Laboratory Activity No.

3
AC Circuits
Series RLC Circuit

Introduction

Resistance and impedance both represent opposition to the flow of the alternating current.
Both are measured in terms of the same unit, the ohm. To determine the magnitude of the total
impedance, get the sum of the impedance of each of the elements in series. As long as all the
necessary calculations are carried out by vector algebra, use the two relationships studied earlier
under DC circuits.
The total impedance may not always increase with the addition of another element in series.
Capacitive reactance could cancel out inductive reactance and vice versa. An extreme case would
have the capacitive reactance completely cancelling out the inductive reactance. This results in
resonance high voltages and current could result.
Objectives

1. Determine the resistance, inductance and capacitance by a voltage and current

measurements.
2. Compare measured and calculated voltages and current for a series RLC circuit.
3. Determine the impedance of a given circuit to compare the measure value to calculated
value of a given circuit.

Materials
Multisim
Circuit Diagrams

Figure 1

Procedure:
1. Build the circuit given in figure 1 on Multisim.
2. Measure the total current and the current across the lamp, across 2.5372 H inductor and across
the 5uF capacitor. To measure the total current, refer to figure 2a. Record the current reading at
table 1. Repeat the steps for the current lamp, 2.5372 H inductor and 5uF capacitor. Refer to figure
2b, 2c and 2d.

Figure 2a. Total Current

 Figure 2b. Bulb Current

Figure 2c. Inductor Current

Figure 2d. Capacitor Current

4. Measure the voltage eT , eR , eL and eC. To measure the voltage eT refer to figure 3a. Record the
data at table 2. Repeat the step for the lamp, inductor and capacitor. Refer for the figure 3b, 3c and
3d.
Figure 3a

Figure 3b

Figure 3c

Figure 3d
 5. Using Ohm’s Law, compute the voltage and current for each component. Record it at Table 1 and
2. Use the formula
𝑒𝑅 𝑒𝐿 𝑒𝑐
𝑅= ; 𝑋𝐿 = ; 𝑋𝐶 =
𝑖𝑅 𝑖𝐿 𝑖𝑐

𝑉𝑡
𝑍=
𝐼𝑡
6. Compute the percent difference between the measure and the computed value of the
impedance.
Table 1: Simulation and Computation Result of Current for Figure 2 and 3
Voltage (V) R L C Total
Workbench 0.67908 A 0.67908 A 0.67908 A 0.67908 A
Computation 0.68242 A 0.68242 A 0.68242 A 0.68242 A
% Difference 0.4920 % 0.4920 % 0.4920 % 0.4920 %

Table 2: Simulation and Computation Result of Voltages for Figure 2 and 3

Current (A) R L C Total
Workbench 328.76 V 651.63 V 359.10 V 439.29 V
Computation 330.2918 V 652.7371V 362.0356 V 440 V
% Difference 0.4934 % 0.1699 % 0.8175 % 0.1616 %

Questions:
1. Do the workbench and computational values of voltages and currents agree?
The workbench or the manual computation differ from each other by little. It produced
only less than 1% of difference.
2. Give possible reasons for any discrepancies.
Since the current is AC, the value accumulated in Multism changes from time to time and
makes it difficult to capture the same value as the manually-computed one.
 Manual Computation Using Ohm’s Law
Given:
𝑃 = 100 𝑊
𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑳) = 2.5327 𝐻
𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑪) = 5𝜇𝐹 = 5𝑥10−6 𝐹 𝑉 = 220 𝑉

Solution:
𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡: 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑏:
𝑃 100 𝑊 𝑉 2 (220 𝑉)2
𝑰= = 𝑹= =
𝑉 220 𝑉 𝑃 100 𝑊
𝟓 𝑹 = 𝟒𝟖𝟒 𝛀
𝑰= 𝑨
𝟏𝟏

𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒: 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒:

𝑿𝐿 = 2𝜋𝑓𝐿 = 2𝜋(60𝐻𝑧)(2.5327𝐻) 1 1
𝑿𝐶 = =
𝑿𝑳 = 𝟗𝟓𝟔. 𝟓𝟎𝟏𝟖𝟔𝟓𝟕 𝜴 2𝜋𝑓𝐶 2𝜋(60 𝐻𝑧)(5𝑥10−6 𝐹)
𝑿𝑪 = 𝟓𝟑𝟎. 𝟓𝟏𝟔𝟒𝟕𝟕 𝜴

