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RL, RC and RLC Circuits

1.1. Introduction to RL and RC Circuits

Objective
In this exercise, the DC steady state response of simple RL and RC circuits is examined. The transient behavior
of RC circuits is also tested.

Theory Overview
The DC steady state response of RL and RC circuits are essential opposite of each other: that is, once steady
state is reached, capacitors behave as open circuits while inductors behave as short circuits. In practicality,
steady state is reached after five time constants. The time constant for an RC circuit is simply the effective
capacitance times the effective resistance, τ = RC. In the inductive case, the time constant is the effective
inductance divided by the effective resistance, τ = L/R.

Equipment
(1) DC power supply
(1) DMM

Components
(1) 1 µF
(2) 10 mH
(3) 10 kΩ
(4) 47 kΩ

Schematics

Figure 1.1
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Figure 1.2

Procedure

RL Circuit

1. Using figure 1.1 with E=10 V, R=47 kΩ, and L=10 mH, calculate the time constant and record it in Table
1.1. Also, calculate and record the expected steady state inductor voltage in Table 1.2.

2. Set the power supply to 10 V but do not hook it up to the remainder of the circuit. After connecting the
resistor and inductor, connect the DMM across the inductor set to read DC voltage (20 volt scale).

3. Connect the power supply to the circuit. The circuit should reach steady state very quickly, in much less
than one second. Record the experimental inductor voltage in Table 1.2. Also, compute and record the
percent deviation between experimental and theory in Table 1.2.

RC Circuit

4. Using figure 1.2 with E=10 V, R1=47 kΩ, R2=10k and C=1 µF, calculate the time constant and record it in
Table 1.3. Also, calculate and record the expected steady state capacitor voltage in Table 1.4.

5. Set the power supply to 10 V but do not hook it up to the remainder of the circuit. After connecting the
resistors and capacitor, connect the DMM across the capacitor set to read DC voltage (20 volt scale).

6. Connect the power supply to the circuit. The circuit should reach steady state quickly, in under one second.
Record the experimental capacitor voltage in Table 1.4. Also, compute and record the percent deviation
between experimental and theory in Table 1.4.
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Data Tables

0.21*10^-6 s
τ

Table 1.1

VL Theory VL Experimental Deviation

0V 0V 0%

Table 1.2

47*10^-3 s
τ

Table 1.3

VC Theory VC Experimental Deviation

10V 10V 0%

Table 1.4

Questions
1. What is a reasonable approximation for an inductor at DC steady state?

Short circuit

2. What is a reasonable approximation for a capacitor at DC steady state?

Open circuit

3. How can a reasonable approximation for time-to-steady state of an RC circuit be computed?

The capacitor in RC circuit charges exponentially.At time constant T it charges approx 63%.
At 5T capacitor charges 99.99%.So,5T is capacitor steady state value
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4. In general, what sorts of shapes do the charge and discharge voltages of DC RC circuits follow

1.2. Capacitive Reactance

Objective
Capacitive reactance will be examined in this exercise. In particular, its relationship to capacitance and
frequency will be investigated, including a plot of capacitive reactance versus frequency.

Theory Overview
The current – voltage characteristic of a capacitor is unlike that of typical resistors. While resistors show a
constant resistance value over a wide range of frequencies, the equivalent ohmic value for a capacitor, known
as capacitive reactance, is inversely proportional to frequency. The capacitive reactance may be computed via
the formula:
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Xc = − j 1

2πfC

The magnitude of capacitive reactance may be determined experimentally by feeding a capacitor a known
current, measuring the resulting voltage, and dividing the two, following Ohm’s Law. This process may be
repeated across a range of frequencies in order to obtain a plot of capacitive reactance versus frequency. An
AC current source may be approximated by placing a large resistance in series with an AC voltage, the
resistance being considerably larger than the maximum reactance expected.

Equipment
(1) AC Function Generator model:
(1) Oscilloscope model:

Components
(1) 1 µF actual:
(1) 2.2 µF actual:
(1) 10 kΩ actual:
Schematic

Figure 2.1

Procedure
Current Source

1. Using figure 2.1 with Vin=10 V p-p and R=10 kΩ, and assuming that the reactance of the capacitor is
much smaller than 10k and can be ignored, determine the circulating current using measured component
values and record in Table 2.1.

Measuring Reactance

2. Build the circuit of figure 2.1 using R=10 kΩ, and C=1 µF. Place one probe across the generator and
another across the capacitor. Set the generator to a 200 Hz sine wave and 10 V p-p. Make sure that the
Bandwidth Limit of the oscilloscope is engaged for both channels. This will reduce the signal noise and
make for more accurate readings.

