How to calculate equivalent capacitance of a circuit?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
The voltage ( Vc ) connected across all the capacitors that are connected in parallel is THE SAME. Then, Capacitors in Parallel have a “common voltage” supply across them giving:
VC1 = VC2 = VC3 = VAB = 12V
In the following circuit the capacitors, C1, C2 and C3 are all connected together in a parallel branch between points A and B as shown.
capacitors in parallel
When capacitors are connected together in parallel the total or equivalent capacitance, CT in the circuit is equal to the sum of all the individual capacitors added together. This is because the top plate of capacitor, C1 is connected to the top plate of C2 which is connected to the top plate of C3 and so on.
The same is also true of the capacitors bottom plates. Then it is the same as if the three sets of plates were touching each other and equal to one large single plate thereby increasing the effective plate area in m2.
Since capacitance, C is related to plate area ( C = ε(A/d) ) the capacitance value of the combination will also increase. Then the total capacitance value of the capacitors connected together in parallel is actually calculated by adding the plate area together. In other words, the total capacitance is equal to the sum of all the individual capacitance’s in parallel. You may have noticed that the total capacitance of parallel capacitors is found in the same way as the total resistance of series resistors.
The currents flowing through each capacitor and as we saw in the previous tutorial are related to the voltage.