PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Description

Circuit theory is a set of techniques used to describe the flow of energy around an electrical loop. The theory is comprised of a number of different laws, ideas, and definitions. These include Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff’s law, which describe the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance. In some cases, the techniques may also refer to hydraulic or pneumatic circuits, which involve fluid and gas respectively. An electrical circuit is formed using a number of components, such as batteries, wires, capacitors, resistors and switches. 

            In this course, you will be introduced to the concepts and definitions of charges, currents, voltages, power, and energy. You will learn the voltage-current relationship of basic circuit elements – resistors, inductors, capacitors, dependent and independent voltage and current sources; apply Kirchhoff’s current and voltage laws to circuits in order to determine voltage, current and power in branches of any circuits excited by DC voltages and current sources. Apply simplifying techniques to solve DC circuit problems using basic circuit theorems and structured methods like node voltage and mesh current analysis. The goal also includes the derivation of the transient responses of RC and RL circuits, steady-state response of circuits to sinusoidal excitation in the time domain, application of phasors to circuit analysis, introduction to non-linear electronic devices such as diodes.

What will you learn? 

1. Concepts of charge, current, voltage, power and energy; voltage, current and power labeling conventions 

2. Resistance as a basic component; voltage and current sources

3. Kirchhoff’s and Ohm’s Laws

4. Simple parallel and series circuits; resistors in parallel and series; voltage and current dividers

5. Power and energy in a resistor, dissipated in a circuit

6. Concept of dependent and independent voltages and currents; TREE, Branches and Links

7. Structured Circuit Theory; Cutsets/ Node, Loop and component equations

8. Solution using Node/ Cutset and Loop Analysis

9. Substitution for Node/ Loop Analysis on circuit diagram using circulating currents and independent voltage set

10. Introduction of controlled sources and their places in the graph of Structured Circuit Analysis; Solution using Node/ Loop Analysis and Control Equations

11. Non-ideal voltage and current sources

12. Linearity and Superposition in the solution of multi-source circuits

13. Maximum Power Theorem; Thevenin’s and Norton’s sub-circuit models and their use in the solution of circuits. The application also to circuits with controlled sources

14. Introduction to Capacitors and Inductors. Simple circuits with capacitors and inductors in parallel and in series.

15. Power and energy in capacitors and inductors

16.  Simple Resistor/ Capacitor and Resistor/ Inductance circuits to introduce the ideas of linear differential equations in circuit theory. The idea of the initial condition and input response of circuits

17. The introduction of Laplace transforms as a tool to solve Linear Differential equations. Some properties of the Laplace Transform

18. Introduction to the s-domain model for circuits with capacitors and/ or inductors. Concept of s-domain sources that depend on initial conditions of capacitor voltages or inductor currents.

19. Application of structured circuit theory etc. to s-domain models; switched circuits

20. Definition of Transient, Steady State and Initial condition responses in the ‘s’ and time domains

21. General Steady-State Response to Sinusoidal inputs. Development of Complex number model or j-operator model

22. Application of Structured Circuit Theory to a.c. circuits

23. Power in a.c. circuits. Extension of Maximum Power Theorem to a.c. circuits

24. Real, Imaginary and Complex Power

25. Power Factor, Power Factor Correction.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites for circuit theory are Introductory Physics, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations.