Linear Circuit Analysis
1. Introduction
2. Basic Concepts
- Currents and voltages
- Linear circuits
- Linear components
- Loops and nodes
- Series and parallel
- R, L & C combinations
- V & I combinations
- Power and energy
3. Simple Circuits
- Ohm's law
- Kirchhoff's current law
- Kirchhoff's voltage law
- Single loop circuits
- Single node-pair circuits
- Voltage division
- Current division
4. Nodal and Mesh Analysis
5. Additional Analysis Techniques
- Superposition
- Source transformation
- The $V_{test}/I_{test}$ method
- Norton equivalent
- Thévenin equivalent
- Max power transfer
6. AC Analysis
7. Magnetically Coupled Circuits
8. Operational Amplifiers
9. Laplace Transforms
10. Time-Dependent Circuits
- Introduction
- First-order transients
- Nodal analysis
- Mesh analysis
- Laplace transforms
- Additional techniques
11. Two-port networks
Appendix
Resonance in RLC circuits
Series RLC
Consider the series RLC circuit shown in Fig. 1. The impedance seen by the voltage source is $Z=R+\textcolor{blue}{j} \left(\omega L + \frac{1}{\omega C}\right)$ The frequency at which the impedance is purely real is called resonance frequency
$$\begin{equation}\omega_0=\frac{1}{\sqrt{L C}}\end{equation}$$
Fig. 2 shows the relative magnitude of $\left|\frac{V_R}{V_1}\right|$ as a function of frequency. If the resistor denotes the output and the voltage source is the input, the RLC circuit shown in Fig. 1 is a
band-pass filter, in which the maximum of the transfer function occurs at the resonant frequency $\omega_0$ and the bandwidth is
$$\begin{equation}BW=\omega_H-\omega_L\end{equation}$$
where $\omega_H$ and $\omega_L$ are the half-power frequencies of the filter. The half-power frequencies are defined as the frequencies at which the relative magnitude of the transfer function decreases to $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$ and can be computed by solving
$\left|\frac{V_R}{V_1}\right| = \frac{R}{\sqrt{R^2+ \left(\omega L + \frac{1}{\omega C}\right)^2}}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$. We obtain
$$\begin{equation}\omega_L=\omega_0\left(-\frac{1}{2 Q}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4 Q^2}+1}\right) \end{equation}$$
$$\begin{equation}\omega_H=\omega_0\left(\frac{1}{2 Q}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4 Q^2}+1}\right) \end{equation}$$
Multiplying the last two equations, we find
$$\begin{equation}\omega_0^2=\omega_L\omega_H\end{equation}$$
which shows that the resonant frequency $\omega_0$ is the geometric mean of the two half-power frequencies.
Although the magnitude of the current in the circuit (and consequently the magnitude of the voltage across the resistor) is maximum when $\omega=\omega_0$, it can be shown that the voltage across the reactive elements is not maximum at resonance. Indeed, the voltage across the inductor can be computed by maximizing $\left|\frac{V_L}{V_1}\right| = \frac{\left|\textcolor{blue}{j} \omega L\right|}{\left|R+\textcolor{blue}{j} \left(\omega L + \frac{1}{\omega C}\right)\right|} = \frac{\omega L}{\sqrt{R^2+ \left(\omega L + \frac{1}{\omega C}\right)^2}}$ with respect to $\omega$, which gives $$\begin{equation}\omega_{max,L}=\omega_0\left(1-\frac{1}{2 Q^2}\right)^{-\frac{1}{2}}\end{equation}$$ The voltage across the capacitor can be computed by maximizing $\left|\frac{V_C}{V_1}\right| = \frac{1}{\omega C \left|R+\textcolor{blue}{j} \left(\omega L + \frac{1}{\omega C}\right)\right|} = \frac{1}{\omega C \sqrt{R^2+ \left(\omega L + \frac{1}{\omega C}\right)^2}}$ with respect to $\omega$, which gives $$\begin{equation}\omega_{max,C}=\omega_0\left(1-\frac{1}{2 Q^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\end{equation}$$ Notice that the above frequencies exist only when $Q \gt \sqrt{2}$. In addition, the following equation is satisfied $$\begin{equation}\omega_0^2=\omega_{max,L}\cdot\omega_{max,C}\end{equation}$$ For large $Q$ we have $\omega_{max,L}\approx\omega_0\approx \omega_{max,C}$.
