Flexible Learning A.Y.

2020-2021
DISTANCE EDUCATION COURSE GUIDE USING OBTL DESIGN v1

Module 3 : 6 hrs. Mesh and Node Equations:

Course Instructor Jose Espino

FB Messenger Jose Espino

Contact Details Email Ad j.espino@usls.edu.ph

Phone No./s 09495039419

Consultation Hours MWF TTH 10:30 – 12noon

Part I: TARGETED COURSE OUTCOMES AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Targeted Course Outcomes

1. Apply the knowledge of mathematics and sciences in solving simple and complicated DC
circuits to address issues of the society and environment.

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this module, you are expected to:

1.1 Be able to understand and apply Kirchhoff Circuits Law to solve complicated problems.

1.2 Be able to determine the currents and voltages in a circuit using the mesh current method.

1.3 Be able to determine the currents and voltages in a circuit using the node voltage method.

Part II: ASSESSMENT

Learning Evidence 1 (Assessment Task 1): Reading Assignment
Learning Evidence 2 (Assessment Task 2): Quizzes

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Part III: TEACHING LEARNING ACTIVITIES

TLA 1: Reading Assignment 1

Activity 1:
Answer the questions below using the given activity sheet. ( 20 pts )

Question Answer

8 pts
Kindly define what is a Node, Branch,
Loop and a Mesh in circuit application

6 pts
What does Kirchhoff Current Law states?

6 pts
What does Kirchhoff Voltage Law states?

Kirchhoffs Circuit Law

We saw in the Resistors tutorial that a single equivalent resistance, ( RT ) can be found
when two or more resistors are connected together in either series, parallel or
combinations of both, and that these circuits obey Ohm’s Law.

However, sometimes in complex circuits such as bridge or T networks, we can not

simply use Ohm’s Law alone to find the voltages or currents circulating within the circuit.
For these types of calculations we need certain rules which allow us to obtain the circuit
equations and for this we can use Kirchhoffs Circuit Law.

In 1845, a German physicist, Gustav Kirchhoff developed a pair or set of rules or laws

which deal with the conservation of current and energy within electrical circuits. These
two rules are commonly known as: Kirchhoffs Circuit Laws with one of Kirchhoffs laws
dealing with the current flowing around a closed circuit, Kirchhoffs Current Law, (KCL)
while the other law deals with the voltage sources present in a closed
circuit, Kirchhoffs Voltage Law, (KVL).

Kirchhoffs First Law – The Current Law, (KCL)

Kirchhoffs Current Law or KCL, states that the “total current or charge entering a
junction or node is exactly equal to the charge leaving the node as it has no other place
to go except to leave, as no charge is lost within the node“. In other words the algebraic
sum of ALL the currents entering and leaving a node must be equal to zero,

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I(exiting) + I(entering) = 0. This idea by Kirchhoff is commonly known as the Conservation of

Charge.

Kirchhoffs Current Law

Here, the three currents entering the node, I1, I2, I3 are all positive in value and the two
currents leaving the node, I4 and I5 are negative in value. Then this means we can also
rewrite the equation as;
I1 + I2 + I3 – I4 – I5 = 0

The term Node in an electrical circuit generally refers to a connection or junction of two

or more current carrying paths or elements such as cables and components. Also for
current to flow either in or out of a node a closed circuit path must exist. We can use
Kirchhoff’s current law when analysing parallel circuits.

Kirchhoffs Second Law – The Voltage Law, (KVL)

Kirchhoffs Voltage Law or KVL, states that “in any closed loop network, the total
voltage around the loop is equal to the sum of all the voltage drops within the same
loop” which is also equal to zero. In other words the algebraic sum of all voltages within
the loop must be equal to zero. This idea by Kirchhoff is known as the Conservation of
Energy.

Kirchhoffs Voltage Law

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Starting at any point in the loop continue in the same direction noting the direction of
all the voltage drops, either positive or negative, and returning back to the same starting
point. It is important to maintain the same direction either clockwise or anti-clockwise or
the final voltage sum will not be equal to zero. We can use Kirchhoff’s voltage law when
analysing series circuits.

When analysing either DC circuits or AC circuits using Kirchhoffs Circuit Laws a

number of definitions and terminologies are used to describe the parts of the circuit
being analysed such as: node, paths, branches, loops and meshes. These terms are
used frequently in circuit analysis so it is important to understand them.