3. Calculate the theoretical value of Xc using the measured capacitor value and record in Table 2.2.

4. Record the peak-to-peak capacitor voltage and record in Table 2.2.

5. Using the source current from Table 2.1 and the measured capacitor voltage, determine the experimental
reactance and record it in Table 2.2. Also compute and record the deviation.

6. Repeat steps three through five for the remaining frequencies of Table 2.2.

7. Replace the 1 µF capacitor with the 2.2 µF unit and repeat steps two through six, recording results in Table
2.3.
8. Using the data of Tables 2.2 and 2.3, create plots of capacitive reactance versus frequency.
Data Tables

1 mA
isource (p-p)

Table 2.1

Frequency XC Theory VC(p-p) Exp XC Exp % Dev

(mV)
795 800 800 0.63
200
397 400 400 0.755
400
265 278 278 4.9
600
198 205 205 3.53
800
159.15 160 160 0.31
1.0 k
132.6 138 138 4.07
1.2 k
99.4 105 105 5.63
1.6 k
79.5 85 85 6.91
2.0 k

graph of 800 mV
 Table 2.2

Frequency XC Theory VC(p-p) Exp XC Exp % Dev

361 360 360 0.277
200
180 182 182 1.11
400
120.5 122 122 1.24
600
90.42 93 93 2.85
800
72.3 76 76 5.11
1.0 k
60.3 62 62 2.81
1.2 k
45.2 46 46 5.63
1.6 k
36 38 38 5.55
2.0 k

Table 2.3
Questions

1. What is the relationship between capacitive reactance and frequency?

Xc = 1/j2(pi)fC;

2. What is the relationship between capacitive reactance and capacitance?

Xc = 1/j2(pi)fC

3. If the experiment had been repeated with frequencies 10 times higher than those in Table 4.2, what would
the resulting plots look like?
Vc decreases 10 times lesser than the value in the table.And the voltage across peak to peak
decreases 10 times faster than the value.

4. If the experiment had been repeated with frequencies 10 times lower than those in Table 4.2, what effect
would that have on the experiment?

Vc increases 10 times and the time period increases.

1.3. Inductive Reactance

Objective
Inductive reactance will be examined in this exercise. In particular, its relationship to inductance and frequency
will be investigated, including a plot of inductive reactance versus frequency.

Theory Overview
The current – voltage characteristic of an inductor is unlike that of typical resistors. While resistors show a
constant resistance value over a wide range of frequencies, the equivalent ohmic value for an inductor, known
as inductive reactance, is directly proportional to frequency. The inductive reactance may be computed via the
formula:
XL = j2πfL

The magnitude of inductive reactance may be determined experimentally by feeding an inductor a known
current, measuring the resulting voltage, and dividing the two, following Ohm’s Law. This process may be
repeated across a range of frequencies in order to obtain a plot of inductive reactance versus frequency. An AC
current source may be approximated by placing a large resistance in series with an AC voltage, the resistance
being considerably larger than the maximum reactance expected.

Components
(1) 1 mH
(1) 10 mH
(1) 10 kΩ

Schematic

Figure 3.1
Procedure

Current Source

1. Using figure 3.1 with Vin=10 V p-p and R=10 kΩ, and assuming that the reactance of the inductor is much
smaller than 10k and can be ignored, determine the circulating current using measured component values
and record in Table 3.1. Also, measure the DC coil resistances of the inductors using an ohmmeter or
DMM and record in Table 3.1.

Measuring Reactance

2. Build the circuit of figure 3.1 using R=10 kΩ, and L=10 mH. Place one probe across the generator and
another across the inductor. Set the generator to a 1000 Hz sine wave and 10 V p-p. Make sure that the
Bandwidth Limit of the oscilloscope is engaged for both channels. This will reduce the signal noise and
make for more accurate readings.

3. Calculate the theoretical value of XL using the measured inductor value and record in Table 3.2.

4. Record the peak-to-peak inductor voltage and record in Table 3.2.

5. Using the source current from Table 3.1 and the measured inductor voltage, determine the experimental
reactance and record it in Table 3.2. Also compute and record the deviation.

