Observing the behaviour of damped harmonic oscillations in

a resonant series LCR circuit.

M.E. Salhi
King’s College London

12th January 2017

Abstract:
This experiment was set up to explore the relationship between Inductance, Capacitance and
Resistance when set up in a series array and what values could be then calculated and assumed from
this relationship.

1.1 1.2 1.3

L 9.85 mH ± 2mH 9.95 mH ± 0.6mH 8.9mH ± 0.8mH
C 103nF ± 40nF 113nF ± 9nF
R 29 Ω ± 4Ω 23.5 Ω±0.1 Ω

The table above displays the results of our findings and despite not all the values overlap, they fall
within the range given and that confirms the success of the experiment. The significance of this is
that, each part of the experiment was conducted in order to find a specific property of the circuit.
From investigating the relationship between resonant frequency and capacitance, the variation of
the quality factor with resistance or when investigating the logarithmic decrement. The values for
L,C and R remained consistent within the range.
1 Introduction

LCR circuit is one that contains a resistor, inductor and a capacitor.

Resonance in a LC (one without a resistor) circuit occurs when the inductive reactance and the
capacitive reactance have the same magnitude. Inductive reactance 𝑋𝐿 is the ability in a circuit to
oppose a change in current. This is because when an alternating current is applied across an
inductor, the sinusoidal supply produces a difference of phase between the voltage and the current
waveforms. This property occurs in an Inductor hence ‘inductive reactance’.

𝑋𝐿 = 2𝜋𝑓𝐿 = 𝜔𝐿 (1)

Similarly in a Capacitor, as it charges or discharges, the current which flows through it is restricted by
a property called the ‘capacitive reactance’,𝑋𝐶 . Both these values are measured in Ohms, they are
the equivalent of resistance in a DC circuit.
1 1 (2)
𝑋𝐶 = =
2𝜋𝑓𝐶 𝜔𝐶
The frequency at this magnitude is called the resonant frequency. The resonant frequency of an LC
circuit is
1
𝜔0 = (3)
√𝐿𝐶
This is obtained by equating Eq. 1 and Eq. 2 and rearranging for 𝜔0 .

When a resistor is added to an LC circuit, it creates a damping effect on the oscillations and in turn
decreases the peak resonant frequency.

Below is the equation for a LCR circuit in series driven by an alternating signal 𝑉0 sin 𝜔𝑡:

𝑑2𝑞 𝑑𝑞 𝑞 (4)
𝐿 2 +𝑅 + = 𝑉0 sin 𝜔𝑡
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡 𝐶

Which follows that of a damped simple harmonic oscillator.

From the measurements that arise due to the resonant behaviour and the damping from the circuit,
the values for the resistance, capacitance and inductance of the circuit could be found.

The experiment was divided into three parts, each of which had its own objective to deduce. After
determining the relationship between resonant frequency and capacitance, the next part of the
experiment was calculating the quality factor, Q of the resonant circuit. Which is merely a measure
of how well defined the peak current is around the frequency of resonance. Finally the exponential
decay of the oscillations was evaluated. It was from these that the resistance, inductance and
capacitance was found and compared for each part.

1
2 Apparatus and Methods

The set up for the experiment is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The apparatus set-up for the experiment.

The rL shown in Figure 1 is the internal reactance of the Inductor. A variable capacitor and variable
resistor were used to provide a range of values for capacitance and resistance in order to investigate
what happens when these variables are changed.

2.1 Variation of resonant frequency with capacitance

This part of the experiment was conducted by arranging the apparatus as shown in Figure 1. A 1
Volt peak to peak sine wave was achieved in the signal generator. With a fixed value of the
resistance at 100Ω. The capacitance was varied from 0.01 to 1µF from the variable Capacitor. For
each value of C, the frequency was adjusted until resonance was observed (a maximum voltage)
across the variable resistor. This shows the resonant frequency at that particular value of
capacitance, and a graph of 𝑓0 2 against 1/Cv. As can be seen from figure () the graph produces a
straight line with a non-zero intercept as expected.

In order to achieve a straight line graph, the values for 1/Cv should be equally spaced as a posed to
the values for Cv. Therefore the value for the inverse of the maximum and minimum capacitance
should be found and therefore an accurate range can be calculated. Then for each value of this 1/Cv
should be inverted in order to find the corresponding value for Cv in order to set the capacitor.

2.2 Variation of the quality factor with resistance

The variable resistor for this part of the experiment was removed and instead a new resonant
frequency of the circuit was noted. The value of the resistance on the variable resistor was adjusted
from 10 to 100 Ω. In each instance the width of the resonance Δf = fb – fa. Figure 2 shows this.

2
 Figure 2. Illustration defining the quality factor.

In order to achieve this, the value for the voltage at resonant frequency is noted then the value
decreased by a factor of √2 is calculated. Then the frequency is decreased until this value for the
voltage is observed. This is done on both sides of the resonant frequency, the values are calculated
then Δf = fb – fa can be found. Equation 5 shows how the quality factor was calculated from this
data.

(5)

2.3 Exponential decay of damped oscillations

While maintaining the same setup as 2.2. The resistance was set to 10Ω and the signal generator
was set to output a square wave. A damped harmonic oscillation was observed. From this, the
logarithmic decrement λ was measured. Figure 3 shows how to obtain the values for V1,V2…Vn. And
figure 6 shows how to calculate the logarithmic decrement.

Figure 3. Damped harmonic oscillation.