Common DC Circuit Theory Terms:

 • Circuit – a circuit is a closed loop conducting path in which an electrical
current flows.
 • Path – a single line of connecting elements or sources.
 • Node – a node is a junction, connection or terminal within a circuit were two
or more circuit elements are connected or joined together giving a connection
point between two or more branches. A node is indicated by a dot.
 • Branch – a branch is a single or group of components such as resistors or a
source which are connected between two nodes.
 • Loop – a loop is a simple closed path in a circuit in which no circuit element
or node is encountered more than once.
 • Mesh – a mesh is a single closed loop series path that does not contain any
other paths. There are no loops inside a mesh.
Note that:

    Components are said to be connected together in Series if the same current value
flows through all the components.

    Components are said to be connected together in Parallel if they have the same
voltage applied across them.

A Typical DC Circuit

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Kirchhoffs Circuit Law Example No1

Find the current flowing in the 40Ω Resistor, R3
 

 
The circuit has 3 branches, 2 nodes (A and B) and 2 independent loops.
Using Kirchhoffs Current Law, KCL the equations are given as:
At node A :    I1 + I2 = I3
At node B :    I3 = I1 + I2
Using Kirchhoffs Voltage Law, KVL the equations are given as:
Loop 1 is given as :    10 = R1 I1 + R3 I3 = 10I1 + 40I3
Loop 2 is given as :    20 = R2 I2 + R3 I3 = 20I2 + 40I3
Loop 3 is given as :    10 – 20 = 10I1 – 20I2
As I3 is the sum of I1 + I2 we can rewrite the equations as;
Eq. No 1 :    10 = 10I1 + 40(I1 + I2)  =  50I1 + 40I2
Eq. No 2 :    20 = 20I2 + 40(I1 + I2)  =  40I1 + 60I2
We now have two “Simultaneous Equations” that can be reduced to give us the
values of I1 and I2 
Substitution of I1 in terms of I2 gives us the value of I1 as -0.143 Amps
Substitution of I2 in terms of I1 gives us the value of I2 as +0.429 Amps
As :    I3 = I1 + I2
The current flowing in resistor R3 is given as :    -0.143 + 0.429 = 0.286 Amps
and the voltage across the resistor R3 is given as :    0.286 x 40 = 11.44 volts

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The negative sign for I1 means that the direction of current flow initially chosen was
wrong, but never the less still valid. In fact, the 20v battery is charging the 10v battery.

Application of Kirchhoffs Circuit Laws

These two laws enable the Currents and Voltages in a circuit to be found, ie, the circuit
is said to be “Analysed”, and the basic procedure for using Kirchhoff’s Circuit Laws is
as follows:
 1. Assume all voltages and resistances are given. ( If not label them V1, V2,…
R1, R2,etc. )
 2. Assigns a current to each branch or mesh (clockwise or
anticlockwise)
 3. Label each branch with a branch current. ( I1, I2, I3 etc. )
 4. Find Kirchhoff’s first law equations for each node.
 5. Find Kirchhoff’s second law equations for each of the independent loops of
the circuit.
 6. Use Linear simultaneous equations as required to find the unknown
currents.

As well as using Kirchhoffs Circuit Law to calculate the various voltages and currents
circulating around a linear circuit, we can also use loop analysis to calculate the
currents in each independent loop which helps to reduce the amount of mathematics
required by using just Kirchhoff’s laws.

Mesh Current Analysis

While Kirchhoff´s Laws give us the basic method for analysing any complex electrical
circuit, there are different ways of improving upon this method by using Mesh Current
Analysis or Nodal Voltage Analysis that results in a lessening of the math’s involved
and when large networks are involved this reduction in maths can be a big advantage.

For example, consider the electrical circuit example from the previous section.

Mesh Current Analysis Circuit

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One simple method of reducing the amount of math’s involved is to analyse the circuit
using Kirchhoff’s Current Law equations to determine the currents, I1 and I2 flowing in
the two resistors. Then there is no need to calculate the current I3 as its just the sum
of I1 and I2. So Kirchhoff’s second voltage law simply becomes:
 Equation No 1 :    10 =  50I1 + 40I2
 Equation No 2 :    20 =  40I1 + 60I2

therefore, one line of math’s calculation have been saved.

Mesh Current Analysis

An easier method of solving the above circuit is by using Mesh Current

Analysis or Loop Analysis which is also sometimes called Maxwell´s Circulating
Currents method. Instead of labelling the branch currents we need to label each
“closed loop” with a circulating current.

As a general rule of thumb, only label inside loops in a clockwise direction with
circulating currents as the aim is to cover all the elements of the circuit at least once.
Any required branch current may be found from the appropriate loop or mesh currents
as before using Kirchhoff´s method.
For example: :    i1 = I1 , i2 = -I2  and  I3 = I1 – I2

We now write Kirchhoff’s voltage law equation in the same way as before to solve them
but the advantage of this method is that it ensures that the information obtained from
the circuit equations is the minimum required to solve the circuit as the information is
more general and can easily be put into a matrix form.

