Week 2 First Order Circuit
Week 2 First Order Circuit
Week 2 First Order Circuit
EEU104
(Week 2)
Introduction
• In this topic, we shall examine two types of simple circuits:
• a circuit comprising a resistor and capacitor , called RC circuit.
• a circuit comprising a resistor and an inductor, called RL circuits.
• The differential equations resulting from analyzing RC and RL circuits
are of the first order. Hence, the circuits are collectively known as
first-order circuits.
• A first-order circuit is characterized by a first-order differential
• equation.
Source Free RC Circuit
• A source-free RC circuit occurs when its dc source is suddenly
disconnected.
• The energy already stored in the capacitor is released to the resistors.
• Consider the circuit as shown below.
Cont..
• Since the capacitor is initially charged, we can assume that at time the
initial voltage is:
Cont..
• Rearrange the term as below:
Cont..
• This shows that the voltage response of the RC circuit is an
exponential decay of the initial voltage.
• Since the response is due to the initial energy stored and the
physical characteristics of the circuit and not due to some external
voltage or current source, it is called the natural response of the
circuit.
• The natural response of a circuit refers to the behavior (in terms of
voltages and currents) of the circuit itself, with no external sources
of excitation.
Cont..
• The natural response is illustrated as below.
• As t increases, the voltage decreases toward zero.
• The rapidity with which the voltage decreases is expressed in terms of
the time constant, denoted by Ꚍ (the lowercase Greek letter tau).
• The value of is as shown in Table.
• the voltage v(t) is less than 1 percent of after 5 Ꚍ (five time constants).
• Thus, it is customary to assume that the capacitor is fully discharged (or
charged) after five time constants.
• In other words, it takes 5 Ꚍ for the circuit to reach its final state or steady
state when no changes take place with time.
• With the voltage, we can find the current :
• The energy initially stored in the capacitor. The energy that was
initially stored in the capacitor is eventually dissipated in the resistor.
Cont..
Solution:
Our objective is always to first
obtain capacitor voltage Vc. From
this, we can determine and Vx and ix.
Cont..
• The 8 Ω and 12 Ω resistors in series can be combined to give a 20 Ω
resistor.
• This resistor in parallel with the 5 Ω resistor can be combined so that
the equivalent resistance is
Cont..
• With the current as shown above, we can find the voltage across the
resistor as
(b) t >0
Example
• In the circuit shown below, find i0, v0 and i for all time, assuming that the
switch was open for a long time.
Solutions:
• For t <0, the switch is open. Since the inductor acts like a short circuit to dc,
the resistor is short-circuited, so that we have the circuit shown in Fig. (a).
Hence, i0 = 0 and :
Cont..
• For the switch is closed, so that the voltage source is short circuited.
We now have a source-free RL circuit as shown in Fig. (b).
• At the inductor terminals:
Cont..