RLC Series Circuit

R-L-C Series Circuit
An R-L-C series circuit is an electrical circuit containing a resistor R, an inductor L, and a capacitor C,
connected in series. The name of the circuit is derived from the letters that are used to denote the
constituent components of this circuit, where the sequence of the components may vary from RLC. The
circuit forms a harmonic oscillator for current and resonates like an LC circuit. Introducing the resistor
increases the decay of these oscillations, which is also known as damping. The resistor also reduces the
peak resonant frequency. Some resistance is unavoidable even if a resistor is not specifically included as
a component.
2. Objectives
The experiment aims to study the electrical characteristics of an RLC circuit in series. Also, to study the
relation between the input frequency f and the circuit impedance Z.
3. Components:
▪ Function generator
▪ Oscilloscope
▪ Resistor
▪ Inductor
▪ Capacitor
▪ Connection wires
4. Theory
RLC circuits have many applications as oscillator circuits. Radio receivers and television sets use them for
tuning to select a narrow frequency range from ambient radio waves. In this role, the circuit is often
referred to as a tuned circuit. An RLC circuit can be used as aband-pass filter, band-stop filter, low-pass
filter or high-pass filter. The tuning application, for instance, is an example of band-pass filtering. The
RLC filter is described as a secondorder circuit, meaning that any voltage or current in the circuit can be
described by a second-order differential equation in circuit analysis.
In a pure ohmic resistor the voltage waveforms are “in-phase” with the current. In a pure inductance the
voltage waveform “leads” the current by 90°. In a pure capacitance the voltage waveform “lags” the
current by 90°.
This phase difference, 𝜃 depends upon the reactive value of the components being used and hopefully
by now:
“We know that reactance, X is zero if the circuit element is resistive, positive if the circuit element is
inductive and negative if it is capacitive”
thus, giving their resulting impedances as:
Table 1: Shows the resistivity, reactence, and Theta of each element in the circuit.
Circuit Element Resistor,R Rectance,X Theta

Resistor R 0 0
Inductor 0 2𝜋𝑓𝐿 +90
Capacitor 0 1 /2𝜋𝑓C -90
The analysis of a series RLC circuit is the same as that for the series RL and RC circuits we looked at
previously, except this time we need to consider the magnitudes of both XL and XC to find the overall
circuit reactance. Series RLC circuits are classed as second-order circuits because they contain two
energy storage elements, an inductance L and a capacitance C. Consider the RLC circuit below. The
phasor diagram for a series RLC circuit is produced by combining the three individual phasors above and
adding these voltages vectorially. Since the current flowing through the circuit is common to all three
circuit elements, we can use this as the reference vector with the three voltage vectors drawn relative to
this at their corresponding angles.
The resulting vector VS is obtained by adding together two of the vectors, VL and VC and then adding
this sum to the remaining vector VR. The resulting angle obtained between VS and I will be the circuits
phase angle as shown below.
We can see from the phasor diagram in Fig. 2 above that the voltage vectors produce a
rectangular triangle, comprising of hypotenuse VS, horizontal axis VR and vertical axis VL – VC. We
notice that this forms our old favourite the Voltage Triangle and we can therefore use Pythagoras’s
theorem on this voltage triangle to mathematically obtain the value of VS as shown. The voltage triangle
for a series RLC Circuit:
𝑍 = √𝑅2 + (𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋 ) 2 (1)
From Fig. 3, to calculate the phase diffrence of the RLC circuit:
𝜃 = tan−1 𝑉𝐿 – 𝑉𝐶/ 𝑉𝑅
𝜃 = tan−1 𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋𝐶 /𝑅
5. Experiment procedure
1- Build, connect the circuit shown in Fig. 1 using a 1kΩ resistor, a 100 mH inductor and 0.1µF capacitor.
2- Set the input voltage at 5V and frequency at 500 Hz.
3- Using the Oscilloscope, read the voltage across the 1kΩ resistor 100 mH inductor and 0.1µF capacitor.
4- Change the input frequency from 500 to 1 kHz, 1.5 kHz 2 kHz 2.5 kHz and 3 kHz.
5- Repeat step 3, measuring the voltage across the 1kΩ resistor 100 mH inductor and 0.1µF capacitor.
6- Based on the experimental measurement, Calculate the phase shift difference (𝜃) theoretically using
equation 2.
7- Write down all the measured and calculated values.

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R-L-C Series Circuit

Circuit Element Resistor,R Rectance,X Theta

𝑍 = √𝑅2 + (𝑋𝐿 − 𝑋 ) 2 (1)

From Fig. 3, to calculate the phase diffrence of the RLC circuit:

2- Set the input voltage at 5V and frequency at 500 Hz.

7- Write down all the measured and calculated values.

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