ECE2120

Electrical Engineering Laboratory II

Lab 3: Capacitors and Series RC Circuits

Name:

Date:
Objective
The objective of the lab is to

 Understand the series and parallel combination of the capacitor and

measurement.
 Calculate the reactance of the capacitor at different frequencies and observe
the change in the value.
 Observe and verify the behavior of series RC circuit at different frequencies.

Equipment Used
1. Analog Discovery 2
2. Resistor
3. Capacitor
4. DMM
5. Breadboard

Part (0)
Calculate theoretical voltage and current values in Figure 3.3 and record
them in Table 3.1. Calculate all voltage and current values as peak-to-peak.

Table 3.1 Calculated Values of RC Circuit

ZTotal i 1 (p ¿ p) V R ( p¿ p) V c ( p t o p)
Freq Xc
(Hz) (Ω) R X mag mag mag
angle angle angle
(Ω) (Ω) (mA ) (V ) (V )
500 31847.13 10 k 31.847 k 0.0599 72.56 0.599 72.56 1.908 −17.44
1000 15923.6 10 k 15.923 k 0.1063 57.87 1.063 57.87 1.693 −32.18
2000 7961.8 10 k 7.961 k 0.1565 38.52 1.565 38.52 1.246 −51.48
4000 3980.9 10 k 3.980 k 0.1859 21.7 1.859 21.7 0.739 −68.3
8000 1990.44 10 k 1.9904 k 0.196 11.25 1.96 11.25 0.39 −78.75
Calculations

Following are the calculations performed for the above table.

Experimental Work

Part (1)

Use the digital multimeter (DMM) to complete the following steps. Record
your values in Table 3.2.

In this part of experiment, nominal values of the capacitor and resistor are
noted as mentioned on the component and color code. Using DMM, value of each
component is measured and noted in the Table 3.2.

Table 3.2 Calculated and Measured Values

Component Nominal∨Calculated Value Measured Value

R 10 kΩ 9.93 kΩ
C1 0.01 µF 0.011 µF
C2 0.01 µ F 0.011 µF
C 1 C 2(¿) 0.02 µ F 0.022 µF
C 1 C 2( Series) 5 nF 5.5 nF
X C 1(500 Hz) 31847 Ω 26539 Ω

Form the above table, it can be observed that the measured values are different
form the nominal values because of the percentage tolerance of the component.

Part (2)

In this part of the experiment, RC series circuit was analyzed. Series RC circuit shown
in Fig. 1 is implemented on the breadboard. Input signal is applied using Wavegen of
Analog Discovery 2, CH1 is connected across the input. To measure voltage across
resistor, CH2 is connected across resistor, and the current is calculated using
following formula.

VR
I p− p=
R
 Figure 1 Series RC Circuit

To measure the phase angle, cursor is used to measure the time difference in the
zero crossing of wave, and phase angle is determined using following formula.

∆T o
hase angle= ×360
Total Time Period of wave

Voltage across capacitor is measured by connecting CH2 across capacitor, and

reactance is determined using the following formula.

Vc
X c=
I p− p

Table 3.3 Recorded Values for Part 2

Freq . V s V C1 VR I PP φ XC1 C1
Freq ZTotal
Hz (V ) (V ) (V ) (mA ) (deg) (k Ω) (μF)
500 500 2 1.87 0.666 0.067 71.28 27.91 0.011 9.75k-j28.68k
1000 1000 2 1.62 1.145 0.1153 56.16 14.05 0.016 9.84k-j9.76k
2000 2000 2 1.15 1.638 0.164 38.16 7.01 0.011 9.85k-j6.8k
4000 4000 2 0.67 1.887 0.191 21.6 3.507 0.011 9.79k-j3.45k
8000 8000 2 0.35 1.973 0.199 10.36 1.758 0.011 9.88k-j1.72k

From the above results mentioned in Table 3.3, it can be observed that by increasing
the frequency the current is increasing as by increasing the frequency, reactance of
the capacitor is decreased and overall impedance is also decreased. There is a
negligible difference in the values of Table 3.1 and 3.3, the difference is due to the
difference observed in Table 3.2.

