Effective resistances of two dimensional resistor networks

Abstract

We investigate the behavior of two dimensional resistor networks, with finite sizes and different kinds (rectangular, hexagonal, and triangular) of lattice geometry. We construct the network by having a network-element repeat itself $L_x$ times in $x$-direction and $L_y$ times in the $y$-direction. We study the relationship between the effective resistance ($R_\mathrm{eff}$) of the network on dimensions $L_x$ and $L_y$. The behavior is simple and intuitive for a network with rectangular geometry, however, it becomes non-trivial for other geometries which are solved numerically. We find that $R_\mathrm{eff}$ depends on the ratio $L_x/L_y$ in all the three studied networks. We also check the consistency of our numerical results experimentally for small network sizes.