Ma. Elizabeth A. Huyo Kay Kathleen G.

Belaniso Yvonne Grace Espigadera

EE320AL Tue 4:30-7:30

August 14, 2012

EXPERIMENT 4 RC and RL Circuits

I.

Objectives 1. To verify the time constant for the series RC and RL circuits. 2. To demonstrate the equivalent capacitance of capacitors connected in series and capacitors connected in parallel.

II.

Theory Each time interval in the universal curve represents a real-time value referred as a time constant ( ). A universal curve is one that can be used to predict the operation of any specified type of circuit. An elapsed time equivalent to five times the time constant, T = 5 , is already considered as steady-state condition or to complete a rise or decay transition. In this steady-state condition, the voltage and current in the circuit have reached almost a constant or stable value.

Figure 1. RC and RL circuits

In a series RC circuit switched to a DC voltage, the voltage equation is expressed as, found as, , where the value of the RC time constant is ,

= RC. For a given series RL circuit, the voltage is, = L/R.

having the time constant then equal to,

Inductors and capacitors are two terminal devices which can be used for energy storage. Capacitors store energy in the form of an electrostatic charge, and oppose any change in voltage. A capacitor is made up of two conductive surfaces (referred as plates) separated by an insulating layer (known as dielectric). Capacitance is measured in farads (F), 1 F = 1 C/V.

Figure 2. Capacitor construction

When a capacitor is connected to a DC voltage source, an electrostatic charge is developed across the plates of the component. Initially, the capacitor has a 0 V difference of potential across its plates. When SW1 is closed, the source voltage is applied to the component creating negative and positive charges on the plates of the capacitor. The number of charges that a capacitor can accept is determined by its capacity, wherein the charged capacitor blocks any flow of charge (current) in the circuit once this capacitor reaches its capacity. If the source is disconnected from the capacitor, the charges remain at the plates of the component and remains as long as there is no discharge path for the component.

Figure 3. Capacitor charging

To discharge a capacitor, an external path must be provided for the flow of charge (current) between the plates until there is no longer any difference of potential across the plates, Vc = 0 V. When two or more capacitors are connected in series, the total capacitance is lower than any individual component value. The sum of the voltage drop across each capacitor is equal to the source voltage and thus,

For capacitor connected in parallel, the sum of the current in each capacitor is equal to the source current. Thus,

An inductor can store energy in an electromagnetic field as well as oppose any change in current. It consists of a coil of wire wherein the current that passes through the device creates a magnetic flux, , which forms a closed path around the coil in the inductor. The total flux, (in Webers), is proportional to the flux and the number of turns in a coil, = N. The total flux is also proportional to the current with the inductance of the coil as the proportionality constant, = Li.

The voltage in inductor is equal to the time rate change of total magnetic flux, V = d/dt and then V = L di/dt. And thus, inductance is measured by henry (H), 1 H = 1V/A/s.

III.

Procedure and Data Presentation Part I: Testing Inductors and Capacitors 1. The analog multi-meter was positioned to the ohmmeter range 1X. The resistance of the 2.5 mH inductor was then measured. Here, the ohmmeter indicates a reading of 12 . Ideally, the resistance of inductor must be zero; however, having a value of 12 represents that the

inductor was not ideal after all. This characteristic of non-ideal zero value of resistance is applicable to all inductors in reality. On the other hand, a value of 14.3 resulted using the digital multimeter which was slightly different from the previous reading.

2. The capacitor was discharged by shorting its terminals. The analog ohmmeter range was set to X10. The resistance of the 1000 uF and the 470 uF capacitors were tested one at a time. It was observed that after shorting the capacitor, the ohmmeter shows an initial reading at first but eventually, it decreases approaching to zero. The 470 uF capacitor gave a higher lowest resistance value compared to 1000 uF. The reason behind such behaviour is that capacitor with lower capacitance charges faster and hence, theres this instantaneous increase in the resistance. This behaviour is an indication of a good capacitor, since the greater the capacitance of a component the greater its resistance to voltage change. Using the digital meter, the results were the same as the previous reading indicating that the resistance value decreases with time.

