Response of First-Order RL and RC CircuitsIn Chapter 6, we noted that an important attribute of inductors and capacitors is their ability to store energy. We are now in a position to determine the currents and voltages that arise when energy is either released or acquired by an inductor or capacitor in response to an abrupt change in a de voltage or current source. In this chapter, we will focus on circuits that consist only of sources, resistors, and either (but not both) inductors or capaci tors. For brevity, such configurations are called RE (resistor- inductor) and RC (resistor-capacitor) circuits. 2128Our analysis of RL and RC circuits will be divided into three phases. In the first phase, we consider the currents and voltages that arise when stored energy in an inductor or capacitor is sud- denly released to a resistive network. This happens when the inductor or capacitor is abruptly disconnected from its de source. ‘Thus we can reduce the circuit to one of the two equivalent forms shown in Fig. 7.1 on page 214. The currents and voltages that arise in this configuration are referred to as the natural response of the circuit, to emphasize that the nature of the circuit itself, not exter- nal sources of excitation, determin: its behavior. - * 7 <3) 0 Reg Cy aRVo Re @) (b) Figure 7.4. The two forms of the circuits for natural response. (a) RL circuit. (b) RC circuit,In the second phase of our analysis, we consider the currents and voltages that arise when energy is being acquired by an induc- tor or capacitor due to the sudden application of a de voltage or current source. This response is referred to as the step response. The process for finding both the natural and step responses is the same; thus, in the third phase of our analysis, we develop a general method that can be used to find the response of RL and RC cir- cuits to any abrupt change in a de voltage or current source. 4128Figure 7.2 on page 214 shows the four possibilities for the gen- Rr eral configuration of RL and RC circuits. Note that when there + are no independent sources in the circuit, the Thévenin voltage or © » Norton current is zero, and the circuit reduces to one of those shown in Fig. 7.1; that is, we have a natural-response problem : @ 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 EO) Rn tte 'm ) Vin Figure 7.2 44 Four possible first-order circuits {a) An inductor connected to a Thévenin equivalent. z {b) An inductor connected to a Norton equivalent. (©) A capacitor connected to a Thévenin equivalent. Vin t (6) A capacitor connected to a Norton equivalent. Rrappear, if it can be reduced to a’Thévenin or Norton equivalent connected to the terminals of an equivalent inductor or capacitor, itis a first-order circuit. (Note that if multiple inductors or capacitors exist in the original Circuit, they must be interconnected so that they can be replaced by a sin- gle equivaient element.)7.1 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 1, A, and that the switch has been in a closed position for a long time. We define the phrase a long time more accurately later in this section. For now it means that all currents and volt- ages have reached a constant value. Thus only constant, or de, currents can exist in the circuit just prior to the switch’s being opened, and therefore the inductor appears as a short circuit (Ldi/dr = 0) prior to the release of the stored energy. Because the inductor appears as a short circuit, the voltage across the inductive branch is zero, and there can be no current in either Ry or R. Therefore, all the source current /, 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. If we let ¢ = 0 denote the instant when the switch is opened, the problem becomes one of finding v(t) and i(¢) for 1 = 0, For = 0, the ci cuit shown in Fig. 7.3 reduces to the one shown in Fig. 7.4 7128Figure 7.3 & An RL circuit. i) = Figure 7.4 A The circuit shown in Fig. 7.3, for ¢ & 0.Deriving the Expression for the Current To find i(:), we use Kirchhoff’s voltage law to obtain an expression involv- ing i, R,and L, Summing the voltages around the closed loop gives di Lat R=, (7.1) where we use the passive sign convention, Equation 7.1 is known as a first- order ordinary differential equation, because it contains terms