Charging and discharging of capacitor in R-C circuits

1.Aim: -
To verify that 63% charge is stored in a capacitor in a R-C circuit at its time
constant and 63% charge remains when capacitor is discharged and hence plot a
graph between voltage and time
2.Introduction: -
An R-C circuit is a circuit containing a resistor and capacitor in series to a
power source. Such circuits find very important applications in various areas of
science and in basic circuits which act as building blocks of modern
technological devices. It should be really helpful if we get comfortable with the
terminologies charging and discharging of capacitors. (i)
Charging of capacitor
Capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy
in an electric field. In the hydraulic analogy, charge carriers flowing through a
wire are analogous to water flowing through a pipe. A capacitor is like a rubber
membrane sealed inside a pipe. Water molecules cannot pass through the
membrane, but some water can move by stretching the membrane. The analogy
clarifies a few aspects of capacitors:

The flow of current alters the charge on a capacitor, just as the flow of water
changes the position of the membrane. More specifically, the effect of an
electric current is to increase the charge of one plate of the capacitor, and
decrease the charge of the other plate by an equal amount. This is just like how,
when water flow moves the rubber membrane, it increases the amount of water
on one side of the membrane, and decreases the amount of water on the other
side.

The more a capacitor is charged, the larger its voltage drop; i.e., the more it “pushes
back" against the charging current. This is analogous to the fact that the more a
membrane is stretched, the more it pushes back on the water.
Current can flow "through" a capacitor even though no individual electron can get from one
side to the other.
This is analogous to the fact that water can flow through the pipe even though
no water molecule can pass through the rubber membrane. Of course, the flow
cannot continue the same direction forever; the capacitor
will experience dielectric breakdown, and analogously the membrane will
eventually break.

The capacitance describes how much charge can be stored on one plate of a
capacitor for a given "push" (voltage drop). A very stretchy, flexible membrane
corresponds to a higher capacitance than a stiff membrane.
A charged-up capacitor is storing potential energy, analogously to a stretched
membrane.

Discharging of capacitor
Using hydraulic analogy only we can understand that when the capacitor is
charged the membrane is stretched, but now if you allow the water to come out
slowly and let the membrane relax, then it is called discharging of capacitor. In
other words, when the charge on each of the plates becomes zero and the
potential difference across its terminals drops to zero.

Materials required:
 Breadboard
 100µF capacitor
 1 MΩ resistor
 Multi-meter
 9V battery
 Wire stripper, connecting wires, battery connector
 Stopwatch

Theory:
When a capacitor of capacitance C is connected in series with a resistor of
resistance R and then connected to a battery of EMF E it gets charged but since
some resistance has been introduced, this charging process takes some time and
hence the potential difference between the plates of the capacitor varies as an
exponential function of time, i.e.
V α ext

Applying KIRCHHOFF'S LAW in the above circuit during charging i.e.

E - Vc - IR = 0………………... (1)

Vc = Q/C

Putting above in eq. (1)

E - Q/C - IR = 0
I = dQ/dt

Therefore,

E - Q/C – (dQ/dt) R = 0

E - Q/C = (dQ/dt) R

EC – Q = (dQ/dt) RC

Integrating both the sides,

(2)

Hence, we get,

(for a capacitor)

Therefore,

(3)

Where,
Q = charge at time T.
Qo = maximum charge

Also,
Q = CV
Qo = CVo
Where voltage V is,
V is voltage at time T
Vo is maximum voltage

Therefore, from Equation 3:

And now, the equation for discharging is:

When RC = t, the equation becomes

On solving further, we get,

It shows us that the voltage on capacitor at time t=RC becomes 63% of the max
voltage, which means 63% of total charge has been stored in the capacitor.
This product of R and C has been given a new name, i.e., time constant and is
denoted by τ, which means for any capacitor in RC circuit 63% of total charge is stored at
time constant.
In my experiment I have used a 100µF capacitor and a 1MΩ resistor thus time
constant = 100×10-6×106 = 100 secs.

Procedure:
 Connect all the components in breadboard
 Now take multimeter leads and place them in the two
terminals
 Now take the Battery and its terminal across the terminal of
the capacitor and start the stopwatch. Note the readings at
20sec intervals and write them down. [NOTE: – Reading the
previous statement could be astonishing as it says that
measure voltage at 20sec interval but one could question
that current move at very high speed so how could one
measure the changing readings! But believe me it wasn’t
an easy task but since the voltage depends on reciprocal of
exponential function and as time passes by the changing
readings will get slowed down and even after infinite time
the capacitor could not be charged up to max voltage. Also,
since its time constant is 100sec which is quite practical to
measure at and hence this experiment is very much
 justified.]. Take 10 readings and if required the 20sec gap
could be increased because as the time passes by the
change in voltage becomes smaller and smaller.
 Now let the capacitor be charged up to 460 secs because
then it will become 99.99% charged [since we have a
limited time and we can’t wait for infinite time for it to
charge completely. Now remove the battery and now attach
a wire in place of the battery terminals and again note the
multimeter readings changing and record them.
 Plot a graph between voltage and time for charging as well
as discharging.
Observation:

Multi-meter Multi-meter reading

S Time
reading while while discharging (in
No. (in S)
charging (in V) V)

1 0 8.95 0

2 1.65 7.34 20

3 3.02 6.00 40

4 4.11 4.91 60

5 4.90 4.03 80

6 5.69 3.30 100

7 6.72 2.21 140

8 7.00 1.54 180

9 8.12 0.74 250

10 8.40 0.43 300

Graphical Representation

Plot of voltage vs time

Time on X-axis and Voltage on Y-axis

 For Charging

 For Discharging

Calculation:
Now since the Graph are very much similar to the graph of
charging and discharging of capacitor.

At τ=100s, during charging of capacitor the voltage on capacitor

is 5.69 volt as it is observed in the experiment. Now using the
charging formula:

V= 9(1-e-t/t)
V= 9(1-1/e)
V= 5.67 ~ 5.69
Which is achieved experimentally as well.
Similarly, during discharging,
V= 9-e-1
V= 3.32 ~ 3.30

Which is achieved experimentally as well.

Conclution:
Hence it is verified experimentally that 63% charge is there on
capacitor after time constant during charging and 63% charge is
lost at time constant during discharging.

Precautions

 Do all the connection carefully


 Do all the connection neat and tight

 Do not connect Led without resistance

 Keep yourself safe from high voltage

 Before doing any experiment please consult to your
subject teacher or lab assistance