Resonance Circuits
• Prepared by Prof. E. Ambikairajah (Head of
School of Electrical Engineering and
Telecommunications, Australia) and modified
by Prof. T. Thiruvaran
Resonance
Series Resonance
Parallel Resonance
Series to Parallel Conversion
Resonance
Resonance is the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum
amplitude at a certain frequency known as the resonant
frequency.
The possibility of resonance always exists wherever there is
periodic motion - movement that is repeated at regular
intervals.
The resonant system may be electrical, mechanical, hydraulic ,
acoustic or some other kind.
Electrical resonance occurs in an electric circuit at a
particular frequency when the imaginary parts of impedances
of circuit elements cancel each other.
A circuit is in resonance when the voltage and current at the
circuit input terminals are in phase.
Resonant circuits can generate higher voltages and currents
than the input voltage or current.
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Series Resonance
RLC circuits posses the distinctive ability to provide natural
responses of the oscillatory type. The energy flows back and
forth between the capacitance and the inductance.
Consider a series RLC circuit
The impedance seen by the source is
where net reactance
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Depending on the frequency of the applied source, we have
three possibilities
This behaviour, referred to as unity power-factor resonance,
occurs at the special frequency o that makes or
. rad/sec
is called the resonance frequency
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For obvious reasons, is called the resonance frequency. Even
though the individual impedances L and C are not zero, at
resonance frequency they cancel each other out, making the
‘LC’ combination act as a short circuit.
X L L
0 1 o
L
C 1
XC
C
The component of in a series RLC circuit is
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Figure below shows the current at resonance
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At Resonance
VLO: Voltage across the inductor
at resonance
VCO: Voltage across the capacitor
at resonance
Resonant frequency
Current at resonance At resonance
At series resonance equal impedance)
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At Resonance
At series resonance equal impedance)
Then by definition, the quality factor of the series RLC circuit
We have
At resonance , voltage across the inductor at resonance,
At resonance , voltage across the capacitor at resonance,
The peak voltage amplitude across the reactive elements (at resonance)
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exceeds the peak amplitude of the applied signal (𝑉𝑚).
Resonance Voltage Rise
At resonance
and
=0
Note: Maximum current occurs in the circuit at resonance
Clearly if , the peak voltage across the reactive elements
will be greater than that of the applied voltage, a phenomenon
known as resonance voltage rise.
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Resonance Voltage Rise
The amount of magnification depends on the quality factor.
For example if , , then
Much greater than
the applied voltage
It is interesting to note that the smaller the resistance in a
series RLC circuit, the higher the value of and hence greater
amount of voltage rise at resonance.
In the limit , we would have and
this would result in an infinite voltage rise.
The quality factor is also a measure of frequency selectivity.
Thus, we say that a circuit with a high has a high selectivity,
whereas a low circuit has low selectivity.
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Figure below shows the relative response versus for
and where we observe that highest provides the best
frequency selectivity, i.e. the higher rejection of signal
component outside the bandwidth ( ) which is
the difference in 3 dB frequencies.
The quality factor (Q) is the ratio of its resonant
𝝎𝟎 𝑹
frequency to its bandwidth. 𝑩𝑾 𝑳
=
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At resonance, the average power dissipated in the resistance
is also maximised,
The frequencies at which is down to half its maximum value
are the half-power frequencies and .
Half-power
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𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙
We can show that,
If , then the half-power frequencies are given by the
approximate expressions:
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Example
Let , , , . Calculate the phasor
voltages across the elements (if is the resonant frequency) for
(a) (b) (c)
We have × × ×
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mA
𝑉 = 400 x 25 x 10 = 10 𝑉
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Parallel Resonance
Another type of circuit known as a parallel resonant circuit is
shown below:
The admittance seen by the source is the sum of the three
admittances.
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We expect a resonance behaviour when the susceptance
and cancel each other out and this occurs when .
Hence, we have
The resonance frequency
is exactly the same as the expression for the resonant
frequency of the series circuit.
We observe that at parallel resonant frequency
(resistive)
and
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At resonance
(magnitude)
(magnitude)
(magnitude)
At parallel resonance,
By definition quality factor at parallel resonance
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Eventhough the individual admittance and are nonzero,
their sum vanishes at resonance, making the parallel
combination of and effectively behave as an open circuit.
The average power dissipated in the resistance
The frequencies at which is down to half its maximum value
are the half power frequencies and and the half-power
, such that
Combining these
equations, we get
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Example
Find the and values for a parallel resonant circuit that has ,
, . If ,.
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Practical Resonant Circuit
The parallel RLC configuration is known as tuned circuit, such as
tuned oscillators and tuned amplifiers in radio communications.
Of the three components making up an RLC circuit, the inductor
is the least ideal because of the winding resistance ( ).