involving the ordinary derivative of the unknown, that is, di/dt. The highest order derivative appearing in the equation is 1; hence the term first-order. We can go one step further in describing this equation. The coeffi cients in the equation, R and L, are constants; that is, they are not func- tions of either the dependent variable / or the independent variable r. Thus the equation can also be described as an ordinary differential equation with constant coefficients. To solve Eq. 7.1, we divide by L, transpose the term involving i to the right-hand side, and then multiply both sides by a differential time dt. The result is (72)Next, we recognize the left-hand side of Eq. 7.2 as a differential change in the current i, that is, di. We now divide through by i, getting (7.3) We obtain an explicit expression for jas a function of r by integrating both sides of Eq. 7.3. Using x and y as variables of integration yields iy 1 ‘dx R foe th oain which i(t,) is the current corresponding to time fp, and i(t) is the current corresponding to time ¢. Here, fq = 0. Therefore, carrying out the indi- cated integration gives i __R ini) = “L! (7.5) Based on the definition of the natural logarithm, i(0) = i(O)e RO, (7.6) 11/2812128 Recall from Chapter 6 that an instantancous change of current cannot occur in an inductor. Therefore, in the first instant after the switch has been opened, the current in the inductor remains unchanged. If we use 0" to denote the time just prior to switching, and 0° for the time immediately following switching, then where, as in Fig. 7.1, fy denotes the initial current in the inductor. The initial current in the inductor is oriented in the same direction as the reference direction of i. Hence Eq, 7.6 becomes Ha) = foe 20, wnwhich shows that the current starts from an initial value Ip and decreases exponentially toward zero as increases. Figure 7.5 shows this response. We derive the voltage across the resistor in Fig. 7.4 from a direct appli- cation of Olin’ law: DEIR = 1k, 7 > 0" (78) Gy hy 0 Figure 7.5 The current response for the circuit shown sn Fig. 7.4.Note that in contrast to the expression for the current shown in Eq. 7.7. 1428 the voltage is defined only for 1 > 0. not at ¢ = 0. The reason is that a step change occurs in the voltage at zero. Note that for < 0, the derivative of the current is zero, so the voltage is also zero. (This result follows from v = Ldifdt = 0.) Thus (7) (7.20) where 0(0") is obtained from Eq. 7.8 with = 0°.! With this step change at an instant in time, the value of the voltage at ¢ = 0 is unknown. Thus we use 1 = 0° in defining the region of validity for these solutions,We derive the power dissipated in the resistor from any of the follow- ing expressions: ? p=vi, p=PR, or p=— (7.11) Whichever form is used, the resulting expression can be reduced to BREAN, pat, (2)‘The energy delivered to the resistor during any interval of time after the switch has been opened is a a we [ pax = f BRE RI ay lo ln 1 BRO = &28D% (7.3) Note from Eq. 7.13 that as ¢ becomes infinite, the energy dissipated in the resistor approaches the initial energy stored in the inductor.The Significance of the Time Constant The expressions for i(t) (Eq. 7.7) and »(¢) (Eq. 7.8) include a term of the form e“‘*/+, The coefficient of t—namely, R/L—determines the rate at which the current or voltage approaches zero. The reciprocal of this ratio is the time constant of the circuit, denoted 7 L 7 = time constant = (7.14) 17128Using the time-constant concept, we write the expressions for current, voltage, power, and energy as Mae", 620, wt) = IgRe, = 0", p= BRe", ¢=0', w SLR -e%), 120. (7s) (7.16) aan (7s) ‘The time constant is an important parameter for first-order circuils,so mentioning several of its characteristics is worthwhile. First, it is conven ient to think of the time elapsed after switching in terms of integral multi- ples of r. Thus one time constant after the inductor has begun to release its stored energy to the resistor, the current has been reduced to e~, or approximately 0.37 of its initial value.Table 7.1 gives the value of e~* for integral multiples of r from 1 to 10. Note that when the elapsed time exceeds five time constants, the current is less than 1% of its initial value. Thus