Revisiting the nodal voltage method for both human comprehension and software implementation: Towards a teaching/self‐learning simulation tool

Abstract

AbstractThis paper outlines an application—dubbed U=RIsolve (read as “you resolve”)—for helping students to learn the Nodal (or Node) Voltage Analysis method (NVM, for short) for electrical circuit analysis. The NVM enables determining the voltage in every Node in the circuit, related to a reference (Ground) Node. In turn, this enables to compute the current in every Branch (and therefore, the voltage across every component). The U = RIsolve application goes far beyond the capabilities of traditional circuit simulators; as it outputs the fundamental circuit information, the methodology, the equations, and the results related to the NVM for a given circuit previously simulated in Quite Universal Circuit Simulator (QUCS). QUCS can generate a text file (called netlist) that identifies all the circuit components/connections and that serves as an input to the U = RIsolve application. Additionally, users can also upload the circuit schematics to facilitate the analysis of the U = RIsolve output. Then, the user just needs to click a button to get all the reasoning of the NVM analysis.