Phasors

Define Phasor?

A phasor is a complex number used to represent the magnitude and phase of a sinusoidal function, particularly in the context of alternating current (AC) electricity, signal processing, and wave mechanics.

What are Phasor diagrams?

Phasor diagrams present a graphical representation, plotted on a coordinate system, of the phase relationship between the voltages and currents within passive components or a whole circuit. Generally, phasors are defined relative to a reference phasor which is always points to the right along the x-axis. 

How to calculate circuit impedance? 

 To Calculate the circuit impedance (Z):

 Step 1: Find the capacitor’s impedance XC and the inductor’s impedance XL then do the subtraction XL – XC

Step 2: Square the difference (XL – XC) and add it to the square value of the resistance R. 

Step 3: Square root the end result to get Z measured in Ohms.  

Explain the uses of the Phasor diagram.

Uses of phasor diagram are: 

  • Vectors, Phasors and Phasor diagrams can only be applied to sinusoidal AC alternating quantities. 
  • Phasor Diagrams can be used to represent two or more stationary sinusoidal quantities at any instant in time. 
  • Phasor diagrams can be drawn to represent more than two sinusoids. They can be either voltage, current or some other alternating quantity but the frequency of all of them must be the same.

How to draw a phasor diagram?

There are Five Rules for Drawing Phasor Diagrams.

Rule 1: The length of the phasor is directly proportional to the amplitude of the wave depicted.

Rule 2: In circuits which have L, C, R connected in series. It is customary to draw the phasor representing current horizontally, and call this the reference phasor.

Rule 3: In parallel circuits, where L, C, and R are connected in parallel, the phasor representing the supply voltage is always drawn in the reference direction.

Rule 4: The direction of rotation of all phasors is considered to be Anticlockwise.

Rule 5: In any one diagram, the same type of value (RMS, peak, etc) is used for all phasors, not a mixture of values. 

How are Phasor diagrams used to denote Phase Difference?

 Every phasor in the diagram will have the same angular velocity because they represent sine waves of identical frequency. The length of the each phasor arm is directly related to the amplitude of the wave it represents, and the angle between the phasors is the same as the angle of phase difference between the sine waves.



Phasors | Definition, Examples & Diagram

Phasor analysis is used to determine the steady-state response to a linear circuit functioning on sinusoidal sources with frequency (f). It is very common. For example, one can use phasor analysis to differentiate the frequency response of a circuit by performing phasor analysis over a range of frequencies. The circuit should be in a stable state so that any transient behavior dies away over time and the response becomes completely repetitive.

In this article, we have provided details about what are phasors, phasor analysis, its Phasors definition, Phasors diagram, and Phasors applications.

Table of Content

  • What are Phasors?
    • Phasors Definition
  • Phasor Diagram
  • Properties of Phasors
  • Impedance of AC Circuit 
  • Application of Phasors in AC Circuits
    • People Also Read:
  • Phasors Examples

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What are Phasors?

Phasor analysis computes only the steady-state behavior. The circuit should be linear, which means it is constructed from linear components like simple resistors, capacitors, and inductors. A linear component is one whose response is proportional to its input. For example, a resistor is considered linear if V = IR because voltage V, the response, is proportional to I, the input with the constant of proportionality being R....

Phasor Diagram

A phasor can be a scaled line whose length determines an AC quantity that has both magnitude (peak amplitude) and direction (phase) which is frozen at some point in time. A phasor diagram is used to show the phase relationship between two or more sine waves having the same frequency. In a phasor diagram, the phasors are represented by open arrows, which rotate counterclockwise, with an angular frequency of ω about the origin....

Properties of Phasors

The length of a phasor is proportional to the maximum value of the alternating quantity involved.  The projection of a phasor on the vertical axis gives the instantaneous value of the alternating quantity involved....

Impedance of AC Circuit

Every component used in the circuit has an internal resistance that depends on the material used for the component. In an AC circuit, the voltage across each electrical component depends on its resistance. For the resistors used in the circuit, the voltage across it is given by Ohm’s law as, VR = I × R where I is the electric current amplitude across the resistor and R is the resistance of the element....

Application of Phasors in AC Circuits

Phasors are particularly useful in alternating current (AC) circuit analysis because they allow the use of complex algebra to solve circuits. This simplifies calculations involving sinusoidal voltages and currents with different phases. By converting time-domain signals into phasors, one can easily add or subtract voltages and currents, calculate impedances, and solve for unknowns using Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff’s laws in the frequency domain. After the calculations are complete, the results can be converted back to the time domain to interpret physically....

Phasors Examples

Example 1: The phase difference between the alternating current and voltage represented by the following equation I = I0 sin ωt, E = E0 cos(ωt + π/3), will be...

Summary – Phasors

Phasors are an invaluable mathematical tool in engineering and physics, especially when it comes to analyzing circuits that operate with sinusoidal signals — think waves of electricity that ebb and flow over time. Imagine trying to understand a conversation where everyone speaks at the same tone but with varying loudness and timing; that’s similar to how phasors help engineers differentiate signals in a circuit. They boil down the complex dance of alternating current (AC) signals to simpler terms of magnitude and phase, ignoring the frequency since it’s uniform across the board....

Phasors – FAQs

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