Department of Electrical Engineering

Faculty Member: ____________________ Dated: 16-11-23

Semester: __________1________________ Section: BEE-15D

EE-111: Linear Circuit Analysis

Lab 8: Norton’s Equivalent Circuit

PLO4/CLO5 PLO5/CLO6 PLO8/CLO7 PLO9/CLO8

Name Reg. No Viva /Quiz / Analysis Modern Ethics and Safety Individual and
Lab of data in Tool Usage Teamwork
Performance Lab 5 marks
Report 5 marks 5 marks
5 marks
5 marks

Taha 454573
Mahmood
Shameer
Adnan Rana
Shamel
Mujtaba

EE-111: Linear Circuit Analysis Page 1

Lab 8: Norton’s Equivalent Circuit

Introduction
This laboratory experiment will help the students to verify the concept of Norton Equivalent circuit
for a given resistive circuit.

Objectives
1. Determine the value of the Norton’s current IN and the Norton resistance RN in a
DC circuit.
2. Experimentally verify the Norton’s theorem.

Conduct of Lab

The students are required to work in groups of three to four; each student must attempt to
understand and use the laboratoy set-up and conduct at least one or two parts of the requirement
experimentation. The lab engineer will be available to assit the students.
In case some aspect of the lab experiment is not understood the students are advised to seek help
from the teacher or the assigned Lab Engineer.

Lab Equipment
The following equipment would be used in this experiment:
 Breadboard
 Multimeter
 The Power Supply
 Circuit components

Overview:
Norton’s theorem states that any linear two-terminal circuit can be replaced by an
equivalent circuit consisting of a current source IN in parallel with a resistance RN where

 IN is the short-circuit current flowing through the terminals, and

 RN is the equivalent resistance seen thru the terminals provided that all the
independent sources are turned off. RN is exactly the same as RTH.

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 Please note that the Thévenin and Norton equivalent circuits are related by a source
transformation.

Finding IN: Determine the short circuit current ISC flowing through the load terminals. This
is known as the Norton current IN.

IN = ISC (short-circuit current) (9.1)

ISC
a
Circuit A Ammeter
b

Finding RN: Remove all sources from the circuit, i.e. replace all voltage sources with a
short circuit and current sources with an open-circuit. Then with the help of a multi-meter
find the resistance between the points ‘a’ and ‘b’, denoted by Req.

RN = Req (9.2)

a
Turn-off all
Req
the sources
b

Please note that RN is exactly the same as RTH and can be determined through many ways as
discussed in the last experiment [Thevenin’s Theorem].
Lab Exercise:

Safety Precautions

 Look at each exercise carefully before connecting the circuits.

 Make sure all power is off before connecting or disconnecting components..
 When measuring voltage or current, make sure the DMM is correctly set for what

EE-111: Linear Circuit Analysis Page 3

 you need to measure.

1. Find the Norton equivalent circuit of the circuit shown in Fig. 9.1. Draw the Norton
equivalent circuit in the space provided in Fig. 9.2. Record the calculated values in
Table 9.1.

2. Calculate the current IL flowing through the load resistance RL and record the value in
Table 9.1.

3. Connect on breadboard the given circuit (Fig. 9.1). The aim is to measure the Norton
current IN, Norton resistance RN, and the amount of current flowing through the load
resistance RL, denoted by IL.

4. Measure the current IL flowing through the load resistance RL and record value in Table
9.1.
680Ω

200Ω
680Ω

Figure 9.1: Example circuit to test the validity of the Norton’s theorem

EE-111: Linear Circuit Analysis Page 4

 (a). RL = 680Ω (b). RL = 1000Ω
Figure 9.2: Norton’s equivalent circuit of the circuit shown in Fig. 9.1

Follow the following procedure to validate the Norton’s theorem.

Finding IN:

1. Short-circuit the load terminals ‘a’ and ‘b’.

2. Use ammeter to measure the current flowing through the short-circuited load terminals.
This is the required Norton current IN. Record the ammeter reading in Table 9.1.
680Ω

200Ω

Figure 9.3: Finding IN

Finding RN:

1. Turn off all the independent sources. Replace the voltage sources with short-circuits
and current sources with open-circuits. Then using an ohmmeter find the equivalent
resistance between load points ‘a’ and ‘b’. This is RN.
680Ω

200Ω

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 Figure 9.4: Finding RN

Finding IL through the Norton equivalent circuit:

1. Calculate the current flowing through the load resistance RL shown in Fig. 9.2. This
must coincide with the current values determined in step 2 and 4 of the lab exercise
[Page 2].

Repeat the whole experiment for RL = 1kΩ. Comment on the results.

RL RN (Ω) IN (A) IL (A)

(Ω) Calc. Meas. Calc. Meas. original equivalent

circuit circuit
1.23k 1.23k 3.709m 3.3294m 2.67m 2.3m
680

1.23k 1.23k 3.709m 3.3294m 1.885 1.9067m

1000

Table 9.1: Data to test the validity of the Norton’s theorem

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 Calculations:

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