform like that shown in Fig. 2-9a is
commonly encountered in dc power supply circuits. Determine the
rms value of this current.
(b) Determine the rms value of the offset triangular waveform in Fig.
2-9b.

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 15

(a) The current is expressed as

The rms value is determined from Eq. (2-38).

The details of the integration are quite long, but the

result is simple: The rms value of a triangular
current waveform is

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 16

(b) Determine the rms value of the offset triangular waveform in
Fig. 2-9b.
The rms value of the offset triangular waveform can be determined
by using the result of part (a). Since the triangular waveform of
part (a) contains no dc component, the dc signal and the triangular
waveform are orthogonal, and Eq. (2-40) applies.

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 17

 APPARENT POWER AND POWER FACTOR
In ac circuits (linear circuits with sinusoidal
sources), apparent power is the magnitude
of complex power.
The power factor of a load is defined as the
ratio of average power to apparent power:
POWER COMPUTATIONS FOR SINUSOIDAL AC CIRCUITS

Then instantaneous
power is
Using the trigonometric
identity gives:

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 18

 Average power is

The term reactive power is commonly used in conjunction with

voltages and currents for inductors and capacitors. Reactive power
is characterized by energy storage during one-half of the cycle and
energy retrieval during the other half.
Reactive power is
Complex power combines real and reactive powers for ac circuits:
(Irms)* is the complex conjugate of
phasor current
Apparent power

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 02 19

 Complex power combines real and reactive powers for ac circuits:

(Irms)* is the complex conjugate of

phasor current
Apparent power

Power Electronics by D.W.Hart Chapter 01 20