The construction of capacitor is very simple. A capacitor is made of two electrically conductive plates placed close to each other, but they do not touch each other. These conductive plates are normally made of materials such as aluminum, brass, or copper. The conductive plates of a capacitor is separated by a small distance.
A capacitor is an electronic device that stores electric charge or electricity when voltage is applied and releases stored electric charge whenever required. Capacitor acts as a small battery that charges and discharges rapidly. Any object, which can store electric charge, is a capacitor. Capacitor is also sometimes referred as a condenser.
There are many studies on the failure modes of electrolytic capacitors, and mainly aluminum electrolytic capacitors. Indeed, from the understanding of the mechanisms and failure modes of a capacitor, it is possible to apply a maintenance in order to know the remaining lifetime of the component.
The capacitance can be defined as, it is the amount of electric energy stored in the capacitor at 1 volt and it is measured in units of Farad denoted by F. The capacitor separates current in DC (direct current) circuits and short circuit in AC (alternating current) circuits.
The higher the value of capacitance, the more charge the capacitor can store. The larger the area of the plates or the smaller their separation the more charge the capacitor can store. A capacitor is said to be “Fully Charged” when the voltage across its plates equals the supply voltage.
The capacitance of the capacitor mainly depends upon the surface area of each plate, the distance between two plates and the permitivity of the material between the two plates. Basic circuits of a capacitors mainly includes capacitors connected in series and capacitors connected in parallel.