FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology

Hamdard University

LAB#2
TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF RC CIRCUITS
Objective:
 To observe the transient response of RC circuit
 Analysis of 1st order RC circuit using Proteus

Software:
 Proteus

Hardware:
 BreadBoard,Resistor,Capacitor

Theory:

Transient response:
Transient response or natural response is the
response of a system to a change from
equilibrium.
In electrical engineering a simple example
would be the output of a 5 volt dc power supply
when it is turned on. The transient response is
from the time the switch is flipped until the output
reaches a steady 5 volts. At this time the power
supply reaches its steady state of a constant 5
volts.
Damping oscillation as shown in Fig.1 is a
typical transient response, where the output value
oscillates until finally reaching a steady-state
value.

Transient response in RC circuit Fig1 Damping oscillation

The capacitor charges and discharges nonlinearly. During charging and discharging
capacitor follow an exponential curve. In the following, we apply a square pulse
waveform to the RC circuit shown in fig.2 to analyze the transient response of the circuit.

Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hamdard University

Sharae Madinat Al-Hikmah, Muhammad Bin Qasim Avenue, Karachi 74600, Pakistan.
 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology
Hamdard University

The pulse-width relative to a circuit’s time constant determines how it is affected by an

RC circuit.
Time Constant (τ): A measure of time required for certain changes in voltages and
currents in RC and RL circuits. Generally, when the elapsed time exceeds five time
constants (5τ) after switching has occurred, the currents and voltages have reached their
final value, which is also called steady-state response.

The time constant of an RC circuit is the product of equivalent capacitance and the
Thévenin resistance as viewed from the terminals of the equivalent capacitor.

A Pulse is a voltage or current that changes from one level to the other and back again. If
a waveform’s high time equals its low time, as in figure, it is called a square wave. The
length of each cycle of a pulse train is termed its period (T).

The pulse width (tp) of an ideal square wave is equal to half the time period. The relation
between pulse width and frequency is then given by,

.
Fig.2

The value of the voltage across the capacitor, (Vc) at any instant in time during the
charging period is given as:
)
Where:
Vc is the Voltage across the Capacitor
V is the Source Voltage
t is the elapsed time since the application of the supply voltage
RC is the Time Constant of the RC Circuit
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hamdard University
Sharae Madinat Al-Hikmah, Muhammad Bin Qasim Avenue, Karachi 74600, Pakistan.
 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology
Hamdard University

V is the applied source voltage to the circuit for t ≥ 0. RC = τ is the time constant. The
response curve is increasing and is shown in fig.3

Fig.3 capacitor charging curve for RC circuit with time axis normalized by τ

The discharge voltage for the capacitor is given by:

Where vo is the initial charge stored in the capacitor t=0, and RC= τ is time constant. The
response curve is decaying exponential as shown in fig.4

Fig.4 capacitor discharging curve for RC circuit

Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hamdard University

Sharae Madinat Al-Hikmah, Muhammad Bin Qasim Avenue, Karachi 74600, Pakistan.
 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology
Hamdard University

EXPERIMENT EXERCISE:

Rc circuit diagram on Proteus as given below:

fig5:RC circuit

Transient Response:

fig 6:Transient Response on Proteus

Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hamdard University

Sharae Madinat Al-Hikmah, Muhammad Bin Qasim Avenue, Karachi 74600, Pakistan.
 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology
Hamdard University

EXERCISE:

 Take Resistor and capacitor of your own choice and check the Transient response
of the circuit on breadboard and verify the result using proteus and attach the
results.

Answer the following questions.

1. What is the time constant for the circuit which you have designed on bread
board?

2. What will be the voltage across capacitor when current i=2 and C=10uF.

3. Find the value of time constant τ? If c=100µf and R=500 ohms and what will be
the current across capacitor when V=2t.

Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hamdard University

Sharae Madinat Al-Hikmah, Muhammad Bin Qasim Avenue, Karachi 74600, Pakistan.
 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology
Hamdard University

4. If 12volts dc is applied to circuit given in Exercise for the period of 10τ then the
current flow through the circuit after 5 τ is?

5. What you have learned from this lab?

Hamdard Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hamdard University

Sharae Madinat Al-Hikmah, Muhammad Bin Qasim Avenue, Karachi 74600, Pakistan.