ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

Activity3
La Paz, Iloilo City
EE 18 – Circuits 2 Lab

Name: Kriza Mae Tormon Yr & Sec.: BSECE 2A

Marie Franzine Bedia
Kristian Labayno

Activity No. 3
Capacitive Circuit

Introduction:
Another property that is used to obtain certain characteristics from an electrical
circuit is capacitance. Capacitance is the property by which two conducting materials
separated by an insulator can store charge. The property of capacitance is useful in
electric circuits because it opposes the change in voltage, stores energy, and block dc
current.
In AC circuit impedance is property of a material to oppose the flow of AC
current. Resistor is a well known element in electrical circuit that opposes the flow of
current but aside from resistor there are other elements that oppose the flow of AC
current. One of these is capacitor and the property of a capacitor to oppose the flow of
AC current is known as Capacitive Reactance (𝑋𝐶 ) and the unit is ohm.

Objectives:
The student will be able to:
1. Determine the value of the capacitive reactance as a function of the frequency
2. Determine the phase difference between the voltage and current in a purely
capacitive circuit.

Calculation DATA:
𝑉𝑖(𝑝) 1
𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝑐 ) = =
𝐼𝑝 2𝜋𝑓𝐶
𝑉𝑅1(𝑝)
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒: 𝐼(𝑝) =
𝑅1
360
𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 = (𝑑𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑠/𝑑𝑖𝑣)
𝑇(𝐷𝑖𝑣)

1
𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝑐 ) = 𝑋𝐶1 + 𝑋𝐶2 =
2𝜋𝑓𝐶𝑇(𝑠𝑒𝑟)

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 𝐶1 × 𝐶2
𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝐶𝑇(𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠) ) =
𝐶1 + 𝐶2
𝑋𝑐1 × 𝑋𝑐2 1
𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝐶(𝑝𝑎𝑟) ) = =
𝑋𝑐1 + 𝑋𝑐2 2𝜋𝑓𝐶𝑡(𝑝𝑎𝑟)
𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝐶𝑡(𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑙) ) = 𝐶1 + 𝐶2

Diagram:

FIGURE 1

Procedure:

1. Connect the circuit as shown in figure 1

2. Set 𝐶1 to 5 𝜇𝐹 and the voltage source to 1V 500 Hz.
3. Run the simulation
4. At the “Grapher” Tab adjust the axes of the graph to show at least 1 cycle
5. Copy the signals displayed on the Grapher tab, and paste in the Obtained Results
6. Measure the peak input voltage and write the value in Table 1
7. Measure the peak current and write the value in Table 1
8. Determine the phase difference between the current and the voltage

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9. Repeat the previous operations for all the values of frequency written in Table 1 and
write the values in the same table.

Obtained results:

At f = 500Hz

At f = 1000Hz

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 At f = 4000Hz

At f = 10000Hz

Capacitive
𝒇(𝑯𝒛) 𝑽𝒊(𝒑) 𝑰(𝒑) Phase Difference Reactance
(Calculated)
500 997.82mV 15.754mA 90° 63.34 Ω
1000 998.86mV 31.367mA 90° 31.84 Ω
4000 998.04mV 125.47mA 90° 7.95 Ω
10000 999.51mV 315.80mA 90° 3.17 Ω

TABLE 1

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Computations:

Computing for Phase Difference

𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒(360°) 0.5𝑚𝑠(360°)

At f = 500Hz 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = = 90°
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 2𝑚𝑠

𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒(360°) 249.63µ𝑠(360°)

At f = 1000Hz 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = = 90°
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 1𝑚𝑠

𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒(360°) 62.250µ𝑠(360°)

At f = 4000Hz 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = = 90°
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 0.25𝑚𝑠

𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒(360°) 25.026µ𝑠(360°)

At f = 10000Hz 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = = 90°
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 0.1𝑚𝑠

Computing for Capacitive Reactance

𝑉𝑖(𝑝) 997.82𝑚𝑉
At f = 500Hz 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝑐 ) = = = 63.34 Ω
𝐼𝑝 15.754𝑚𝐴

𝑉𝑖(𝑝) 998.86𝑚𝑉
At f = 1000Hz 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝑐 ) = = = 31.84 Ω
𝐼𝑝 31.367𝑚𝐴

𝑉𝑖(𝑝) 998.04𝑚𝑉
At f = 4000Hz 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝑐 ) = = = 7.95 Ω
𝐼𝑝 125.47𝑚𝐴

𝑉𝑖(𝑝) 999.51𝑚𝑉
At f = 10000Hz 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑋𝑐 ) = = = 3.17 Ω
𝐼𝑝 315.80𝑚𝐴

Questions:
1.What is meant by capacitive reactance?

Capacitive reactance is a measure of a capacitor’s opposition to AC (alternating current). Like

resistance it is measured in ohms, but reactance is more complex than resistance because its
value depends on the frequency (f) of the signal passing through the capacitor. The capacitive
reactance limits the amplitude of the current in a purely capacitive circuit in the same way as
the resistance limits the current in a purely resistive circuit.

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2. What is the phase difference between the voltage and the current for a capacitor?

There is a 90° phase difference between the current and voltage, with the current reaching its
peak 90° before the voltage reaches its peak. In short, the current leads the voltage by 90° in a
purely capacitive circuit. It is also proven in this experiment that the phase difference between
the voltage and the current in a capacitive circuit is 90 degrees as shown in the results above.

3. What effect will increasing the frequency have on the phase angle for the capacitor?

The phase shift of the capacitor varies with frequency from 90° to 0 ° when the frequency
changes from nearly zero to infinity.

4. What will happen to the capacitive reactance if the frequency increases?

Since the capacitive reactance is inversely proportional with the frequency, the capacitive
reactance of a capacitor decreases as the frequency across its plates increases. As shown in the
table above, the capacitive reactance is 63.34 ohms at frequency of 500 Hz, and it is reduced by
half at frequency of 1kHz, and it continues to decrease with 3.19 ohms at frequency of 10kHz.

5. What will happen to the current in a capacitor if the source frequency is doubled? Halved?

If the frequency is doubled, the current in the capacitor is also doubled. As seen on the results
on the table, at f = 500Hz, the current in the capacitor is 15.754mA, but when the frequency
was doubled and changed to 1000Hz or 1kHz, the current becomes 31.367mA which is twice
the initial current. Also, if the frequency is halved, the current is also halved.

Observations:

There were three significant observations inferred from this experiment such as:

1. The capacitive reactance functions almost similarly with the resistance only that it needs
to consider another variable which is the frequency. Given the formula, it is observed
and proven from the experiment that the larger the source frequency is, the lesser the
amount of capacitive reactance calculated.
2. The phase difference of the voltage and current in the capacitor is 90 degrees.
3. The current in the capacitor is directly proportional to the source frequency. It doubles
when the frequency is doubled and is it also halved when the frequency is halved.

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Conclusions:

Upon conducting the experiment it is to be concluded that the opposition to current flow which
is known as the capacitive reactance is inversely proportional to the frequency represented by
the formula 1/2pifC. It can also be calculated by dividing the peak input voltage by the peak
current which was done in this experiment.

Another conclusion is that the phase difference of the voltage and current in a capacitor is 90
degrees. In this experiment, the phase difference was a result of dividing the time difference
between the voltage and the current in reaching the peak over the period which is the inverse
of the given source frequency. All values calculated resulted to approximately 90 degrees.

Lastly, it is to be concluded that the frequency mostly causes the increase of the current in the
capacitor which also results to the decrease of the capacitive reactance. The peak input voltage
in all frequencies in this experiment were approximately equal to 1 V.

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