Nogales Technological Institute

UNIT 2: Higher order linear differential equations

RLC CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

Subject: Differential equations

Professor: Araujo Gonzalez Juan Manuel

EQUIPMENT:
Gonzalez Zambrano Bryan Enrique.
Lugo Cárdenas Jose Manuel.
Villareal Félix Deniel Alonso.

Career: Computer systems engineering.

Group: F.

Delivery date: May 10, 2021

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Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations W'

Historical notes.
The first evidence that a capacitor could produce electrical oscillations was discovered in 1826 by
French scientist Félix Savary. He discovered that when a Leyden jar was discharged through a
wire wrapped around an iron needle, sometimes the needle became magnetized in one direction
and sometimes in the opposite direction. He correctly deduced that this was caused by a damped
oscillating discharge current in the wire, which reversed the magnetization of the needle back
and forth until it was too small to have an effect, leaving the needle magnetized in a random
direction.

British radio researcher Oliver Lodge, by discharging a large battery of Leyden flasks through a
long wire, created a circuit tuned to its resonant frequency in the audio range, which produced a
musical tone from the spark when discharged. . In 1857, German physicist Berend Wilhelm
Feddersen photographed the spark produced by a resonant Leyden jar circuit in a rotating mirror,
providing visible evidence of the oscillations. In 1868, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell
calculated the effect of applying an alternating current to a circuit with inductance and
capacitance, showing that the response is maximum at the resonant frequency.

The first practical use of RLC circuits was in the 1890s in spark gap radio transmitters to allow
the receiver to tune to the transmitter. The first patent for a radio system that allowed tuning
was filed by Lodge in 1897, although the first practical systems were invented in 1900 by the
Anglo-Italian radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
Introduction.

What is an RLC circuit?

An RLC circuit is an electrical circuit that consists of a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor,
connected in series or parallel. The RLC part of the name is because those letters are the
common electrical symbols for resistance, inductance, and capacitance, respectively. The circuit
forms a harmonic oscillator for the current and will resonate similarly to how an LC circuit would.
The main difference that the presence of the resistor makes is that any oscillations induced in the
circuit will die out over time if not maintained by a source. This resistance effect is called
damping. The presence of the resistor also reduces the maximum resonance frequency
somewhat. Some resistance is inevitable in real circuits, even if a resistor is not specifically
included as a component. A pure LC circuit is an ideal that really only exists in theory.

There are many applications for this circuit. They are used in many different types of oscillator
circuits. Another important application is tuning, such as in radio receivers or televisions, where
they are used to select a narrow range of frequencies from ambient radio waves. In this function,
the circuit is often called a tuned circuit.
Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations
An RLC circuit can be used as a bandpass filter, bandstop filter, lowpass filter, or highpass
filter. The tuning application, for example, is an example of bandpass filtering. The RLC
filter is described as a second-order circuit, meaning that any voltage or current in the circuit can
be described by a second-order differential equation in circuit analysis.

RLC circuit
To understand the natural response of the RLC circuit intuitively, we think about how the charge

in the circuit moves over time. If we place an initial charge on the capacitor and then close the
switch, the charge will go from one plate of the capacitor to the other, passing through the
inductor and resistor in both directions. Each cycle of oscillation will be a little less than the
previous one, because energy is lost as the moving load heats the resistor.

The RLC circuit has a mechanical analogy: the pendulum. This is a good way to visualize what is
happening in the circuit.

Because?
The RLC circuit is the analogue of a mechanical oscillator, the pendulum that oscillates without
friction. The RLC circuit has a similar mechanical analogue. Adding the resistor to the RLC circuit
is equivalent to adding air resistance to make the pendulum dissipate energy and stop.
As a pendulum swings, friction due to air resistance dissipates energy, and each swing becomes
shorter and shorter until the pendulum stops moving. If the air resistance is low, the pendulum
swings for a long time before stopping. If it is too high,
the pendulum falls slowly once to the center and stops.
For a precise value, the pendulum will fall to the center
as fast as it can, without going over and without
returning.
 Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations
Our RLC circuit is going to show the same type of behavior as its current and voltage
oscillate. (Another good mechanical analogy is a weight hanging from a spring . If we pull
the weight down and release, its movement up and down is similar to the swing of the
pendulum).

Analysis.

We are going to model the RLC circuit with a second-order linear differential equation with the
current, i , as the independent variable. We have the equation:

Ld2
dt 2 *R1
i say
dt + c i = °
Whose characteristic equation is the following:

s 2+1 s +=0
Solving the quadratic equation we have:

-R
±√ R 2-4
2L
R 1
where : a = — and Wo = —=
— a ± ^a 2 — ^ 2L 7
0 fL C
02 a represents the damping factor.
Wo represents the resonant frequency

Solution algorithm.

Following the line of reasoning that we use to solve problems that involve oscillatory
movements using second-order equations, the proposed solution to solve an RLC circuit is as
follows:

1. Create a second-order differential equation based on equations iv for the components R, L,

and C. We are going to use Kirchhoff's voltage law to construct the equation.
2. Make an appropriate assumption of the solution. Our assumption will be an exponential
function of the form ^e s t .
3. Enter the proposed solution into the differential equation. The exponential terms are factored
and leave us with a characteristic equation in the variable s.
4. Find the roots of the characteristic equation. This time we are going to have to use the
quadratic formula to find the roots.
5. Find the constants by taking into account the initial conditions.
6. Simply substitute and interpret the results found.

