INDIVIDUAL ASSIGMENT

SUBJECT ELECTRONIC

Kirchoffs Laws, Voltage Diveder, Current Diveder, and Wheatstone Bridge

CREATED BY:

NUR FAKHRUNNISAA NIM. 1129040135

INFORMATICS AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING EDUCATION 04

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT ENGINEERING FACULTY STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR 2012

Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws

Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the conservation of charge and energy in electrical circuits, and were first described in 1845 by Gustav Kirchhoff. Widely used in electrical engineering, they are also called Kirchhoff's rules or simply Kirchhoff's laws (see also Kirchhoff's laws for other meanings of that term). This law is also called Kirchhoff's first law, Kirchhoff's point rule, Kirchhoff's junction rule (or nodal rule), and Kirchhoff's first rule. The principle of conservation of electric charge implies that: At any node (junction) in an electrical circuit, the sum of currents flowing into that node is equal to the sum of currents flowing out of that node, or: The algebraic sum of currents in a network of conductors meeting at a point is zero Recalling that current is a signed (positive or negative) quantity reflecting direction towards or away from a node, this principle can be stated as:

n is the total number of branches with currents flowing towards or away from the node. This formula is valid for complex currents:

The law is based on the conservation of charge whereby the charge (measured in coulombs) is the product of the current (in amperes) and the time (in seconds).

Kirchhoff's Voltage Law (KVL)

The sum of all the voltages around the loop is equal to zero. v1 + v2 + v3 - v4 = 0 This law is also called Kirchhoff's second law, Kirchhoff's loop (or mesh) rule, and Kirchhoff's second rule. The principle of conservation of energy implies that The directed sum of the electrical potential differences (voltage) around any closed circuit is zero, or: More simply, the sum of the emfs in any closed loop is equivalent to the sum of the potential drops in that loop, or: The algebraic sum of the products of the resistances of the conductors and the currents in them in a closed loop is equal to the total emf available in that loop. Similarly to KCL, it can be stated as:

Here, n is the total number of voltages measured. The voltages may also be complex:

This law is based on the conservation of energy whereby voltage is defined as the energy per unit charge. The total amount of energy gained per unit charge must equal the amount of energy lost per unit charge, the effects of induced emf notwithstanding. The conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another. However, if energy is being imparted to the circuit by way of a changing magnetic flux, the induced voltage will not be accounted for by KVL, and a circuit solution based on KVL will not be possible.

Voltage Divider
In electronics, a voltage divider (also known as a potential divider) is a linear circuit that produces an output voltage (Vout) that is a fraction of its input voltage (Vin). Voltage division refers to the partitioning of a voltage among the components of the divider. An example of a voltage divider consists of two resistors in series or a potentiometer. It is commonly used to create a reference voltage, or to get a low voltage signal proportional to the voltage to be measured, and may also be used as a signal attenuator at low frequencies. For direct current and relatively low frequencies, a voltage divider may be sufficiently accurate if made only of resistors; where frequency response over a wide range is required, (such as in an oscilloscope probe), the voltage divider may have capacitive elements added to allow compensation for load capacitance. In electric power transmission, a capacitive voltage divider is used for measurement of high voltage.

General Case
A voltage divider referenced to ground is created by connecting two electrical impedances in series, as shown in Figure 1. The input voltage is applied across the series impedances Z1 and Z2 and the output is the voltage across Z2. Z1 and Z2 may be composed of any combination of elements such as resistors, inductors and capacitors. Applying Ohm's Law, the relationship between the input voltage, Vin, and the output voltage, Vout, can be found:

Proof:

The transfer function (also known as the divider's voltage ratio) of this circuit is simply:

In general this transfer function is a complex, rational function of frequency.

Resistive Divider

Figure 2: Simple resistive voltage divider A resistive divider is a special case where both impedances, Z1 and Z2, are purely resistive (Figure 2). Substituting Z1 = R1 and Z2 = R2 into the previous expression gives:

As in the general case, R1 and R2 may be any combination of series/parallel resistors. also can be define The voltage across the resistive elements will divide as the magnitude of the resistance levels. The more resistance the more voltage will be obtained. Vx=(Rx/RT)*E where Vx = voltage drop across resistance, Rx= Resistance where voltage will be measured, RT= Total Resistance, E= Input voltage or supply voltage. This rule generally apply for the series circuit.

Resistive Divider
As a simple example, if R1 = R2 then

As a more specific and/or practical example, if Vout=6V and Vin=9V (both commonly used voltages), then:

and by solving using algebra, R2 must be twice the value of R1. To solve for R1:

To solve for R2:

Any ratio between 0 and 1 is possible. That is, using resistors alone it is not possible to either invert the voltage or increase Vout above Vin.