6. Repeat steps three through five for the remaining frequencies of Table 3.2.

7. Replace the 10 mH inductor with the 1 mH unit and repeat steps two through six, recording results in
Table 3.3.

8. Using the data of Tables 3.2 and 3.3, create plots of inductive reactance versus frequency.

Data Tables

isource(p-p) 1mA

Rcoil of 10 mH

Rcoil of 1 mH

Table 3.1
Frequency XL Theory VL(p-p) Exp XL Exp % Dev
628.31 Ω 616 mV 616 2.23
1k
1256.62 Ω 1.22 V 1220 2.91
2k
1884.93 Ω 1.72 V 1720 8.7
3k
2513.24 Ω 2.20 V 2200 12.46
4k
3140.55 Ω 2.68 V 2680 14.70
5k
3765.86 Ω 3.16 V 3160 16.11
6k
5024.48 Ω 4.08 V 4080 18.82
8k
6283.1 Ω 4.92 V 4920 21.69
10 k

Graph of 616 mV

Graph of 1256 mV

Table 3.2
Questions
1. What is the relationship between inductive reactance and frequency?

X L = j2 πfL;fL;
From the formula,
F is the frequency is directly proportional to inducitve reactance .
So, the inductive reactance increases when frequency increases.

2. What is the relationship between inductive reactance and inductance?

X L = j2πfL;fL;
From the formula,
Inductance is directly proportional to the inductive reactance .
So, the inductive reactance increases when inductance increases.

3. If the 10 mH trial had been repeated with frequencies 10 times higher than those in Table 5.2, what effect
would that have on the experiment?
As the frequency increases the voltage peak to peak across inductor increases 10 times. This says
that the Xl increases 10 times.

4. Do the coil resistances have any effect on the plots?

The R coil doesn’t affect on the reactance on the inductor and affects on the experimental value. As R coil is
the real part of the total impedance of the inductance. But reactance of the is complex part of the
inductance.So it doesn’t affect on reactance of it.
1.4. Resonance in RLC Circuits
Objective
This is about studying resonance in RLC series and parallel circuits. This will be used to examine the sinusoidal
frequency response of the series and parallel to see at what frequency the current through an RLC series becomes or
the voltage across a parallel RLC circuit reaches maximum value. A network is in resonance when the voltage and
current at the network input terminals are in phase and the input impedance of the network is purely resistive.

Procedure:

Figure 4.1

Consider the Parallel RLC circuit of figure 1. The steady-state admittance offered by the circuit is:

Y = 1/R + j( ωC – 1/ωL)C – 1/ωC – 1/ωL)L)

Resonance occurs when the voltage and current at the input terminals are in phase. This corresponds to a purely
real admittance, so that the necessary condition is given by
ωC – 1/ωL)C – 1/ωC – 1/ωL)L = 0

The resonant condition may be achieved by adjusting L, C, or ωC – 1/ωL). Keeping L and C constant, the resonant
frequency ωC – 1/ωL)o is given by:
Equipment Required: Square-wave generator, discrete circuit components of R=1 KΩ, L= 27mH and C=1uF,
oscilloscope and square-wave generator.

Set up the RLC circuit as shown in Figure 4.1

Apply a 4.0 V (peak-to-peak) sinusoidal wave as input voltage to the circuit. Set the Source on Channel A of the
oscilloscope, and the voltage across the capacitance on Channel B of the oscilloscope. Vary the frequency of the
sine-wave on signal generator from 500Hz to 2 KHz in small steps, until at a certain frequency the output of the
circuit on Channel B, is maximum. This gives the resonant frequency of the circuit.

Table for parallel resonance:

f C R L I
500 Hz 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 54.50 mA
600 Hz 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 45.46 mA
700 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 39.01 mA
800 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 34.17 mA
900 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 30.43 mA
1000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 27.43 mA
2000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 14.07 mA
3000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 9.79 mA
4000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 7.801 mA
5000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 6.735 mA
6000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 6.14 mA
7000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.83 mA
8000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.68 mA
8876 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.658 mA
9000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.660 mA
10000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.72 mA

Repeat the experiment using for the series resonant circuitry in Figure 4.2, and use L = 33mH and = 0.01uF and R =
1 KΩ. The Vo voltage on the resistor is proportional to the series RLC circuit current.
 Figure 4.2

Find the resonant frequency using equation given in the before and compare it to the experimental value in both
cases.

Series Resonance :
f C R L I
500 Hz 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 178.78
600 Hz 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 214.80
700 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 250.97
800 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 287.30
900 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 323.83
1000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 360.58
2000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 746.05
3000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 1.186 mA
4000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 1.72 mA
5000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 2.40 mA
6000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 3.29 mA
7000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 4.40 mA
8000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.39 mA
8876 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.647 mA
8880 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.646 mA
9000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.623 mA
10000 0.01uF 1000 Ω 33mH 5.072 mA