Electronic – How to solve for node voltages using mesh analysis

circuit analysiskirchhoffs-lawsmesh

I am given the following circuit to analyze:
enter image description here

The problem asks me to solve for the unknown currents and then find the node voltages at N1 and N2.
Here are the mesh equations I came up with:
$$Mesh1$$
$$24000i_1-20000i_2-4000i_3=20$$
$$Mesh2$$
$$-20000i_1+22200i_2-200i_3=0$$
$$Mesh3$$
$$-4000i_1-200i_2+610i_3=0$$

Solving for the system of equations, I get the following:
Wolfram alpha solution of mesh equations

The thing I'm stuck with now is calculating the node voltages N1 and N2. Do I calculate the individual voltage drops on the resistors first?

Best Answer

It's often best to redraw the schematic. Sometimes, this works well in your favor. This is an unbalanced wheatstone bridge:

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

This would be very easy with nodal. But you want mesh. So:

$$\begin{align*} 20\:\text{V}-\left(I_1+I_3\right)\cdot R_8-\left(I_1+I_2\right)\cdot R_7-I_1\cdot R_6&=20\:\text{V}\\\\ 0\:\text{V}-\left(I_2-I_3\right)\cdot R_9-\left(I_1+I_2\right)\cdot R_7-I_2\cdot R_{10}&=0\:\text{V}\\\\ 20\:\text{V}-\left(I_1+I_3\right)\cdot R_8-\left(I_3-I_2\right)\cdot R_9&=0\:\text{V} \end{align*}$$

You should be able to solve for \$I_1\$, \$I_2\$, and \$I_3\$ with ease.

Once you have the currents, it's very easy to solve for \$V_x\$ and \$V_y\$. For example, \$V_x=20\:\text{V}-\left(I_1+I_3\right)\cdot R_8\$.


Should you have wanted nodal, then it would be these:

$$\begin{align*} \frac{V_x}{R_7}+\frac{V_x}{R_8}+\frac{V_x}{R_9}&=\frac{V_y}{R_7}+\frac{20\:\text{V}}{R_8}+\frac{0\:\text{V}}{R_9}\\\\ \frac{V_y}{R_6}+\frac{V_y}{R_7}+\frac{V_y}{R_{10}}&=\frac{20\:\text{V}}{R_6}+\frac{V_x}{R_7}+\frac{0\:\text{V}}{R_{10}} \end{align*}$$

Here, you'd solve for just two voltages. And from there, you could get the currents if you wanted them.

Either way works.