The schematic of our circuit can be visualized as follows:

 Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations

From this we can write the i - V equations for each individual element in the circuit:
V =^
l dt
V
c=t

VR = —iR
—i
dt
We can write Kirchhoff's law of voltage (LKV) by starting in the lower left corner and adding the
voltages as we go clockwise around the mesh. The inductor has a voltage rise, while the resistor
and capacitor have voltage drops .
+V
LVR-Vc0
Replacing the terms of v with the corresponding terms of i gives us:
Ld 1+ R
i+
1f i dt=0
dt c
Applying
differentiation in
this equation we obtain a second-order differential equation, homogeneous and with constant
coefficients. Note that the equation obtained is the same as the one stated at the beginning of our
analysis.
 Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations
RLC CIRCUIT APPLICATION
Hypothesis and approach.

In the course of our university career, situations arise that lead us to reflect on the phenomena
that appear in nature and that can be described through a universal language that we know as
“Mathematics”, the description of our environment represented through Mathematical models
naturally lead us to understand, through differential equations, these phenomena that usually
change over time. Then differential equations become our tool to be able to give an attempt to
answer the “Why” of things, while they provide a certain abstraction that simplifies the event that
we are interested in studying.

On this particular occasion we intend to give an application to a series RLC circuit, which we have
previously analyzed, finding the differential equation and its analogy with a mass-spring system,
the oscillatory movement of a pendulum, etc.

Aware that the RLC circuit has a certain resonance, we can think of a kind of “filter” that allows us
to select a range of frequencies that are of interest depending on the application that we want to
provide.

Our proposal consists of making a band pass filter that on this occasion is intended to be used in
an FM radio receiver, to do so we must take into account some concepts.

First, understand what a bandpass filter is:

In telecommunications, optics, and acoustics, a passband (a bandpass filtered signal) is the portion
of the frequency spectrum that is transmitted (with minimum relative loss or maximum relative
gain) by some filtering device. In other words, it is a band of frequencies that passes through some
filter or set of filters.

A second-order passive bandpass filter RLC, as its name

suggests, only allows one band of frequencies to pass
and attenuates all the others. It is made up of three
elements, a capacitor, a coil and a resistor. It is known
as passive because it is only composed of passive
elements, and it is second order because it contains two
reactive elements (a capacitor and a coil).
 Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations
How often does an FM radio receiver work?
In essence, the signals are received by an antenna, in home
equipment this is usually of the telescopic type, a directive
antenna made up of small sections of rods, the signals
captured by the antenna reach the input circuit, this
constitutes a resonant circuit of the RL-C type formed by coils
and capacitors, generally the capacitor is variable, when we
tune a radio station in a receiver, we are matching the
resonant frequency of our LC circuit with the frequency of the
signal that is received, of In this way it is possible to at least
reduce the number of radio stations that could be captured .

The commercial FM band uses frequencies from 88 MHz to 108

MHz. Most radio stations in Europe, America and other areas of
the world broadcast on this band.

Therefore, it is necessary to build a band filter that allows frequencies in the range of 88 MHz and
108 MHz to receive the correct signals.

We will not be focused on building the complete circuit (scheme) of the radio receiver, our interest
is to apply filtering through an RLC circuit

Design and experimentation.

Taking into account that we will apply filtering with an RLC circuit, we need to design a series RLC
circuit that on the surface seems very simple.

Knowing the behavior of the RLC circuit through

differential equations. Our circuit will have a specific value
in each component that will depend on some formulas
applied to the bandpass filters .
Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations

For the band pass filter, the following must be taken into account:
f 1 = ^lower cutoff frequency = 88 MHz
f 2 = ^upper cut-off frequency = 108MHz
BW = bandwidth = f 2 - f 1 = 108MHz — 88MHz = 20MHz
R = resistance value
B.W. 20MHz
f s = resonant frequency (center) = f 1 + 2 = 88MHz +-------------------2— = 88MHz + 10MHz = 98MHz
fs 98MHz
Q.s =
7
quality factor = =-----------= 4.9
BW 20MHz
, ■ QsR
L = inductance value = —- 2nf s
Yo
C = capacitance value =---------------- r 2nf s Q s R

Resistance value: The resistance value can be free, but the capacitance and inductance will
depend on that value.

We opted for a 50 ohm resistor.

So to calculate the capacitance and inductance by applying and solving with the formulas
provided, we have:

Capacitance = 6.6287pF (pico farads)

Inductance = 0.39788 pH (micro henries)

Having the values defined, we have the following diagram for our circuit:

Figure 1. RLC bandpass filter

Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations

Figure 2. Complete circuit

The circuit diagram that is displayed is in the circuit simulation software called: Proteus.
Remembering that the intention is to filter a range of frequencies, we need to somehow confirm that the circuit fulfills
the proposed function. Theoretically and through our approach, the behavior of the circuit is as expected, however, in
the simulator it is also possible to observe the result graphically:

Figure 3. Graph of generated frequencies.

Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations

Figure 4. Region between purple lines represents the frequencies of our interest.

Figure 5. Frequency range allowed by the filter.

Unit 2: Higher Order Linear Differential Equations

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In the simulation we do not analyze the circuit, that is, we do not observe voltage drops, current measurements, etc.
Although it could be done if necessary, but that is not the essence of this circuit.

Although the analysis of the RLC circuit as such has been provided throughout the document.

Conclusions.
We realize that certain phenomena that do not directly belong to the area of “mathematics” have
a description that is provided by a mathematical model, reminding us that differential equations
are the tool that allow the advancement of our society in various areas, telecommunications in
our particular case study appearing in a subtle way and facilitating our understanding of the
problem in question, through generalized ideas that idealize our model, but providing a fairly
close approximation compared to reality.