AC circuits: inductive reactance,

capacitive reactance, impedance

and admittance

• voltage-current profiles of L, C, RL, RC and circuits

• impedance of RL, RC and RLC circuits

Notes from Gibilisco; Teach

Yourself Electricity and
Electronics, McGraw-Hill,
Chapters 13-15
CHM6158C - Lecture 18 1
 Inductive reactance (XL)
inductance = property of circuit where change in electric current through the
circuit induces an electromotive force that opposes the change in current
= …..

Increase AC frequency –
what will be the effect?

Frequency (Hz) Inductance

(Henrys = Ωs)

Inductive reactance: X L = 6.28 fL

2
 Examples
• inductance = 0.50 H, frequency = 60 Hz, what is XL?

• for the same circuit as above, we use a battery with 12 VDC, what is XL?

What are the units of XL?

3
 Voltage-current profile

For pure inductance circuit For pure resistance circuit

Current lags driving (source) voltage Current in phase with driving (source)
voltage

4
Inductive reactance and resistance

5
Combined inductance and resistance

6
Phase angle

Apply Pythagoras to obtain

hypotenuse = impedance

sinφ =

7
 Capacitive reactance (XC)
Similarly to inductance, capacitance has an effect on impedance

By convention, capacitive reactance is expressed as a negative

ohmic value

8
AC and capacitance

What is the voltage-current

profile going to look like?

9
 Current leads voltage

Hz F

Capacitive reactance: X C = −1 /(6.28 fC )

10
 Inverse relationship

Intuitive understanding:
Larger C ⇒ more movement of charge ⇒ smaller resistance
Higher f ⇒ more movement of charge ⇒ approach short-circuit
11
 Examples
• capacitor = 0.001 μF, frequency = 1 MHz, what is XC?

• for the same circuit as above, we use a battery with 12 VDC, what is XC?

For the second question, what

this mean for transmission on
DC across a capacitor?

12
Combined capacitive reactance and resistance

Work out phase angle

13
 Impedance
Impedance (Z) = resistance to AC current, composed of resistance, inductive
reactance and capacitive reactance

Inductive reactance

Absolute value of
impedance

Resistance

Capacitive reactance 14
 RLC in-series circuit

Z = R + j(XL + XC)

Examples:
• R = 50 Ω, XL = 22 Ω, XC = -33 Ω
• R = 50 Ω, XL = 444 Ω, XC = -444 Ω

15
 Inverse definitions
DC circuit AC circuit

Resistance (R) ≠ conductance (G) Impedance (Z) ≠ admittance (Y)

Reactance (X) ≠ susceptance (B)

BUT, note sign inversion for

imaginary numbers:
BC = 1/XC, but due to imaginary
numbers:

jBC = -j/XC

Example:

XC = 10 Ω, what is jBC?

jBC = 1/(j10) = (1/j)(1/10) = -j 0.1

16
 RLC in-parallel

Y = G + j(BL + BC)
GB plane

Example:
• G = 0.1 Siemens, BL = -j0.010,
BC = j0.020

17