School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

E2001 Circuit Analysis

Academic Year 2020-2021

L2001A
Circuit Theorems and Time Responses of Passive Networks
Energy& Machines Laboratory (S2-B5c-07)

Laboratory Manual
 CIRCUIT THEOREMS AND TIME RESPONSES OF PASSIVE NETWORKS

1. OBJECTIVES

(a) To study the concept of circuit linearity.

(b) To determine the Thevenin equivalent of a given circuit.
(c) To study the delivery of maximum power to a load.
(d) To study the transient responses of the series RC and RLC circuits.

2. EXPECTED OUTCOMES

Upon completion of the experiments, students should be able to

(i) understand the concept of circuit linearity.

(ii) determine the Thevenin equivalent of a given circuit from measurements.
(iii) verify the condition for maximum power transfer.
(iv) understand the significance of the time constant in a RC circuit.
(v) understand the significance of the damping factor and resonant frequency in a RLC
circuit.

3. EQUIPMENT AND COMPONENTS

3.1 For part A

1. Six 20-Ω resistors

2. Digital multi-meter (DMM)
3. Power supply
4. Breadboard

3.2 For parts B and C

1. Resistors - 1 kΩ, 100 Ω, 47 Ω, 6.8 kΩ

2. Capacitors - 0.1 μF, 0.01 μF
3. Inductor – 200mH, 1H
4. Digital multi-meter (DMM)
5. Function generator
6. Digital Oscilloscope (DSO)
7. Breadboard

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4. PROCEDURES

4.1 PART A

4.1.1 Circuit linearity

Consider the circuit M of Figure 1. You may assume that the circuit has no independent
sources inside it.

Io
+
Vs Circuit M Vo R
-

Figure 1. A circuit with input Vs and output I o .

Take = 10 Ω (use two 20-Ω resistors connected in parallel) and measure the output
R
voltage Vo for several values of Vs ranging from 0 to 14 V. Complete Table 1 as follows
by calculating I o using the measured Vo and the value of R :

Table 1

Vs (V) 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Vo (V)
I o (mA)

Draw a graph of I o versus Vs for the circuit M. Comment on the relationship between
the input of the circuit Vs and its output I o . What can you say about the property of the
circuit M ?

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4.1.2 Thevenin equivalent

(i) Consider the circuit in Figure 1 with Vs = 10 V and R = 10 Ω . Take note of the
output voltages Vo for the different values of Vs and R from Table 1. Now, remove
the resistor R from the circuit and use the digital multi-meter to measure the voltage
Voc across the output terminals a-b (see Figure 2).

a +

Vs Circuit M Voc

b
-

Circuit N

Figure 2. A linear circuit N with the load removed.

Using the voltages Vo and Voc obtained earlier, determine the Thevenin equivalent for the
circuit N in Figure 2 at terminals a-b, that is, determine VTh and RTh of the circuit in
Figure 3. Show all your steps and calculations.

RTh
+
a

VTh
b
-

Figure 3. Thevenin equivalent circuit of linear circuit N.

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(ii) Again, consider the circuit N in Figure 2. With Vs set to 10 V, measure Voc . Now,
connect the digital multi-meter across the terminals a-b to measure the current I sc
(i.e., short-circuit current). Using the open-circuit voltage Voc and the short-circuit
current I sc obtained, determine the Thevenin equivalent for the linear circuit N as
V
shown in Figure 2. Note that VTh = Voc and Rth = oc . Does this confirm your results
I sc
in part (i)? If not, explain why not.

(iii) Repeat the calculations in part (i) using the measured resistance of the two 20-Ω
resistors connected in parallel. Compare the result with that obtained in part (ii).

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4.1.3 Maximum power transfer

Consider the circuit shown in Figure 1. Set Vs to 10 V. Measure Vo for several values
of R ranging from 0 to 100 Ω. Complete Table 2 by calculating the corresponding load
 V2 
power Po  = o  for the various values of R. You may use series/parallel connections
 R 
of resistors to get the required values.

Table 2

R (Ω) 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Vo (V)
Po (mW)

Draw a graph showing the load power Po versus the load resistance R. Can you confirm
the theorem of maximum power transfer from the graph? Is the value of the resistance
for the greatest Po close to RTh you obtained in parts (i) and (ii)? If not, explain why
not.