1. Draw impedance and voltage phasors (as in Figure 3.2) for frequency f = 1000
Hz

Figure 2 Impedance and voltage phasor diagram at F=1000Hz

2. Draw impedance and voltage phasors for frequency f = 4000 Hz.

Figure 3 Impedance and voltage phasor diagram at F=4000Hz

3. The phasor diagrams at various frequencies show how the impedances, and
therefore the voltages, change with frequency. To better see the net effect
on the circuit, graph VC 1 and VR versus frequency for the values in Table 3.3.
Label the curves.
 Vc versus Frequuency
2 1.87
1.8 1.62
1.6
1.4
1.15
1.2
1
Vc

0.8 0.67
0.6
0.35
0.4
0.2
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000

Frequency

Figure 4 Vc versus Frequency

Vr versus Frequency
2.5

1.973
2 1.887
1.638
1.5
1.145
Vr

1
0.666

0.5

0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000
Frequency

Figure 5 VR versus Frequency

Conclusion

From this experiment we concluded that, measured values are different from the
calculated due to the not availability of precise components i-e resistor and
capacitor of exact value. From the tables obtained after calculations and
measurement it is observed that the reactance of the capacitor decreases with the
increase in the frequency. And hence due to decrease in the reactance the current in
the circuit rises.

Probing Further Questions

Q1.Describe what happens to the current in this RC series circuit as the

frequency increases. Explain in general terms why the observed change
should occur.
When the frequency of the input signal is increased, the value of reactance is
decreased and resultantly the total impedance is also decreased. So, due to
the decrease in impedance, circuit current is increased.

Q2.Simulate the circuit in LT SPICE and graph VC1 and VR versus frequency over
the range of values in Table 3.3. Compare to your manually drawn curves.

Q3.In this experiment it was shown that the voltage phasor diagram can be
obtained by multiplying each of the impedance phasors by the current in the
circuit. If each of the voltage phasors in the voltage phasor diagram is again
multiplied by the current, the resulting diagram is the power phasor diagram.
Using the data in Table 3.3 convert the current I and source voltage VS to
RMS values. Then draw a plot of the power phasor diagrams at a frequency
of 1000 Hz and another at a frequency of 4000 Hz. Determine the real power,
the reactive power, and the apparent power in the RC circuit at those
frequencies.
 For conversion of peak to peak values to RMS using the following formula:

V RMS = ( V2 ) ×0.707
pp

I RMS= ( I2 ) ×0.707
pp

P RMS=V RMS I RMS

From the above formula we get Table 3.4

Table 3.4 RMS Converted values

V PP I PP V RMS I RMS P RMS

Freq
(V ) (mA ) (V ) (mA ) (mW )
500 2 0.067 0.707 0.023685 0.016745
1000 2 0.1153 0.707 0.040759 0.028816
2000 2 0.164 0.707 0.057974 0.040988
4000 2 0.191 0.707 0.067519 0.047736
8000 2 0.199 0.707 0.070347 0.049735

At F=1000Hz

0
V =0.707 ∠0

o
I =0.0407 ∠56.16

0 o
P=VI =0.707∠0 × 0.0407 ∠56.16

o
P=0.028 mW ∠56.16 =0.016 mW + j 0.0 .0239 mW

At F=4000Hz

0
V =0.707 ∠0

o
I =0.0 675 ∠ 21.6

0 o
P=VI =0.707∠0 × 0.0 675∠21. 6

P=0.0 477 mW ∠ 21 .6o =0.0 443 mW + j0.0 .0 175 mW

Figure 6 Power Phasor Diagram
 Appendix

Reference figures.

Figure 7 Circuit implementation

Figure 8 output and input at F=500Hz

Figure 9 Phase angle