Department of Electronics and Communication

Engineering
FALL 2016

AC ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT ANALYSIS

ELEC20001

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Introduction
This manual is intended for use in an AC electrical circuit Analysis in the third semester of the Electronics
& Telecommunication Engineering course. The manual contains sufficient exercises for a 15 week course
with two hour practical period. The topics range from introductory oscilloscope orientation, RL and RC
circuits , superposition, series and parallel resonance and ends with two port analysis. Each of the
experiment demands a practical knowledge about the main equipment such as oscilloscope and function
generator. Each exercise begins with an Objective, schematics and step-by-step procedure. Finally, a
group of appropriate questions for further analysis are presented. Most of the experiments includes
simulation using a SPICE-based tool such as Multisim or PSpice, and compare those results to the
theoretical and experimental results as well.
Some experiments require pre lab activity which the students are expected to complete before they
appear for the lab session. The activities are grouped under four main experiments and students are
expected to submit the completed lab report after the completion of all the activity mentioned for the
experiment. Each student has to submit the individual report in the format specified. The lab report with
all the necessary sections will be evaluated based on the marking scheme. Refer the student handbook
for late submission policy and anti-plagiarism policy.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

LIST OF EXPERIMENTS
No

Title

Date of completion

Max Marks*

Transient Analysis

Week 4

20 Marks

Steady State Analysis

Week 7

20 Marks

Resonance & Filters

Week 9

20 Marks

Two port networks

Week11

20 Marks

*The total mark is scaled down to a total out of 20 Marks

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Experiment 1: Transient Analysis

Objectives:

To understand the basics of AC (alternating current) circuits.

To use an oscilloscope to measure frequency, period, voltage (magnitude, peak-to-peak,

maximum, minimum, and etc), DC offset, etc, of the waveform.

To study the transient response of series RC circuit & RL Circuit.

To model a first-order system and display measured characteristics.

Activity 1: AC Measurements

Requirements:

Cathode Ray Oscilloscope(CRO)

Function Generator

Connecting probes

Task 1:
Generate a sine wave of frequency 100 HZ (any amplitude) from the function generator and
display it in the CRO.
Task 2:
Set the amplitude of the wave generated to be 5 Volts peak to peak (5V pp).
Task 3:
Generate a random frequency /amplitude Sine wave from the function generator and measure
the time period, & amplitude from the CRO. Carry out the calculations for frequency, peak to
peak value and RMS value. (attach a graph with proper scale and readings)
Task 4:

Build a circuit in Multisim consisting of a function generator and a resistor. Set the frequency to
1 kHz and amplitude to 2V (peak-to-peak to 4 V). Use a multimeter to read the voltage(VRMS)
LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

over the resistor. Use an oscilloscope to display the waveform over the resistor. Peak voltage
and period can also be measured using cursors. Plot the waveform and show the average value
and rms value of the sine wave.(attach a screen shot with user ID and name affixed)
Activity 2: Transient analysis of RC circuit
Requirements:

Cathode Ray Oscilloscope

Function Generator

Connecting probes

Task 1: Build the RC circuit in MultiSim

1. Create an RC circuit with a DC Source.

2. In the place component window type SPDT in the Component box, select SPDT and click
OK to place the single pole double throw switch in the window. Close the Component
Window.
3. Double-click the capacitor and change the value to 1 . Double-click the resistor and
change the value to 100 . This yields a time constant for the system of = =
(100) (1 ) = 100 ms and the gain is K = 1. In order to change the gain, it would be
necessary to include more resistors. Double click the DC voltage source and change the
value to 5 V.
4. Complete the circuit as shown below.
Name:
ID:
Date:

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

***Click place text and put a title in the workspace such as your name, the date, and circuit title.
Include a screenshot of this circuit in your lab journal submission.
Task 2: Interactive Simulation
1. Click the Agilent oscilloscope in the right tool bar as shown by the arrow in Figure and
place it on the schematic window.

2. Double-click on the oscilloscope in order to see an image of how the actual instrument
looks.
3. Push the power button to turn on the oscilloscope. Push the Analog, Channel 1 button to
turn on Channel 1. Click the knob above the Channel 1 button until the window shows
2V/div on channel 1.
4. Push the Analog, Channel 2 button to turn on Channel 2. Click the knob above the Channel
2 button until the window shows 2V/div on channel 2.
5. Click the Horizontal knob to 50 ms/div for both channels. Connect Channel 1 to the DC
voltage source and Channel 2 to measure the voltage across the capacitor.
6. When you are finished your diagram should look like Figure below.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

7. Click the green play (run) button or the light switch in the upper right hand corner to turn
on the MultiSim interactive simulation (see Figure 4).
8. Now push the spacebar on the keyboard multiple times and examine the first order
response of the capacitor charging and discharging up to 5V. This exhibits the step and
natural response of the RC circuit and it is an exponential function.
9. Now you will examine the first order response using a function generator as the input.
Delete the 5V source and the switch from the circuit. Go to the toolbar on the right side
of the window and add the Agilent function generator. The Agilent function generator is
2 buttons above the Agilent oscilloscope.
10. Open up the image, press the Power button and press the Ampl button and use the knob
to set it to 5 Vpp. Press the square wave and press the Freq and use the knob to set it to
1 Hz.
11. Connect the output of the function generator to the input of the circuit to replace the
voltage source that was deleted. Channel 1 of the oscilloscope should measure the input
also and channel 2 should still measure the voltage across the capacitor. The schematic
should now look like Figure 4.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

12. Turn on the MultiSim simulation by flipping the switch in the upper right hand corner or
press the green button. Once again the oscilloscope should show the capacitor charging
and discharging.

13. Include a screenshot of the oscilloscope in your lab memo submission with an
appropriate number and caption.
Task 3: Transient Analysis
1. In this section, you will setup a transient analysis to examine the first-order response of
the system. A transient analysis is the plot of the circuit response as a function of time.
2. Delete the function generator and oscilloscope from the circuit schematic. Change the
resistor to and the capacitor to . . This makes the time constant for the system,
= = (1 )(0.1) = 100 and the gain is still K = 1.
3. Place the component, PIECEWISE_LINEAR_VOLTAGE on the schematic and connect it to
the RC circuit as the input source.
4. Double-click the piecewise linear voltage source and note that you can either enter data
points from a file or enter them on a table. For this analysis, you will use the table. Change
the input to match Table 1.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

5. Close the piecewise linear voltage source data table. Double click on the wire above the
capacitor and name the node Vcap and check show net name. Your circuit should now
look like Figure 5.

6. To set up the transient analysis, click Simulate->Analyses->Transient Analysis and the set
up window will open up. Leave the start time as zero and set the final time to 0.0008
seconds
7. Click the output tab, select V(vcap) and click Add. Then, click V(1) and click Add. Lastly,
click Simulate and the transient analysis plot should open up. Click on the black and white
square under the Cursor menu heading and the background of the plot should change to
white and be similar to Figure 6.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Activity 3: Transient analysis of RL circuit

Task 1: Build the RL circuit in MultiSim

1. Follow the same procedure which you have done for Activity 2.Only difference is place
an inductor instead of capacitor.
2. Choose SPDT switch. Double-click the Inductor and change the value to 10. Double-click
the resistor and change the value to 1. This yields a time constant for the system of
= / =10H/ (1) = 10 ms and the gain is K = 1. In order to change the gain, it would
be necessary to include more resistors.
3. Double click the DC voltage source and change the value to 5 V. Next use the mouse to
draw lines and connect the components to match Figure 1. Note that you can rotate the
components by selecting them and pressing CTRL-R.
4. Click place text and put a title in the workspace such as your name, the date, and circuit
title. Include a screenshot of this circuit in your lab memo submission.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Task 2: Transient Analysis

8. In this section, you will setup a transient analysis to examine the first-order response of
the system. A transient analysis is the plot of the circuit response as a function of time.
9. Delete the function generator and oscilloscope from the circuit schematic. Change the
resistor to and the inductor to 10 H. This makes the time constant for the system,
= / = (10)/(1 ) = 1 .
10. Place the component, PIECEWISE_LINEAR_VOLTAGE on the schematic and connect it to
the RC circuit as the input source.
11. Double-click the piecewise linear voltage source and note that you can either enter data
points from a file or enter them on a table. For this analysis, you will use the table. Change
the input to match Table 1.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

12. Close the piecewise linear voltage source data table. Double click on the wire above the
inductor and check show net name. Your circuit should now look like Figure.

13. To set up the transient analysis, click Simulate->Analyses->Transient Analysis and the set
up window will open up. Leave the start time as zero and set the final time to 0.0008
seconds

Further Analysis:
a. Design the following circuit for the given condition and plot the transient
characteristic using MultiSim. Assuming that the switch in Figure has been in position
A for a long time and is moved to position B at = 0, Then at = 1, the switch
moves from B to C. Find the () 0.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

b. Design the following circuit for the given condition and plot the transient
characteristic using MultiSim. Find the () 0.

c. Simulate the same first order RL network with two inductors and discuss the
outcome.

Complete all the tasks in the experiment and provide a detailed discussion on the Results and
Conclusions.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Experiment 2: Steady State Analysis

Objectives:

To examine the analysis of multi-source AC circuits using the Superposition

Theorem.

To measure the average power and power factor for a simple ac network.
Activity1: Superposition theorem

Pre lab: Study super position theorem and apply in the circuit referred in the activity.
Calculate and tabulate the readings in the table provided before conducting the
experiment.
Requirements:

Cathode Ray Oscilloscope

Function Generator

Digital Multimeter

Connecting probes

Components:
1. 0.8 F

actual:__________________

2. 64 mH

actual:__________________

3. 1.5k

actual:__________________

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:

Figure 1

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Task 1: Source One Only

a. Consider the circuit of Figure 1 with C=.8 F, L=64 mH, R=1.5 k and using only source
1 = 8 (peak-peak) at 1 kHz, with source 2replaced by a short circuit. Measure
the readings across C ,i.e Vo and record it in table 5.1.
b. Using standard series-parallel techniques calculate the voltages across and tabulate
the result in table 5.1.
Task 2: Source Two Only
a. Consider the circuit of Figure 1 using only source 2 = 10 peak-peak at 1 kHz,
with source 1 replaced by a short circuit. Measure the readings across C ,i.e Vo and
record them in table 5.1
b. Using standard series-parallel techniques calculate the voltages across and tabulate
the result in table 5.1.
Task 3: Both the Sources
a. Consider the circuit of Figure 1 using both sources, 1 = 8 peak-peak at 1 kHz
and 2 = 10 peak-peak at 1 kHz. Measure the readings across and record it in
table 5.1.
b. Add the calculated voltages across and record the result in Table 5.1.

Task 4: SIMULATION

a.

Build the circuit of Figure 2 in MultiSim using first source alone.

V1
4Vpk
1kHz
0

R1

L1

1.5k

64mH
C1
800nF

Figure 2
LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

b.

Measure the readings across C ,i.e Vo and record it in table 5.1.

Click place text and put a title in the workspace such as your name, the date, and circuit
title. Include a screenshot of this circuit in your lab memo submission.

c.

Build the circuit of Figure 3 in MultiSim using second source alone.

R1

L1

1.5k

64mH
C1
800nF

V2
5Vpk
1kHz
0

Figure 3

d.

Measure the readings across C ,i.e Vo and record it in table 5.1.

Click place text and put a title in the workspace such as your name, the date, and circuit
title. Include a screenshot of this circuit in your lab memo submission.

e.

Build the complete circuit of Figure 4 in MultiSim using both the sources.

V1
4Vpk
1kHz
0

R1

L1

1.5k

64mH
C1
800nF

V2
5Vpk
1kHz
0

Figure 4

f.

Measure the readings across C ,i.e Vo and record it in table 5.1.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Click place text and put a title in the workspace such as your name, the date, and circuit
title. Include a screenshot of this circuit in your lab memo submission.

Compare it to the theoretical and measured values recorded in Table 5.1.

TABULATION

Parameter
Theory

Experimental

Simulation

Source One Only:

1 = 8 , 1
Source Two Only:
2 = 10 , 1

Both the Sources:

Table 5.1

Activity 2: Power Analysis

Requirements:
Multisim
Task 1: Complete the circuit as given in Figure 2.1

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Figure 2.1

Task 2:
Measure the Voltage and Current across the load and calculate the power.
Task 3;
Connect an AC watt meter across the load and measure the average power & power factor.

XWM1

Z2
R1
Z=A-jB

4
V1
24Vrms
1kHz
0

R2
1

Z3

Z1

Z=A+jB

Z=A+jB

Task 4:
Fill the readings in the table Verify and compare the readings obtained in task 2 & 3 in the table.
P avg

pf

Power measured
using Voltmeter &
ammeter
LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Power measured
using watt meter
Power calculated

Further Analysis:
a. With reference to activity 1, If the two sources are of different frequencies, how
different would be the effective value of ?
b. Does one source tend to dominate the 0.8 F capacitor voltage or do both sources
contribute in nearly equal amounts? Will this always be the case?
c. Build the following circuit in multisim and using mesh analysis , find the current
through the inductance L. Given that C=.1 F, L=10 mH and R=1k, V1=4 Vp, 1 kHz,
V2=5 Vp, 1 kHz.

d. With reference to activity 2, measure the power factor using oscilloscope and verify
the result.
Complete all the tasks in the experiment and provide a detailed discussion on the Results and
Conclusions.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Experiment 3: Resonance & Filters

Objectives:

To determine the frequency response of RLC circuit.

