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Study of Exponential Relaxation Time Constant of A RCcircuit

1) The experiment studied the exponential relaxation time constant of a RC circuit by measuring the half discharge time at various frequencies. 2) The time constant was calculated to be an average of 0.91 ms based on measurements from 50 Hz to 1000 Hz. 3) However, this result is not accurate because at higher frequencies, the capacitor did not have enough time to fully charge due to the lower time period, leading to lower measured half times and calculated time constants. The true time constant of the RC circuit is about 1 ms at frequencies below 300 Hz.

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Mehedi Hassan
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282 views

Study of Exponential Relaxation Time Constant of A RCcircuit

1) The experiment studied the exponential relaxation time constant of a RC circuit by measuring the half discharge time at various frequencies. 2) The time constant was calculated to be an average of 0.91 ms based on measurements from 50 Hz to 1000 Hz. 3) However, this result is not accurate because at higher frequencies, the capacitor did not have enough time to fully charge due to the lower time period, leading to lower measured half times and calculated time constants. The true time constant of the RC circuit is about 1 ms at frequencies below 300 Hz.

Uploaded by

Mehedi Hassan
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Experiment :C-3
Study of exponential relaxation time constant of a RC circuit.
Submitted to Mr.Golam Dastegir Al-Quaderi and
Dr. Ratan Chandra Gosh

Submitted by Md. Mehedi Hassan Batch-9;Group A Second Year, Roll


SH 236 Student of Physics Department, Uinversity of Dhaka. [Dated April
16,2011]
1

Experiment : Study of exponential relaxation time constant of a RC circuit. Theory : The time required to
charge a capacitor to 63% (actually 63.2%) of full charge or to discharge it to 37% (actually 37.8%) of its
initial voltage is known as the time constant of discharges exponentially the circuit. as q = if q
q
o
o

et/ is the initial charge of a capacitor then it , here = RC is the characteristic time or relaxation time. It
is convenient to measure time for the quantity to drop one half of of its initial value and from this half time
we can rewrite:
t
1/2

= et
1/2/

= 1/2 or, t
1/2

= ln2 = 0.693
or, = t
1/2

/0.693 (1) Apparatus : An oscilloscope. signal generator, a


resistor, a capacitor and a circuit board.
Figure 1.1 Charging & discharging of a Capacitor.
Figure 1.2 Circuit diagram of RC circuit.
2
naac Chara
Purc
20 10

Table -1:For charging of the capacitor


Frequency X X
c

f
y

T
B

=t
1/2

= Time Mean 1/(f


y

.X
c

)T
B

X Constant = 1.44 t
1/2 Hz div div Hz ms ms ms ms
50 0.40 10.80 49.35 1.89 0.75 1.09 100 0.65 10.00 97.70 1.00 0.65 0.95 200 1.30 9.90 195.40 0.50 0.67
0.96 0.91 300 1.20 6.80 293.10 0.50 0.60 0.86 400 1.00 5.20 390.80 0.49 0.49 0.71 500 0.82 4.19 480.50
0.48 0.40 0.57 600 0.69 3.33 586.20 0.51 0.35 0.50 700 0.61 3.00 683.90 0.48 0.29 0.43 800 0.58 2.60
781.60 0.49 0.29 0.41 900 0.49 2.30 879.30 0.49 0.24 0.35 1000 0.42 2.05 977.70 0.49 0.21 0.30 2000
1.00 4.40 1954.0 0.11 0.11 0.17 5000 0.90 3.50 4885.0 0.05 0.045 0.064 10000 0.42 1.78 9770.0 0.057
0.024 0.034

Table -2: For discharging of the capacitor


Frequency X X
c

f
y

T
B

=t
1/2

= Time Mean 1/(f


y

.X
c

)T

X Constant = 1.44 t
1/2 Hz div div Hz ms ms ms ms
50 0.40 10.80 49.35 1.89 0.75 1.09 100 0.65 10.00 97.70 1.00 0.65 0.95 200 1.20 9.90 195.40 0.50 0.60
0.86 0.90 300 1.10 6.80 293.10 0.50 0.55 0.79 400 0.90 5.20 390.80 0.49 0.44 0.63 500 0.78 4.19 480.50
0.48 0.38 0.55 600 0.70 3.33 586.20 0.51 0.35 0.51 700 0.60 3.00 683.90 0.48 0.28 0.41 800 0.58 2.60
781.60 0.49 0.28 0.41 900 0.50 2.30 879.30 0.49 0.24 0.35 1000 0.45 2.05 977.70 0.49 0.22 0.32 2000
1.00 4.40 1954.0 0.11 0.11 0.17 5000 0.85 3.50 4885.0 0.05 0.045 0.064 10000 0.42 1.78 9770.0 0.057
0.024 0.034
3

Calculation :
When dial frequency=100 Hz Then true frequency, f
y

= (100 0.977Hz) = 97.7Hz


and X = 0.65, X
c

= 0.65
We know, T
B

= 1/(f
y

.X
c

) = 1/(97.7 10.0)ms
=0.001s =1ms
Half time, t
1/2

=T
B

.X =1 0.065ms
=0.65ms
Time constant, = 1.44 t
1/2

=(1.44 0.65)ms =0.95ms


Mean =(1.09 + 0.95 + 0.96 + 0.86 + 0.71)/5 ms = 0.91ms
Result : Time constant of given RC circuit is 0.91 ms. This result(avearge) is not ac- curate because when
e took higher frequency the capacitor is not fully charged and thus our result has some errors. For higher
frequency current the capacitor failed to charge fully because the Time period (T) is becoming lower .The
orig- inal Time constant for this RC circuit is 1.0ms which was in our experiment , when the frequency is
under 300 Hz. Discussion : We are taking the half time of the circuit,but it is not the actual t
1/2

be- cause for high frequency


the capacitor failed to reach its maximum value(fully charged).On the contrary we are an arbitrary
charged capacitor as fully charged and thus t
1/2

became lower than the true t


1/2

.As a result the time constant () also becoming lower and


lower when frequency is increasing.
At higher frequency the time period (T) becomes smaller than actual and the signal doesnt have
enough time to reach final destination. However there is another cause of error, that is the tolerence of
the given resistor. The resistence is 10k and the golden color denote 5% tolerence so
= RC= 5% (RC)=RC/20
So the correctedshould be:
==[0.90 (0.90/20)]ms = 0.945ms or 0.855ms.
4

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