Part II: RC Circuits 1. The circuit 8-1A was assembled. The capacitor was discharged by shorting its terminals. The voltage at the capacitor was read every five (5) seconds interval in a continuous manner. If reading or taking the time in just one occurrence was failed, the whole process should be repeated. But, also take note to discharge the capacitor before doing the same whole process. The values were recorded in Table 1.

Figure 4. Circuits 8-1A and 8-1B

2. The same procedure is applied for other circuits (8-1B, 8-1C, 8-1D, and 81E) and the voltage values were recorded in the appropriate column of Table 1.

Figure 5. Circuits 8-1C, 8-1D and 8-1E 3. Comparing the values obtained from circuits 8-1A to circuit 8-1D, it was observed that circuit 8-1A charges faster than circuit 8-1D. In circuit 8-1B and circuit 8-1E, it was observed that both circuits have almost the same charging rate. A computation of the time constant was made in each circuit and was compared to the values obtained from Table 1. The % difference was also computed for each set and these values were recorded in Table 2. The time constant curve was plotted for circuit 8-1A and circuit 1-E.

Circuit 8-1A (Cs = 1000 uF) has a faster charging rate compared to 8-1D (Cs = 2000 uF) wherein the computed time constant, = RC (uF times M

equals seconds), for circuit 8-1A is 100 s while circuit 8-1D is 200 s. This implies that it only took 100 s for circuit 8-1A to charge energy from a power supply, thus, having a faster charging rate.

For circuit 8-1B (Cs = 1000 uF) and 8-1E (Cs = 500 uF), both have almost the same charging rate even though their capacitance is quite different from each other. Their computed time constant is exactly the same ( = 50 s) and in the process, making their charging rates the same.

An RC time constant is defined as the time required for the capacitor voltage in an RC switching circuit to increase or decrease by 63.2% of its maximum possible V. The capacitor voltage Vc = 0V for . At the end of transition, Vmax = 100 V approximately. And during the first time constant, the Vc increases by 63.2%; therefore, the value of Vc= 63.2 V for for the experiment set-up, Vmax = 10 V, the value of Vc = 6.32V. Table 1. Voltage Measurements at 5 seconds Interval for Different Circuits TIME (s) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 8-1A (V) 0 0.579 0.977 1.450 1.808 2.234 2.597 2.942 3.310 3.610 3.960 4.300 4.560 4.790 5.010 5.240 5.460 5.640 5.840 6.010 6.190 6.370 8-1B (V) 0 1.209 2.019 2.751 3.410 4.120 4.710 5.190 5.670 6.100 6.450 6.800 7.120 7.400 7.640 7.840 8.060 8.240 8.400 8.560 8.680 8.810 8-1C (V) 0 0.439 1.034 1.850 2.752 3.490 3.960 4.490 4.920 5.340 5.730 6.020 6.340 6.670 6.730 7.060 7.270 7.360 7.910 8.040 8.170 8.300 8-1D (V) 0 0.165 0.424 0.650 0.893 1.127 1.308 1.524 1.729 1.924 2.091 2.265 2.411 2.564 2.702 2.830 2.937 3.048 3.151 3.265 3.370 3.470 8-1E (V) 0 0.715 1.649 2.396 3.130 3.760 4.310 4.750 5.160 5.500 5.780 6.010 6.240 6.440 6.610 6.770 6.940 7.070 7.200 7.330 7.450 7.550 . Thus,

110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 205 210 215

6.500 6.650 6.780 6.930 7.040 7.160 7.290 7.390 7.500 7.600 7.700 7.790 7.880 7.970 8.030 8.120 8.190 8.260 8.330 8.390 8.440 8.570

8.920 9.010 9.090 9.190 9.250 9.310 9.370 9.420 9.470 9.510 9.550 9.580 9.610 9.640 9.670 9.700 9.720 9.740 9.760 9.780 9.800 9.810

