When Heat Losses in a Better Capacitor May Be More than in a Poorer One

Nonsinusoidal voltage when applied to a capacitor may cause high or low heat dissipation depending on both the voltage waveform and the parameters of the capacitor. It has been commonly assumed that the lower the dissipation factor of a capacitor, the lower its heat losses should be. However, for some specific forms of voltage the heat dissipation in a capacitor with a lesser dissipation factor may exceed the losses in one with a larger dissipation factor. A scalene triangular voltage is investigated. The ratio of the maximum to minimum possible losses, named the danger coefficient, is calculated with the help of the Laplace transform. Graphs are plotted which may be used to define conditions of high heat dissipation for any type of capacitor when a succession of triangular pulses is applied.