AC Analysis

Avelino, Anne Loraine L., Galang, Vincent N., Jacinto, Syre Aires Destiny V.,
Naoz, Allona Jane M.

College of Engineering
School of Technology
First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities

ABSTRACT This paper is about calculations of the II. CIRCUIT DESIGN AND DISCUSSION
responses of a linear circuit to sinusoidal voltages using
phasors, its conversion and measurement of time delays and The circuit schematics given for the simulation is shown
in Figure 2.
the role of the capacitors and inductors impedances in phase
Figure 2: Series RLC Circuit
shifts.
Phase Shift Conversions
I. INTRODUCTION
In converting phase shift, from frequency to
If a circuit contains sources of (co)sinusoidal voltages and (rad/sec), use the formula:
currents, as well as resistors, inductors, capacitors, op amps,
and other linear elements, then under certain conditions
apply the extended form of Ohms law V = I Z to inductors The dashed line in Figure 1 shows the output
and capacitors. In other words, instead of resistance R (in the
usual form of Ohms law), we can write impedance Z and use
linear algebraic equations instead of differential equations.
To make this great simplification of circuit analysis
legitimate, require that: (1) all sources must be sinusoidal, at
the same frequency (2) all circuit elements must be linear,
and (3) the circuit should have reached its sinusoidal steady-
state condition.

Condition (3) simply means that, after a voltage or current

applied to the circuit was changed, wait until the transient
responses die out. Recall that, after the time interval equal to
5, the error of using the simplification is less than 1%. The
simplification is called phasor analysis. The big idea is that, voltage, which reaches its maximum before the reference
under the conditions listed above, sinusoidal input at voltage does; in other words, the output leads by t. The
frequency , peak voltage Vmax,in and phase angle in. relationship is:

or

In calculating the phase angle, from the measured time

delay t, use:

= 2 ft
To find the angle (rad), convert the angle (deg) to angle
(rad) by multiplying it to .

RLC Simulation

Use cursors on the oscilloscope screen and align the first

Figure 1: Phase shift of cosine waves (1). The solid line
shows the reference voltage. The dashed line shows another one with the peak of the input voltage (learn how to find out
voltage, which leads by t. which signal is the input). Then align the second cursor with
the peak of the output signal and read out the time delay t.
Make sure that the sign of t agrees with your intuitive
expectations. Do calculations to translate t into the phase
angle as shown above.
The impedance of a resistor is the real number equal to
Figure 2.1 shows a circuit with a resistor, inductor and the resistance:
capacitor connected in series with 1 VPPK, 100 Hz sine wave
with 0 V DC offset for the input signal.

III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Computations are first done to test the groups

knowledge about phase shifts, time shifts and determining the
circuits voltage and current using phasors. Formulas such as,
, , , are used to complete the
first table.
Figure 2.1 Series RLC Circuit with frequency equal to 100 Hz

Figure 2.2 shows a circuit with a resistor, inductor and

capacitor connected in series with 1 VPPK, 1.6 KHz sine wave
with 0 V DC offset for the input signal.

Figure 3
Figure 2.2 Series RLC Circuit with frequency equal to 1.6 KHz
In the given circuit, discussed above, a frequency of
RLC Computation 100 Hz was first used to simulate and measure the voltages of
the components and their time shifts with respect to the input
Using Kirchhoffs voltage law, the equation will be: voltage. Shown in Figure 3 was the phasor of Vin and the
-Vin + VR + VL + VC = 0 capacitor, and below it reveals the value of the voltage across
the capacitor as well as their time shift. Figure 3.1 is a close
VR= IR up view of the results, giving us the value of the time shift,
VL= IZL which is 842.105s, and the voltage across the capacitor,
VC= IZC 432.062mV.

The impedance of an inductor equals:

The impedance of a capacitor equals:

Figure 3.1
 Comparing this results to the computed values of the
time shift and the voltage across the capacitor, Vc =
424.568m (ANGLE) 32.24409o giving the value of tshift equal
to 895.6692s, and Vc = 424.568mV. There are certain
differences to their values but still, their values are close.
Figure 4
Figure 4 shows the phasors of the resistor and the input
voltage. Revealing their values in Figure 4.1, VR =
381.922mV, and tshift = 1.083ms. Comparing this from the
computed value, 266.7637m (ANGLE) 57.755908o, giving
VR = 266.763mV, and t shift = 1.604331ms.
Figure 4.1
It is evident that their difference is greater compared
to the simulation in the capacitor. Errors maybe present in
this simulation and computation thats why their values are
not very much close to each other.
Figure 5
Figure 5 is the simulation of the input voltage and
the voltage across the inductor. Figure 5.1 shows the value of
the VL as well as its time shift.
Figure 5.1
VL = 1.677mV, and tshift = 5.865ms. In the computed
value, VL = 266.7637m (ANGLE) 57.755908o. Then, the
computed VL = 1.673625mV, and the time shift is equal to
4.10433078ms. Comparing their results, the value of VL is
really close to each other while their time shifts has single
difference.
After this simulation, the frequency of the input
voltage is replaced by 1.6kHz, then the procedure repeats.
Figure 6
Figure 6 shows the results of the simulation of the
voltage across the capacitor with respect to the input voltage.
Comparing the phasors or waves from the same circuit
above, only with a 100Hz frequency, the wave across the
capacitor is evidently smaller.
Figure 6.1
The values of the VC and the tshift is shown on Figure
6.1. VC = 41.515mV, and t shift = 156.391s. From manual
computations, VC is determined to be 49.73589m (ANGLE)
90.060684o giving the value of VC = 49.73589mV and t shift =
156.3553s. The measured and computed time shift is very
close not like the values of the VC which has almost a 10-
point difference.
The Figure 8 shows the simulation of the voltage
across the inductor with respect to the input voltage.
Comparing the phasor with a 1.6kHz frequency, with the
100Hz frequency, it shows that the wave across the inductor
increased.

