Fundamentals of Electrical Circuits Analysis
Fundamentals of Electrical Circuits Analysis
Fundamentals of Electrical Circuits Analysis
Assignment #1 – Midterm
CPA101
And here is that same circuit, re-drawn for the sake of applying Millman’s Theorem:
By considering the supply voltage within each branch and the resistance within each branch,
Millman’s Theorem will tell us the voltage across all branches. Please note that I’ve labeled the
battery in the rightmost branch as “B3” to clearly denote it as being in the third branch, even though
there is no “B2” in the circuit!
Substituting actual voltage and resistance figures from our example circuit for the variable terms of
this equation, we get the following expression:
The final answer of 8 volts is the voltage seen across all parallel branches, like this:
The polarity of all voltages in Millman’s Theorem is referenced to the same point. In the example
circuit above, I used the bottom wire of the parallel circuit as my reference point, and so the
voltages within each branch (28 for the R1 branch, 0 for the R2 branch, and 7 for the R3 branch)
were inserted into the equation as positive numbers. Likewise, when the answer came out to 8 volts
(positive), this meant that the top wire of the circuit was positive with respect to the bottom wire (the
original point of reference). If both batteries had been connected backward (negative end up and
positive ends down), the voltage for branch 1 would have been entered into the equation as -28
volts, the voltage for branch 3 as -7 volts, and the resulting answer of -8 volts would have told us
that the top wire was negative with respect to the bottom wire (our initial point of reference).
With this value of load resistance, the dissipated power will be 39.2 watts:
If we were to try a lower value for the load resistance (0.5 Ω instead of 0.8 Ω, for example), our
power dissipated by the load resistance would decrease:
Power dissipation increased for both the Thevenin resistance and the total circuit, but it decreased
for the load resistor. Likewise, if we increase the load resistance (1.1 Ω instead of 0.8 Ω, for
example), power dissipation will also be less than it was at 0.8 Ω exactly:
If you were designing a circuit for maximum power dissipation at the load resistance, this theorem
would be very useful. Having reduced a network down to a Thevenin voltage and resistance (or
Norton current and resistance), you simply set the load resistance equal to that Thevenin or Norton
equivalent (or vice versa) to ensure maximum power dissipation at the load. Practical applications
of this might include radio transmitter final amplifier stage design (seeking to maximize the power
delivered to the antenna or transmission line), a grid-tied inverter loading a solar array, or electric
vehicle design (seeking to maximize the power delivered to drive motor).
Figure 1
Figure 2
The process carried out here is called source transformation. We have transformed an existing
current source with a parallel resistor into an equivalent voltage source with a series resistor.
Figure 3
So here we will apply voltage-to-current source transformation, which is very similar to current-to-
voltage source transformation. The process involves replacing the voltage source V in series with a
resistor R with an equivalent network which has a current source
I=VRI=VR
in parallel with a resistor R. The current source is oriented such that the arrow points towards the positive terminal of
the voltage source being replaced (see Figure 4).
I=1015=23 A
in parallel with a 15 Ω resistor. The resulting circuit is shown in Figure 4.
The circuit in Figure 4 has two current sources pointing in the same direction, and hence these can
be replaced by a single current source whose value is equal to their sum, i.e.,
83 A
.
Figure 4
There are three resistors: two 5 Ω resistors and one 15 Ω resistor, all in parallel. We could replace
all three of them with an equivalent resistance (REQ), but our goal is to find the current through the 5
Ω resistor, so we will combine only the other two.
REQ=5×155+15=5×1520=154 Ω
Figure 5
154 Ω
resistor.
Figure 6
For Figure 6, we can readily apply KVL to obtain the current through the 5 Ω resistor:
10−154i−5i=0
10−354i=0
10=354i
i=10×435=87 A
Sources/Links:
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