Ex.No.

:7 SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF TIME

Date:
CONSTANT OF SERIES RC ELECTRIC CIRCUITS

AIM:
To study the transient response of RC circuit and determine the time constant of the
given RC circuit experimentally.

APPARATUS REQUIRED:
S. No. Range Quantity
Name of the equipment
1. Regulated Power Supply (RPS) (0-30) V 1
2. Resistor 10 kΩ 1
3. Capacitor 470 µF 1
4. Voltmeter (0-30)V 1
5. Toggle switch 1
6. Stop watch 1
7. Breadboard 1
8. Connecting wires As required

THEORY:
The sudden changes in a circuit are called as transients. The voltage which changes
suddenly is called a transient voltage. Resistors will respond instantaneously to the transient
voltage. But the capacitors and inductors react over time as they absorb and release energy.
Transient response of series RC circuit
Consider a series R-C circuit as shown in Fig.6.1, the switch K is in open state initially.
There is no charge on capacitor (C) and no voltage across it. At instant t=0, switch K is closed
to position (1). Immediately after closing a switch, the capacitor acts as a short circuit, so
current at the time of switching is high. The voltage across the capacitor is zero at t=0. The
capacitor acts as a short circuit and the current is
Maximum and is given by,

This current is maximum at t = 0 which is the charging current. As capacitor starts

charging, the voltage across the capacitor starts increasing and charging current starts
decreasing. After some time, when the capacitor charges to V volts, it achieves steady state. In
steady state, it acts as a open circuit so current will be zero finally. The RC time constant, also

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called tau, is the time constant (in seconds) of an RC circuit, is equal to the product of the
circuit resistance (in ohms) and the circuit capacitance (in Farad), i.e.
It is the time required to charge the capacitor, through the resistor, by ≈ 63.2 percent of
the difference of voltage between the initial value of voltage and final value of voltage or
discharge the capacitor to ≈ 36.8 percent of the initial value.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:

Fig. 7.1: Circuit diagram to determine the time constant of a RC network

PROCEDURE:
1. Connections are made as per the circuit diagram in Fig. 6.1.
2. Keeping the toggle switch in open position, increase the input supply voltage to 15 V.
3. Close the toggle switch at position 1. Now the capacitor charges through the applied
voltage.
4. To observe the charging behaviour of the capacitor, note down the voltage across the
capacitor in the voltmeter with respective time in the stopwatch.
5. At certain voltage, the capacitor reaches the steady state value.
6. Then the toggle switch (K) is closed at position 2, the discharging behaviour of the
capacitor is observed similarly.
7. Observe the charging and the discharging behaviour of the RC network using CRO.
8. Switch OFF the RPS.
9. Plot the charging and discharging behaviour of the given RC network in a graph sheet.

FORMULA:
The time constant is given by,
Where, – time constant (seconds)
R – Resistance (kΩ)
C- Capacitance (μF)
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The capacitor charging voltage is given by,

The capacitor discharging voltage is given by,

Where, V - Applied Voltage (volts)

Vc - Capacitor charging voltage (volts)
VD - Capacitor discharging voltage (volts)
RC -Time constant

OBSERVATION TABLE: V=30V

Capacitor Charging Capacitor Discharging
S. No.
Time (s) Voltage (V) Time (s) Voltage (V)

1 1 5.43 1 24.5

2 2 10.10 2 19.7

3 3 13.96 3 16.2

4 4 17.06 4 12.90

5 5 19.46 5 10.62

6 6 21.47 6 8.41

7 7 23.12 7 6.77

8 8 24.45 8 5.56

9 9 25.54 9 4.45

10 10 26.37 10 3.57

11 11 27 11 2.93

12 12 27.63 12 2.35

13 13 28 13 1.93

14 14 28.46 14 1.56

15 15 28.74 15 1.23

16 16 29 16 1.00

17 17 29.18 17 0.87

18 18 29.34 18 0.67

19 19 29.47 19 0.52

20 20 29.57 20 0.42

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MODEL GRAPH:
MODEL CALCULATION:
Reading No.: 10

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5
Obtain the time taken by the capacitor to charge to its 63.2% of supply voltage by conducting suitable
experiment. Simulate the same using simulation software.

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Simulate the given circuit to obtain the transient time. Conduct a practical experiment for the same.

RESULT:
Thus the time constant of the given RC network is experimentally determined.
PRE-LAB QUESTIONS:

1. A sine wave voltage is applied across a capacitor. When the frequency of the voltage is
decreased, the current
a. decrease

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 b. remain constant
c. increase
d. ceases
2. When the voltage across a capacitor is tripled, the stored charge
a. stays the same
b. doubles
c. triples
d. reduced to one-third
3. Define "time constant" of an RC circuit?
The RC time constant, also called tau, the time constant of an RC circuit, is equal to the
product of the circuit resistance and the circuit capacitance.

4. What is linear wave shaping?

The process whereby the form of a non sinusoidal signal is altered by transmission through
a linear. network is called “linear wave shaping”. An ideal low pass circuit is one that allows
all the input. frequencies below a frequency called cutoff frequency fc and attenuates all
those above this frequency
5. What is rise time?
In electronics, when describing a voltage or current step function, rise time is the time
taken by a signal to change from a specified low value to a specified high value. These
values may be expressed as ratios or, equivalently, as percentages with respect to a given
reference value.

POST LAB QUESTIONS:

1. What happens when the resistance is very high?

2. How does current vary with time during discharging in an RC circuit?
3. How is the concept of time constant useful in describing an electrical circuit?
4. How does the reactance of the inductor and capacitor vary with applied frequency?
5. What is the unit of time constant?