(6)

3
3 Results

3.1 The variation of resonant frequency with capacitance.

The value of the capacitance was chosen in such a way that the values 1/Cv would be equally
spaced. For each value the frequency at which the maximum voltage was observed on the
oscilloscope was measured, this was noted as the resonant frequency F0.

300.0
Frequency Squared ( MHz)

250.0

200.0

150.0

100.0

50.0

0.0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12
1/Cv (µF^-1)

Figure 4. This line graph illustrates the data drawn from the raw data on Table 1, as expected, the
line does not intercept the origin.

The equation of the line in Diagram 1 was given as:

(7)

1
Therefore from the above equation, the gradient and y-intercept were found to equal 4𝜋2 𝐿 and
1
respectively. In order to calculate the value of L and C, the gradient and y-intercept were
4𝜋2 𝐿𝐶
found using the least squares method. The values attained are below:

Table 2. Data collected from the least squares method.

4
Table 3. The gradient and y intercept found using the least squares method, along with their
corresponding standard deviations.

Using the values calculated above and substituting them for the values in equation (1) the L and C
calculated were found to be L = 9.85 µH ± 2 µH and C = 102nF ± 40nF. However these values fell
grossly outside of the range and the problem was found to be an error in the calculation of the
powers. In Diagram 1, the units for the x axis were (GF) and the units for the y axis were (MHz).
These were not taken into consideration in the final calculation and therefore a wrong value was
computed. The actual values when conducting the calculation correctly were actually:

L = 9.85 mH ± 2mH
C = 103nF ± 40nF

Both of which fall inside of the range given in the lab manual.

3 .2 The variation of the quality factor with resistance.

At resonant frequency the series LCR circuit has a current value of Imax. The aim of this part of the
experiment was to measure the definition of the current around the resonant frequency, this
measure of sharpness is called the Quality Factor. The quality factor was measured by first finding
the resonant frequency then recording the current at that point, and then the current was allowed
to drop by a factor of 2 on both sides of the oscillation.

2.5

2
Delta F ( kHz)

1.5

0.5

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Resistance Rv (Ohms)

Figure 5. Graph illustrating the data for the second part of the experiment. Delta f against Resistance
Rv.

5
The equation for this line was written as:
(8)

As with 1.1, the gradient and y intercept were calculated using the least squares method.

Table 5. Data Collected from least squares method

Table 6. The gradient and y intercept found using the least squares method, along with their
corresponding standard deviations.

1 𝑟
From equation (2), the gradient and y intercept are and 𝐿 respectively. Each of these was
2𝜋𝐿 2𝜋𝐿
equated to their respective values calculated in Table 6 and the inductance and rL calculated were:

L = 9.95 mH ± 0.6mH
rL = 29 Ω ± 4Ω

Also as in 1.1 the errors on L and rL are calculated using the propagation of errors. There was also an
error in the calculation as the units of Delta F were overlooked, and once again they were identified
and rectified.They were corrected by redoing the calculation for rL and L but this time the gradient
and y intercept in Table 6 were multiplied by 1000 to account for the (kHz).

3.3 The transient response of the LCR circuit

A square wave was used in order to produce a damped harmonic oscillation. The aim of this part of
the experiment is to measure the logarithmic decrement and a graph of against Rv was drawn
up.
0.8
Logarithmic Decrement

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Resistance, Rv (Ohms)

Figure 6. Graph of Logarithmic decrement against Rv

6
The equation for this line is:
(9)

The gradient and y intercept were calculated using the least squares method.

Table 10. The gradient and y intercept found using the least squares method, along with their
corresponding standard deviations.

1 𝑟
From equation 3, the gradient and y intercepts are 4𝑓 𝐿 and 4𝑓𝐿𝐿 respectively. Each of these were
0 0
equated with their corresponding value in table 10 and the following values were calculated:

L = 8.9mH ± 0.8mH
rL = 23.5 Ω±0.1 Ω

The time period τobserved on the oscilloscope was 200 µs, making a f0 of 1/τ= 5000Hz.
Using this new data, another value of capacitance C was also found, using the equation:

(10)

The capacitance calculated was; C = 113nF ± 9nF, this value overlaps with the value calculated in the
first of the experiment and also falls within the range stated in the manual. Range stated in the
manual was R 10-100 Ω, L 1-100 mH and C 50-200 nF.

1.1 1.2 1.3

L 9.85 mH ± 2mH 9.95 mH ± 0.6mH 8.9mH ± 0.8mH
C 103nF ± 40nF 113nF ± 9nF
R 29 Ω ± 4Ω 23.5 Ω±0.1 Ω

Table 11. A comparison of all the values calculated over the experiments.
All the values calculated fall within the range given in the Lab Manual, and the values for
Capacitance overlap with each other.

7
Conclusions

When referring to the Lab manual, it was confirmed that all the values of Inductance, L, Capacitance
C, and Resistance, R were all within the stated range and also overlapped with the experimental
values stated. Further improvements to this experiment would be to enhance the way in which the
readings were recorded. In order to illuminate human error, the apparatus could be connected to a
computer which measures the changes in the variables much more precisely.

An extension to this experiment would be to rearrange the L, C and R into a parallel circuit. In a
parallel arrangement, this is the exact opposite of the series one. The voltage is now the same across
all three components, and the current is what differs. And to explore that happens at resonance in a
parallel circuit and how this differs from a series one.

8
References

1. KCL Lab manual (Figure 1-3)

2. http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/accircuits/series-circuit.html
3. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/rlcser.html
4. Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, John Jewett, 2007
5. Fundamentals of Physics II , R.Shankar, 2016
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RLC_circuit
7.