Electronic – How to find currents in a mesh system with only current sources

circuit analysiscurrent

Could someone please give me a rundown of how to find the currents in this problem? There are only current sources available and I am not sure how to find the branch currents.

There are answers given in the textbook but no information on how to get there.

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Many thanks in advance

Best Answer

This is an approach I would take, which might not be the most efficient one and might not work for every circuit:

You already realized that all the current sources are in parallel and can be combined to a single one with 30 A. So the circuit looks like this:

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

Now I combine all of the resistors into a single equivalent one. I guess you know enough to do this, so here is the end result:

schematic

simulate this circuit

The equivalent resistance of all those resistors is 8 ohm. Now I can replace the current source by a voltage source of 240 V without changing the current in the circuit.

schematic

simulate this circuit

Just solving for the magnitudes:

I1 = 10 A (240 V / 24 ohm)

I2 = 8 A (240 V / (24 ohm + (24 ohm || 8 ohm)))

I3 = 6 A ((240 V - 8 A * 24 Ohm) / 8 ohm)

I4 = 2 A (8 A - 6 A)

I5 = 12 A (240 V / 20 ohm)

Be careful of course with the direction of the currents for a correct answer. The way they are drawn defines the sign convention for that current.