Experiment-11

Time Response of R-C Circuit

Aim : To study the time response of a given RC charging circuit and to

plot its transient analysis.

Software Required :
i. Matlab editor

ii. Command window

Theory :
To obtain the voltage across a charging capacitor, let us consider this
figure that includes a voltage source :

Circuit Diagram

Again, using KCL, the equation describing the charging RC circuit is :

𝒅𝐯₀(𝒕) 𝐯₀(𝐭)−𝑽𝒔
C + =0
𝒅𝒕 𝐑
If the capacitor is not charged initially, that is v0(t) = 0 when t = 0, then the
solution to the equation above is given by :

= vo(t) = V{1 - e-t/R*C}

Procedure :
The AC circuit graphs are simulated by programming in MATLAB. The
codes for making the graphs are as follows :

% Define the voltage source

Vs = 220;

% Define the capacitor in the circuit

C = 30e-6;

% Define the time lapse that we're going to explore

t = 0 : 0.005 : 0.45;

% Define the resistors in each time constant and

% calculate the voltage across the capacitor

R1 = 10e3;

tau1 = R1*C;

V1 = Vs * ( 1 - exp(-t/tau1) );

R2 = 20e3;

tau2 = R2*C;
V2 = Vs * ( 1 - exp(-t/tau2) );

R3 = 40e3;

tau3 = R3*C;

V3 = Vs * ( 1 - exp(-t/tau3) );

% Plot the responses, all at once

plot(t, V1, 'b-', t, V2, 'ro', t, V3, 'k*')

grid on

title('Transient Analysis - RC circuit')

xlabel('Time (s)')

ylabel('Voltage across capacitor (V)')

legend(['RC_1 = ' num2str(tau1)],...

['RC_2 = ' num2str(tau2)],...

['RC_3 = ' num2str(tau3)], 'location', 'best')

Observation :
For the given charging RC circuit Vs is taken as 220 volts and C= 30µF. The
plot of Voltage across the capacitor is made for R1 = 10kΩ, R2= 20kΩ and
R3= 40kΩ and 3 time constants are explored.
Report :

• Graph :

The output plot of Voltage across capacitor V/S Time for the given RC
charging circuit came out to be:

o To Calculate The Value Of Time Constants And Voltages For The

Given Values Of Resistances :
 Voltage expression for charging R.C-Circuit are as follows: -

⇒ vo(t) = V{1 - e-t/R*C}

So, taking in consideration three different cases of the above expression,

by taking different values of Resistance at t = RC :

a) With R1 = 10000 Ω,

C = 30 * 10-6 F,
Vs = 220 V (blue line)

So, t = R*C = 0.30s

Thereby, Expression here becomes :

vo(t) = 220{1 - e-t/0.30}

Hence,

vo(t) = 220 {1 – e -0.30/0.30}

= 220 {1 – e-1}

= 220 {1 – 0.3678}

= 220 * 0.6321

= 139.066 V
b) With R2 = 20000 Ω,

C = 30 * 10-6 F,
Vs = 220 V (red circular line)

So, t = R*C = 0.60s

Thereby, Expression here becomes;

vo(t) = 220{1 - e-t/0.60}

Hence,

vo(t) = 220 {1 - e-0.60/0.60}

= 220 {1 – e-1}

= 220 {1 – 0.3678}

= 220 * 0.6321

= 139.066 V

c) With R3 = 40000 Ω,

C = 30 * 10-6 F,
Vs = 220 V (black starred line)
 So, t = R*C = 1.20s

Thereby, Expression here becomes;

vo(t) = 220{1 - e-1.20/1.20}

Hence,

vo(t) = 220 {1 - e-1.20/1.20}

= 220 {1 – e-1}

= 220 {1 – 0.3678}

= 220 * 0.6321

= 139.066 V

Resistance ( Ω Voltage ( volts Capacitance ( Tau ( seconds

) ) Farad ) )

R1 = 10000 Vs = 220 C = 30*10-6 R1*C = 0.30

R2 = 20000 Vs = 220 C = 30*10-6 R2*C = 0.60

R3 = 40000 Vs = 220 C = 30*10-6 R3*C = 1.20

Precautions :
· All formulas and syntax must be proper in order to get correct output.
Conclusion :
From the resulting plot of our transient analysis, we see that if the time
constant is small, it takes a shorter time for the capacitor to charge up (the
smaller the time constant the faster the circuit response). We also can see
that when the time constant is reached by each response, we have obtained
more or less the 63% of the total voltage to be taken (that’s why the RC value
is called the time constant).