Limitations of Ohm’s Law, KCL & KVL

Ohms law limitations

1. This law is valid to conductors only at constant temperature. The resistance of a
conductor increases with the increase in its temperature. Hence, the V-I graph for a
conductor would not be a straight line.

2. Insulators do not conduct electricity at all, so the Ohm's law is not applicable to the
insulators in some cases.

3. Ohm's law is also not applicable for the semiconductors, as the material begins to
conduct at certain voltage which will give a steep rise to V-I graph and make it non-linear.

4. This law is not applicable to the unilateral networks (has elements such as diode or
transistors etc; which do not have same voltage current.

KCL Limitations
1. KCL depend on the the lumped element model being applicable to the circuit in
question. When the model is not applicable the law don't apply.

2. KCL in its usual form is dependent on the assumption that current flows only in
conductors and that whenever current flows into one end of a conductor it immediately out
the other end. This is not a safe assumption for high frequency AC circuits, where the
lumped element model is no longer applicable. It is often possible to improve the
applicability of KCL by considering "parasitic capacitances" distributed along the conductors.
Significant violations of KCL can occur even at 60 Hz, which is not a very high frequency.

3. In other words, KCL is valid only if the total electric charge, Q, remains constant in the
region being considered. In practical cases this is always so when KCL is applied at a
geometric point. When investigating a finite region, howoever, it is possible that the charge
density within the region may change. Since charge is conserved, this can only come about
by a flow of charge across the region boundary. This floor represents a net current, and KCL
is violated.
KVL Limitations
1. KVL depend on the the lumped element model being applicable to the circuit in question.
When the model is not applicable the law don't apply.

2. KVL is based on the assumption that there is no fluctuating magnetic field linking the
closed loop. This is not a safe assumption for high frequency (short wavelength) AC circuits. In
the presence of a changing magnetic field the electric field is not a conservative vector field.
Therefore the electric field can't be the gradient of any potential. That is to say, the line integral
of the electric field around the loop is not zero, directly contradicting KVL.

3. It is often possible to improve the applicability of KVL by considering "parasitic inductances"

(including mutual inductances) distributed along the conductors. These are treated as
imaginary circuit elements that produce a voltage drop equal to the rate of change of the flux.