Charging and discharging of a capacitor

Introduction

The experiment investigates the charging and discharging phenomenon of a capacitor through a resistor.

AIM

To study charging and discharging process of a capacitor thru the resistor

To determine the time constant τ of an RC circuit

THEORY

A Capacitor is a passive device that stores energy in its Electric Field and returns energy to the circuit
whenever required. A Capacitor consists of two Conducting Plates separated by an Insulating
Material or Dielectric. Figure 1 and Figure 2 are the basic structure and the schematic symbol of the
Capacitor respectively.

Figure 1: Basic structure of the Capacitor

When a Capacitor is connected to a circuit with Direct Current (DC) source, two processes, which are
called "charging" and "discharging" the Capacitor, will happen in specific conditions.

In Figure 3, the Capacitor is connected to the DC Power Supply and Current flows through the
circuit. Both Plates get the equal and opposite charges and an increasing Potential Difference, v c, is
created while the Capacitor is charging. Once the Voltage at the terminals of the Capacitor, v c, is
equal to the Power Supply Voltage, vc = V, the Capacitor is fully charged and the Current stops
flowing through the circuit, the Charging Phase is over.

Figure 3: The Capacitor is charging

A Capacitor is equivalent to an Open-Circuit to Direct Current, R = ∞, because once the Charging

Phase has finished, no more Current flows through it. The Voltage v c on a Capacitor cannot change
abruptly.
When the Capacitor disconnected from the Power Supply, the Capacitor is discharging through the
Resistor RD and the Voltage between the Plates drops down gradually to zero, vc = 0, Figure 4.

Figure 4: The Capacitor is discharging

In Figures 3 and 4, the Resistances of RC and RD affect the charging rate and the discharging rate of
the Capacitor respectively.

The product of Resistance R and Capacitance C is called the Time Constant τ, which characterizes
the rate of charging and discharging of a Capacitor, Figure 5.

Figure 5: The Voltage vc and the Current iC during the Charging Phase and Discharging Phase

The smaller the Resistance or the Capacitance, the smaller the Time Constant, the faster the
charging and the discharging rate of the Capacitor, and vice versa.

Capacitors are found in almost all electronic circuits. They can be used as a fast battery. For example,
a Capacitor is a storehouse of energy in photoflash unit that releases the energy quickly during
short period of the flash.

Results

Table1 Table 2
Vc(v) t1(s) t2(s) tavg(s) VR(v) t1(s) t2(s) tavg(s) I(A)
0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 90.00 89.80 89.90 0
1 3.75 3.15 3.45 1 72.36 72.98 72.67 0.0001
2 7.22 7.00 7.11 2 50.39 56.29 53.34 0.0002
3 11.64 11.07 11.36 3 37.14 39.14 38.14 0.0003
4 16.04 15.59 15.82 4 28.20 30.03 29.12 0.0004
5 20.33 21.11 20.72 5 21.63 23.02 22.33 0.0005
 6 27.46 27.48 27.47 6 14.46 17.30 15.88 0.0006
7 36.33 35.72 36.03 7 12.60 12.62 12.61 0.0007
8 47.80 44.70 46.25 8 9.20 8.07 8.64 0.0008

Table3

t(s) Vc(v) I(A) P(w) PR(w) Pc(w)

20 4.80 0.0005200 0.0052 0.002704 0.002496

40 7.40 0.0002950 0.003053 0.00087 0.002183

60 8.60 0.0001200 0.001176 0.000144 0.001032

80 9.31 0.0000150 0.000142 2.25E-06 0.00014

100 9.64 0.0000000 0 0 0

120 9.82 0.0000000 0 0 0

140 9.90 0.0000000 0 0 0

160 9.95 0.0000000 0 0 0

180 9.98 0.0000000 0 0 0

Table 4 Table 5
Vc(v) t1(s) t2(s) tavg(s) VR(v) t1(s) t2(s) tavg(s) I(mA)
10 0.00 0.00 0.00 10 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.00
9 2.23 3.03 2.63 9 5.05 4.43 4.74 0.90
8 6.13 6.78 6.46 8 7.73 7.57 7.65 0.80
7 10.32 10.34 10.33 7 11.83 11.94 11.89 0.70
6 14.76 14.74 14.75 6 16.69 12.08 14.39 0.60
5 20.89 20.73 20.81 5 23.15 17.14 20.15 0.50
4 27.14 27.73 27.44 4 30.66 29.96 30.31 0.40
3 37.48 37.39 37.44 3 39.52 39.32 39.42 0.30
2 50.79 53.15 51.97 2 53.12 52.58 52.85 0.20