ECTE290 EXPERIMENT 3

Lab report on Experiment 3

November 21

2010
Jared Smith 3452529

Aim
In this experiment, the behaviour of charged and uncharged capacitors will be studied, and the data obtained from the analysis will be used to calculate time constants for the capacitors and charging and discharging waveforms.

Part 1 Voltage across the capacitor during charging

For the circuit shown below, we measured the voltage across the capacitor in evenly spaced time intervals over a ten second period. The results are shown below. The capacitor used was 22F.

Figure 1: Figure from eLearning at https://vista.uow.edu.au/webct/urw/lc20663.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

t (s) Vc(V)

0 0

1 3

2 4.2

4 6

6 7

7 7.1

8 7.3

9 7.3

10 7.3

Voltage vs Time for 22F capacitor

8 7 6 5 Voltage V 4 3 2 1 0 0 5 Time (s) 10 15 Voltage vs Time

Results analysis
Using =RC we calculated the time constant to be 2.2 seconds.
From the graph, using a V of 5.022V from

=full x 63.2%, we established the time constant to be

2.3 seconds, which is extremely close to our calculated value.

From the graph and data, it was clear that the voltage of the capacitor in steady state was 7.3V.

Part 2 Voltage across the capacitor during discharging

For the circuit shown to the right (Figure 2), we measured the voltage across the capacitor in evenly spaced time intervals over a ten second period while the capacitor discharged. The results are shown below. The capacitor used was 22F.

Figure 2: Figure of discharging capacitor circuit from eLearning at https://vista.uow.edu.au/webct/urw/lc20663.tp0/coba ltMainFrame.dowebct

t (s) Vc(V)

0 7.9

1 5

2 3.5

3 2.4

4 1.2

5 0.9

6 0.2

7 0.1

8 0

9 0

10 0

Voltage vs time for discharging capacitor

10 8 6 Voltage (V) 4 2 0 -2 0 5 Time (s) 10 15 Voltage vs time

Results analysis
Using

=RC we calculated the time constant to be 2.2 seconds.

From our graph, using 36.8% of full charge voltage, full charge voltage being 7.9 volts, we calculated the time constant to be: 7.9*(36.8/100)=2.9072V Using 2.9 on our graph gives a time constant of approximately 2.8 seconds, quite a large difference from our 2.2 calculated value. This value also doesn't agree with our charging time constant, so there may have been something slightly wrong with the circuit/the groups measuring techniques or equipment. The voltage across the capacitor in steady state discharging is zero volts.

Figure 3: Scan from the lab manual, filled out

Section 2 Part 1- Charging current

For the circuit shown to the below (Figure 4), we measured the current across the capacitor in evenly spaced time intervals over a ten second period while the capacitor discharged. The results are shown below. The capacitor used was 22F.

Figure 4: Charging current capacitor circuit from eLearning at https://vista.uow.edu.au/webct/urw/lc20663.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

t (s) VR3 (mV) IC (A)

0 0.75 0.75

1 0.5 0.5

2 0.37 0.37

3 0.28 0.28

4 0.21 0.21

5 0.125 0.125

6 0.07 0.07

7 0.03 0.03

8 0.02 0.02

9 0.02 0.02

10 0.02 0.02

Current vs time
0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 Current (A) 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 5 Time(s) 10 15 Current vs time

Results analysis
Using Ohm's Law, V=IR or I=V/R, we can predict the maximum charging current: I=0.75mV/1k=0.75e-6 A Now we calculate the value of the theoretical time constant during charging using =RC

=RC=102k*22e-6F= 2.244e-1 seconds=0.2244 seconds

Now using our graph and 36.8% of full current, we can determine the time constant experimentally. (36.8/100)*0.75=0.276I, then from the graph we read off ~0.22, very close to our calculated value. What is the current through the capacitor at stead state? Zero, or extremely close to zero.

Part 2- Discharging current

t (s) VR3 (mV) IC (A) 0 0 0 1 0.285 0.285 2 0.34 0.34 3 0.5 0.5 4 0.57 0.57 5 0.625 0.625 6 0.68 0.68 7 0.71 0.71 8 0.74 0.74 9 0.75 0.75 10 0.75 0.75

Charging current, current vs time

0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 Current (A) 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 5 Time(s) 10 15 Discharging current, current vs time

Results analysis
From our graph, we predicted the maximum value of the charging current to be 0.75 A. Using =RC=

101k * 22C=0.222 seconds

From the graph, the time constant was calculated to be:

0.75*(63.2/100)=0.474/2.7=0.176
This was quite a bit different from the theoretical calculation.

Discussion All the results were very much as expected except for those in Part 2Discharging current. The group had no idea why this was, and neither did the demonstrators. Our circuit was checked by the demonstrators and they couldn't find any problems, but we were still getting an answer that was way too far off the theoretical answer. The results of all the other sections were surprisingly good and the group was happy with them. The group could have improved how long the experiment took by actually reading over the notes before the lab started, but this was not done, so the lab took quite a long time to complete. There was also a large lack of demonstrators to help, as almost every group struggled setting up the circuits correctly or understanding the lab notes information. Most of the time in this lab was spent sitting around doing nothing, waiting for help from a demonstrator after the group had tried for so long to fix the circuit to no avail.

Bibliography
1. All images of circuits and formulas are from the notes on eLearning at: https://vista.uow.edu.au/webct/urw/lc20663.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct Accessed 24/10/2010 2. All graphs drawn using Microsoft excel