8.400 8.480 8.560 8.620 8.670 8.700 8.730 8.750 8.760 8.770 8.760 8.760 8.750 8.750 8.740 8.740 8.730 8.730 8.720 8.680 8.680 8.670

3.560 3.650 3.720 3.790 3.860 3.930 4.000 4.060 4.120 4.190 4.250 4.310 4.360 4.410 4.460 4.510 4.550 4.590 4.630 4.660 4.690 4.720

7.650 7.740 7.830 7.920 7.990 8.060 8.130 8.190 8.250 8.300 8.350 8.400 8.440 8.480 8.520 8.560 8.600 8.640 8.680 8.720 8.770 8.810

Table 2. Measurements for 2.5 mH Inductor 8-1A Computed Measured % difference 100 s 103 s 3% 8-1B 50 s 48 s 4% 8-1C 47 s 59 s 26 % 8-1D 200 s % 8-1E 50 s 62 s 24 %

Cicuit 8-1A
10 8 VOLTAGE (V) 6 4 2 0 0 50 100 TIME (s) 150 200

Chart 1. Time constant curve for circuit 8-1A

Cicuit 8-1B
10 8

VOLTAGE (V)

6 4 2 0 0 50 100 TIME (s) 150 200

Chart 2. Time constant curve for circuit 8-1B

The graph above implies that Circuit 8-1B (Cs = 500 uF) has a faster charging rate compared to 8-1A (Cs = 1000 uF) wherein the computed time constant, = RC, for circuit 8-1B is only 50 s while circuit 8-1A is 100

s. This implies that the lower the time constant for a certain circuit, the faster is its charging rate.

Part II: RC Circuits 1. The resistance of a 2.5 mH inductor was measured using the ohmmeter and the value was recorded in Table 3. The circuit 8-2 was assembled. The voltage and current in circuit was measured and recorded in Table 3.

Table 3. Measurements for 2.5 mH Inductor measured Inductor R VL I 14.3 -

IV.

Answers to Questions 1. If we want to increase the capacitance value, what capacitor connection shall we use? Series or Parallel? Support your answer. The parallel connection increases the capacitance value since the capacitors here are additive, making the total capacitance of the circuit increases with addition of more capacitors.

2. For an uncharged capacitor, what is the initial voltage at its terminal? And what will be the initial resistance of this uncharged capacitor? The initial voltage of an uncharged capacitor is ideally zero, and thus, its initial resistance is also zero.

3. Derive the equivalent inductance of three (3) inductors when connected in (a) series and (b) parallel. According to Kirchhoffs voltage law, voltage in series connections is defined by:

Since V=L(di/dt), we can rewrite the previous equation as;

The time rate of change of current (di/dt) can be cancelled since it is constant for all the element in series circuit,

On the other hand, when inductors are connected in parallel the total inductance is the sum of the individual inductance of the inductors. In parallel circuits, total current is the sum of the individual current passing through each element.

Hence,

At (di/dt)=V/L ,

In parallel circuits, , then the voltages can be cancelled. And we have the total inductance for inductors in parallel.

Rearranging,

V.

Conclusions An RC time constant is the time required for the capacitor voltage in an RC switching circuit to increase (or decrease) by 63.2% of its maximum possible V. The current in capacitor is directly proportional to the capacity of the capacitor and the rate of change in capacitor voltage, , which can be

rewritten as ( ) as .

. Since i/V= 1/R, then, t = RC which can be written

An RL time constant is the time required for the inductor voltage in an RL switching circuit to increase (or decrease) by 63.2% of its maximum possible I. The voltage across an inductor can be found as rewritten as ( ) as . , which can be

. Since V/i= R, then, t = L/R which can be written

The equivalent capacitance of capacitors in series can be established from the relationship among capacity, charge and voltage, Kirchhoffs law of voltage, . According to . .

, which can be written as, or

Since current is the same throughout the series,

For capacitors in parallel, the total current in a parallel is equals the sum of the branch currents, and since current is the flow of charge, . , therefore,

. Charge can be found as Q=CV, thus, The voltage is equal for parallel branches, .