Superposition, Thevenin /

Norton Equivalents,
Maximum Power Transfer
Circuits 1
Fall 2005
Harding University
Jonathan White

Outline Ch. 4
Superposition
Method of analyzing a circuit by turning off all sources but 1 and
then finding their contributions individually. End by summing up
all the contributions.

Thevenin Equivalent Circuits

A circuit at a given 2 terminals can be replaced by a voltage
source with a resistor in series.

Norton Equivalent Circuits

A circuit at a given 2 terminals can also be replaced with a
current source and a parallel resistor.

Maximum Power Transfer

When you have a load, when does it receive the maximum
power? Weve already answered this in lab.

Superposition
Resistors are linear elements, meaning that the
output is linearly related to the input.
Voltages around a loop can simply be added up no
non linear math is required.

Instead of analyzing circuits like we did in Ch. 2

and Ch. 3, we can analyze them using
Superposition.

Definition: The voltage across (or current through) a

resistor is the algebraic sum of all the contributions
due to each source acting alone.
So, another way to analyze a circuit is to find the
contribution of each source individually and them add
them up at the end to get the total.

Superposition 2
We only consider 1 independent source at
a time when we use superposition. This
means that we:
Replace voltage sources with a wire (0 V).
Replace current sources with an open circuit
(no current can flow).

Dependent sources are left intact since

they are controlled by circuit variables.

Superposition 3
To solve a circuit using superposition:
Turn off all independent sources but 1. Use
the techniques of Ch. 2 and Ch. 3 to solve for
the desired voltage or current.
Repeat for each independent source.
Find the total voltage or contribution by taking
the algebraic sum.

Superposition Exp. 1
Find the voltage over the 2 Ohm resistor using superposition.

Superposition Exp. 2
Find the voltage over the 5 ohm resistor using superposition.

+V -

Equivalent Circuits
A model of the real thing.
Used to capture only the necessary details
of a potentially complex circuit.
Examples of various models:
Battery
OSI network layer
Function calls
You (as a user), dont really care how the function
operates, just that it does.

Thevenin Equivalent Circuits

Consists of a voltage source and a resistor
in series.
Used to provide a black box picture from the
view of a load. The load, looking back in to
the circuit, only wants to know the voltage and
current that is provided to it.

Finding a TEC
Steps:
Find the open circuit voltage disconnect the load
from the circuit and calculate the voltage looking in to
the circuit.
Find the open circuit equivalent resistance looking
back in to the circuit
Remove all independent current sources
Replace all independent voltage sources with wires.
Rth is then that equivalent resistance and Vth is just
the voltage that you found.

TEC Example - 1
Find the Thevenin Equivalent Circuit:

TEC Example - 2
Find the Thevenin Equivalent Circuit:

Norton Equivalent Circuits

Consists of a current source with a resistor

in parallel.
Electrically equivalent to the Thevenin
model
Rth is the same
In is equal to Vth / Rth
When finding Norton equivalents, I often
recommend just finding the Thevenin
equivalent and then just switch at the end.

Norton Example
Find the Norton Equiv. Circuit

Source Transformations
Like the Wye-Delta transformation, we can transform a voltage
source with a resistor in series into a current source with a resistor in
parallel without changing the rest of the circuit and vice versa.
Like superposition, however, this is often more work than just
using mesh currents to solve the problem.

Source Transformation Exp.

Find i0 and the voltage over the 3 ohm resistor
using source transformations.

i0
+
V
-

Maximum Power Transfer

When does the load receive maximum
power? see notes
When RL = Rth

Maximum Power Example

Find the RL that achieves maximum power
transfer. Find the power it absorbs. Note:
You must find Vth to calculate the power.