Interactive simulation
Rectifier & smoothing simulation
Half or full-wave rectification and the ripple your capacitor leaves.
The capacitor charges on each rectified peak, then sags into the load between peaks. Raise C or the load resistance to flatten the ripple — the full bridge doubles the charging pulses. The sketch runs at the same phase as the plot, and its three dot colours are the three branch currents: teal through the diodes, which flows only during the charging pulse; red through the load, which never stops; orange in and out of the capacitor, which makes up the difference and reverses direction between peaks.
What you can change
- Amplitude
- C
- Load
