Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
31st, 2007
Where is the charge of the capacitor (in Coulombs), is the capacitance of the capacitor, and is the voltage between the capacitor terminals. The capacitance describes how many Coulombs of charge the capacitor can store for each volt applied across its terminal, i.e. its capacity. If the voltage and charge can change over time, we can rewrite the equation as
As the voltage over the capacitor terminals changes, the amount of charge stored in the capacitor changes too. The meaning of electrical current can be broken down into change in charge per change in time, i.e.
From which we see that charge equals the integral of current over time. If we modify the equation for capacitor charge and solve for capacitor voltage, we get
Charging using a constant voltage A typical circuit for charging a capacitor is using a constant charge voltage and a series resistance to set the charge time. Such a circuit is shown in the figure. In this section, an expression for the capacitor voltage as a function of time elapsed since charging began will be derived. Two situations can be identified here; the capacitor can have an initial voltage or not. Both cases will be treated in this text. We start the analysis by applying Kirchoffs voltage law; the input voltage must be equal to the voltage drop over the resistor, plus the voltage of the capacitor. This can be expressed mathematically as
For the capacitor to charge, must be greater than . Assuming that is constant, knowing that the voltage drop over a resistor equals current times resistance and the equation for capacitor voltage, we can modify this equation into
An expression for the current must be obtained before the capacitor voltage can be calculated. For this situation, the Laplace transform is applied. First, we multiply by C.
We move the term to the left-hand side and factor out C. Simultaneously, we can factor out on the right-hand side.
We divide by
This cannot easily be inverse-transformed, but we introduce an R factor in the right-hand side.
The equation can now be simplified into an inverse-transformable expression. We factor out RC from the left factor, i.e.
now becomes
This is the expression for the current in the circuit, at any given time. To obtain the capacitor voltage, we integrate this expression.
This is the final expression for the capacitor voltage. The voltage follows a logarithmic curve, the slope of which is dependent on the resistance R and capacitance C. The capacitor voltage approaches the charge voltage at the end of the charge process. If the initial capacitor voltage is zero, i.e.
As said, the rate of charge of the capacitor depends on the product of R and C. This is usually called the time constant and denoted by the Greek letter tau:
The unit of is seconds. E.g. a 1 M resistor and 1 F capacitor produce . When 1 has elapsed since charging commenced, the capacitor has charged to about 63 % of its final voltage. At 2, the capacitor has charged to about 86 %. After 2, the voltage is at roughly 95 %. At 4, the voltage is at about 98 %, and at 5 around 99 %. This is valid for all values of R, C, and . Example: Given a capacitor and resistor , determine
a) The time constant. b) The voltages at 1, 2 and 3 when voltage is . Solution: A. The time constant is
and when
The charging
B. If the initial voltage of the capacitor is 0 V, the voltages at the specified points in time are:
If the initial voltage of the capacitor is 2 V, the voltages at the given points in time are:
The situation is illustrated in the graph below. The red curve corresponds to the uncharged capacitor, while the green curve represents the charged capacitor. The x-axis has units in seconds, the y-axis is in volts.
Where
Discharging using a constant voltage Discharging a capacitor with a constant voltage yields similar results as the charging process. This section analyzes the discharge process. The circuit is basically the same as in the
previous section, but now the input voltage is assumed to be less than causing the capacitor to discharge. We apply Kirchoffs voltage law and get
Where is assumed to be constant. Approaching the problem similarly as in the previous section, an expression for the circuit current is obtained.
If compared to the previous section, a difference can be noted in that the integral is now negative. This arises from the fact that the capacitor is now being discharged, causing charge to decrease. Proceeding as in the previous section and applying the Laplace transform, we obtain
When compared to the equation for charging, the voltages have been interchanged as was assumed greater than . To obtain the voltage of the capacitor, we integrate the current, observing that the integral is negative as the capacitor is discharged.
Again, the time constant determines the rate of discharge, and the capacitor voltage approaches by the end of the discharge. If , the equation simplifies into
After 1 has passed, the capacitor has discharged to about 37 % of its final voltage, at 2 to 14 %, at 3 to 5 %, at 4 to 2% and at 5 to 1 %. Example: Given a capacitor and resistor , determine
a) The time constant. b) The voltages at 1, 2 and 3 when voltage is . Solution: A. The time constant is
and when
The charging
The situation is illustrated in the graph below. The red curve corresponds to , while the green curve represents . The x-axis has units in seconds, the y-axis is in volts.
Where
Charging and discharging with a constant current A capacitor can also be charged and discharged using a constant current. By assuming that
This equation is valid for the charging process. If the desired process is discharge, a minus sign should be placed in front of the fraction, resulting in
The rate of charge/discharge is thus dependent on the current magnitude and the capacitance. Additionally, the shape of the curve is now linear. The time it takes for the capacitor to charge to a certain voltage is given by
Where is the voltage to be achieved. Similarly, the time needed for discharging to a certain level is given by