PHY 102

LR CIRCUITS
• If a circuit contains a coil of wire or
solenoid,, the inductance of the coil
prevents the current in the circuit
from increasing or decreasing
instantaneously,. A circuit element
with large inductance L, is called an
inductor.
• An inductor in a circuit opposes the
change in current due to BACK EMF.
 Figure 1: RL circuit
Applying Kirchhoff's Law gives

dI (1)
V  IR  L 0
dt
Re-arranging equation 1, and changing variable,

dI (1a)
L  IR V
dt
dI
L V  IR
dt
1 dt 1

L dI V  IR
dI dt

V  IR L
If x V  IR then dx  RdI , dI 
dx (2)
R

Substituting the change in variable into equation 2

and integrating
 x t
1 dx dt

R 
x0
x

0
L
1  x  t
 
ln  
 
R  x0  L
 x  Rt
ln   
 x0  L
Rt

x  x0 e L

But x V  IR , at t 0, I 0. x0 V

Rt
V  IR Ve

L (3)
V  
Rt

I   1  e L 

R  (4)
• This expression in equation 4 shows how the
inductor affects the current. The current does
not increase instantly to its final equilibrium
value when the switch is closed, but instead
increases according to an exponential
function.

• If the inductance is removed from the circuit,

which corresponds to letting L approach zero,
the exponential term becomes zero and there
is no time dependence of the current in this
case; the current increases instantaneously to
its final equilibrium value in the absence of the
inductance.
• Equation 4 can also be written as
V  
t

I   1  e 

(5)
R 
L
where   (6)
R
•  is called the time constant, i.e. the
time interval required for the current
in the circuit to reach 63.2% of its
final value V/R. The time constant is
a useful parameter for comparing the
time responses of various circuits.
Figure 2: A graph of current versus time for an
RL circuit.

The current initially increases very rapidly and

then gradually approaches the equilibrium value
V/R as t approaches infinity.
• If the battery is removed from the circuit,
dI
L  IR 0 (7)
dt
Solving equation 7 gives
t

I I 0 e 
(8)

• Equation 8 shows that the presence of the

inductor opposes the decrease in current and
causes the current to decrease exponentially.
If the circuit did not contain an inductor, the
current would immediately decrease to zero
when the battery is removed. I0 is the current
at the instant when the battery is removed.
Figure 3: A graph of I versus time for an RL
circuit without battery.
 LC Circuit
• This is a circuit that contains only a
capacitor C and an inductor L. If the
capacitor is initially charged, the
current in the circuit and charge in
the capacitor oscillates from
maximum positive to negative values
assuming no energy is loss i.e.
assuming zero resistance..
Figure 4: An LC circuit.
 Q=Qmax Q=0 Q=-Qmax Q=0 Q=Qmax

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Figure 5: The oscillation of current and charge in an LC
circuit.
If the fully charged capacitor has charge Qmax at t=0,
when the switch S, in figure 4 is closed, the current in
the circuit is zero and the energy stored in the electric
field of the capacitor
2
is given by
Qmax
U  (9)
2C
• Since the current is zero at t=0, no energy is stored
in the magnetic field of the capacitor. The rate at
which charge leaves or enter the capacitor gives
rise to current.
dQ
I  (10)
dt
• A the capacitor discharges, current flows in the
circuit, and energy is gradually stored in the
magnetic field of the inductor. When the capacitor
is fully discharged, it stores no energy, the current
in the circuit is maximum and all the energy of the
circuit is then stored in the magnetic field of the
inductor.
 • The current continues in the same direction,
decreasing in magnitude, with the capacitor
eventually becoming fully charged again but with the
polarity of its plates now opposite the initial polarity.
This process is followed by another discharge until the
circuit returns to its original state of maximum charge
Qmax and the plate polarity shown in Figure 5(a).
• At some intermediate time t, when Q  Qmax and I 
Imax , energy is stored both in the capacitor and the
inductor. But the total energy must be equal to the
initial electric potential energy stored in the capacitor

2
Q2 1 Q
UC U L   LI 2  max U (11)
2C 2 2C
• Because we have assumed the circuit
resistance to be zero and we ignore
electromagnetic radiation, no energy is
transformed to internal energy and none is
transferred out of the system of the circuit.
Therefore, the total energy of the system must
remain constant in time as seen in equation
11.
• This implies that dU dt 0 . So differentiating
equation 11 gives
dU d Q  2
1 2
   LI  (12)
dt dt  2C 2 
Q dQ dI (13)
 LI
C dt dt
Reducing the equation t o one variable, knowing that
2
dI d Q
 2 gives
dt dt
Q d 2Q
 L 2 0 (14)
C dt
d 2Q 1
2
 Q (15)
dt LC
• The oscillations of the LC circuit are an
electromagnetic analogue to the mechanical
oscillations of the block–spring system.
Equation 15 is similar to the equation of an
oscillating mechanical system performing
simple harmonic motion (SHM) and its
solution given by equation 16 and 17
respectively.
d 2x k
2
  x    2
x (16)
dt m
x  A cost    (17)

with   k
m
• So, for the LC circuit, the solution to equation 15 is
given by
Q Qmax cost    (18)
1
with   (19)
LC

• Equation 19 gives the angular frequency of the

oscillations, it depends solely on the inductance and
capacitance of the circuit. It also gives the natural
frequency of oscillation of the LC circuit.
•  can be determined by differentiating equation 18
wrt time, and inserting the initial conditions (at t=0,
I=0)
• Since =0, the expression for the oscillating
charge and current in the system is given by