Current Divider

Figure 1: Schematic of an electrical circuit illustrating current division. Notation RT. refers to the total resistance of the circuit to the right of resistor RX. In electronics, a current divider is a simple linear circuit that produces an output current (IX) that is a fraction of its input current (IT). Current division refers to the splitting of current between the branches of the divider. The currents in the various branches of such a circuit will always divide in such a way as to minimize the total energy expended. The formula describing a current divider is similar in form to that for the voltage divider. However, the ratio describing current division places the impedance of the unconsidered branches in the numerator, unlike voltage division where the considered impedance is in the numerator. This is because in current dividers, total energy expended is minimized, resulting in currents that go through paths of least impedance, therefore the inverse relationship with impedance. On the other hand, voltage divider is used to satisfy Kirchoff's Voltage Law. The voltage around a loop must sum up to zero, so the voltage drops must be divided evenly in a direct relationship with the impedance. To be specific, if two or more impedances are in parallel, the current that enters the combination will be split between them in inverse proportion to their impedances (according to Ohm's law). It also follows that if the impedances have the same value the current is split equally.

Resistive Divider
A general formula for the current IX in a resistor RX that is in parallel with a combination of other resistors of total resistance RT is (see Figure 1):

where IT is the total current entering the combined network of RX in parallel with RT. Notice that when RT is composed of a parallel combination of resistors, say R1, R2, ... etc., then the reciprocal of each resistor must be added to find the total resistance RT:

General Case
Although the resistive divider is most common, the current divider may be made of frequency dependent impedances. In the general case the current IX is given by:

Using Admittance
Instead of using impedances, the current divider rule can be applied just like the voltage divider rule if admittance (the inverse of impedance) is used.

Take care to note that YTotal is a straightforward addition, not the sum of the inverses inverted (as you would do for a standard parallel resistive network). For Figure 1, the current IX would be

Loading Effect

Figure 3: A current amplifier (gray box) driven by a Norton source (iS, RS) and with a resistor load RL. Current divider in blue box at input (RS,Rin) reduces the current gain, as does the current divider in green box at the output (Rout,RL)

The gain of an amplifier generally depends on its source and load terminations. Current amplifiers and transconductance amplifiers are characterized by a short-circuit output condition, and current amplifiers and transresistance amplifiers are characterized using ideal infinite impedance current sources. When an amplifier is terminated by a finite, non-zero termination, and/or driven by a non-ideal source, the effective gain is reduced due to the loading effect at the output and/or the input, which can be understood in terms of current division. Figure 3 shows a current amplifier example. The amplifier (gray box) has input resistance Rin and output resistance Rout and an ideal current gain Ai. With an ideal current driver (infinite Norton resistance) all the source current iS becomes input current to the amplifier. However, for a Norton driver a current divider is formed at the input that reduces the input current to

which clearly is less than iS. Likewise, for a short circuit at the output, the amplifier delivers an output current io = Ai ii to the short-circuit. However, when the load is a non-zero resistor RL, the current delivered to the load is reduced by current division to the value:

Combining these results, the ideal current gain Ai realized with an ideal driver and a short-circuit load is reduced to the loaded gain Aloaded:

The resistor ratios in the above expression are called the loading factors. For more discussion of loading in other amplifier types, see loading effect.

Wheatstone Bridge
A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. Its operation is similar to the original potentiometer. It was invented by Samuel Hunter Christie in 1833 and improved and popularized by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1843. One of the Wheatstone bridge's initial uses was for the purpose of soils analysis and comparison. [1]

Operation
In the figure, is the unknown resistance to be measured; , and are resistors of

known resistance and the resistance of known leg

is adjustable. If the ratio of the two resistances in the , then the

is equal to the ratio of the two in the unknown leg

voltage between the two midpoints (B and D) will be zero and no current will flow through the galvanometer . If the bridge is unbalanced, the direction of the current indicates whether is

too high or too low. reads zero.

is varied until there is no current through the galvanometer, which then

Detecting zero current with a galvanometer can be done to extremely high accuracy. Therefore, if , and are known to high precision, then can be measured to high precision. Very

small changes in

disrupt the balance and are readily detected.

At the point of balance, the ratio of Therefore, Alternatively, if , , and are known, but is not adjustable, the voltage difference , using

across or current flow through the meter can be used to calculate the value of

Kirchhoff's circuit laws (also known as Kirchhoff's rules). This setup is frequently used in strain gauge and resistance thermometer measurements, as it is usually faster to read a voltage level off a meter than to adjust a resistance to zero the voltage.

Derivation
First, Kirchhoff's first rule is used to find the currents in junctions B and D:

Then, Kirchhoff's second rule is used for finding the voltage in the loops ABD and BCD:

The bridge is balanced and

, so the second set of equations can be rewritten as:

Then, the equations are divided and rearranged, giving:

From the first rule, as:

and

. The desired value of

is now known to be given

If all four resistor values and the supply voltage ( galvanometer is high enough that

) are known, and the resistance of the ) can be

is negligible, the voltage across the bridge (

found by working out the voltage from each potential divider and subtracting one from the other. The equation for this is:

This can be simplified to:

where

is the voltage of node B relative to node D