Figure 8.1

Figure 8.1 shows that VL = 50.525mV, and t shift =

153.383s. Based from the computation, VL = 50.26545m
(ANGLE) 89.939317o, giving the value of VL = 50.26545mV
and tshift = 156.14465s. The difference between the
measured and computed value is very little, for their values
Figure 7 are almost equal.

Figure 7 shows the phasor of the input voltage and To compare and summarize their point difference, Table
the voltage across the resistor. It is clearly shown that their 1, with a 100Hz frequency, and Table 2, with 1.6kHz
waves are in phase and with a little time, their waves are frequency, is presented below.
overlapping each other, almost equal.

Computed Measured % difference

VC 895.6692us 842.105us 6.36%
Figure 7.1
VR 1.604331ms 1.083ms 48.14%
VL 4.10443397ms 5.865ms 30.02%
The results of the simulation are shown in Figure Table 1
7.1. VR = 499.202mV and tshift = 0.000s. In computation, the
value of VR = 499.99m (ANGLE) 0.0606834o. Then VR = Computed Measured % difference
499.99mV, and tshift = 105.3532ns, which is almost equal to VC 156.355us 156.391us 0.023%
zero. Comparison of the computed and measured values, VR 105.35ns 0 appr = 0%
their difference is almost negligible. VL 156.14465us 153.383us 1.80%
Table 2

The measured value is the reference in computing the

percentage difference of each parameters. Using the formula
stated above, the results summarized in the table showed that
there are minimal difference between the computed and the
measured value, although % difference in VR and VL reaches
to considerable difference. Nonetheless, the range between
the values is very negligible considering that they are in
microseconds to nanoseconds. In this case, the principles of
Phase relationships are proven. In addition, the frequency of
the signal affects the phase shift of the signals.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
Figure 8
Calculating the values of the voltage across different
components and their time shifts is never easy. When
simulated, it proves if the computations of the values are function (voltage gain, transimpedance, etc). The ac analysis
correct. I can conclude that in terms of the input voltage and can be combined with a dc sweep so that ac analysis is
voltage across a resistor, as you increase the input frequency, performed at each point over a range of bias conditions.
their phasors or waves becomes more in-phase and
sometimes equal. In capacitors, as you increase the input Allona Jane M. Naoz
frequency, their waves little by little becomes delay or it lags
the input voltage, which is the opposite of the inductor. When
the frequency is increased, the phasor across the inductor gets
REFERENCES
higher and at the same time, it leads the input voltage. Also,
as you increase the input frequency of the circuit, their time [1] http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/worksheets/ac-network-analysis/
shifts gets smaller and smaller that sometimes, their values [2] http://www.wrcad.com/manual/wrsmanual/node5.html
are almost negligible.

Anne Loraine L. Avelino

The experiment hence proved the principles of phasors

and sinusoid relationships and its calculations like the
principle of Kirchhoffs Voltage Law. The experiment clearly
shows that phase difference must be one of the fundamental
principles in analyzing an AC circuit. Leading and lagging of
signals are therefore important matters to consider. In the
experiment, some factors that are not considered are the
accuracy of the software used, and the human factors.
Identifying the peak value for instance just simply
manipulating the cursor on the oscilloscope may affect the
result. However, the results in the comparison present a
negligible difference. Frequency response is also one of the
things that must be dealt with.

Vincent N. Galang

AC Analysis is used to calculate the small-signal

response of a circuit. In AC Analysis, the DC operating point
is first calculated to obtain linear, small-signal models for all
nonlinear components. Then, the equivalent circuit is
analyzed from a start to a stop frequency. The result of an AC
Analysis is displayed in two parts: gain versus frequency and
phase versus frequency. From the experiment, there is a
slight difference between the measured value and computed
value because of the approximations on some parameter and
rounding off the values of it in the computed part. Frequency
of the input signal greatly affects the voltages across each
component making a huge changes on the whole circuit.

Syre Aires Destiny V. Jacinto

To figure out the frequency response of the circuit, we

use the AC analysis. AC needs the frequency so that it can be
calculated with imaginary angles and converts it into polar
form or phasor form. In DC Analysis, we apply the Ohms
law and manipulate it to get the values. While in AC
Analysis, the program first computes the dc operating point
of the circuit and determines linearized, small-signal models
for all of the nonlinear devices in the circuit. The desired
output of an ac small-signal analysis is usually a transfer