Choose the value to calculate for rectified sine, unipolar triangle or sawtooth, DC, or ideal PWM current. PWM assumes constant on-current and zero off-current; these are mean, not RMS, values.

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Signed values indicate current direction.

Average Current Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the average (mean/DC) current of a full-wave rectified sine wave from its peak current.

Iโ‚แตฅโ‚‘ = Iโ‚š ร— (2) / (ฯ€) โ‰ˆ 0.637 Iโ‚š
  • Where Iave is the Average Current (mean value) (amps)
  • Ip is the peak current (amps) 

For a full-wave rectified sine wave, multiply the peak current by 2/ฯ€ (โ‰ˆ 0.637) to get the average current. For comparison, an unrectified sine wave averaged over a full cycle has an average of 0, and a half-wave rectified sine wave has an average of Ip/ฯ€ (โ‰ˆ 0.318ยทIp).

How to Calculate Average Current?

The following two example problems outline how to calculate the Average Current.

Example Problem #1:

  1. First, determine the peak current (amps). In this example, the peak current is measured to be 115 A (full-wave rectified sine wave).
  2. Finally, calculate the Average Current using the formula above: 

Iave = Ip ยท (2/ฯ€)

Inserting the values from above and solving the equation with the input values gives: 

Iave = 115 ยท (2/ฯ€) โ‰ˆ 73.21 (amps)

Example Problem #2: 

Using the same process as example problem 1, we first define the variables outlined by the formula. In this case, the values are:

peak current (amps) = 251

Entering these values into the formula above gives : 

Iave = 251 ยท (2/ฯ€) โ‰ˆ 159.79 (amps)