AC Transients in a RC Circuit

by Austin Carlson

Submitted : Spring 2014

This project demonstrates the behavior of an RC circuit that is being powered by an AC voltage source. Circuits of this type are designed for steady state operation, meaning that a consistent current flows through the circuit over long periods of time. However before this steady state can occur, the circuit experiences some transient behavior shortly after the switch is closed. This behavior must be understood in system design because it has to be taken into account so that when the switch is thrown, the circuit does not become affected by these transient behaviors. This project asks us to take a deeper look into why a RC circuit (see above) will exhibit these behaviors, and exactly how it behaves over a specified time interval.

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