Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description



CODE EPC1003

 
TITLE Introduction to Electrical Circuit Theory

 
UM LEVEL 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL Not Applicable

 
ECTS CREDITS 6

 
DEPARTMENT Industrial Electrical Power Conversion

 
DESCRIPTION Objectives

The aim of this unit is to familiarize the student with basic electrical components and to provide the basic tools for analyzing linear circuits, under steady state DC, AC and transient conditions. This unit aims at providing the fundamentals in order to enable the student to perform analysis of electrical and electronic circuits.

Content

Electrical and magnetic properties of materials: insulators, conductors and semiconductors, magnetic and non-magnetic materials.

Electrical quantities: voltage, current, charge, resistance, capacitance, inductance, power, frequency, phase, peak, r.m.s values.

Network analysis: Ohm's law, Kirchoff's laws, Mesh Current Analysis, Nodal Analysis, Thevenin and Norton's theorems. Super-position theorem (linear and non-linear networks), voltage and current sources.

D.C. Transients: Charging and discharging of a capacitor, linear and exponential, inductor transients.

A.C. Theory: behaviour of resistors, inductors and capacitors with sinusoidal signals, reactance, impedance, phasor diagrams, j-notation, basic RLC circuits (resonance).

Laboratory work

Measurements Lab:

- Basic measuring instruments: multimeters, voltmeter, ammeter, and ohmmeter, power supplies (done in conjunction with Ohm’s Law).
- Use of the oscilloscope.

Computer simulation Lab (Pspice):

- D.C. Network Analysis: (Kirchoff's Laws, Thevenin, Norton's Theorems, Super position), Basics of A.C. Circuits
- D.C. Transients (Charging and discharging)

Text books and resources

- Boylestad, ‘Introductory Circuit Analysis’, Pearson education.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture, Tutorial and Practical

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Practical No 10%
Examination (2 Hours) Yes 90%

 
LECTURER/S Owen Casha
Kris Scicluna

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.


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