Circuit Analysis

Electrical circuits fundamentals / basic concepts and components: current and charge, voltage and current sources, electrical circuits, circuit symbols, direct current, alternating current, resistors capacitors and inductors, Ohm's law, Kirchhoff's laws, power dissipation in resistors, series and parallel connections.

Measurement of voltages and currents: common wave forms, measuring techniques and equipment.

Resistance and DC Circuits: Thévenin and Norton theorems, superposition, nodal analysis, mesh analysis, (solving) circuit equations.

Capacitance and electric fields: capacitors and capacitance, electric field strength and flux density, series and parallel connected capacitors, capacitor I/V relationship, sinusoidal voltage and current, energy stored in a capacitor.

Inductance and Magnetic Fields: electromagnetism, reluctance, inductance, self-inductance, series and parallel connections, inductor I/V relationship, sinusoidal voltage and current, energy stored in an inductor, mutual inductance, transformers.

Alternating voltages and currents: resistance vs. reactance, impedance, phasor diagrams, complex notation.

Power in AC circuits: power dissipation in resistive circuits, power in capacitors and inductors, power in circuits with resistance and reactance, active and reactive power, power factor correction, three phase systems, power measurement.

Frequency characteristics of AC circuits: two-port networks, the decibel, frequency response, filter networks, Bode diagrams, RLC circuits and resonance, stray capacitance and inductance.

Transient behaviour: Charging of capacitors and energising of inductors, discharging and de-energising, first order systems, generalised response, second order systems, higher order systems.