ADDIS ABABA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

UNIVERSITY

College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering

Department of Electromechanical Engineering

Fundamentals of Electric Circuits

By: Tariku B

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 Unit One
Review of Electromagnetic Phenomenon and Variables

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Systems of Units
1.3 Electric Charge
1.4 Electric Current
1.5 Voltage
1.6 Power and Energy

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 1.1 Introduction
• Electric circuit theory and electromagnetic theory are the two
fundamental theories upon which all branches of electrical
engineering are built

• Many branches of electrical engineering, such as power, electric

machines, control, electronics, communications, and instrumentation,
are based on electric circuit theory.

• Basic electric circuit theory course is the most important course for an
electrical engineering student, and always an excellent starting point
for a beginning student in electrical engineering education

N.B: An electric circuit is an interconnection of electrical

elements

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 1.2 System of Units
Six Basic Units

Quantity Basic Unit Symbol

Length Meter M
Mass Kilogram Kg
Time Second S
Electric Current Ampere A
Thermodynamic Temperature Kelvin K
Luminous Intensity Candela Cd

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 System of Units
• Commonly used derived units for electrical circuits
Quantity Units Symbols
Electric charge Coulomb C
Electric potential Volt V
Resistance Ohm Ω
Conductance Siemens S
Inductance Henry H
Capacitance Farad F
Frequency Hertz Hz
Force Newton N
Energy, work Joule J
Power Watt W
Magnetic flux Weber Wb
Magnetic flux density Tesla T

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 1.3 Electric Charges

• Charge is an electrical property of the atomic particles

of which matter consists, measured in coulombs (C)
• The charge e on one electron is negative and equal in
magnitude to which is called as
electronic charge
• The charges that occur in nature are integral multiples
of the electronic charge
• The coulomb is a large unit for charges
• In 1C of charge, there are
electrons

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 Law of Conservation and Coulombs Law
• The law o f conservation o f charge states th a t
charge can neither be created nor destroyed , only
tra nsferred
• Thus, the algebraic sum o f the elec tric charges in an
isolated system does n o t change
• Coulomb's law states that the electrical force
between two charged objects is directly proportional
to the product of the quantity of charge on the
objects and inversely proportional to the square of
the separation distance between the two objects
Mathematically

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 Electric Field
• Electric fie ld, E is defined as t he electric force per
u nit charge
• The direction o f the fie ld is taken t o be t he direction
of t he force it would exert on a positive test charge
• The electric f ie ld is radially outward from a positive
charge and radially inward a negative p oint charge

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 1.4 Electric Current
• Electric charge or electricit y is mobile
• Electric current is the time rate of change of
charge, measured in amperes (A)

• The unit of ampere can be derived as

• By convention the symbol I is used to represent
a constant current.
• A time-varying current is represented by the
symbol

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 Conventional Direction of Flow of Current

• Conventional flow assumes that current

flows out of the positive side of the battery,
through the circuit, and flows back into the
negative side of the battery

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 DC and AC Current
• A direct current (dc) is a current that
remains constant with time
• An alternating current (ac) is a current that
varies sinusoidally with time

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 Examples
• A conductor has a constant current of 5A.
How many electrons pass a fixed point on
the conductor in one minute?
• The total charge entering a terminal is
given by q=5tsin4 t mC. Calculate the
current at t== 0.5 second?

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 1.5 Voltage
• Voltage (or potential difference) is the energy required to move
a unit charge through an element, measured in volts (V)
• The voltage between two points a and b in an electric circuit is
the energy (or work) needed to move a unit charge from a to b;
mathematically,

Where, is energy in joules (J) and is charge in coulombs (C). The

voltage or simply is measured in volts (V)
• Electric voltage, is always across the circuit element or
between two points in a circuit.
 > 0 means the potential of a is higher than potential of b
 < 0 means the potential of a is lower than potential of b

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 ...Voltage
• The plus ( + ) and minus (-) signs are used to
define reference direction or voltage polarity
• The can be interpreted in two ways :
 Point a is at a potential of volts
higher than point b
 The potential at point a with respect
to point b is
 It can be shown
• Like electric current, a constant voltage is called a dc
voltage and is represented by V, where as a sinusoidally
time-varying voltage is called an ac voltage and is
represented by

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 1.6 Power and Energy
• Power is the time rate of expending or absorbing
energy, measured in watts (W)
dw dw dq
• Mathematical expression: p     vi
dt dq dt
i i
+
+

v v
–
–

Passive sign convention

absorbing power supplying power

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 …Power and Energy
• If the power has a + sign, power is being
delivered to or absorbed by the element
• If, on the other hand, the power has a - sign,
power is being supplied by the element
• Passive sign convention is satisfied
 When the current enters through the positive
terminal of an element and
 If the current enters through the negative
terminal,

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 …Power and Energy
• The law of conservation of energy
p0
• Energy is the capacity to do work, measured in
joules (J) t t
• Mathematical expression w  t0 pdt  t0 vidt  
Examples
• An energy source forces a constant current of 2 A for 10 s to
flow through a light bulb. If 2.3 kJ is given off in the form of
light and heat energy, calculate the voltage drop across the
bulb
• To move charge q from point a to point b requires -30 J. Find
the voltage drop if: (a) q = 2 C, (b) q = -6 C
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 Faraday’s laws of Electromagnetism induction
• Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction is a
basic law of electromagnetism predicting how a
magnetic field will interact with an electric current
to produce an electromotive force
• Faraday’s Laws of Electromagnetic Induction
consists of two laws
• Faraday’s First Law of Electromagnetic Induction
 Whenever a conductor is placed in a varying
magnetic field, an electromotive force is induced.
If the conductor circuit is closed, a current is
induced, which is called induced current

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 …Faraday’s laws of Electromagnetism induction
• Faraday’s Second Law of Electromagnetic
Induction
 The induced emf in a coil is equal to the rate
of change of flux linkage

• Faraday’s law of induction explains the

working principle of transformers, motors,
generators and inductors

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 Self-inductance

• Self inductance is defined as the induction of a

voltage in a current-carrying coil when the current
in the coil itself is changing
• In the case of self-inductance, the magnetic field
created by a changing current in the circuit itself
induces a voltage in the same circuit
• Therefore, the voltage is self-induced
• When current flows through the coil, a magnetic
flux is produced around it

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 …Self-inductance
• But the flux is produced by current so that any change in
is caused by a change in the current
, Where

is self inductance measured in Henry, H

Example
• If a current, varying from 0 A to 4A, flows through the coil of
inductance , calculate the energy stored in the coil

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 Mutual Inductance
• Mutual inductance is a quantity that describes the effect
of one coil's magnetic field on another coil's magnetic field
• Consider two coils with self inductance L1 and L2
that are in close proximity with each other

• The magnetic flux Ø1 emanating from coil 1 has

two components:
Φ1 = ϕ11 + ϕ12
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 …Mutual inductance
• Since the entire flux links coil 1, the voltage induced in
coil 1 is

Where,
• Only flux links coil 2, so the voltage induced in coil 2 is

Where,
• is the mutual inductance on coil 2 due to change in
current in coil 1

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 Questions
Example 3
• The current entering the positive terminal of a device
is A and the voltage across the device is
V
a) Find the charge delivered to the device between
and
b) Calculate the power absorbed
c) Determine the energy absorbed in 3 s

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