What's the conduction angle for a full wave rectifier with filter capacitor?

Question

Shouldn't the conduction angle for a full wave rectifier with filter capacitor be twice that of a half wave rectifier with filter capacitor? The conduction angle for a half wave rectifier with filter capacitor is:

$$\sqrt{2V_r/V_p}$$

Since the frequency of the output wave in case of a full wave rectifier is twice as that of a half wave one the conduction angle should be twice as well, but we've already taken the above into account while calculating it's Vr, so should we take it into account again?

Answer 1

First, that equation is an approximation, based on x^2/2 being approximately equal to 1 - cos(x). It also assumes that the conduction angle is small compared to a cycle. For any reasonable conduction angle, these approximations are fairly accurate. Or, for ripple of about 15% or less it is reasonably accurate.

It is approximately valid for either full or half wave rectifiers. But, of course, everything else being equal, when you go from a full to half wave the ripple will double therefore the conduction angle will be the square root of 2 greater.