Georgia Southern University Mechanical and Electrical Engineering

TEET 2143 Circuit Analysis I Lab 4 - Non-Planar circuit Topological Characteristics

Team members: Daniel Lanford Andrew Gardener

Date of experiment: February 22, 2011 Submission Date: March 1, 2011

Introduction The purpose of this lab is to demonstrate the difference between and behavior of planar circuits and non-planar circuits and to experiment whether non-planar circuits behave in the same manner as planar circuits. A planar circuit is a circuit in which no branch crosses over another node. In contrast, a non-planar circuit is a circuit in which, no matter how it is drawn or constructed, one or more branches cross over another. In a circuit, when a branch crosses over another branch, it is said to have non-planar topology. Some circuits can be drawn where they appear to have non-planar topology; however if the paths can be drawn to where they do not cross, it is a planar circuit. In this lab, the non-planar circuit in Figure 1 was constructed. All nodes, branches and loops were noted. The voltage and current was measured of each node, branch and loop. The equivalent resistance and total current was also calculated. There were 6 total nodes, 9 branches and 4 loops in the circuit. The equivalent resistance as seen by the voltage source was 1.2622 k. Equipment and Materials used: - Variable voltage source - conductors - breadboard - 1k resistor (8) - DMM - Multisim software (v. 10.1) Figure 1 - Non-Planar Circuit

Theory The current and voltage distribution in a non-planar circuit obeys the same two laws as any planar circuit; Kirchhoffs Current Law (KCL) and Kirchhoffs Voltage Law (KVL). KCL states, the total current entering a node must equal the current leaving the node; algebraically this equals Iin = Iout This idea can also be expanded to encompass an entire non-planar circuit; the current entering the circuit must equal the current leaving the circuit. Due to KCL, defining current loops within a circuit helps to understand the current direction between several nodes. Also KVL states that, the voltage across any number of branches in a series circuit must equal the voltage supplied to the circuit; mathematically this equates to

V1 +V2 +...+Vn = 0 where Vn is the voltage drops of nth number of branches in the loop. This implication gives rise to the fact that the voltage at any node is the difference between the supplied voltage of a branch and the voltage across a branch that is connected to the positive side of the node. This can be verified by using a volt meter to measure the voltage across a node to the ground node. The ground node, also known as the reference node, is generally the connection to the negative side of the voltage source.

Procedure In this lab, a non-planar circuit was analyzed. First, the total number of nodes, branches and loops in the circuit shown in Figure 1 was counted. Six nodes, nine branches, and 4 loops were found and labeled as shown in Figure 2. Node F was denoted as the reference node for the circuit. The circuit was then built in Multisim, and the equivalent resistance was found to be 1.25 k. The voltage at each node with respect to the reference node, the current in each branch, and the current in each loop were then calculated in Multisim. The simulated results are found in Figures 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

Figure 2 - Labeled nodes, branches and loops

Figure 3 - Voltage at each node with respect to node F

Figure 4 - Current in each branch

Figure 5 - Current in each loop

The non-planar circuit shown in Figure 1 was then built in the lab. The equivalent resistance as seen by the voltage source was measured as 1.2622 k. The voltages at each node with respect to the reference node (node F) was also calculated. The results are shown in Table 1. The current in each branch was then measured. The data is recorded in Table 2. The current in each loop was then measured. The results are found in Table 3. Va 11.974 V Vb 7.209 V Vc 7.252 V Vd 4.837 V Ve 4.813 V Vf 0.045 V

Table 1 - Measured Node Voltages

J1
4.63mA

J2
4.62mA

J3
2.31mA

J4
2.32mA

J5
2.28mA

J6
-2.23mA

J7
4.66mA

J8
4.92mA

J9
9.50mA

Table 2 - Measured Branch Currents Loop 1 4.66 mA Loop 2 4.63 mA Loop 3 2.36 mA Loop 4 4.62 mA

Table 3 - Measured Loop Currents

Conclusion The difference between planar and non-planar circuits is clear in the visual representation through a schematic. In a planar circuit no branches cross one another to connect to their respective node. In contrast, a non-planar circuit cannot be presented without branches crossing each other in route to their nodes. Other than the differences in the design of the wiring diagram, in a planar or non-planar circuit, electricity follows the path with least resistance. For instance, the current direction in branch six is opposite to all other branches within the circuit. This is due to the fact that there is less resistance between nodes D and F than nodes C and F. This is also substantiated by the voltage amount found in nodes D and C when referenced to node F. The voltage drop amount is approximately 2.4144 volts higher in node C then D; this indicates that the resistance is higher between node c to f than it is to node D to F. The same conclusion is drawn from the simulated Multisim circuit, where the voltage drop in node C is 2.4 volts higher than node D .The slight difference in the two values stems from the five percent variance from the stated resistor rating and the fact that Multisim uses perfect components by default. Another reason for the discrepancies between the recorded values of the lab versus the simulated values is because Multisim uses ideal conductors that have extremely low resistance values and perfect connections between branches, where as the actual circuit built in the lab has higher resistance due to non-ideal connections within the nodes and higher resistance in the conductors. This is confirmed by the equivalent resistance of the Multisim circuit value 1.25K versus the equivalent resistance of the lab-built circuit which is 1.2623K. Even with small differences between the two sets of data, there is a very high correlation that shows current takes the least resistive path to ground.