Q Qmax cos t (20)

I  Qmax sin t  I max sin t (21)

Figure: A graph of charge

versus time and current
versus time for a
resistanceless,
nonradiating LC circuit.
• In such idealised LC circuit, the total energy
remains constant. In actual circuits, there is
always some resistance and some energy is
therefore transformed to internal energy. Also,
radiation is inevitable in this type of circuit, and
so the total energy in the circuit continuously
decreases as a result of these process.
• To maintain the oscillation, an external source
of power is utilised. If the source is oscillating
with the same natural frequency of the LC
circuit, resonance is achieved.
Figure 6: A block-spring system or simple pendulum;
mechanical analogue of LC circuit.
Figure 7: Analogies between oscillating
electromagnetic circuit and an oscillating
mechanical system.
 LRC circuit

Figure 8: An LRC circuit.

• Still ignoring the radiative loss of energy, the

change in energy for such circuit is given by
Q dQ dI 2
 LI  I R (22)
C dt dt
• Substituting equation 10 into 22 gives an
equation of an oscillating system performing
SHM.
2
d Q dQ Q (23)
L 2 R  0
dt dt C
This equation is similar to the equation for
damped block - spring system
2
d x dx
m 2  b  kx 0 (24)
dt dt
Figure 9: Similarities between mechanical and
electrical systems performing SHM.
• The solution to equation 23 for small
resistance and the damped angular frequency
of the circuit are given by equations 25 and 26
respectively.
Q Qmax e  Rt 2 L
cos d t (25)
2 1 2
 1  R  
with d     (26)
 LC  2 L  
• For larger values of R, the oscillations damp
out more rapidly; in fact, there exists a critical
resistance value R  4 L C above which no
oscillations occur. A system with R = Rc is said
to be critically damped. When R exceeds Rc,
the system is said to be overdamped.
Figure 10: Types of damping in an RLC circuit.
 Capacitors and Dielectrics
• Capacitors are devices that store electric
charge. It consists essentially of two plates
(conductors) separated by an insulator called
dielectric. A capacitor whose effective area of
the plates are adjustable is called a variable
capacitor.
• If the conductors carry charges of equal
magnitude and opposite sign, a potential
difference V exists between them.
• Experiment shows that the charge Q on a
capacitor is linearly related to potential
difference between the conductors. That is Q
V. The proportionality constant C, depends
on the shape and separation of the
conductors.

Q CV (27)
Q
C (28)
V
• The capacitance C of a capacitor is defined as
the ratio of the magnitude of the charge on
either conductor to the magnitude of the
potential difference between the conductors.
It has SI units of coulombs per volt which was
named in honor of Michael Faraday, the SI unit
of capacitance is the farad (F)

1F C (29)
V
The following factors determines the capacitance of
a capacitor; C 1
d
• Distance between the conductors
C A
• Areas between the conductor;

• Dielectrics: the presence of dielectric between the

conductors increase the capacitance of the
capacitor.
• That is, the capacitance of a parallel-plate
capacitor is proportional to the area of its plates
and inversely 0 A
proportional to the plate(30)
separation.
C
d
Where 0 is the permittivity of free space. With
dielectric, equation 30 is given as , where  is the
permittivivty of the substance used as dielectric.
A (31)
C
d

Figure 11: A parallel plate capacitor.

 • The ratio of the capacitance with and without
the dielectric between the plates is called the
relative permittivity or dielectric constant of
the material
 A 
 
 d  
r   (32)
 0 A  0
 
 d 
Figure 12: Series and parallel arrangements of
capacitors in a circuit.
• The resultant capacitance for the capacitors in
series is given by

1 1 1 1 (33)
  
Cr C1 C2 C3

• While the resultant capacitance for the

parallel arrangement is;

Cr C1  C2  C3 (34)
 Energy of a Capacitor
Figure 13: Capacitor
connected to a source.

• If the capacitor was initially uncharged 

at t=0, Q=0. When the circuit is
completed, no work is required to
separate the initial charged into separate
plates. But after the initial charge
deposition, a potential difference is
V Q
created between the plates. C
• So work has to be done in depositing
a charge on the capacitor. As more
charges are being deposited on the
plates, the potential difference keeps
increasing and therefore more work
will be required. The work needed to
transfer an increment of charge dQ is
given by

Q
dW VdQ  dQ (35)
C
• Integrating gives
2
1 1Q 1 2 (36)
W  QV   CV
2 2 C 2
 Charging a Capacitor

Fig 14:A circuit for

charging a capacitor

• In charging a capacitor the charge/current on

the capacitor obeys the following equations

Q Q0  1  e
 t
RC 
 (37)
 
where Q0 CV1
• The charging current can be derived by differentiating
equation 37 wrt time
V1  t
I  e RC
R (38)

 RC (39)
• The time constant
If τ is high, it takes a longer time for the capacitor to attain its
final value, and when it is small, the capacitor charges faster.
• The time constant represents the time interval during
which the current decreases to 1/e of its initial value; that
is, after a time interval τ, the current decreases to 1/e1Ii
0.368Ii. Likewise, in a time interval t, the charge increases
from zero 0.632CV1.
 Discharging a Capacitor
• If the battery in figure 14 is removed when the
capacitor is fully charged, it discharges
through the resistor. The charge is given by
 t
Q Q0 e RC (40)

• The instantaneous current is given by

Q0  t  t
(41)
I  e RC
 I 0 e RC
RC
(a) Charging (b) discharging a capacitor
• Current vs time for charging (light blue) and
discharging (blue) capacitor.