CAPACITOR,
CAPACITANCE AND
CAPACITIVE REACTANCE
OBJECTIVES
▪Define capacitance and capacitive reactance
▪Solve for circuit variables in a capacitive circuit including but not
limited to equivalent capacitance, energy stored, charge,
voltage, current and capacitive reactance.
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITOR
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITOR
▪ Device that can store electrical energy.
▪ Recognized by the symbols;
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITOR
▪ Primarily made up of two isolated conductors called plates
separated by an insulator (or vacuum)
▪ The isolated conductors carries charges of the same
magnitude but opposite in sign
Top side of bottom A +
plate has charge -q q
d
V
-q
Bottom side of top
plate has charge +q
Electric field lines
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITOR
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
COMMON APPLICATIONS
▪ Electrical Energy Storage
▪ Power Conditioning
▪ Power Factor Correction
▪ Start Motors
▪ Suppress Noise
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITANCE
▪ The ability of a capacitor to store electrical energy
▪ Capacitance is the ratio of the charge on one plate of a capacitor
to the voltage
▪ In terms of the amount of charge stored and the potential
difference between the plates, capacitance can be expressed as;
where;
q
C= C = capacitance in coulomb per volt or popularly known
as the farad
V q =charge stored on either plates (Coulombs or C)
V = potential difference between the plates (volts or V)
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITANCE
▪ Is a constant depending only on the geometry of the capacitor and the
material between the plates (known as dielectric)
𝜀𝐴
𝐶=
𝑑
where;
ε = permittivity of the material (F/m)
A = surface area of the plates (sq. m)
d = spacing between the plates (m)
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
ENERGY STORED
1 2
ω = 𝐶𝑉
2
where;
ω = Energy (joules)
C = Capacitance (Farad)
V = Voltage (Volts)
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITOR
Important Properties:
1. When voltage across a capacitor is not changing with time,
the current through the capacitor is zero.
▪ As a result, a capacitor is open circuit to DC
2. The voltage on a capacitor must be continuous.
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITOR
Important Properties:
3. Ideal capacitor does not dissipate energy
▪ It takes power from the circuit when
storing energy in its field and returns
previously stored energy when
delivering power to the circuit.
4. A real, non-ideal capacitor has a parallel-
model leakage resistance
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
SAMPLE PROBLEM 1
(a) Calculate the charge stored on a 3-yF capacitor with 20 kV across it.
(b) Find the energy stored in the capacitor.
Solution:
𝑞
𝐶= 𝑞 = 𝐶𝑉 = 3 × 10−24 𝐹 20 × 103 𝑉 = 6 × 10−20 𝐶 = 60 𝑧𝐶
𝑉
1 2 1
ω = 𝐶𝑉 = 60 𝑧𝐶 20 𝑘𝑉 = 0.6 𝑓𝐽
2 2
Answer: 𝒂) 𝟔𝟎 𝒛𝑪 𝒃) 𝟎. 𝟔 𝒇𝑱
CIRCUIT ANALYSIS FOR CAPACITORS
Similar to resistive networks, capacitors may be connected in
series or parallel networks.
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
PARALLEL CAPACITORS
The equivalent capacitance of N parallel-connected
capacitors is the sum of the individual capacitances.
Ceq=C1+C2+….+CN
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
SERIES CAPACITORS
The equivalent capacitance of N series-connected capacitors
is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the individual
capacitances.
1 1 1 1 1
= + + + ⋯+
𝐶𝑒𝑞 𝐶1 𝐶2 𝐶3 𝐶𝑁
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
SAMPLE PROBLEM 2
Find the equivalent capacitance seen between terminals a
and b of the circuit
Answer: 𝟐𝟎 𝝁𝑭
SAMPLE PROBLEM 2
Find the equivalent capacitance seen between terminals a
and b of the circuit
Solution:
𝐶𝑒𝑞 = { (20𝜇𝐹)−1 + (5𝜇𝐹)−1 −1 + 6𝜇𝐹 + 20𝜇𝐹 −1 + 60𝜇𝐹 −1 }−1
𝐶𝑒𝑞 = 20𝜇𝐹
Answer: 𝟐𝟎 𝝁𝑭
PRACTICE PROBLEM 1
Find the equivalent capacitance seen at the terminals of the
circuit
Answer: 40 𝝁𝑭
SAMPLE PROBLEM 3
For the circuit, find the voltage across each capacitor.
