Electric Circuit Analysis

Chapter # 1
Response of First-Order RL and RC Circuits

By: Tariq Aljohani

Chapter1 # Response of First-Order RL and RC Circuits

Contents

1. First-Order Circuits
2. Response of First-Order RL and RC Circuits
3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit
4. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit with Parallel Inductors
5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit
6. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit with Series Capacitors
7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit
8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

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1. First-Order Circuits

• RL and RC circuits are also known as first-order circuits, because their voltages and currents are
described by first-order differential equations. No matter how complex a circuit may appear, if it
can be reduced to a Thévenin or Norton equivalent connected to the terminals of an equivalent
inductor or capacitor, it is a first-order circuit.

2. Response of First-Order RL and RC Circuits

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2. Response of First-Order RL and RC Circuits

3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• The natural response of an RL circuit can best be described in terms of the circuit shown in Fig.
7.3.We assume that the independent current source generates a constant current of IS A, and that the
switch has been in a closed position for a long time. For now it means that all currents and voltages
have reached a constant value. Thus only constant, or dc, currents can exist in the circuit just prior
to the switch’s being opened, and therefore the inductor appears as a short circuit (Ldi/dt = 0) prior
to the release of the stored energy.

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• Because the inductor appears as a short circuit, the voltage across the inductive branch is zero, and
there can be no current in either R0 or R. Therefore, all the source current Is appears in the
inductive branch. Finding the natural response requires finding the voltage and current at the
terminals of the resistor after the switch has been opened, that is, after the source has been
disconnected and the inductor begins releasing energy. Let t = 0 and we want to find
! " #$% & " '() " ≥ 0

3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• To find ! " we use Kirchhoff’s voltage law to obtain an expression involving i, R, and L.
Summing the voltages around the closed loop gives

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• If we use 0" to denote the time just prior to switching, and 0# for the time immediately following
switching, then

3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• From a direct application of Ohm’s law:

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• The energy delivered to the resistor during any interval of time after the switch has been opened is

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

• Using the time-constant concept, we write the expressions for current, voltage, power, and
energy as

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

Example 1

The switch in the circuit shown in Fig. 7.7 has been closed for a long time before it is opened at t = 0
Find.

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

Solution
a)

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

b) We find the current in the resistor 40Ω most easily by using current division; that is,

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

c) We find the voltage !" by direct application of Ohm’s law:

d) The power dissipated in the 10Ω resistor is

The total energy dissipated in the 10Ω resistor is

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3. The Natural Response of an RL Circuit

The initial energy stored in the 2 H inductor is

Therefore the percentage of energy dissipated in the 10Ω resistor is

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

The natural response of an RC circuit is developed from the circuit shown in Fig. 7.10. We begin by
assuming that the switch has been in position a for a long time, allowing the loop made up of the dc
voltage source !" the resistor #$ and the capacitor C to reach a steady-state condition.

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

• We can easily find the voltage !(#) by thinking in terms of node voltages. Using the lower junction
between R and C as the reference node and summing the currents away from the upper junction
between R and C gives

• Comparing previous RL equations shows that the same mathematical techniques can be used to
obtain the solution for We leave it to you to show that

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

• As we have already noted, the initial voltage on the capacitor equals the voltage source voltage !" ,
or

• Where !$ denotes the initial voltage on the capacitor. The time constant for the RC circuit equals
the product of the resistance and capacitance, namely,

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

• After determining ! " we can easily derive the expressions for i, p, and # :

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

Example 3

The switch in the circuit shown in Fig. 7.13 has been in position x for a long time. At ! = 0 the
switch moves instantaneously to position y. Find

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

Solution
a) Because the switch has been in position x for a long time, the 0.5 µ% capacitor will charge to

100 V and be positive at the upper terminal. We can replace the resistive network connected to the
capacitor at & = 0( with an equivalent resistance of 80 *Ω . Hence the time constant of the circuit is
(0.5×10/0)(80×102) or 40 ms. Then,

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

b) The easiest way to find !(#) is to note that the resistive circuit forms a voltage divider across the
terminals of the capacitor. Thus

This expression for !%(#) is valid for # ≥ 0( because !%(0)) is zero. Thus we have an instantaneous
change in the voltage across the 240 ,Ω resistor.

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5. The Natural Response of an RC Circuit

c) We find the current !"($) from Ohm’s law:

d) The power dissipated in the 60 (Ω resistor is

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

• To begin, we modify the first-order circuit shown in RL circuit by adding a switch. We use the
resulting circuit, shown in Fig. 7.16, in developing the step response of an RL circuit. Energy
stored in the inductor at the time the switch is closed is given in terms of a nonzero initial current
!(0) The task is to find the expressions for the current in the circuit and for the voltage across the
inductor after the switch has been closed.

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

• After the switch in Fig. 7.16 has been closed, Kirchhoff’s voltage law requires that

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

Then integrate both sides of last Eq. Using x and y as variables for the integration, we obtain

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

• When the initial energy in the inductor is zero, I0 is zero. Previous Eq. reduces to

• When the initial inductor current is zero

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

Example 5
The switch in the circuit shown in Fig. 7.19 has been in position a for a long time. At ! = 0 the
switch moves from position a to position b. The switch is a make-before-break type; that is, the
connection at position b is established before the connection at position a is broken, so there is no
interruption of current through the inductor.

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

a) The switch has been in position a for a long time, so the 200 mH inductor is a short circuit across
the 8 A current source. Therefore, the inductor carries an initial current of 8 A. This current is
oriented opposite to the reference direction for i; thus I0 is -8A When the switch is in position b, the
final value of i will be 24/2 , or 12 A. The time constant of the circuit is 200/2 , or 100 ms.
Substituting these values into Eq. 7.35 gives

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

b) The voltage across the inductor is

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

c) Yes; in the instant after the switch has been moved to position b, the inductor sustains a current of
8 A counterclockwise around the newly formed closed path. This current causes a 16 V drop across
the 2 Ω resistor. This voltage drop adds to the drop across the source, producing a 40 V drop across
the inductor.
d) We find the time at which the inductor voltage equals 24 V by solving the expression

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7. The Step Response of an RL Circuit

e) Figure 7.20 shows the graphs of !(#)and %(#) versus t. Note that the instant of time when the
current equals zero corresponds to the instant of time when the inductor voltage equals the source
voltage of 24 V, as predicted by Kirchhoff’s voltage law.

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

• We can find the step response of a first-order RC circuit by analyzing the circuit shown in Fig.
7.21.

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

• For mathematical convenience, we choose the Norton equivalent of the network connected to the
equivalent capacitor. Summing the currents away from the top node in Fig. 7.21 generates the
differential equation

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

• A similar derivation for the current in the capacitor yields the differential equation

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

Example 6

The switch in the circuit shown in Fig. 7.22 has been in position 1 for a long time. At ! = 0 the
switch moves to position 2. Find

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

Solution

a) The switch has been in position 1 for a long time, so the initial value of !" is 40(60/80) or 30 V.
We find the Norton equivalent with respect to the terminals of the capacitor for # ≥ 0. To do this, we
begin by computing the open-circuit voltage, which is given by -75 V the source divided across
the 40 'Ω and 160 'Ω resistors:

Next, we calculate the Thévenin resistance, as seen to the right of the capacitor, by shorting the -75 V
source and making series and parallel combinations of the resistors:

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

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8. The Step Response of an RC Circuit

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