Study of DC transients in R-L and R-C circuits

1 Continuity condition of capacitors

To find the current-voltage relationshi derivative of both sides of Eq. q = C .V d v (t ) d q (t ) d v (t ) C c = = i (t ) i (t ) = C c dt dt dt p of the capacitor, one can take the (1)

The voltage-current relation can also be represented by another form as t 1 vc (t ) = i (t ) dt + vc (t0 ) where vc (t0 ) is voltage across the capacitor at tim e t0 . It can C t0

be seen that when the v oltage across a capac itor is no t changing with time, or, in other words, the capacitor is fully charged and th e current through the capacitor is zero (see Eq.1). This means that the capacitor resembles as an open circuit and blocks the flow of current through the capacitor. E quation (1) shows that an instantaneous ( t =0) change in capacitance v oltage must be accom panied by an infinite current that requiring an infinite power source. In practice, this situation will not oc cur in any cir cuits containing energy storing elem ents. Thus, th e voltage acro ss the cap acitor (or electric charge q (t ) ) cannot change instantaneously (i.e., t = 0 ) , that is we cannot have any discontinuity in voltage across the capacitor. Remark(i) The voltage across and charg e on a capac itor cannot change in stantaneously (i.e. vc (0 ) just right before the change of voltage = vc (0 + ) just right after the change of voltage). H owever, current through a capaci tor can change abrup tly. (ii) The capacitor acts as an open circu it (i.e., when th e capacitor is fully charg ed) when voltage across the capacitor do es not chan ge (cons tant). (iii) These properties of cap acitor ar e im portant since they will be used to determine boundary conditions.

L.10.4.2 Study of dc transients and steady state response of a series R-C circuit.
Ideal and real capacitors: An ideal capacitor has an infinite dielectric resistance and plates (made of metals) that have zero resistance. However, an ideal capacitor does not exist as all dielectrics h ave som e leakage current and all capacitor plates hav e s ome resistance. A capacitors leakage resistance is a measure of how m uch charge (current) it will allow to leak through the dielectric medium. Ideally, a charged capacitor is not supposed to allow leaking any current through the dielectric medium and also assum ed not to d issipate any po wer loss in capacitor plates res istance. Under this situation, the model as shown in fig. 2 represents the ideal capacitor. However, all real or practical capacito r leak s curren t to som e extend due to leakage resistance of dielectric medium. This leakage resistance can be visualized as a resistance connected in parallel

with the ca pacitor and power loss in capacitor plates can be realized w ith a resis tance connected in series with capacitor. The model of a real capacitor is shown in fig. 3.

Fig 2.
In present discussion, an ideal capacitor is transients in R C circuit. considered to study th e behavior of dc

Fig 3.

L.10.4.3 Charging of a capacitor or Growth of a capacitor voltage in dc circuits

Let us consider a simple series R C circuit shown in fig. 4 is connected through a switch S to a constant voltage source VS .

Fig 4.

The switch S is closed at time t = 0 (see fig. 4). It is assumed that the capacitor is initially charged with a voltage vc (0) = v0 and the current flowing through the circuit at any instant of time t after closing the switch is i (t ) .

Fig 5. The KVL equation around the loop can be written as d v (t ) VS = R i (t ) + vc (t ) VS = R C c + vc (t ) dt

(2)

The solution of the above first-order differe ntial equation (10.41) due to forcing function Vs is given by vc (t ) = vc n (t ) (natural response/transient response) + vc f (t ) (steady-state response) = A1 e t + A value of is obtain ed from the characteristic Appendix) 1 R C + 1= 0 = RC Eq. (3) is then rewritten as
vc (t ) = A1 e
1 t RC

(3) equation given by (see in detail in

The constan ts A1, and A are computed using the initial and boundary conditions . The

+A

(4)
vc ( ) = vc f = A which satisfy th e

At steady s tate, the vo ltage acro ss the capacitor is original differential equation (10.41). i.e.,

dA + A A = VS dt dt Using the initial condition (at t = 0 ) in equation (10.43), we get VS = R C + vcf R C

d vcf

vc (0) = v0 = A1 e

1 0 RC

+ A A1 = v0 A = v0 VS

The values of A1 , A , and Eq. ( 4) together will give us the final expression for capacitor voltage as 1 1 1 t t t RC RC RC vc (t ) = ( v0 VS ) e (5) + VS vc (t ) = VS 1 e + v0 e Thus, t<0 v0 1 1 t t vc (t ) = vc (t ) = VS 1 e RC + v0 e RC t>0 Response of capacitor voltage with time is shown in fig. 5. Special Cas e: A ssume initia l vo ltage ac ross the capa citor at tim e t = 0 is zero i. e., vc (0) = v0 = 0 . The voltag e expression for capacitor at any in stant of tim e can be written vc (0) = v0. = 0 from Eq.(5) with
1 t RC Voltage across the capacitance vc (t ) = VS 1 e