We wish to investigate the impact of upon the resonance
frequency.
For an ideal inductor
For non ideal inductor, we have
By rationalising the last term, we obtain
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We are interested in the frequency that makes purely real
Imaginary part = 0
In the limit (ideal case)
The quality factor of the coils is
Clearly, the higher the value of the is close to
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Series to Parallel Conversion
Series to parallel
conversion of an RL
circuit
It is possible to select and so that, at a given frequency ,
the admittance of the parallel structure equals that of the series
structure.
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Rationalising both sides and equating the real and imaginary
parts yields
Equating the
real parts
RP = Parallel
If then resistance
Equating the
imaginary
parts
If is very small
Note:
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Example
A parallel RLC circuit has , 𝑠 , . Find
resonant frequency , bandwidth , and the quality factor
for (a) and (b) .
(a) With i.e.
× × ×
𝑅
𝑄𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑖𝑡 = 𝑅𝜔 𝐶 =
𝜔 𝐿
𝜔
𝑄𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑖𝑡 =
𝐵𝑊
1
𝐵𝑊 =
𝑅𝐶
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𝑅 +𝜔 𝐿
(b) With i.e. 𝐿 =
𝜔 𝐿
× ×
rad/sec
1 1
𝜔 =
𝐿 𝐶 1
1+
𝑄
𝜔
𝑄𝑐𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑖𝑡 =
𝐵𝑊
Note : The quality factor of the circuit has changed from 100 (when
or ) to 33.33 (when or )
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Example
A radio receiver with a parallel circuit has an inductance . It
is tuned to a radio station transmitting at 810 kHz frequency.
(a) What is the value of the capacitor of the circuit at this resonant
frequency?
(b) What is the value of resistance if ?
(c) If a nearby radio station transmits 740 kHz and both signals are picked
up by the antenna having the same current amplitude , what is the
ratio of the voltage at 810 kHz to the voltage at 740 kHz.
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Example
A radio receiver with a parallel circuit has an inductance . It
is tuned to a radio station transmitting at 810 kHz frequency.
(a) What is the value of the capacitor of the circuit at this resonant
frequency?
resonant frequency
(b) What is the value of resistance if ?
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(c) If a nearby radio station transmits 740 kHz and both signals are picked
up by the antenna having the same current amplitude , what is the
ratio of the voltage at 810 kHz to the voltage at 740 kHz.
×
/
That is, the voltage developed across the parallel circuit when it is tuned at 𝑓=810 𝑘𝐻𝑧 is x
times larger than the voltage developed at 𝑓=740 𝑘𝐻𝑧.
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Summary
Series Resonance Parallel Resonance
Equation
Circuit current Max current: Max voltage:
Bandwidth
Quality factor = =
Resonant rise Voltage ( or ) Current ( or )
Phase angle
Power factor
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Exercise 5.1
Q1: Determine the and values for a series resonant circuit
that has , , and . Find the
bandwidth and approximate half-power frequencies of the circuit.
Answer: 𝐶 = 2533 𝑝𝐹, 𝑅 = 1.257 Ω, 𝐵𝑊 = 20 𝑘𝐻𝑧, 𝑓 ≈ 990 𝑘𝐻𝑧, and 𝑓 ≈ 1010 𝑘𝐻𝑧
Q2: (a) Using a inductance, specify suitable values for
and to implement a series RLC circuit that resonates at 1 MHz
with a quality factor of 100.
Answer: (a) R = 6.283 Ω and 𝐶 = 253.3 𝑝𝐹,
(b) If the circuit is driven with a source having a peak amplitude of
1 Volt, find the power it dissipates at resonance, as well as the
amplitudes of the voltages across its reactive elements.
Answer: 79.58 𝑚𝑊, 100 𝑉
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Exercise 5.1
Q3: For the circuit shown below and
Find the resonance frequency , bandwidth , upper cut-off
frequency and the lower cur-off frequency .
Ans: 𝜔 = 30000 rad/sec, 𝐵𝑊 = 600 𝑟𝑎𝑑/ sec 𝜔 = 29700 rad/sec, 𝜔 = 30300 𝑟𝑎𝑑/𝑠𝑒𝑐
Q4: Find the and values for a series resonant circuit that has
= 470 , a resonant frequency of 5 MHz, and a bandwidth of 200
kHz.
Answer: (a) R = 2.709 Ω and L= 2.156 μH,
Q5: A parallel resonant circuit has 0
and . Find L and C.
Answer: L= 0.3183 μH, C= 795.8 pF
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Exercise 5.1
Q6: The circuit in Fig. 4.1 can be converted to Fig. 4.2. Using Fig
4.2 ,
(i) show that where
(ii) Show that the Bandwidth (BW)
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