𝐼𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑑𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑖𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑖𝑡:

𝒁 = √𝑅 2 + (𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋𝑐 )2

𝒁 = √(484 Ω)2 + (956.5018657 Ω − 530.516477 Ω)2

𝒁 = 𝟔𝟒𝟒. 𝟕𝟔𝟑𝟏𝟕𝟒𝟕 𝜴

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐶𝑖𝑐𝑢𝑖𝑡𝑠 ′ 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡: 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒:

𝑉 220 𝑉 𝑰𝒑𝒑 = (341.2105539 𝑚𝐴)(2)
𝑰𝒕 = =
𝑍 644.7631747 𝛺
𝑰𝒑𝒑 = 𝟔𝟖𝟐. 𝟒𝟐𝟏𝟏𝟎𝟕𝟖 𝒎𝑨
𝑰𝒕 = 𝟎. 𝟑𝟒𝟏𝟐𝟏𝟎𝟓𝟓𝟑𝟗 𝑨 ≈ 𝟑𝟒𝟏. 𝟐𝟏𝟎𝟓𝟓𝟑𝟗 𝒎𝑨

Since it is in Series, the value of current that flows around within the circuit is the same.
𝑅 484 𝛺
𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝜃 = → 𝜃 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠 −1
𝑍 644.7631747 𝛺
∴ 𝜽 = 𝟒𝟏. 𝟑𝟓𝟐𝟕𝟑𝟗𝟑𝟔° 𝒍𝒂𝒈𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈
 Manual Computation Using the Formula
𝑒𝑅 𝑒𝐿 𝑒𝑐 𝑉𝑡
𝑅= ; 𝑋𝐿 = ; 𝑋𝐶 = 𝑍=
𝑖𝑅 𝑖𝐿 𝑖𝑐 𝐼𝑡

𝑽𝒐𝒍𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝑹𝑳𝑪 𝑪𝒊𝒓𝒄𝒖𝒊𝒕:

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑏 (𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒) 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒:
𝒆𝑹 = (𝐼𝑡 )(𝑅) = (0.3412105539 𝐴)(484Ω) 𝒆𝑹 𝒑𝒑 = (165.1459081 𝑉)(2)
𝒆𝑹 = 𝟏𝟔𝟓. 𝟏𝟒𝟓𝟗𝟎𝟖𝟏 𝑽 𝒆𝑹 𝒑𝒑 = 𝟑𝟑𝟎. 𝟐𝟗𝟏𝟖𝟏𝟔𝟐 𝑽

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 (𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒) 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒:

𝒆𝑳 = (𝐼𝑡 )(𝑋𝐿 ) = (0.3412105539 𝐴)(956.5018657 𝛺) 𝒆𝑳 𝒑𝒑 = (326.3685314 𝑉)(2)
𝒆𝑳 = 𝟑𝟐𝟔. 𝟑𝟔𝟖𝟓𝟑𝟏𝟒 𝑽 𝒆𝑳 𝒑𝒑 = 𝟔𝟓𝟐. 𝟕𝟑𝟕𝟎𝟔𝟐𝟗 𝑽

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑜𝑟 (𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒) 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒:

𝒆𝑪 = (𝐼𝑡 )(𝑋𝐶 ) = (0.3412105539 𝐴)(530.516477 𝛺) 𝒆𝑪 𝒑𝒑 = (181.017821 𝑉)(2)
𝒆𝑪 = 𝟏𝟖𝟏. 𝟎𝟏𝟕𝟖𝟐𝟏 𝑽 𝒆𝑪 𝒑𝒑 = 𝟏𝟖𝟏. 𝟎𝟏𝟕𝟖𝟐𝟏 𝑽

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑡𝑜 𝑃𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒:

𝑽𝒕 = (𝐼𝑡 )(𝑍) = (0.3412105539 𝐴)(644.7631747Ω) 𝑽𝑻 𝒑𝒑 = (181.017821 𝑉)(2)
𝑽𝒕 = 𝟐𝟐𝟎 𝑽 𝑽𝑻 𝒑𝒑 = 𝟏𝟖𝟏. 𝟎𝟏𝟕𝟖𝟐𝟏 𝑽
Any other observations or comments: