Capacitors in DC circuits

Capacitors are components, in which static electrical charges are stored. In its most
basic structure a capacitor consists of two metal plates, which constitute the electrodes
of the capacitor. Due to the charge separation an electrical potential difference (voltage)
U is formed between the electrodes. The subsequent graphic image shows an example
of a plate capacitor with plate surface area A and plate separation d, which carries the
charge Q. Due to the charge separation an electric field forms between the plates (not
shown here).

Normally there is insulating material, a so-called dielectric, positioned between the

plates (not shown above). There is a linear relationship between the charge and voltage
as given by the following expression:

The variable C is termed the capacitance of the capacitor, which is measured in units
called Farads (unit symbol: F). The greater the capacitance of a capacitor, the more
charge is required to generate a certain voltage between its electrodes. You can take a
swimming pool as an analogy for this, whereby the capacitance corresponds to the floor
space of the pool, the charge is the amount of water in the pool and the voltage is the
level of water. The greater the pool's floor space (capacitance), the more water (charge)
you need to put in to achieve a certain water level (voltage).
The capacitance of a capacitor can be considered to be constant. It depends solely on
the geometric design and the dielectric material used. For a plate capacitor the following
expression is true

Where 0 is the electrical field constant (permittivity of free space) and has a value
of 8.854210-12 AS/Vm, r is the dielectric constant or relative permittivity (which has no
unit), A is the surface area of the plate and d is the distance between the plates. If a
capacitor is connected to a via a charging resistor R to a DC voltage U0, it charges up to
the said voltage, whereby the capacitor voltage increases in accordance with
an exponential function from 0 V to its end value U0 (100%) (charging curve of a
capacitor, see graph below, left). If you then disconnect the capacitor from the voltage
source and short it out, discharging occurs which is the inverse to the charging process
(see graph below, right).

The charging and discharging current characteristics run in opposite directions. Just
how fast the capacitor charges up or discharges depends on its capacitance and the
value of the series resistance R and is characterised by the time constant T = RC. This
is the time it takes before the capacitor reaches 63% of its final voltage value when
charging or until it has dropped to 63% of its starting voltage when discharging. If the
capacitor has charged up completely, no more charging current flows and the capacitor
conducts no DC current at all.

If after the capacitor has charged up it is disconnected from the voltage source, without
any short-circuiting of the circuit, the capacitor retains its charged state and thus in
theory retains its voltage indefinitely. In reality, however, there is always a certain
amount of intrinsic discharge.
Capacitors come in all sorts of designs for the most varied of
applications. Metal-paper capacitors, electrolyte capacitors, tantalum
capacitors, plastic film capacitors and small ceramic capacitors are
some of the most popular and important designs.

Experiment: Capacitors in DC circuits I

The following experiment investigates the charging process of a 100 F capacitor
(characteristic of capacitor voltage and charge current).
Set up the experiment circuit shown below:

The following animation illustrates the experiment set-up:

Open the DC Source virtual instrument from the menu under Instruments | Power
Sources | DC Source or by clicking on the image below and make the settings shown in
the following table. Initially the instrument should not yet be switched on.
DC Source settings
Range:

10 V

Output voltage:

10 V

Open the Oscilloscope virtual instrument from the menu under Instruments | Meters |
Oscilloscope or by clicking on the image below and make the settings shown in the
following table.
Oscilloscope settings
Channel A

5 V/div

Channel B

200 mV/div

Time base:

200 ms div

Operating
mode:

X/T, DC

Trigger:

Channel A / rising edge / SINGLE /

PRE-TRIGGER 25%
Now apply a voltage step change to the capacitor by switching the DC source on via the
POWER switch. Drag and drop the trace into the following placeholder.

What is the characteristic of the capacitor voltage after the DC voltage is applied?
It immediately jumps to a value of approx. 10 V and stays
at this value.

It rises linearly to a value of approx. 10 V and stays at this

value.

It rises exponentially to a value of approx. 10 V and

remains at this level.

It rises exponentially to a value of approx. 10 V and then

drops back down to 0 V.

What is the characteristic of the charging current after the DC voltage is applied?
It is constant during the entire charging process.

At first it jumps to a maximum value and then drops off

linearly to zero.

It increases exponentially from zero to its maximum value.

At first it jumps to a maximum value and then it drops

exponentially to zero.

How would a reduction of the charging resistor R13 affect the maximum value of the
charging current?
Not at all.

It would become lower.

It would become higher.

Experiment: Capacitors in DC circuits II

The following experiment investigates the storage properties of a capacitor. To do this
the discharging process of the capacitor is studied.
Set up the experiment circuit shown below on experiment card SO4203-6A:

The following animation illustrates how the experiment is set up:

Open the DC Source virtual instrument from the menu under Instruments | Power
Sources | DC Source or by clicking on the image below and make the settings as shown
in the table below. Switch the instrument on by activating the POWER button.
DC Source settings
Range:

10 V

Output voltage:

10 V

Open the virtual instrument Voltmeter A from the menu under Instruments | Meters |
Voltmeter A or by clicking on the image below and make the settings as shown in the
table. It is recommended that the voltmeter be switched to the analog dial setting.
Voltmeter A settings
Measurement
range:
Operating mode:

20 V DC
AV

By disconnecting the lead from socket X43, disconnect the capacitor from the DC
source and observe the capacitor voltage over a prolonged period of time.
What happens to the capacitor voltage?
It remains constant.

It increases.

It gradually falls to 0 V.

First it increases and then it falls to 0 V.

How do you explain this response?

After disconnecting the voltage source the capacitor acts
like an ohmic resistor.

The capacitor discharges across the internal resistance of

the measurement instrument.

The capacitor maintains its voltage as discharge is

blocked.

Now reconnect the DC source to charge the capacitor up again. To investigate the effect
of the input resistance of the measurement circuit (ANALOG IN), now connect the
terminal to socket A+. Now disconnect the cable to socket X43 again. Then connect A+
always only very briefly to check the capacitor voltage and measure the voltage over
longer time intervals.
What can be observed in contrast to continuous measurement?

There is no difference to continuous measurement.

The voltage now drops off more rapidly.

The voltage now drops off more slowly.

The voltage now remains constant.

Inductors in DC circuits
Inductance of an inductor
In addition to an electrical field, such as that which appears between the
plates of a charged capacitor, there exists a second type of field in electrical
engineering, namely a magnetic field. Whereas an electrical field arises in
the proximity of static charges, an magnetic field is associated with moving
charge carriers, i.e. an electrical current.

An inductor (or coil) is equivalent to multiple conductor loops in series, which are then
permeated by magnetic field lines when a current flows through it. The strength of the
magnetic field is characterised by its magnetic flux. If the magnetic flux of the inductor is
varied (e.g. by changing the current intensity), then a so-called self-induction voltage is
generated, the magnitude of which depends on the current's rate of change and on the
coil's size and design. The inductance L of the coil is then a measure for the capacity of
the inductor to generate self-induction voltage. For an oblong coil the following
relationship is true:

Here 0 is the magnetic field constant, r the relative permeability of the coil core, N the
number of windings, l the length of the coil and A its cross-section (see the following
graphic).

The unit of inductance is the Henry (unit symbol H, 1 H = 1 Vs/A). A coil has an
inductance of 1 H if the self-induction voltage of 1 V is induced for a constant variation
in the coil current of 1 A per second.

Switching a coil on and off

If a coil is located in a DC circuit, then the current flowing through the coil is constant - if
the initial switch-on process is neglected - so that no self-induction voltage is induced. In
this case the coil acts like an ohmic resistor with a (normally very low) resistance value
that is the product of specific resistance of the coil material as well as length of wire in
the coil and its cross-section.
When the coil is switched on, its magnetic field first has to start building up; and a selfinduction voltage is generated by the flux variation. This self-induced
voltage counteracts the applied voltage. As a result the current in the circuit does not
rise abruptly (as would be the case for a resistive load), but rather the current increases
only gradually to a certain end value. When the coil is switched off, the reverse
happens: Here a self-induction voltage is produced by the collapse of the magnetic field.
This self-induced voltage has the same direction as the voltage previously applied and
can assume extreme values in coils with strong magnetic fields. The self-induction
voltage initially maintains the current flow through the coil so that the current does not
collapse abruptly, but instead drops to zero in a gradual fashion.
The subsequent graphic shows what happens during switch off. In the switched-on state
(diagram on the left), the current I flows through the coil L. If the circuit is now broken
(diagram on the right), the following process takes place. The coil initially maintains the
current due to the energy built up in the magnetic field. Since this can no longer flow via
the voltage source, it flows as shown across the resistor RLconnected in parallel to the
coil. The energy of the magnetic field is then converted into thermal energy, so that the
current dissipates rapidly. This dissipation process occurs exponentially (exponential
curve) as in the case of the capacitor, whereby the time constant in this case is given by
the quotient comprising the inductance and ohmic resistance.

If there is no resistor RL in the circuit, then a very extreme voltage spike occurs which
might easily cause damage to any sensitive components (e.g. ICs) found in a circuit.
For that reason connected inductors frequently have so-called free-wheeling diodes
connected to them in parallel, which can short-circuit these voltage spikes across the
coil and thus ensure that the energy generated in the coil can be converted into thermal
energy in the coil itself.

Experiment: Inductors in DC circuits

The following experiment analyses the switch-off process of a coil or inductor. To do
this, the coil is initially charged up to a DC voltage of 5 V and then the circuit is opened
using a relay.
Set up the experiment circuit shown below on experiment card SO4203-6A. At the same
time relay 1 is to be wired so that when the relay is released, socket X48 of the
experiment card is connected to the output S (ANALOG OUT) of the interface.

The following animation illustrates how the experiment is setup:

Open the virtual instrument DC source from the menu under Instruments | Power
Sources | DC Source or by clicking on the image below and make the settings as shown
in the following table. Then switch the instrument on by activating the POWER button.

DC Source settings
Range:

10 V

Output voltage:

5V

Open the Oscilloscope virtual instrument from the menu under Instruments | Meters |
Oscilloscope or by clicking on the image below and make the settings shown in the
table.
Oscilloscope settings
Channel A

2 V/div

Time base:

10 s/div

Operating
mode:

X/T, DC

Trigger:

Channel A / Falling edge / Pre-Trigger 25%

Open the relay operator panel from the menu under Instruments | Relays or by clicking
on the image below.

Go to the relays operator panel to briefly flip Relay 1 so that the coil
is disconnected from the voltage source. Drag the oscilloscope trace into the

following placeholder then switch the relay back to its initial setting.

Describe the characteristic of the voltage across the discharge resistor R2.
It jumps to a high positive value and then slowly drops
off to 0 V.

It jumps to a high negative value and then slowly fades

to 0 V.

It jumps immediately to 0 V.

It remains constant.

Now replace the discharge resistor R2 = 500 with resistor R3 = 1500 and repeat
the experiment. Drag and drop the oscilloscope trace into the placeholder below.

How does the voltage characteristic change?

Not at all.

The voltage now fades faster and the negative peak is

much weaker.

The voltage now fades faster and the negative peak is

much more strongly defined.

The voltage now fades more slowly and the negative peak
is weaker.

The voltage now fades more slowly and the negative peak
is more strongly defined.

The voltage now remains constant.