Summary # 4 [by M.T.Ghorab ] EES512.

F09, Sections (01,02 ,03&04)

Thevenin’s Equivalent Circuit

Consider the circuit (A) shown below. It may consisting of any interconnections
among various sources and resistors . The circuit is connected at the terminals a &b to a
variable resistive load RL . We now wish to find the values of v, i , and power transferred
to RL for various numerical-values of RL . Clearly, the traditional circuit-analysis
approach would require an excessive amount of time to solve such problem!!!
Alternatively, we may easily solve the problem by exploiting the circuit-equivalence
concept : two physically different circuits are said to be equivalent at a specific pair of
terminals if they have identical v-i characteristics at these terminals.
Let us now replace circuit (A) with an abstract circuit (B) consisting of only two
elements:VTH and RTH ; the element’s values are selected such that circuit (B) would
yield an identical v-i characteristics as shown. Notice that the abstract circuit together
with RL now form a simple series circuit, and as a result, the values of v, i , and the
power absorbed by RL can be easily determined. Such an abstract circuit is called the
Thevenin’s equivalent circuit for circuit (A) as felt by any load connected to the
terminals a&b.

The values of VTH and RTH can now be determined from the identical i-v characteristics,
based on the following observations:
1) VTH = the open-circuit (RL= ∞ Ω) voltage VOC of circuit(A), and
2) VTH / RTH = the short-circuit (RL= 0 Ω) current ISC of circuit (A);
thus, RTH = VOC / ISC

Example#1: The voltage and the current (at the terminals a&b) of circuit (A) were
measured for two different values of RL ; these values are given in the table below.
1) Determine the values of VTH and RTH for the Thevenin’s equivalent circuit.
2) Find the values for v , i , and P20Ω when RL = 20 Ω.

v (V) i (A)
20 2
10 4
Solution: 1) From the first set of measurements, we have :VTH = 2RTH + 20 , and from
the second set of measurements, we get: VTH = 4RTH + 10 . Solving these equations,
yields: RTH = 5 Ω and VTH = 30 V

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 i = VTH / [ RTH + RL ] , v = VTH . RL / [ RTH + RL ] & PRL = {VTH / [ RTH + RL ] }2 RL

Example #2: a) Find the Thevenin’s equivalent circuit with respect to the terminals a&b
in the circuit shown, and b) Determine the values for the voltage across , the current
through, and the power dissipated in the load resistance RL , for each of the following
values of RL : 0 Ω (s.c.) , 3Ω , 6 Ω ,12 Ω, 18 Ω, 24 Ω , 30 Ω, and ∞ Ω (o.c.)

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 RL (Ω) i (A) v (V) PRL (W)
0 (s.c.) 12 0 0
3 8 24 192
6 6 36 216
12 4 48 192
18 3 54 162
24 2.4 57.6 138.24
30 2 60 120
∞ (o.c.) 0 72 0
Notice that the power absorbed by the load resistance is maximum when RL = RTH .
Practice Problems:

Assignment problems:

Find the Thevenin’s equivalent circuit (at the terminals a&b) for each of the circuits
shown. Determine the values of PRL when the value of RL = RTH ,
RL = 2RTH , and RL = 0.5 RTH , for each circuit.

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