Answer:
𝒗𝟏 = 𝟏𝟓 𝑽
𝒗𝟐 = 𝟏𝟎 𝑽
𝒗𝟑 = 𝟓 𝑽
SAMPLE PROBLEM 3
For the circuit, find the voltage across each capacitor.
Solution:
−1 −1 −1 −1
𝐶𝑒𝑞 = 40𝑚𝐹 + 20𝑚𝐹 + 20𝑚𝐹 + 30𝑚𝐹 = 10mF
𝑞 = 𝐶𝑉 = 10𝑚𝐹 30 𝑉 = 0.3 𝐶
0.3 𝐶 0.3 𝐶
𝑉1 = = 15 𝑉 𝑉2 = = 10 𝑉 Answer:
20 𝑚𝐹 30 𝑚𝐹
𝒗𝟏 = 𝟏𝟓 𝑽
𝑉3 = 𝑉 − 𝑉1 − 𝑉2 = 30 𝑉 − 15 𝑉 − 10 𝑉 = 5 𝑉
𝒗𝟐 = 𝟏𝟎 𝑽
𝒗𝟑 = 𝟓 𝑽
PRACTICE PROBLEM 2
Find the voltage across each of the capacitors
Answer:
𝒗𝟏 = 𝟑𝟎 𝑽
𝒗𝟐 = 𝟑𝟎 𝑽
𝒗𝟑 = 𝟏𝟎 𝑽
𝒗𝟒 = 𝟐𝟎 𝑽
PURELY CAPACITIVE AC CIRCUIT
▪ In a purely capacitive AC circuit, the current Ic leads the
applied voltage by 90o.
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITIVE REACTANCE
▪ When the frequency of the voltage increases, its rate
of change also increases.
▪ Capacitor offers opposition to current which is inversely
proportional with frequency.
▪ The opposition to sinusoidal current in a capacitor is
called Capacitive Reactance (Xc) in a unit of ohm.
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
CAPACITIVE REACTANCE
I
V XC An RC series AC circuit
Usually symbolized as XC , capacitive reactance is defined as
1 1
𝑋𝐶 = =
𝑗𝜔𝐶 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝐶
where;
ω = the angular velocity of the electrical energy source, in rad/se
f = the frequency of the electrical energy source, in Hz.
C = the capacitance of the capacitor, in Henrys
XC = capacitive reactance in ohms.
j= imaginary number
EE104 – BASIC ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
SAMPLE PROBLEM 4
Determine the capacitive reactance of a capacitor of 10 μF
when connected to a circuit of frequency (a) 50 Hz (b) 20
kHz
Solution:
1 1
𝑎) 𝑋𝐶1 = = = −𝑗318.31 Ω = 318.31∠ − 90 Ω
𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝐶 𝑗2𝜋(50 𝐻𝑧)(10𝜇𝐹)
1 1
𝑏) 𝑋𝐶2 = = = −𝑗0.7958 Ω = 0.7958∠ − 90 Ω
𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝐶 𝑗2𝜋(20 𝑘𝐻𝑧)(10𝜇𝐹)
Answer:
𝑿𝑪𝟏 = 𝟑𝟏𝟖. 𝟑𝟏∠ − 𝟗𝟎 𝛀; 𝑿𝑪𝟐 = 𝟎. 𝟕𝟗𝟓𝟖∠ − 𝟗𝟎 𝛀
PRACTICE PROBLEM 3
A capacitor has a reactance of 40 Ω when operated on a 50
Hz supply. Determine the value of its capacitance.
Answer:
𝑪 = 𝟕𝟗. 𝟓𝟕𝟕𝟓 𝝁𝑭
SAMPLE PROBLEM 5
Calculate the current taken by a 23 μF capacitor when
connected to a 240V, 50 Hz supply.
Solution:
1 1
𝑋𝐶 = = = −𝑗138.3956 Ω
𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝐶 𝑗2𝜋(50 𝐻𝑧)(23 𝜇𝐹)
𝑉 240 𝑉
𝑉 = 𝐼𝑋𝐶 𝐼= = = 1.7342∠90 𝐴 Answer:
𝑋𝐶 −𝑗 138.3956
𝑰 = 𝟏. 𝟕𝟑𝟒𝟐∠𝟗𝟎 𝑨
