Lab 4–AC Circuits & Resonance with Multisim

PHY10004-Electronics and Electromagnetism

Aim

The aim of this laboratory is to analyze AC with different components which included Resistors,
Inductors and Capacitor.

Theory

Resistors with AC work similarly to DC as they respond immediately. Capacitors take time to build up
voltage as it charges therefore are frequency dependent. Inductors have a delay for current and also
are frequency dependent.

𝑋𝐶=1/𝜔𝐶 𝑉𝑝=𝐼𝑝𝑋𝐶

Capacitive reactance decreases as frequency increases,

𝑋𝐿=𝜔𝐿 𝑉𝑝=𝐼𝑝𝑋𝐿

Inductive reactance increases as frequency increases

Method

RC Experiment

For our first experiment we built a circuit using multisim containing a 1kΩ resistor and a 1 µF capacitor.
We connected voltage probes across the resistor to find I, capacitor to find V C and the full circuit to
measure the Vapp . We then increased the generated frequency from 10Hz to 1kHz to understand how it
affects the capacitor voltage, circuit current, capacitor reactance and the phase between V applied and Vc.

Next we changed the frequency from to 446Hz and recorded V app and VC and I.
We then swapped the positions resistor and the capacitor to observe VR as the frequencies varied. This
helps up determine which component acts as a high pass/ low pass filter.

RL Circuit

For this experiment we replaced the capacitor with an inductor. We then increased the generated
frequency to 446Hz to understand how it affects the capacitor voltage, circuit current, capacitor
reactance and the phase between Vapplied and Vc.

RLC Circuit

I constructed a circuit consisting of a 5Ω Resistor, 1mH Inductor and a 446µF Capacitor and set output to
channel 1 in the oscilloscope. We observed which side of the resonance (higher or lower frequency) the
current leads voltage, and which side voltage leads current. We were able to measure resonance using
zero-phase observation by aligning the 2 waves.

Conclusion

1
In both experiment 1 and 2 we were able to develop linear relations for X C vs and XL vs ω respectively.
ω
This allowed us to easily extract gradients for each graph to find the unknown capacitance and
inductance. We also learnt how the 2 circuits (RC & RL) acted contrarily as the frequency was increased
in the circuits in terms of capacitor/inductor voltage, circuit current and capacitor/inductor reactance.

By undertaking this lab I was able to be more confidnent with using Ohm’s law and were able to grasp
the relationship of an AC circuits using RLC components.