Engr.

126: MATLAB

Name

MESH ANALYSIS Worksheet

MESH ANALYSIS
problems taken from Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, 2nd Ed., C. Alexander and M. Sadiku, 2004.

Circuit problems are one engineering application in which systems of linear equations are used to solve for the quantities in the actual system. Consider the electric circuit shown in Figure 1. It consists of 3 voltage sources and 5 resistors (each with a value of 1 k = 1000 ). There are three meshes complete electrical loops that are not contained within any other loop. The mesh currents are i1, i2 and i3; each mesh current travels around its own mesh. The current in an electrical branch shared by two meshes is equal to the difference of the two mesh currents; i.e., the current through the 10 V source is i1 i2. The goal is to determine the mesh currents. Kirchoffs Voltage Law Kirchoffs Voltage Law (KVL) states that the algebraic sum of the voltage drops around a closed loop is zero. Standard engineering convention is that a voltage drop across a resistor is positive in the direction of current flow. The voltage drop across a resistor is given by Ohms Law:

Applying KVL to each of the 3 loops:

12 + 1000i1 + 1000(i1 i2 ) + 10 = 0 10 + 1000(i2 i1 ) + 1000i2 + 1000(i2 i3 ) = 0 1000(i3 i2 ) + 1000i3 12 = 0

These equations can be rearranged:

2000i1 1000i2 = 2 1000i1 + 3000i2 1000i3 = 10 1000i2 + 2000i3 = 12

or:

2 1 0 i1 2 1000 1 3 1 i2 = 10 0 1 2 i3 12
In matrix notation, the system of equations can be written in general as: Ri = V R is the resistive matrix, i is the current vector, and V is the voltage vector. The mesh currents are solved: i = R1V

v = iR
The sign of the voltage drop across a voltage source is: - negative if current enters the negative terminal of the voltage source, and - positive if it enters the positive terminal.

Exercise 1 (Figure 1): Using MATLAB, solve for the mesh currents i1, i2 and i3. The units of the currents will be in amperes (amps), A. Exercise 2 (Figure 2): a. Generate a system of linear equations for the circuit shown in Figure 2. b. Using MATLAB, solve for the mesh currents i1, i2, i3.and i4. The units of the currents will be in amps, A.

Figure 1. From Alexander and Sadiku, 2nd ed., Chapter 3, Problem 54, Figure 3.96.

Figure 2. From Alexander and Sadiku, 2nd ed. Chapter 3, Problem 73, Figure 3.114.

Solution to: Exercise 1: Mesh current i1 i2 i3 Value (A)

Solution to: Exercise 2: Mesh current i1 i2 i3 i4 Value (A)