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31st, 2007

Charging and discharging a capacitor

The capacitor is a fundamental component in many electrical circuits. It has many applications, such as noise removal, coupling, and energy storage to mention a few uses. A capacitor stores electrical energy in the form of charge, thus it is necessary to understand how a capacitor is charged and discharged in a circuit. Capacitance, voltage, and charge A capacitor is basically two conductive plates in very close proximity to each other, still no electrical path may exist between them. If both plates have equal electrical charge, the net charge is zero and the capacitor is uncharged. If there exists a difference in electrical charge between the plates, the capacitor as such carries a charge, causing a voltage difference between the terminals of the capacitor. The relationship for this is

Where is the charge of the capacitor (in Coulombs), is the capacitance of the capacitor, and is the voltage between the capacitor terminals. The capacitance describes how many Coulombs of charge the capacitor can store for each volt applied across its terminal, i.e. its capacity. If the voltage and charge can change over time, we can rewrite the equation as

As the voltage over the capacitor terminals changes, the amount of charge stored in the capacitor changes too. The meaning of electrical current can be broken down into change in charge per change in time, i.e.

By integrating this, we obtain

From which we see that charge equals the integral of current over time. If we modify the equation for capacitor charge and solve for capacitor voltage, we get

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In this equation, integrating the current.

refers to the initial voltage of the capacitor when we begin

Charging using a constant voltage A typical circuit for charging a capacitor is using a constant charge voltage and a series resistance to set the charge time. Such a circuit is shown in the figure. In this section, an expression for the capacitor voltage as a function of time elapsed since charging began will be derived. Two situations can be identified here; the capacitor can have an initial voltage or not. Both cases will be treated in this text. We start the analysis by applying Kirchoffs voltage law; the input voltage must be equal to the voltage drop over the resistor, plus the voltage of the capacitor. This can be expressed mathematically as

For the capacitor to charge, must be greater than . Assuming that is constant, knowing that the voltage drop over a resistor equals current times resistance and the equation for capacitor voltage, we can modify this equation into

An expression for the current must be obtained before the capacitor voltage can be calculated. For this situation, the Laplace transform is applied. First, we multiply by C.

We then apply the Laplace transform and are left with

Next, we multiply both sides by s.

We move the term to the left-hand side and factor out C. Simultaneously, we can factor out on the right-hand side.

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We divide by

and the result is

This cannot easily be inverse-transformed, but we introduce an R factor in the right-hand side.

The equation can now be simplified into an inverse-transformable expression. We factor out RC from the left factor, i.e.

The expression for

now becomes

Which can be inverse-transformed into

This is the expression for the current in the circuit, at any given time. To obtain the capacitor voltage, we integrate this expression.

This is the final expression for the capacitor voltage. The voltage follows a logarithmic curve, the slope of which is dependent on the resistance R and capacitance C. The capacitor voltage approaches the charge voltage at the end of the charge process. If the initial capacitor voltage is zero, i.e.

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Then the equation simplifies into

As said, the rate of charge of the capacitor depends on the product of R and C. This is usually called the time constant and denoted by the Greek letter tau:

The unit of is seconds. E.g. a 1 M resistor and 1 F capacitor produce . When 1 has elapsed since charging commenced, the capacitor has charged to about 63 % of its final voltage. At 2, the capacitor has charged to about 86 %. After 2, the voltage is at roughly 95 %. At 4, the voltage is at about 98 %, and at 5 around 99 %. This is valid for all values of R, C, and . Example: Given a capacitor and resistor , determine

a) The time constant. b) The voltages at 1, 2 and 3 when voltage is . Solution: A. The time constant is

and when

The charging

B. If the initial voltage of the capacitor is 0 V, the voltages at the specified points in time are:

If the initial voltage of the capacitor is 2 V, the voltages at the given points in time are:

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The situation is illustrated in the graph below. The red curve corresponds to the uncharged capacitor, while the green curve represents the charged capacitor. The x-axis has units in seconds, the y-axis is in volts.

The time needed to charge to a certain voltage is given by

Where

is the voltage to be achieved.

Discharging using a constant voltage Discharging a capacitor with a constant voltage yields similar results as the charging process. This section analyzes the discharge process. The circuit is basically the same as in the

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previous section, but now the input voltage is assumed to be less than causing the capacitor to discharge. We apply Kirchoffs voltage law and get

Where is assumed to be constant. Approaching the problem similarly as in the previous section, an expression for the circuit current is obtained.

If compared to the previous section, a difference can be noted in that the integral is now negative. This arises from the fact that the capacitor is now being discharged, causing charge to decrease. Proceeding as in the previous section and applying the Laplace transform, we obtain

Which can be inverse-transformed into

When compared to the equation for charging, the voltages have been interchanged as was assumed greater than . To obtain the voltage of the capacitor, we integrate the current, observing that the integral is negative as the capacitor is discharged.

Again, the time constant determines the rate of discharge, and the capacitor voltage approaches by the end of the discharge. If , the equation simplifies into

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After 1 has passed, the capacitor has discharged to about 37 % of its final voltage, at 2 to 14 %, at 3 to 5 %, at 4 to 2% and at 5 to 1 %. Example: Given a capacitor and resistor , determine

a) The time constant. b) The voltages at 1, 2 and 3 when voltage is . Solution: A. The time constant is

and when

The charging

B. If the discharge voltage is

, the voltages at the specified points in time are:

If the discharge voltage is

, the voltages at the specified points in time are:

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The situation is illustrated in the graph below. The red curve corresponds to , while the green curve represents . The x-axis has units in seconds, the y-axis is in volts.

The time required to discharge the capacitor to a certain voltage is given by

Where

is the voltage to be achieved.

Charging and discharging with a constant current A capacitor can also be charged and discharged using a constant current. By assuming that

We can now obtain the capacitor voltage as

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This equation is valid for the charging process. If the desired process is discharge, a minus sign should be placed in front of the fraction, resulting in

The rate of charge/discharge is thus dependent on the current magnitude and the capacitance. Additionally, the shape of the curve is now linear. The time it takes for the capacitor to charge to a certain voltage is given by

Where is the voltage to be achieved. Similarly, the time needed for discharging to a certain level is given by