For example, consider the circuit from the previous section.

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These equations can be solved quite quickly by using a single mesh impedance
matrix Z. Each element ON the principal diagonal will be “positive” and is the total
impedance of each mesh. Where as, each element OFF the principal diagonal will
either be “zero” or “negative” and represents the circuit element connecting all the
appropriate meshes.

First we need to understand that when dealing with matrices, for the division of two
matrices it is the same as multiplying one matrix by the inverse of the other as shown.
 

having found the inverse of R, as V/R is the same as V x R-1, we can now use it to find
the two circulating currents.

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Where:
 [ V ]   gives the total battery voltage for loop 1 and then loop 2
 [ I ]     states the names of the loop currents which we are trying to find
 [ R ]   is the resistance matrix
 [ R-1 ]   is the inverse of the [ R ] matrix
and this gives I1 as -0.143 Amps and I2 as -0.429 Amps
As :    I3 = I1 – I2
The combined current of I3 is therefore given as :   -0.143 – (-0.429) = 0.286 Amps

This is the same value of  0.286 amps current, we found previously in the Kirchhoffs

circuit law tutorial.

Mesh Current Analysis Summary

This “look-see” method of circuit analysis is probably the best of all the circuit analysis
methods with the basic procedure for solving Mesh Current Analysis equations is as
follows:
 1. Label all the internal loops with circulating currents. (I1, I2, …IL etc)
 2. Write the [ L x 1 ] column matrix [ V ] giving the sum of all voltage sources in
each loop.
 3. Write the [ L x L ] matrix, [ R ] for all the resistances in the circuit as follows:

o   R11 = the total resistance in the first loop.
o   Rnn = the total resistance in the Nth loop.
o   RJK = the resistance which directly joins loop J to Loop K.
 4. Write the matrix or vector equation [V]  =  [R] x [I] where [I] is the list of
currents to be found.

As well as using Mesh Current Analysis, we can also use node analysis to calculate
the voltages around the loops, again reducing the amount of mathematics required
using just Kirchoff’s laws.

Nodal Voltage Analysis

Nodal Voltage Analysis complements the previous mesh analysis in that it is equally

powerful and based on the same concepts of matrix analysis. As its name
implies, Nodal Voltage Analysis uses the “Nodal” equations of Kirchhoff’s first law to
find the voltage potentials around the circuit.

So by adding together all these nodal voltages the net result will be equal to zero. Then,
if there are “n” nodes in the circuit there will be “n-1” independent nodal equations and
these alone are sufficient to describe and hence solve the circuit.

At each node point write down Kirchhoff’s first law equation, that is: “the currents
entering a node are exactly equal in value to the currents leaving the node” then
express each current in terms of the voltage across the branch. For “n” nodes, one node
will be used as the reference node and all the other voltages will be referenced or
measured with respect to this common node.

For example, consider the circuit from the previous section.

Nodal Voltage Analysis Circuit

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In the above circuit, node D is chosen as the reference node and the other three nodes
are assumed to have voltages, Va, Vb and Vc with respect to node D. For example;

As Va = 10v and Vc = 20v , Vb can be easily found by:

again is the same value of 0.286 amps, we found using Kirchhoff’s Circuit Law in the
previous tutorial.

From both Mesh and Nodal Analysis methods we have looked at so far, this is the
simplest method of solving this particular circuit. Generally, nodal voltage analysis is
more appropriate when there are a larger number of current sources around. The
network is then defined as: [ I ] = [ Y ] [ V ] where [ I ] are the driving current sources,
[ V ] are the nodal voltages to be found and [ Y ] is the admittance matrix of the network
which operates on [V ] to give [ I ].

Nodal Voltage Analysis Summary.

The basic procedure for solving Nodal Analysis equations is as follows:

 1. Write down the current vectors, assuming currents into a node are positive.
ie, a (N x 1)  matrices for “N” independent nodes.
 2. Write the admittance matrix [Y] of the network where:
o   Y11 = the total admittance of the first node.

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o   Y22 = the total admittance of the second node.

o   RJK = the total admittance joining node J to node K.
 3. For a network with “N” independent nodes, [Y] will be an (N x N) matrix and
that Ynn will be positive and Yjk will be negative or zero value.

 4. The voltage vector will be (N x L) and will list the “N” voltages to be found.

Learning Evidence 2 (Assessment Task 2): Quiz (10 points )

1. Resistors of R1= 10Ω, R2 = 4Ω and  R3 = 8Ω are connected up to two batteries (of
negligible resistance) as shown. Find the current through each resistor using KCL and
verify your answer using KVL.

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