EE102-Fundentalments for Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Lab Report 5 - RC Circuits

Aim
To study the behaviour of capacitors in different types of circuits.
Introduction
Capacitors have the physical capability of storing charge. Most electrical components have
some amount of capacitance with in them but some devices are specifically manufactured to
do the sole job of being capacitors by themselves. Capacitors in electrical circuits can have
very different characteristics times for charging and discharging. An RC circuit is a circuit
with a resistor and a capacitor in series connected to a voltage source such as a battery [1].
As of circuits made up only of resistors, electrical current can flow in this RC circuit with
one modification. A battery connected in series with a resistor will produce a constant
current. The same battery in series with a capacitor will produce a time varying current,
which shall decay gradually to zero as the capacitor charges up. The time it takes for the
transient currents to decay depends on the resistance(R) capacitance(C). The resistor resists
the flow of current thus slows down the rate of decay [2]. A capacitor is in series with a
resistor and is initially disconnected from the battery therefore it is uncharged. As the
capacitor is charging up the current is actually decreasing due to the stored charge on the
capacitor producing a voltage that increasingly opposes the current [3]. The charge on the
capacitor at a given time is given by
𝑡

Q=Q 0 𝑒𝑅𝐶
Where Q o is the charge stored on a capacitor initially.

𝑙𝑛 VC = − 1
𝑡 +𝑙𝑛 VO
𝑅𝐶

This is the standard form of a linear equation, Y = mX + b.

Equipment’s A
capacitor
Two metal plates
Resistor
Power supply
Wires
Switch
Method/ Procedure
I. Exponential discharge in an RC circuit
The circuit was wired up as in figure 3 lab instructor checked our Circuit before closing
the switch. For the switch one side of the double-throw switch was used. The resistance r
was set on a variable decade resistance box and was set at 1000. Used the capacitor with
the larger capacitance labelled on. It was important that the capacitor was connected with
its + terminal to the + side of the battery/voltage supply. Connecting them with reversed
polarity could have damaged or destroyed the capacitors.

The was computer was used to measured, vo, the voltage dropped across the capacitor.
Started by opening up the "rc-discharge" file. Before connecting the voltage measuring
leads from the computer interface to the circuit, the red and black wires were connected
directly to each other to shorten the leads. The voltage readout was nearly zero.
The double-throw switch was placed in the charging position and waited for the voltage
reading to give a steady reading for a minimum of 15 seconds. Initial voltage, vo was
recorded.
Started data collection on the computer and flipped the switch to the discharge position.
Allowed the measurements to continue until the capacitor voltage had dropped below
0.10 v.
B) A quick estimate of the decay time constant was made by looking at the graph of vc
(Voltage across the capacitor) versus time and determining how long it takes for vc to
dropped from its initial value of vo to about. 37vo. The "examine" tool button was
used Value was recorded.
C) The time constant was determined by examining a plot of lnvc versus time. The slope
determine by carrying out a linear fit to the data and data was recorded. The slope was
used to determine the time constant.
The decade box was temporarily disconnected from your circuit and used a digital
multimeter to measure the true value of the discharge resistor. This value of r was used to
find the capacitance, c.
The Data was recorded.
D)Repeated the process above with the decade resistance box set to 500. The capacitor
was charged for 15 seconds first and then simultaneously started data collection and
flipped the switch to discharge the capacitor. Repeated calculations to find and c.
Once again, the data was stored.
E) Repeated the entire process one more time with the decade resistance box set to 200.
Printed out a vc vs. t graph and a ln vc vs. t graph with all 3 different resistance
settings shown on each graph (so two graphs with 3 plots on each one). The curves
were labelled with their proper resistance settings once printed.
F) The average of the three capacitance were found.
 G)With the decade resistance box set to 1000 the procedure was repeated above with the
capacitor of lowered nominal value. The capacitance, c2 was calculated.
II. Charging the capacitor
A) Used the "rc-charge" file for this part of the experiment. The circuit shown in figure 4
was made. Used the larger capacitor and decade resistance box set to r = 20. The
ammeter was a current probed sensor connected to the computer. The discharge side
of the double-throw switch was now simply a short circuit to allow rapidly discharge
the capacitor completely.