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4.2 PART B

4.2.1 Time response of RC network

(i) Connect a RC circuit as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: RC circuit

(ii) Apply a square waveform of the form shown in Figure 5 to the input of the circuit in
Figure 4.

Figure 5: Square waveform

(ii) Can you explain why you have to use a square input to study the step response of a
RC network?

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(iv) Sketch the observed output waveform Vo (t ) on the same time scale as V1 (t ) for the
values of R and C given in Table 3.
Table 3

R C τ = RC
(a) 1 kΩ 0.1µ F 0.1 ms
(b) 1 kΩ 0.01µ F -
(c) 100 Ω 0.1µ F -

(v) With R =Ω1k , C = 0.1µ F , measure the time constant τ of the circuit from the
observed step response and compare the result with the theoretical value.

(vi) As a rule of thumb, if τ is the time constant of a RC network, then the period ( T ) of
the applied square waveform should be such that T ≥ 10τ . Can you explain why?

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4.3 PART C

4.3.1 Time response of a RLC network

(i) Construct the series RLC circuit shown in Figure 6 with the following values:
R1 = 47 Ω, L = 1 H , and C = 0.1 µ F .

Figure 6: RLC series circuit

(ii) Measure (resistance of the inductor L) and fill it in Table 4 (first blank column).

(iii) Compute the theoretical value of the resonant frequency ωo and the damping ratio α.
Fill the computed values of ωo and α in Table 4 (first column). By comparing the values
of ωo and α , determine and indicate whether the circuit exhibits underdamped, critically
damped or overdamped step responses. Then, compute the values of damped
frequencies ωd and f d and fill them in the Table 4 (first column).

(iv) Apply a square waveform V1 (t ) as shown in Figure 7 to the input of the circuit.

Figure 7: Square waveform – Input to the series RLC circuit shown in Figure 6

(v) Capture the response Vc(t) across the capacitance C using the oscilloscope and sketch
Vc(t) . Does the waveform obtained correspond to the type of responses expected as in

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 Table 4. For the underdamped case, measure the period of the damped oscillation Td′
from the DSO and compute the observed frequency f d′ and fill Table 4 (first column).

(vi) Repeat the steps (i) through (v) for the other three cases (columns 3 to 5) given in
Table 4.

Table 4 : Series RLC Circuit

(vii) Can you explain why the measured value f d′ differs from the theoretical value of f d .

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OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS

RC circuit

The RC circuit has many useful applications, particularly to control timing. Some examples include
flashlight in cameras, windshield wipers, and to implement integration or differentiation.
The RC circuit can be used as a differentiator or integrator depending on whether the output is taken
across the resistor or the capacitor. Try to prove this from the first principles behind the RC circuit.
Use the lecture notes or the reference text for solving this problem. Particularly, focus on the condition
to be satisfied by the time constant (τ) and the time period of the input waveform (T) for the circuit to
serve as differentiator or integrator.

RLC circuit

An RLC circuit, connected to an antenna, enables the user to tune to a particular radio station. An
antenna is a device that picks up all electromagnetic signals in the atmosphere and converts them
into electric signals. Often we are interested in a “narrow” band of signals centered at a particular
frequency; this selection is often referred as “tuning” in radios. Hence we need to implement a narrow
band-pass filter at the output of antenna, which can be accomplished using the property of resonance.
Design an RLC circuit, preferably series circuit, to accomplish the above-mentioned task. Develop
your ideas from scratch to solve this problem. Use block diagrams to express your ideas, followed by
detailed notes on the selection of the components. Explain also how tuning can be accomplished.
Hint: Study about the Q factor of RLC circuit and how to choose it appropriately.

FURTHER READING

1. Charles K. Alexander and Matthew N.O. Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, 5th Edition,
McGraw Hill, 2013.

2. William H. Hayt, Jr., Jack E. Kimmerly and Steven M. Durbin, Engineering Circuit Analysis, 8th
Edition, McGraw Hill, 2012.

3. James W. Nilsson and Susan A. Riedel, Electric Circuits, 9th Edition, Pearson, 2011.

APPENDIX

A.1 Circuit Linearity

A linear circuit is one whose output is directly proportional to its input.

Consider the linear circuit shown in Figure A.1. The linear circuit has no independent sources
inside it. It is excited by a voltage source vs , which serves as an input. The circuit is
terminated by a load R . We may take the current i through R as the output. Suppose
vs = 10 V gives i = 2 A. According to the linearity principle, vs = 1 V will give i = 0.2 A. By
the same token, i = 1 mA. must be due to vs = 5 mV .

