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    Capacitive Reactance

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    yogoc
    The document discusses capacitive reactance, which is the internal resistance of a capacitor. Capacitive reactance varies with frequency - it decreases as frequency increases and increases as frequency decreases. This is because as frequency increases, charge passes through the capacitor plates more rapidly. The document provides an example calculation of capacitive reactance and shows that it can be plotted against frequency.

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    Capacitive Reactance

    Uploaded by

    yogoc
    15 views3 pages
    The document discusses capacitive reactance, which is the internal resistance of a capacitor. Capacitive reactance varies with frequency - it decreases as frequency increases and increases as frequency decreases. This is because as frequency increases, charge passes through the capacitor plates more rapidly. The document provides an example calculation of capacitive reactance and shows that it can be plotted against frequency.

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    The document discusses capacitive reactance, which is the internal resistance of a capacitor. Capacitive reactance varies with frequency - it decreases as frequency increases and increases as frequency decreases. This is because as frequency increases, charge passes through the capacitor plates more rapidly. The document provides an example calculation of capacitive reactance and shows that it can be plotted against frequency.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    15 views3 pages

    Capacitive Reactance

    Uploaded by

    yogoc
    The document discusses capacitive reactance, which is the internal resistance of a capacitor. Capacitive reactance varies with frequency - it decreases as frequency increases and increases as frequency decreases. This is because as frequency increases, charge passes through the capacitor plates more rapidly. The document provides an example calculation of capacitive reactance and shows that it can be plotted against frequency.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Capacitive Reactance

    In the RC Network tutorial we saw that when a DC voltage is applied to a capacitor the capacitor draws a charging
    current from the supply and charges up. Likewise, when the supply voltage is reduced the charge stored in the capacitor

    also reduces, the capacitor discharges. In a circuit were the applied voltage signal is continually changing from a positive

    cycle to a negative cycle at a rate that is determined by the frequency (a sine wave voltage), so the capacitor is either

    being charged or discharged on a continuous basis. As the capacitor charges or discharges a current flows through it

    which itself is restricted by the internal resistance of the capacitor. This internal resistance is known as its Capacitive

    Reactance and is given the symbol XC in ohms.

    Unlike resistance which has a fixed value, ie 100Ωs, 1kΩ, 10kΩ etc (this is because resistance obeys Ohms Law),
    Capacitive Reactance varies with frequency. As the frequency applied to the capacitor increases its reactance
    (measured in ohms) decreases and as the frequency decreases its reactance increases. This is because the electrons in

    the form of an electrical charge on the capacitor plates, pass from one plate to the other more rapidly with respect to the

    varying frequency. As the frequency increases, the capacitor passes more charge across the plates in a given time

    resulting in a greater current flow through the capacitor appearing as if the internal resistance of the capacitor has

    decreased. Therefore, a capacitor connected in an AC circuit can be said to be "Frequency Dependant".

    Capacitive Reactance has the electrical symbol "Xc" and has units measured in Ohms the same as resistance, (R). It is
    calculated using the following formula:

    Capacitive Reactance

    Capacitive Reactance Formula

    • Where:
    • Xc = Capacitive Reactance in Ohms, (Ω)
    • π (pi) = 3.142
    • ƒ = Frequency in Hertz, (Hz)
    • C = Capacitance in Farads, (F)

    Example No1

    Calculate the capacitive reactance of a 220nF capacitor at a frequency of 1kHz and again at 20kHz.

    At a frequency of 1kHz,
    Again at a frequency of 20kHz,

    where: ƒ = frequency in Hertz and C = capacitance in Farads

    It can be seen that as the frequency applied to our 220nF capacitor increases from 1kHz to 20kHz, its reactance

    decreases from approx 723Ωs to just 36Ωs. For any given value of capacitance the reactance of a capacitor can be

    plotted against the frequency as shown below.

    Capacitive Reactance against Frequency

    By re-arranging the reactance formula above, we can also find at what frequency a capacitor gives a particular reactance

    value.

    For example. - At which frequency would a 2.2uF Capacitor have a reactance value of 200Ωs?

    Or we can find the value of the capacitor in Farads by knowing the applied frequency and its reactance value at that

    frequency.
    For example. - What will be the value of a Capacitor when it has a reactance of 200Ω when connected to a Frequency of
    50Hz.

    We can see from the above examples that a capacitor when connected to an AC circuit acts a bit like a frequency

    controlled variable resistor and at very low frequencies, such as 1Hz our 220nF capacitor has a reactance of approx

    723KΩs (giving the effect of an open circuit), and at very high frequencies such as 1Mhz the capacitor will have a
    reactance of just 0.7 ohms (giving the effect of a short circuit). At zero frequency or DC the capacitor has infinite reactance

    looking like an "open-circuit" and blocking any flow of current. This property makes capacitors ideal for use in power

    supply smoothing circuits to reduce the effects of any unwanted Ripple Voltage as the capacitor applies an AC signal
    short circuit path to any unwanted frequency signals on the output terminals.

    Summary

    So, we can summarize the behaviour of a capacitor in a circuit with a varying voltage signal as being a sort of frequency

    controlled resistor that has a high Reactance value (open circuit condition) at very low frequencies and low Reactance

    value (short circuit condition) at very high frequencies as shown in the graph above. It is important to remember these two

    conditions when using capacitors in RC filter circuits.

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