The electrical devices are built with
the help of the linear and nonlinear components. To understand the basic
design of these devices, the fundamental understanding of linear
circuit and non-linear circuit are necessary. In this article, we are
discussing what is a linear and non-linear circuits with its
differences, elements of the linear & nonlinear circuit and some of
the examples are explained.
What are Linear and Non-linear Circuits?
Simply we can say that the linear circuit is an electric circuit
and the parameters of this circuit are resistance, capacitance,
inductance and etc are constant. Or we can say the parameters of the
circuits are not changed with respect to the voltage and current is
called the linear circuit.
The non-linear circuit is also an
electric circuit and the parameters of this circuit differ with respect
to the current and the voltage. Or in the electric circuit, the
parameters like waveforms, resistance, inductance and etc are not
constant is called as Non- linear circuit.
Difference Between the Linear and Non-Linear circuit
Generally, the word linear means a
straight line which looks like diagonal and it tells about linear
characteristics in between voltage and current. i.e the current flow in
the circuit is directly proportional to the voltage. If there is an
increase in the voltage then the current flow in the circuit also
increases and vice versa. The output characteristics of the linear
circuit are between current and voltage of the figure is shown below.
In a linear circuit, the response of the
output is directly proportional to the input. In the circuit, the
applied sinusoidal having the frequency “f” and the output means the
voltage between the two points is also having the sinusoidal frequency
“f”.
In the non-linear circuit, the output
characteristic is like a curve line which in between the voltage and
current as shown in the following figure.
The other difference between the linear
and nonlinear circuit is solving the circuit. In the linear circuits,
the solving of the circuit is a simple by using a simple technique,
using a calculator to solve and by comparing with the non-linear circuit
the linear circuit is easy to solve
The solving of the non-linear circuits
is complex than the linear circuit and there is a lot of data,
information is required to solve the nonlinear circuits. Due to a lot of
change in the technology, we can simulate and analyze the output curves
of linear and nonlinear circuits with the help of the circuit
simulation tools like Multisim, Matlab, and PSpice.
By using the equations of the linear and
nonlinear we can find the difference between the linear circuit and
nonlinear circuit. The equations are following.
Y = x + 2
Y = x2
The graph representation of the above
two equations is shown in the following diagram. If any of the equation
is a straight line represented in the graph, then it is a linear. If the
equation is a curved line, then it is nonlinear.
The piecewise linear is represented by
the following equation and the x-y axis graph of the piecewise linear is
also shown below. This equation is said to be as a nonlinear because we
can’t write the equation as following.
Y = ax + b
Elements of Linear and Non-Linear Circuit
In the non-linear circuit, the
non-linear elements are an electrical element and it will not have any
linear relationship between the current & voltage. The example of
the nonlinear element is a diode and some of the nonlinear elements are
not there in the electric circuit is called a linear circuit. Some other
examples of the non-linear elements are transistors, vacuum tubes,
other semiconductor devices, iron core inductors, and transformers.
If there is a presence of linear curves in the nonlinear curves, then it is called as the piece-wise-linear.
In the linear circuits, the linear
element is also an electrical element and there will be a linear
relationship between the voltage and current. The examples of the linear
elements are resistor is the most common element, capacitor, and air core inductors.
Examples of Linear circuits of Linear Elements
The examples of linear circuits are
resistance and resistive circuit, inductor and inductive circuit and
capacitor and capacitive circuit.
Examples of Non-Linear Circuits of Nonlinear Elements
Some of the examples of nonlinear circuit of nonlinear elements are diode, transformer, iron core, inductor, transistor,
Applications of the Linear and Non-Linear circuits
- The linear and nonlinear circuits are used in the electrical circuits
- By using these circuit we can find voltage drop and current
This article will give the information
about what are linear and nonlinear circuits and their differences. I
hope by reading this topic you have gained some basic knowledge about
the linear and nonlinear circuits. If you have any queries regarding
this article or to implement electrical projects for engineering students, please feel free to comment in the below section. Here is the question for you, what are the linear and nonlinear circuits?
No comments:
Post a Comment