Two-point resistance of an m × n resistor network with an arbitrary boundary and its application in RLC network**Project supported by the Prophase Preparatory Project of Natural Science Foundation of Nantong University, China (Grant No. 15ZY16).

Abstract

A rectangular m × n resistor network with an arbitrary boundary is investigated, and a general resistance formula between two nodes on an arbitrary axis is derived by the Recursion-Transform (RT) method, a problem that has never been resolved before, for the Green’s function technique and the Laplacian matrix approach are inapplicable to it. To have the exact solution of resistance is important but it is difficult to obtain under the condition of arbitrary boundary. Our result is directly expressed in a single summation and mainly composed of characteristic roots, which contain both finite and infinite cases. Further, the current distribution is given explicitly as a byproduct of the method. Our framework can be effectively applied to RLC networks. As an application to the LC network, we find that our formulation leads to the occurrence of resonances at h1 = 1 − cos ϕi − sin ϕi cot nϕi. This somewhat curious result suggests the possibility of practical applications of our formulae to resonant circuits.