Math 225-04 3.

8-9 Electrical Oscillations

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Remember, a good mathematical model is like a good map: it has just enough detail to help you get where youre going.

Undriven Electrical Oscillator

Using Kirchos Laws for an undriven series RLC circuit gives the following mathematical model for Q(t), the charge (in Coulombs) on the circuits capacitor: LQ + RQ + 1 Q = 0, C

where L is the inductance in Henrys, R is the resistance in Ohms, C is the capacitance in Farads, and time is in seconds. We assume that L, R, and C are positive constants. Each term in the dierential equation represents a voltage drop across a component in the circuit.

Undamped Circuit
In many idealized circuits there is no energy dissipation, that is, the circuit is undamped because the resistance is assumed to be zero. 1. Find the general solution to the model under the assumption that R = 0. Write your solution in both regular and amplitude-phase form.

2. Your solution above should be oscillatory. (a) What is 0 , the natural angular frequency (in radians/s) of the circuit in terms of L and C ?

(b) What is f0 , the natural frequency (in Hz = cycles/s) of the circuit in terms of 0 L and C ? Note that f0 = w . 2 (c) What is T0 , the natural period (in s/cycle) of the circuit in terms of L and C ? Note that T0 = 1/f0 .

2 3. Which combinations of inductors and capacitors below give a circuit with f0 60 Hz? L1 = 2.00000 mH, L2 = 2.65258 mH, L3 = 3.00000 mH

C1 = 2.34540 mF,

C2 = 2.65258 mF,

C3 = 3.51810 mF

Damped Circuit
In reality, every circuit has some unavoidable resistance, i.e., it is damped. 1. Show that the root(s) to the characteristic equation corresponding to the case where R > 0 are given by R r= 2L R 2L
2

1 . LC

2. Note that for certain combinations of R, L, and C , the circuit oscillates, i.e., it is underdamped. For other combinations, the circuit doesnt oscillate, i.e., it is overdamped. For what specic combination of R, L, and C does the circuit cease to oscillate, i.e., when are the roots of the characteristic equation real and repeated? This situation is called critically damped.

3. Show that all solutions are indeed damped, i.e., Q(t) 0 as t . (Hint: Consider the sign of the exponents in the exponential part of each of the three possible types of solutions, which depends on the real part of the root(s) to the characteristic equation.) Overdamped Critically Damped Underdamped

3 4. In the case where solutions oscillate, how does the damping aect the frequency of the circuit? Specically, how does the new quasi-angular frequency compare to the natural frequency 0 of the undamped circuit?

5. Consider the choices for L and C from above, and suppose the circuit has a xed resistance of 2 Ohms. (a) Which combination(s) produce an underdamped (i.e., oscillating) circuit?

(b) Calculate the quasi-frequency f = for each underdamped circuit. Your results 2 should agree with your analysis in question 4 above.

(c) How would you adjust L or C , or both, to make = 0 , while keeping the damping to a minimum? Explain.

(Note: In reality, increasing L also increases R, because of how inductors are built.)

Driven Electrical Oscillator

An important question to ask is: How does an RLC circuit behave when it is driven by an oscillating voltage source? One might expect interesting results if a slightly damped RLC circuit is driven by a source with a frequency near the natural frequency of the circuit. Interesting results do happen, and this phenomenon is called resonance. Resonance typically amplies small amplitude signals into large amplitude signals. This is desirable in applications such as the design of electrical detectors or seismographs. It is not desirable in other systems such as electrical lters or vibrating mechanical structures.

Designing a 60 Hz Noise Detector

One common source of noise in electrical circuits is a 60 Hz signal that couples inductively into a circuit from the power supply found in most wall outlets. Such a noise signal can be modelled by the function g (t) = F cos (t) = F cos (2f t) = F cos (2 60 t) = F cos (120t), where F is a small amplitude voltage. We will build o the ideas developed above to design a simple RLC circuit that will detect (i.e., amplify) this type of noise. When we properly connect the RLC circuit to some other noisy circuit, the noise drives the RLC circuit, so our new nonhomogeneous model is LQ + RQ + 1 Q = g (t), C

where g (t) = F cos (t) represents the noise (in Volts) with amplitude F > 0 and angular frequency > 0. Recall that this equation has a general solution with the form Q(t) = c1 Q1 (t) + c2 Q2 (t) + Qp (t), where Q1 (t) and Q2 (t) are two linearly independent homogeneous solutions, and Qp (t) is a particular solution. 1. If R > 0, then the circuit is damped. Regardless of the initial conditions, what happens to the amplitude of the homogeneous components c1 Q1 (t) and c2 Q2 (t) of the solution as t ? These components are called the transient solution.

2. If R > 0, then what form of the particular solution Qp (t) should you try? You should convince yourself that your particular solution does not duplicate a homogeneous solution. This component of the solution persists for all time and is called the steady-state solution or forced response.

5 3. It can be shown (after much algebra) that the particular solution has the form
1 2 )F L( LC (R )F cos (t) + 2 1 sin (t) Qp (t) = 1 2 2 2 2 L ( LC ) + (R ) L ( LC 2 )2 + (R )2 = U cos (t ).

The last expressions is in amplitude-phase form, with amplitude U= F

1 L2 ( LC 2 )2 + (R )2

F
2 L2 (0

2 )2 + R 2 2

in Coulombs, and phase angle given by tan = R , 2 L(0 2)

1 2 is the square of the natural angular frequency of the corresponding where 0 = LC undamped, undriven circuit.

Furthermore, it can be shown (after some calculus) that the amplitude U = U ( ) has a maximum when CR2 = res = 0 1 , 2L so long as the expression under the square root is nonnegative. res is called the res is the resonance frequency. resonance angular frequency, and fres = 2 (a) Show that for a critically damped circuit the expression under the square root is negative.

(b) As the damping decreases to zero, what happens to the resonance frequency? Specically, show that res 0 as R 0. Note that res < 0 so the limit is approached from below.

(c) What is the phase dierence between the steady-state solution Qp (t) = U cos (t ) and the forcing function g (t) = F cos (t) when = 0 ?

6 4. The analysis above shows that the noise amplication should be greatest at the resonance frequency. Consider a circuit with R = 0.5 Ohms, L = 3.00000 mH, and C = 2.34540 mF, whose natural frequency is f0 = 60 Hz. (a) Show that the resonance frequency is fres = 56.9929 Hz.

(b) Given that the voltage drop across the capacitor at steady-state is U ( ) 1 Qp (t) = cos (t ), C C the noise amplitude voltage amplication M is given by M=
U ( ) C

F 2 2 )2 +R2 2 L2 (0

1 C
2 L2 (0

2 )2 + R 2 2

Calculate M at the following frequencies: f1 = 50 Hz f2 = fres = 56.9929 Hz

f3 = 60 Hz

(Note: The amplication for this 60 Hz noise detector is sub-optimal. A better design would make fres = 60 Hz.) 5. The analysis above also shows that the smaller the resistance R, the closer the resonance frequency is to the natural frequency, i.e., fres f0 . Consider a circuit with L = 3.00000 mH and C = 2.34540 mF, whose natural frequency is f0 = 60 Hz. For each of the following resistances, calculate the resonance frequency fres and the noise amplication M at resonance: R1 = 1 Ohm R2 = 0.5 Ohm R3 = 0.1 Ohm

(Note: The amplicaion M grows without bound as R 0. This comes as no surprise considering the behavior of the undamped circuit driven at its natural frequency.)