Figure A.1. A linear circuit with input vs and output i .

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A.2 Thevenin’s theorem

Consider the linear circuit in Figure A.2 with a variable load. Thevenin’s theorem provides a
technique by which the fixed part of the circuit is replaced by an equivalent circuit.

Thevenin’s theorem states that a linear two-terminal circuit can be replaced by an equivalent
circuit consisting of a voltage source VTh in series with a resistor RTh , where VTh is the open-
circuit voltage at the terminals and RTh is the input or equivalent resistance at the terminals
when the independent sources are turned off.

Figure A.2. Replacing a linear two-terminal circuit by its Thevenin equivalent: (a) original
circuit, (b) Thevenin equivalent circuit.

The Thevenin equivalent of a two-terminal circuit which contains at least an independent

source can be determined from measurements as follows:

(i) With the load R removed from the output terminals a-b, measure the open- circuit
voltage Voc appearing across the output terminals.
(ii) Short-circuit the output terminals and measure the short-circuit current I sc .

Then,
Voc
VTh = Voc , RTh =
I sc

A.3 Maximum power transfer

The Thevenin equivalent is useful in finding the maximum power in a linear circuit that can
deliver to a load. We assume that we can adjust the load resistance RL (see Figure A.3).

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 Figure A.3. A circuit used for maximum power transfer.

Maximum power theorem

Maximum power is delivered by a source to the load RL when RL is equal to RTh , the Thevenin
resistance at the terminals of the load.

The maximum power delivered to the load is then given by

B. RC Circuit – transient response

Figure B.1. Series RC circuit – transient response

A general RC circuit is shown in Figure B.1. The step response is obtained by sudden application of
DC source Vs. Applying KCL in the circuit shown in Figure B.1 for t > 0, we have:

(1)

where v is the voltage across the capacitor C. Rearranging the terms gives

Solving the above equations we obtain

where V0 is the initial voltage across the capacitor C , and τ = RC. If the initial condition is zero,
i.e. V0 = 0 , we obtain:

The time constant (τ) is an important parameter for first-order circuits. It is convenient to think of the
time elapsed after switching in terms of integral multiples of τ. Thus, one time constant after the
capacitor has begun to release its stored energy to the resistor, the voltage has been reduced to e-1,
or approximately 0.37 of its initial value. In other words, the time constant τ = RC governs the rate of

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decay of the capacitor voltage. Hence, when the elapsed time exceeds five time constants, the
capacitor voltage is less than 1% of its initial value. The shape of the time response is therefore
governed by τ.

C. Series RLC circuit – transient response

Figure C.1. Series RLC Circuit – step response

A general series RLC circuit is shown in Fig. C.1. The step response can be obtained by
sudden application of a DC source. By applying KVL around the loop for t > 0, we obtain:

(1)

where v is the voltage across capacitor C and Vs is the applied source (DC) voltage. We know that
the current through C can be expressed as:

Substituting the above equation for i in (1), and rearranging the terms, we obtain the following
equation:

(2)

The above equation is a second order differential equation in v, which can be easily solved by
following a standard mathematical procedure. The characteristic equation obtained from the above
equation is of the following form:

The roots of the above equation are given by:

where α is known as damping factor and ω0 is known as undamped natural frequency:

There are three different solutions based on the roots of the above discussed characteristic equation.
The response is called overdamped (α > ω0) when the roots are unequal and real, critically damped (α
= ω0) when the roots are equal and real, and underdamped (α < ω0) when the roots are complex.

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The complete solution for eq. (2) contains two parts: the transient response vt(t) and the steady-state
response vss(t). Hence, the solution is given by the following sum:

The response v(t) for the overdamped, underdamped, and critically damped cases are given below
with the respective conditions:

• Overdamped case: α > ω0

• Critically damped case: α = ω0

• Under damped case: α < ω0

where ωd is the damped natural frequency given by:

In this experiment, we mimic the DC voltage by a square wave, whose time period is large enough to
visualize the entire transient response of the circuit. One can easily visualize the capacitor charging to
the source voltage after a transient period governed by the equations explained above.

Note: The relation between the angular frequency ω and linear frequency f is given by:

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