Electrical Engineering ⇒ Topic : Ripple factor

Ripple factor

The ripple factor is defined as the ratio of the effective value of the AC component of voltage or current to the direct or average value. The effective value of current is given by

                                               ........... (1)

                                                                            ............. (2)

where I₁, I₂, ... are the r.m.s. values of the fundamental, second harmonic, etc. and I²_a.c the sum of squares of the r.m.s. values of the components.

The ripple factor ϒ is given by

                              ............... (3)

For a half-wave rectifier,

Hence ripple factor                           ............... (4)

The ripple frequency in a half-wave rectifier circuit is the same as the fundamental AC frequency, and hence half-wave method of rectification with single-phase AC supply is not used for power charging. Also the r.m.s. ripple voltage exceeds the DC voltage and hence is a poor converter to DC