Why are capacitors used in electrical circuits?

Electrical capacitors are widely used in electronics and electrical engineering. Let's take a detailed look at why capacitors are used in electrical circuits.

1. If a capacitor is connected to an inductor or resistor, then such a circuit will have its own time (frequency) parameters. This allows you to create a chain of filters when you need to suppress or vice versa to highlight a certain frequency. This property is widely used to construct feedback circuits and oscillator circuits in electronics and radio engineering.

2. As an electrical energy storage device, the capacitor has become an integral part of secondary power supplies, where it is charged with a rectified AC voltage, smooths out ripples, and as a result, an almost ideal DC current can be obtained.

3.The momentary discharge of the capacitor creates a pulse of high power, this property is widely used in photo flashes, pulsed optically pumped lasers, electromagnetic accelerators, Marx generators and voltage multipliers (Cockcroft-Walton generator).

4. The property of a capacitor to conserve charge is applied in dynamic memory DRAM, where the charged state corresponds to a logical and the discharged state to a logical zero.

5. Since the capacitor in the AC circuit has reactance, it is also applicable as a ballast current limiter.

6. A circuit consisting of a capacitor and a resistor (RC-circuit) has its own time constant, therefore, in various pulse generators, such circuits serve as synchronizing elements.

7. Reactive power compensation installations also contain capacitors that provide the user with reactive power in excess of that supplied by the power system in optimal mode.

8. The large potential difference between the plates of the capacitor makes it possible to accelerate the charged particles.

9. Even a very small change in the distance between the plates or any changes in the dielectric affect the capacitance of the capacitor, so small displacement meters, liquid level indicators, as well as wood, air, etc. hygrometers are created. .

10. In relay protection and automatic reclosing circuits, capacitors set the required multiple of operation.

11. To start and operate single-phase asynchronous motors, as well as to operate three-phase asynchronous motors from a single-phase network, the so-called Phase-shifting capacitors.Phase shift capacitors can be used to convert a three-phase induction motor into a generator.

12. Supercapacitors (high-capacity capacitors) are used as electricity accumulators in low-current household appliances, and supercapacitors of significant capacity, which have gained popularity in recent years, are replacing batteries for various vehicles.