Experiment 12

Electric Resonance

Name:

Date:

Lab Partners:
1. Objective
 To study the phenomenon of resonance in LRC circuit.
 To learn how to obtain the bandwidth and quality factor in LRC circuit.

2. Equipment and Setup

The equipment required for this experiment is written below:
 Solenoid
 Capacitor
 Resistor
 Oscilloscope
 Signal generator

3. Theory
Resonance is an important phenomenon in AC circuits. In resonance, a frequency is
determined depending upon the values of resistance, capacitance and inductance.
Resonance of series LCR circuit occurs when both capacitance and inductance are equal
but cancel out each other because of 180o phase shift.
Consider a circuit that comprises of resistor, inductor and capacitance connected in series
as in Figure-1.

The relation between voltage and current in this circuit by an AC power supply is:

𝑉 I 1
I= 𝑜𝑟 =𝑍 (1)
𝑍 𝑉
 𝑍 = √𝑅 2 + (𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋𝑐 ) (2)

Where, R, XL, and Xc are the resistance, inductive reactance and the capacitive reactance.

The reactance for a generator operating at frequency f is given by:

𝑋𝐿 = ω𝐿 = 2πfL

1 1
Also, 𝑋𝑐 = =
ῳC 2πfC

The plot of 1/V versus frequency gives Lorentzian curve that is shown in Figure-2 below:

The behavior of the curve is such that it reaches zero when the frequency approaches infinity
(when XL and XC is infinity). The impedance at these two extreme values is infinity which results
in zero current. At other values of finite frequencies with peak occurring at fo the current is not
zero, this fo is called resonance frequency.

The resonance frequency f0 can be determined with the help of Equation-2. As the resonance
occurs when the impedance Z is minimum, so in this case assume the total reactance equal to
zero and solve for only frequency.

1
𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋𝐶 = ω0 L − =0
ω0 𝐶

1
ω𝑜 =
√𝐿𝐶
 1
f𝑜 =
2𝜋√𝐿𝐶

In the field of telecommunications, sometimes it is necessary to find out that how many different
frequency channels can be accommodate within a certain band without any interference. As, the
resonance peak theoretically comprises of whole frequency spectrum and no clear-cut border
lines can be defined. So, the bandwidth of the resonance peak Δf is defined to be the difference
between two frequencies f1 and f2 where the amplitude of the current falls to 70.7% of its
maximum value. This leads to decrease of power by a factor of two. The quality factor Q is defined
as the ratio of the resonance frequency over the bandwidth. The quality factor Q is a measure of
the tuning quality of a resonance circuit. The higher the quality factor the smaller the bandwidth
∆f and therefore the less interference between the adjacent channels.

Δ𝑓 = |𝑓1 − 𝑓2 |

𝑓𝑜
𝑄=
Δ𝑓

4. Procedure
 First of all, I constructed the circuit as shown in Figure-1. I recorded the resistance
R.
 Then I noted the capacitance C and the inductance L, recorded these parameters
and calculated the theoretical resonance frequency using equation-4. [This
expected resonance frequency may not necessarily equal to the experimental
resonance frequency due to experimental errors. But the expected value does give
you guidance as to what frequency range you should be working in to get the
entire resonance curve.]
 I set the signal generator in the range covering the expected resonance frequency.
After that I measured the total voltage across the capacitor and the inductor, VLC
with the oscilloscope. [The amplitude of this voltage should change while changing
the frequency of the signal generator. I changed the frequency slowly while
watching the change of the amplitude of VLC until I found the frequency at which
 the voltage VLC is the minimum. This frequency is the experimental value of the
resonance frequency. But do not trust the frequency reading of the front panel of
the signal generator. I used the oscilloscope to measure the period of the
waveform and calculate the frequency which is the reciprocal of the period. The
oscilloscope measurement is more reliable than the frequency value read from
the signal generator.]
 Now, after I obtained the experimental resonance frequency, I mapped out the
resonance curve of Figure 2. [One need to obtain about a half dozen points on
each side of the resonance peak. For each frequency data point, you need to
measure both the resonance voltage VLC and the current I. The current I can be
obtained by measuring the voltage across the resistor, VR using the oscilloscope,
divided by the resistance measured in step 1 of the experiment. I plotted the ratio
I/VLC versus the frequency f. One should get a resonance curve as shown in Fig. 2.
I used the method shown in Fig. 2 to obtain the bandwidth ∆f and the quality
factor Q.]

5. Data and Analysis

The data of this experiment is presented in tabular form below:

Inductance 19.4 mH
Resistance 10 Ω
Capacitance 104.0 μF

Frequency (Hz) VR (V) I =VR/R (A)

10 0.19 .019
20 0.38 .038
30 0.61 .061
40 0.81 .81
 50 1.10 .110
60 1.26 .126
70 1.43 .143
80 1.50 .15
90 1.48 .148
100 1.40 .14
110 1.30 .13
120 1.23 .123
130 1.15 .115
140 1.07 .107
150 0.99 .099

Resonant Frequency
The formula for resonance frequency is:
FR = 1 / 2π√𝐿𝐶

Thus, fr = 80 Hz, because of f = fr.

6. Results and Errors
The which I got are shown below:
 The possible sources of error can be instrumental errors present due to no calibration of
devices. But the chances are less because before starting of experiment, instruments
were calibrated. Beside this, other error can be personal error if reading were taken with
negligence.

Conclusion:
By the virtue of this experiment, a complete understanding about the characteristics of a series
RLC circuit is gained. Also, the phenomenon of resonance in LCR circuit is observed. The resulted
values are function of the frequency of the function generator i.e. impedance capacitive
reactance, inductive reactance and the phase shift angle between current and voltage. At
resonance, maximum and minimum value are achieved. We learn from this experiment that
resonance in RLC series circuit occurs, when inductive and capacitive reactance are equal in
magnitude but cancel out each other because of 180o phase shift.