Parallel RLC
Now, consider the parallel RLC circuit shown in Fig. 3. The impedance seen by the current source is $Z=\left[\frac{1}{R}+\textcolor{blue}{j} \left(\omega C + \frac{1}{\omega L}\right)\right]^{-1}$ The resonance frequency is again
$$\begin{equation}\omega_0=\frac{1}{\sqrt{L C}}\end{equation}$$
If the resistor denotes the output and the current source is the input, the RLC circuit can be regarded as a band-stop filter, in which the maximum of the transfer function, $\left|\frac{V_R}{I_1}\right|$, occurs at the resonant frequency $\omega_0$ and the bandwidth is $$\begin{equation}BW=\omega_H-\omega_L\end{equation}$$ where $\omega_H$ and $\omega_L$ are the half-power frequencies of the filter, which are given by $$\begin{equation}\omega_L=\omega_0\left(-\frac{1}{2 Q}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4 Q^2}+1}\right) \end{equation}$$ $$\begin{equation}\omega_H=\omega_0\left(\frac{1}{2 Q}+\sqrt{\frac{1}{4 Q^2}+1}\right) \end{equation}$$ One can verify that $$\begin{equation}\omega_0^2=\omega_L\omega_H\end{equation}$$
The frequencies at which the currents going through capacitor and inductor are maximum are $$\begin{equation}\omega_{max,L}=\omega_0\left(1-\frac{1}{2 Q^2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\end{equation}$$ $$\begin{equation}\omega_{max,C}=\omega_0\left(1-\frac{1}{2 Q^2}\right)^{-\frac{1}{2}}\end{equation}$$ Like in the series case, these frequencies exist only when $Q \gt \sqrt{2}$ and satisfy $\omega_0^2=\omega_{max,L}\cdot\omega_{max,C}$.
Sample Solved Problems
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Series RLC
Series RLC circuit; given: (Q, w0), compute: (BW)
Series RLC circuit; given: (Q, w0), compute: (wL, wH)
Series RLC circuit; given: (R, L, C), compute: (w0, Q)
Series RLC circuit; given: (R, L, C), compute: (w0, wL, Q, wH)
Series RLC circuit; given: (R, L, w0), compute: (C, Q)
Series RLC circuit; given: (R, C, w0), compute: (L, Q)
Series RLC circuit; given: (L, C, Q), compute: (w0, R)
Series RLC circuit
Series RLC circuit; given: (R, L, C), compute: (w0, Q, wmaxL, wmaxC)
Series RLC circuit; given: (wmaxL, wmaxC), compute: (w0 Q,BW)
Series RLC circuit; given: (R, wmaxL, wmaxC), compute: (w0, Q, L, C)
Series RLC circuit (includes wmaxL and wmaxC)
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Parallel RLC
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (Q, w0), compute: (BW)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (Q, w0), compute: (wL, wH)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (R, L, C), compute: (w0, Q)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (R, L, C), compute: (w0, wL, Q, wH)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (R, L, w0), compute: (C, Q)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (R, C, w0), compute: (L, Q)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (L, C, Q), compute: (w0, R)
Parallel RLC circuit
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (R, L, C), compute: (w0, Q, wmaxL, wmaxC)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (wmaxL, wmaxC), compute: (w0 Q,BW)
Parallel RLC circuit; given: (R, wmaxL, wmaxC), compute: (w0, Q, L, C)
Parallel RLC circuit (includes wmaxL and wmaxC)