To study resonance in a series RLC circuit excited by a sinusoidal source.

To design and simulate the low pass and high pass filters.
Activity1: Series resonance
Pre lab: Familiarize with the series resonance equations and obtain the theoretical values
for resonant frequency and its significance.

Requirements:

Function generator

Resistor

Voltmeter

Capacitor

Bread board

Connecting wires

Decade inductance box

Task 1: Connections are made as per the circuit diagram.

Figure 1
Task2: Vary the frequency of the function generator from 50 Hz to 20 KHz.Measure the
corresponding value of current through the resistor R for series RLC circuit for different
values of frequency.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Task 3: Draw a graph from the readings and note down the resonance frequency from
the graph.
Observation Table:
Frequency, Hz

Current, I (A)

Tabulation:
Parameters

Practical Value

Theoretical Value

Resonant
frequency ( )
Bandwidth (B)
Half power
frequencies
(1 , 2 )
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Activity2: Filters
Requirement:
Multisim
Task 1: Build the schematic as shown in Figure. Apply the VAC, set VAC to 1.

Figure 2
Task2: Choose AC Sweep/Noise in the Analysis type menu . Set the Start Frequency at 10, the
End Frequency at 1Meg and the Points/Decade at 10 . Make sure Logarithmic is selected and
set to Decade

Further Analysis:

a. For the same circuit in Figure 1, use MultiSim to obtain a plot of | 0 | versus frequency

for two different values of 1 (47 and 220 ). Obtain the two required plots on the
same graph (by creating two circuits in the same Schematics file).
b. Discuss the influence of resistance in the frequency response of the circuit.
c. Compare the resonant frequency and bandwidth of the circuit based on your experiment
with that of the calculated values . Using CRO measure voltage phasor at resonance and
discuss the nature of the circuit at resonance

d. Design and simulate a high pass filter with a cut- off frequency of 15 KHZ
Complete all the tasks in the experiment and provide a detailed discussion on the Results and
Conclusions.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001

Experiment 4: Two Port Networks

Objectives:

Understand the concept of two port network.

Verify experimentally the values of network variables under open and short
circuit condition.

Identify a suitable parameter for a particular two port network.

Equipments required:

DC power supply

Voltmeter

Ammeter

Components:
Resistors 3.9 , 5.6 & 6.8 k)
Pre-lab: Perform the following calculations and record the results before the lab session.
1. Given a T-network as shown in Figure 1, determine the Z-parameters using mesh

analysis.

Figure 1
2. Given a -network as shown in Figure 5, determine Y-parameters using node analysis.

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Figure 2

Activity 1: T network
Terminal 2 is open circuited, 2 = 0:
1. Construct the T-network as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3
2. Set the de power supply to 5 V.
3. Record the reading of 1 and 2 in Table 1. (2 is the open circuit voltage across terminal
2).
Terminal 1 is open circuited, 1 = 0:
1. Construct the T-network as shown in Figure 4.

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Figure 4
2. Set the de power supply to 5 V.
3. Record the reading of 1 and 2 in Table 1. (V1 is the open circuit voltage across terminal
1).
Observation Table 1:
2 = 0
Power Supply (1 )

5V

10V

15V

10V

15V

1
2
1 = 0
Power Supply (2 )

5V

2
1

Activity 2: network
Terminal 2 is short circuited, 2 = 0:
1. Construct the -network as shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 5
2. Set the de power supply to 5 V.
3. Record the reading of 1 and 2 in Table 3. (2 is the short circuit current through
terminal 2).
Terminal 1 is short circuited, 1 = 0:
1. Construct the -network as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6
2. Set the dc power supply to 5 V.
3. Record the reading of 1 and 2 in Table 3. (1 is the short circuit current through
terminal 1).

Observation Table 2
2 = 0
Power Supply (1 )

5V

10V

15V

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2
1 = 0
Power Supply (2 )

5V

10V

15V

1
2

Further Analysis:
a. Referring to Table 1, calculate the Z-parameters. Show all calculation in the below
tabular column.
Power supply

5V

10 V

15 V

11

12

21

22

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b. Comment on the parameters obtained for various value of source voltage.

c. Referring to Table 2, calculate the Y-parameters. Show all calculation in the below
tabular column.
Power supply

5V

10 V

15 V

11

12

21

22

d. Comment on the parameters obtained for various value of source voltage.

Complete all the tasks in the experiment and provide a detailed discussion on the Results and
Conclusions.

LAB REFERENCE GUIDE-ELEC2001