we sometimes say that five time constants after switching has occurred, the currents and volt- ages have, for most practical purposes, reached their final values. For single time-constant circuits (first-order circuits) with 1% accuracy, the phrase a long time implies that five or more time constants have elapsed. Thus the existence of current in the RL circuit shown in Fig. 7.1(a) is a momentary event and is referred to as the transient response of the circuit. The response that exists a long time after the switching has taken place is called the steady-state response. The phrase a long time then also means the time it takes the circuit to reach its steady-state value,TABLE 7.1 Value of e* For 1 Equal to Integral Muttiptes of 7 etm 7 3.6788 x10" 2r 1.3534 x 107 Br 49787 x 107 4r 1.8316 x 107 Sr 6.7379 x 10 en 2.4788 x 107? 9.1188 x 10-4 3.3546 x 10"! 1.2341 x 10 4.5400 x 10"Any first-order circuit is characterized, in part, by the value of its time constant. If we have no method for calculating the time constant of such a circuit (perhaps because we don’t know the values of its compo- nents), we can determine its value from a plot of the circuit’s natural response. That's because another important characteristic of the time constant is that it gives the time required for the current to reach its final value if the current continues to change at its initial rate. To illustrate, we evaluate di/dt at 0* and assume that the current continues to change at this rat (7.9) dio. ano Now, if i starts as Jy and decreases at a constant rate of Jy/r amperes per second, the expression for i becomes i=Iy- > (7.20) 21128Equation 7.20 indicates that § would reach its final value of zero in 7 seconds. Figure 7.6 shows how this graphic interpretation is useful in estimating the time constant of a circuit from a plot of its natural response. Such a plot could be generated on an oscilloscope measuring output current. Drawing the tangent to the natural response plot at ¢ = 0 and reading the value at which the tangent intersects the time axis gives the value of 7. Calculating the natural response of an RL. circuit can be summarized as follows: 1. Find the initial current, fo, through the inductor. 2. Find the time constant of the circuit, = L/R. 3. Use Eq. 7.15, 1pe"", to generate ir) from Ig and r. All. other calculations of interest follow from knowing i(1). Examples 7.1 and 7.2 illustrate the numerical calculations associated with the natural response of an RL circuit. 221280 7 Figure 7.6 A A graphic interpretation of the time con- stant of the RL circuit shown in Fig 7.4The switch in the circuit shown in Fig. 7.7 has been closed for a long time before it is opened at 1 = 0. Find a) i,(t) fort = 0, b)i,(f) fore = 0", ©) vft) fort = 0", 4) the percentage of the total energy stored in the 2H inductor that is dissipated in the 10 0 resistor. Determining the Natural Response of an RL Circt 24128 Figure 7.7 The circuit for Example 7.1,Solution a) The switch has been closed for a long time prior to 1 = 0, so we know the voltage across the inductor must be zero at ¢ = 0°. Therefore the initial current in the inductor is 20 A at ¢ = 0". Hence, i,(0*) also is 20 A, because an instanta- neous change in the current cannot occur in an inductor. We replace the resistive circuit con- nected to the terminals of the inductor with a single resistor of 10.0: Rog = 2 + (40/10) = 100. eg The time constant of the circuit is L/Roq, oF 0.2 s, giving the expression for the inductor current as iz(t) = 200A,b) We find the current in the 40.0 resistor most easily by using current division; that is, HEEHIO “10+ 40" Note that this expression is valid for ¢ = 0 because i, = Oats = 0°. The inductor behaves as a short circuit prior to the switch being opened, producing an instantaneous change in the current i, Then, ift) = —4e* A, t= 0,27128 ¢) We find the voltage v,, by direct application of Ohm’s law: v4lt) = 40i, = -160e"V, 6 = 08. 4d) The power dissipated in the 10 01 resistor is, Proall) = 2560e™W, 1 = Ot.‘The total energy dissipated in the 10 Q resistor is wyoalt) = [swear = 256J. ‘The initial energy stored in the 2 H inductor is w(0) = L220) = 42,1400) = 400J. Therefore the percentage of energy dissipated in the 10 9 resistor is 256109) = 64%