(6)
1 t RC
1

Voltage across the resistance vR (t ) = VS vc (t ) = VS e

(7)

V t v Charging current through the capacitor i (t ) = R = S e RC (8) R R Charge accumulated on either plate of capacitor at any instant of time is given by
1 1 t t RC RC q (t ) = C vc (t ) = C VS 1 e (9) = Q 1 e where Q is th e final charge accum ulated in the capacitor at steady s tate ( i.e., t ). Once the v oltage acro ss the cap acitor vc (t ) is known, the other quantities (like,

vR (t ), i (t ), and q (t ) ) can easily be com puted using the above expressions. Fig. 6 shows growth of capacitor voltage vc (t )for different choices of circuit parameters (assumed that the capacitor is initially not charged). A sketch for q (t ) and i (t ) is shown in fig. 10.19(b).

Fig 6.

Following the definition given in previous lecture, time constant of each of the exponential expressions described in Eqs. 10.45 to 10.48 m ay be found as = R C (for 6 to 9 RC circuit).

L.10.4.4 Discharging of a capacitor or Fall of a capacitor voltage in dc circuits

Fig. 10.17(b) shows that the switch S is closed at position 1 for sufficiently 5 long time and the circuit has reached in steady-state condition. At t = 0 the switch S is opened and kept in position 2 and remains there. Our job is to find the expressions for (i) voltage across th e capacitor ( vc ) (ii) voltage across the resistance ( vR ) (iii) curren t
(i (t )) through the capacitor (discharging curre nt) (iv) discharge of charge ( q (t )) through the circuit.

Solution: For t < 0 , the switch S in position 1. The capacitor acts like an op en circuit to dc, but the voltage ac ross the capacitor is same as the supply voltage VS . Since, the capacitor voltage cannot change instantaneously, this implies that vc (0 ) = vc (0 + ) =VS When the s witch is closed in pos ition 2 , the cu rrent i (t ) will flow through the c ircuit until capac itor is com pletely d ischarged throug h the res istance R . In other w ords, th e discharging cycle will start at t = 0 . Now applying KVL around the loop, we get d v (t ) (10) RC c + vc (t ) = 0 dt The solution of input free differential equation (10.49) is given by vc (t ) = A1 e t (11)

where the value of is obtained fro m the characterist ic equ ation and it is equal to 1 . The constant A1 is obtained using the initial condition of the circuit in = RC 11 Eq.(10.50). Note, at t = 0 ( when the sw itch is ju st closed in p osition 2 ) the voltag e across the capacitor vc (t ) = VS . Using this condition in Eq.(11), we get
vc (0) = VS = A1 e
1 0 RC

A1 = VS
1 t RC 1 t RC

Now the following expressions are written as Voltage across the capacitance vc (t ) = VS e

(12) (13)
1

Voltage across the resistance vR (t ) = vc (t ) = VS e

v V t Charging current through the capacitor i (t ) = R = S e RC (14) R R An inspection of the above exponential terms of equations from (12) to (14) reveals that the time constant of RC circuit is given by = RC (sec.) This means that at time t = , the capacitors voltage vc drops to 36.8% of its initial value (see fig. 7 ). For all practical purposes, the dc transient is considered to end af ter a time span of 5 . At such time steady state condition is said to be reached. Plots of above equations as a function of time are depicted in fig. 7 .

Fig 7.

5 Energy stored in a capacitor

The ideal capacitor does not dissipate any of the energy supplied by the source. It stores energy in the form of an electric field between the conducting plates. Let us consider a voltage source VS is connected to a series R C circuit and it is assumed that the capac itor is initially uncharged. The capacitor voltag e (vc (t )) and current (ic (t )) waveforms during the charging period are shown in fig. 8 and (10.47)) and instan taneous power ( pc (t ) = vc (t ) i (t ) ) supp lied to the capacitor is also shown in the same figure.

Fig 8.

Let us consider the instantaneous power supplied to the capacitor is given by pc (t ) = vc (t ) i (t ) (15) Now, the energy supplied to the capacitor in dt second is given by d v (t ) (16) w = pc (t ) dt = vc (t ) C c dt = C vc (t ) dvc (t ) dt Total energy supplied to the capacitor in t seconds is expressed as vc ( t ) = v 1 1 q 2 (t ) 2 (17) w(t ) = C vc (t ) dvc (t ) = C vc = ( Joules) 2 2 C vc (0) = 0 (Note initial voltage across capacitor is zero and q (t ) is the ch arge accumulated on each plate at a time t ) . When the capacitor is fully charged, its terminal voltage is equal to the source voltage VS . The amount of energy stored in capacitor in the form of electric field is given by 1 1 Q2 2 W = C VS = ( Joules) (18) 2 2 C where Q is th e final ch arge accumulated on each plate of the capacito r at steady s tate ( i.e., t ) i.e., when the capacitor is fully charged.