DIRECT CURRENT AND ALTERNATING CURRENT WHAT IS ELECTRICITY???

Before discussing about the alternating current and direct current lets look what electricity means. Elecricity is voltage and current. Voltage is electrical pressure and current is the flow of charged particles. We omit the voltage and lets look about the current part due to the topic which is about current. Current is the movement of the charged particles fromthe negative terminalof the source, through the load and back to the positive terminal of the source. The negatively charged particles at one terminalof a source with respect to the other terminal is the voltage.

TYPES OF CURRENT
There are two types of current :i. Alternating Current ii. Direct Current

ALTERNATING CURRENT
An alternating current (a.c.) is the currentwhich changes periodically both in magnitude and direction. Such change in magnitude and directionis measures in terms of cycles. Each cycles of A.C. consist oftwo half cycles namely positive and negative cycles. Current increases in agnitude, in one particular direction, attains maximum and starts decreasing, passing through zero it increases in opposite direction and behaves similarly.

An AC waveform can be changed into DC waveform by the help of rectifier/ diodes.

 This type of waveform is called a pulsating DC where the magnitude changes but the direction is still constant.

ADVANTAGES OF AC
The voltage in AC system can be raised or lowered with the help ofa device called transformer. In DC system, raising and lowering of voltages is not easy. As the voltages can be raised, electrical transmission at high voltages is possible. Now, higher the voltage, lesser is the current flowing through transmission line. Less the current, lesser are the copper losses and lesser is the conducting material required. This makes AC transmission always economical and efficient. AC electrical motors are simple in construction, are cheaper and require less attention from maintainance point of view. Whenever it is necessary, AC supply can be easily converted to obtain Dcsupply. This is required as DC is very much essential for the applications like cranes, printing process, battery charging, telephone system, etc. But such requirement of DC is very small compared to AC. There are few factors that affects analternating current:i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. Instantaneous value Waveform Cycle Time period (T) Frequency (f) Amplitude Angular frequency

DIRECT CURRENT
A direct current DC is the current which keeps both the magnitude and direction constant. Normally a DC current only have positive magnitude and the waveform is only inone direction. The DC waveform is a straight line due to its constant magnitude and direction.

 The straight line of the DC waveform is obtained through smoothing process. An electrolyte capacitor is used for this smoothing process. The capacitor saves/ receives charge during the circuit is operating and release

charges when the circuit is disconnected.

DC GENERATION
The mechanical energy is converted into the electrical energy with the help of a generator.

Mechanical Energy

Generator

Electrical Energy

PRINCIPLE OF DC GENERATION
DC generator is an electromechanical device which converts mechanical energy to DC electrical energy. Mechanical energy is applied to a DC generator as input and DC electrical energy is obtained from the generator output. A DC generator has two main parts :i. Rotor ii. Stator Have two windings:i. Field windings ii. Armature windings Field winding is placed on the stator and armature windings on the rotor. There is a gap filled with air in between rotor and stator. DC supply is fed to the field winding. DC current flows through the field winding. This DC field current produces electromagnet in the rotor. Magnetic flux produced by this electromagnet flows from north-pole to south-pole through air gap.

 Thus, flux is produced and cuts the armature winding producing an electromotive force (EMF).