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wirenut1980:
In post #31 I referenced the following location:
I found the following chart p 5 of 15 at
http://www.southalabama.edu/engineering/ece/faculty/akhan/Courses/EE334-Fall07/EE 334-chapter-2.pdf
labeled Power Supply Circuits, Filters and Regulators, top right on p 5. This is for a half wave rectifier, but the current pulse is generally the same.
This has an idealized current pulse shown. In the real world the sharp points, and steep initial rise will be somewhat rounded, and reduced.
Note the shape of the current waveform. When you add a small amount of series resistance and inductance, then the current pulse shape changes and ends somewhat after the source voltage peak. The leading edge won't be so vertical and sharp peaked.
With a flat topped input voltage the peak capacitor voltage will be somewhat less. But for iwire's waveform this won't be much. Project where the sine wave peak should be and take the difference between the ideal waveform and the actual, and that amount is about the amount lower the peak capacitor voltage would be.
Whether the flat topped waveform iwire showed in post #1 or a true sinewave is the input, the current pulse to the capacitor will be about the same, and a well designed device will have a capacitor that can tolerate the repetitive energy from this pulse.
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