Discharged the capacitor fully - for at least 30 seconds. With the capacitor fully
discharged and still shorted, so that both vc = 0 and ic = 0, zero both sensors.
B) Before collecting the charging data the initial current was predicted that expected to
flow once the switch was thrown to the charging position. A supporting calculation
of the predicted io was shown.
C) Started data collection and after a couple seconds flipped the switch to the charging
position (the collecting will trigger automatically when the capacitor begins to
charge). Allowed the charging process to go for 50s. The initial current was recorded.
Checked to see if the initial current it closed to the predicted value and if your plots
looked like the predicted graphs. The data was stored
D) The process above was repeated for R = 80. The graph was drawn.

Results and Analysis

Graphs charging curve of 1500x10^-6 F capacitor. The graph shows charge approximately
10s and is fully charged.

Experiment time constant

 Time constant = 10s

Value of R from experiment theoretical time constant

R=t/c t= RC
=10/15000x10^-6 =500 x 15000x10^-6
R=666.67Ω =0.4

Graphs charging curve of 30000x10^-6 F capacitor. The graph shows charge approximately
25s and is fully charged.

Experiment time constant

Time constant = 25s

Value of R from experiment theoretical time constant

R=t/c t= RC
= 25/39000x10^-6 =400x39000x10^-6
R= 641.02 Ω t =15.6
Discussion:
 The voltage and time were
As

recorded during the

investigation through the
digital multimeter
which was being used as the
voltmeter. After finding these
values, we found the error in
the
voltages as 0.1 again as it was
the smallest value on the
voltmeter. Using these values,
we plotted
the above graph which was
very important because it
helped us find the slope which
was
0.00705. This slope was
important to find out the graph
time constant, which was
found by
dividing the slope by 1 and it
came out to be around 142s.
After finding these values, we
first
calculated the time constant in
parallel circuit using the
equation
The voltage and time were
recorded during the
investigation through the
digital multimeter
which was being used as the
voltmeter. After finding these
values, we found the error in
the
voltages as 0.1 again as it was
the smallest value on the
voltmeter. Using these values,
we plotted
the above graph which was
very important because it
helped us find the slope which
was
0.00705. This slope was
important to find out the graph
time constant, which was
found by
dividing the slope by 1 and it
came out to be around 142s.
After finding these values, we
first
calculated the time constant in
parallel circuit using the
equation
The voltage and time were
recorded during the
investigation through the
digital multimeter
which was being used as the
voltmeter. After finding these
values, we found the error in
the
voltages as 0.1 again as it was
the smallest value on the
voltmeter. Using these values,
we plotted
the above graph which was
very important because it
helped us find the slope which
was
0.00705. This slope was
important to find out the graph
time constant, which was
found by
dividing the slope by 1 and it
came out to be around 142s.
After finding these values, we
first
calculated the time constant in
parallel circuit using the
equation
The voltage and time were
recorded during the
investigation through the
digital multimeter
which was being used as the
voltmeter. After finding these
values, we found the error in
the
voltages as 0.1 again as it was
the smallest value on the
voltmeter. Using these values,
we plotted
the above graph which was
very important because it
helped us find the slope which
was
0.00705. This slope was
important to find out the graph
time constant, which was
found by
dividing the slope by 1 and it
came out to be around 142s.
After finding these values, we
first
calculated the time constant in
parallel circuit using the
equation
The resistor and the time constant were calculate using the following formulas R=t/c and
t=RC. After finding all the values we were able to plot it in the excel which was able to give
the graph of the values for the charging and discharging.
Conclusion:
At the end of this experiment we were able to study the behaviour of capacitors in different
type of circuits. In this experiment, charging and discharging of the
capacitor with different resistors were observed. One time constant
represents the time it requires the voltage of the capacitor to reach 63%
of its maximum voltage. As time constant increase, the voltage reaches
the maximum voltage of the capacitor.
References

[1] "docsity," 11 october 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.docsity.com/en/rc-circuit-

labreport/4928537/. [Accessed 11 october 2020].

[2] "science clemson," 11 october 2020. [Online]. Available:

http://science.clemson.edu/physics/labs/labs/223/rc/index.html. [Accessed 2020 october
2020].

[3] Charles K. Alexander, Matthew N. O. Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, New York:
McGraw-Hil, 2013.