LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY PHAGWARA(PB.

TERM PAPER

SUB: - ELECTRICAL SCIENCE TOPIC : - PARALLEL AC AND DC CIRCUIT

ELECTRICAL CIRCUITS In metals, electric current is a flow of electrons. Electrons flow, at speeds on the order of centimeters per minute in DC circuits(battery). And in AC circuits the electrons don't really flow at all, instead they sit in place and vibrate.
ELECTRON FLOW IN CIRCUITS

It's the energy in the circuit which flows fast, not the electrons. Metals are always full of movable electrons. In a simple circuit, all of the wires are totally packed full of electrons all the time. And when a battery or generator pumps the electrons at one point in the circuit, electrons in the entire loop of the circuit are forced to flow, and energy spreads almost instantly throughout the entire circuit. This happens even though the electrons move very slowly. Circuit diagrams are a pictorial way of showing circuits. Electricians and engineers draw circuit diagrams to help them design the actual circuits. Here is an example circuit diagram.

This is the Ammeter symbol. This is the Voltmeter symbol.

This is the resistor symbol.

This is the battery symbol

SERIES AND PARALLEL CIRCUITS Series and parallel electrical circuits are two basic ways of wiring components. The naming describes the method of attaching components A series circuit is one that has a single path for current flow through all of its elements. A parallel circuit is one that requires more than one path for current flow in order to reach all of the circuit elements.

SERIES CIRCUIT CURRENT -all elements in a series connection have equal currents. VOLTAGE Resistors with different values will have DIFFERENT voltages All of the individual voltage drops across resistors should equal the voltage across the battery Total Resistance of Circuit - To find the total resistance of all the components, add together the individual resistances of each component Total Resistance

To find the current, use Ohm's law

To find the voltage across any particular component

To find the voltage across any particular component

PARALLEL CIRCUIT CURRENT - Resistors with different values will have DIFFERENT current readings VOLTAGE - Voltages across components in parallel with each other are the same TOTAL RESITANCE OF CIRCUIT - To find the total resistance of all the components, add together the individual reciprocal of each resistance of each component, and take the reciprocal of the sum: Total Resistance

To find the total current, I, use Ohm's Law

To find individual current

Ii= V/Ri V= IiRi

To find VOLTAGE

A parallel circuit is a circuit in which the resistors are arranged with their heads connected together, and their tails connected together. The current in a parallel circuit breaks up, with some flowing along each parallel branch and re-combining when the branches meet again. A complete circuit with more than one path for current to flow Current flowing into each branch or leg varies according to the amount of resistance in that branch of the circuit

 The current flowing into any junction of an electrical circuit is equal to the current flowing out of that junction The total resistance of a parallel circuit is always less than that of the smallest resistance of any branch of the entire circuit The voltage is the same for each branch of the parallel circuit The sum of the individual currents in each leg will equal the total current Most of the current flow in a parallel circuit will occur in the branch with the least resistance As long as other branches of the circuit are complete, current will flow through them in accordance with Ohms law The only place where electricity can take the path of least resistance is in a series circuit Most lighting circuits on automobiles are parallel circuits

Parallel dc Circuits There are two network configurations series and parallel. Two elements, branches, or circuits are in parallel if they have two points in common as in the figure below

For resistors in parallel, the total resistance is determined from

Note that the equation is for the reciprocal of R T rather than for RT. Once the right side of the equation has been determined, it is necessary to divide the result into 1 to determine the total resistance

For parallel elements, the total conductance is the sum of the individual conductance values.
GT G1 G2 G3 ... GN

As the number of resistors in parallel increases, the input current level will increase for the same applied voltage. This is the opposite effect of increasing the number of resistors in a series circuit. The total resistance of any number of parallel resistors can be determined using
1 1 1 1 1 ... R1 R2 R3 RN

RT

The total resistance of parallel resistors is always less than the value of the smallest resistor. For equal resistors in parallel:

Where N = the number of parallel resistors. A special case: The total resistance of two resistors is the product of the two divided by their sum.

The equation was developed to reduce the effects of the inverse relationship when determining RT Parallel resistors can be interchanged without changing the total resistance or input current. For parallel resistors, the total resistance will always decrease as additional parallel elements are added. Voltage is always the same across parallel elements. V1 = V 2 = E

The voltage across resistor 1 equals the voltage across resistor 2, and both equal the voltage supplies by the source.

For single-source parallel networks, the source current (Is) is equal to the sum of the individual branch currents.
I s I1 I 2

For a parallel circuit, source current equals the sum of the branch currents. For a series circuit, the applied voltage equals the sum of the voltage drops. For parallel circuits, the greatest current will exist in the branch with the lowest resistance. Power Distribution in a Parallel Circuit
I s I1 I 2 E E R1 R2

For any resistive circuit, the power applied by the battery will equal that dissipated by the resistive elements.
PE PR1 PR2 PR3 ... PRN

The power relationship for parallel resistive circuits is identical to that for series resistive circuits. Kirchhoffs voltage law provides an important relationship among voltage levels around any closed loop of a network.

Kirchhoffs current law (KCL)

It states that the algebraic sum of the currents entering and leaving an area, system, or junction is zero. The sum of the current entering an area, system or junction must equal the sum of the current leaving the area, system, or junction. Most common application of the law will be at the junction of two or more paths of current. Determining whether a current is entering or leaving a junction is sometimes the most difficult task. If the current arrow points toward the junction, the current is entering the junction. If the current arrow points away from the junction, the current is leaving the junction.

PARALLEL AC CIRCUIT

The discussion of electrical circuits presented up to this point has been concerned with series circuits in which there is only one path for current. There is another basic type of circuit known as the PARALLEL CIRCUIT with which you must become familiar. Where the series circuit has only one

path for current, the parallel circuit has more than one path for current. Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's law apply to all electrical circuits, but the characteristics of a parallel dc circuit are different than those of a series dc circuit. A PARALLEL CIRCUIT is defined as one having more than one current path connected to a common voltage source. Parallel circuits, therefore, must contain two or more resistances which are not connected in series. An example of a basic parallel circuit is shown in figure

Start at the voltage source (Es) and trace counter clockwise around the circuit. Two complete and separate paths can be identified in which current can flow. One path is traced from the source, through resistance R1, and back to the source. The other path is from the source, through resistance R 2, and back to the source.

Ohm's law for pure resistances: V = IR In the case of AC circuits, we represent the impedance (effective resistance) as a complex number, Z. The units are ohms (). In this case, Ohm's Law becomes: V = IZ.

Recall also, if we have several resistors (R1, R2, R3, R4, ) connected in parallel, then the total resistance RT, is given by:

In the case of AC circuits, this becomes: