The Engineering Projects

Difference Between AC and DC Power

Hello friends, I hope you all are fine and having fun. In today's tutorial, I am going to share the difference between AC and DC Power. In our everyday life, we have noticed many times about AC and DC but very few of us know exactly the difference between them, and this is mostly the favorite question of interviewer, so today we will see their difference.Electricity is basically a type of energy, which  is produced or generate because of movement of electrons within any conductor. This movement of electrons can be in one direction only or they can also move in two directions. On the basis of the movement of electrons, we get two types of electric energy, one is called Direct Current (DC) and other one is Alternating Current (AC). You should also have a look at Difference Between AC and DC Motors.Lets check Difference Between AC and DC Power in detail one by one:

Direct Current (DC)

• Direct Current originate because of movement of electrons in a conductor in one direction.
• In DC case, electrons don't change their direction and keep on moving in one direction.
• A magnetic field near a wire causes the electrons in the wire to flow in one direction along the wire. The reason of movement of electrons is because they are repelled and attracted by the poles of the magnet.
• DC current was invented by Thomas Edison.
• DC batteries we use in the cars based on this phenomena.

Alternating Current (AC)

• When electrons in a conductor moves in two directions than AC current generates.
• AC current was invented by Nikola Tesla , a Serbian scientist.
• Instead of applying the magnetism along the wire steadily (in one direction), he used a magnet that was rotating.In other words changing its direction.
• When the magnet was oriented in one direction, the electrons start to flow towards positive direction and when magnet oriented in opposite direction, they begin to move in opposite direction.
• That's the reason alternating current keeps on changing its polarity.

The Question is ???

• Now the question arises that when we had Direct Current , then whats.'s the need of Alternating Current ???
• Answer to this question is DC stores very low energy that's why we can't use it for long distances but the AC current can easily move to very long ranges.
• You have observed that all those thing where we need current just on the spot we use DC, such as in the cars. We are generating DC and using it at the same spot.
• But when there's a need to send energy at long distance we use AC such as in our house, all the energy coming from Power Plant to our houses is AC.

Note :

• There is also a limit of range for AC and for that reason we use transformers, which acts as a recharger and makes the energy of AC high again.

So, that's all about Difference Between AC and DC Power. I hope you guys got something out of it. Let me know did you like it. Thanks.

Difference Between DC and AC Motors

Hello everyone, I hope you all are fine and having fun with your lives. In today's tutorial, I am going to share a Difference Between DC and AC Motors. Both of these motors are used almost in every kind of robotic projects and if we talk about engineering projects then they are used in like 70% of the engineering projects.There are two main types of motors. Both are electrical motors named as :

• DC Motors
• AC Motors

You should also have a look at Difference Between AC and DC Power. So, let's get started with Difference Between DC and AC Motors:

1. OperatingSource

DC Motor

• DC motor operates on DC (Direct Current) and converts the electrical energy into mechanical energy.

AC Motor

• DC motor operates on DC (Direct Current) and converts the electrical energy into mechanical energy.

Its actually the main common difference between them which also depicts in their names.

2. Main Types

DC Motor

• DC Motor has two main types named as :
  • Brushless DC Motor
  • Brush DC Motor

AC Motor

• AC Motor is divided into three main types :
  • Single Phase Motors (Also named as General Purpose Motor)
  • Double Phase Motors
  • Triple Phase Motors
• They are further classified as :
  • Synchronous AC Motors.
  • Induction AC Motors.

3. Basic Working Principle

DC Motor

• A simple DC motor contains a coil of wire that can rotate in a magnetic field provided by the permanent magnets.
• So when the coil placed in the magnetic field is provided with the current, a force is exerted on this coil which can be find by the Flemming's Right Hand Rule.
• This force generates a torque in the coil and the coil starts to rotate in the magnetic field as shown in the image below :

•  The current is provided to the coil through the brushes which are in contact with the split rings.
• The force produced in the coil of length 'L' placed in the magnetic field 'B' carrying a current 'i' is equal to iLBsin(theta) , where theta is the angle between 'B' and 'i'.

Function of Split Rings :

• When the coil surface comes in horizontal with the magnetic field, we can see that now torque becomes 0 , because current is zero at this point and also the brushes comes in the gap between split rings.
• At this point, no current is provided to the coil but coil still continue its motion because of its momentum and then again split rings come in contact and the process continues.

AC Motors

• AC motor works on the same principle as I have described for the DC motor, the only difference lies in the split rings.
• For AC motors we use continuous rings as shown in image below, they doesn't block the current and the current can move in both directions easily.
• Moreover, in most of the AC motors armature remains stationary and the magnetic field keeps on rotating.

4. Applications

DC Motors

• DC Motors are used where you want to controlled speed.
• It doesn't provide high energy so its used mostly where low energy is required.

AC Motors

• AC motors provide high energy that's the only reason AC motors are mostly used in industries.
• We can't control the speed of AC motor.