ELECTRICAL TECHNOLOGY

Week 1

Basic Electricity Concepts

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 Electricity and Electric Current

• Electricity
The flow or movement of electrons
through a material.

• Current (Amps/Amperes)
The rate electrons of flow through
a conductor.

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 Electricity and Electric Current

Direct Currents (DC) is the unidirectional (one direction)

flow of electric charge

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Within electrical engineering,
the term DC is used to refer to
power systems that use only
one polarity of voltage or
current, and to refer to the
constant, zero-frequency, or
slowly varying local mean
value of a voltage or current.
 Electricity and Electric Current

In alternating
current (AC or 
ac) the
movement
of electric
charge periodi
cally reverses
direction.

Electrons flows in two direction

are Alternating Currents (AC)

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 Electricity and Electric Current

• There are two types of electrical circuits:

i) Direct current circuit (DC)
ii) Alternate current circuit (AC)

DC circuits: Circuits supply with constant voltage

source with over period of time

AC circuits: Circuits with alternating voltage source

over period of time

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 Electrical Quantities & Units

Charge, q
• A basic quantity in electrical circuit
• Positive charge → proton, p
• Negative charge → electron, e-
• SI derived unit : Coulomb (C)
• 1 C = 6.242x1018 e-
• Flow of the electron will cause the
current
• Current direction = Proton Flow.

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 Electrical Quantities & Units

• Current, I
• is defined as the amount of electric charge (measured in
coulombs) flowing through a surface over time
• If Q is the amount of charge that passed through the surface
in the time T, then the average current (i) is:

Basic SI units : Ampere (A),

dq
•
1 ampere = 1 coulomb/second
i 
•
• Represented by arrow symbol
• Current is always through an element dt
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 Electrical Quantities & Units

Current direction
 Initially it was believed that
current was the flow of positive
charges. This is called
conventional current direction.
 The actual flow of charge is by
electrons (negative charge)
called electron flow direction
 We will use conventional
current

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 Electrical Quantities & Units

Voltage is the force pushing electrons

Voltage
through a material
• The voltage vab between two points a and b
in a circuit is the work (energy) needed to
move a unit charge from a to b
where w is energy in joules
dw (J) and q is charge in
v ab  coulombs (C).

dq 1 volt = 1 joule/coulomb =1
newton-meter/coulomb

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 Electrical Quantities & Units

vab = 9V vba = -9V

Point a is at a potential vab volts higher than point b.

The potential at point a with respect to point b is vab.
Also, vab = -vba
Voltage is always across an element or between to two points
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 Electrical Quantities & Units

Energy is the ability, or capacity, to do work

Electricity is one form of energy.
Other forms are:
– light
– chemical
– mechanical
– heat
– atomic
– sound

Utility Companies (e.g. TNB) measure

energy in kilowatt-hours (kWh)

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 Electrical Quantities & Units

• Electric power is defined as the amount of work done by an electric

current, or the rate at which electrical energy is transferred refers to
how rapidly energy is used
or converted
• The SI unit of power is the watt.
• The power p is a time-varying quantity and is
called instantaneous power

P = VI = (W/Q)(Q/t)
where
P is the power (watt or W)
I is the current (ampere or A)
V is the potential difference (volt or V)
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 Electrical Quantities & Units

Current flow and voltage polarity determine the sign of the power.
The passive sign convention is satisfied when current enters
through the positive polarity of the voltage and p = +vi (power is being
absorbed).
If current enters the negative terminal, p = -vi

If power has a +ve sign If power has a -ve sign

power being power being
absorbed by supplied by the
the element element

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 Electrical Quantities & Units

No Quantity Symbol Unit Formula

1 Charge Q Coulomb, C Ixt
2 Current I Ampere, A Q/t
3 Voltage V Volt, V W/Q
4 Energy W Joule, J Pxt
5 Power P Watt, W W/t
6 Resistance R Ohm, Ω V/I
7 Capacitance C Farad, F Q/V
8 Inductance L Henry, H Φ/I
9 Frequency F Hertz, Hz 1/t
10 Impedance Z Ohm, Ω V/I
11 Reactance X Ohm, Ω V/I

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 Exercise Problem

What is the power output of an electric kettle connected to

the 230 V mains, when a current of 10 A flows?

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 Exercise Problem

Calculate R and VS, if power that been absorb by the

resistor R is 1.6mW.

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 Circuit Elements

An electrical circuit is a network that has a closed

loop, giving a return path for the current

An electrical network is an interconnection of

electrical elements such as resistors, inductors,
capacitors, transmission lines, voltage sources, current
sources, and switches

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 Circuit Elements

 There are two types of circuit elements:

Active: elements that provide energy to the circuit (Voltage and
current source, generator and battery)
Passive: elements that can absorb the energy of the circuit
(Resistor (R), Inductor (L), capacitor (C))

active elements passive elements

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 Voltage and Current Source

The most important active elements are voltage and

current sources
Ideal voltage source:
is a two terminal element that maintains a specified
voltage between its terminal regardless of the current
through it.

Vs @

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 Voltage and Current Source

Ideal current source :

is a two terminal element that maintains a specified
current regardless of the voltage across its terminal.

Is

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 Basic law of electricity

Ohm discovered that the voltage v across a resistor is directly proportional

to the current i flowing through the resistor

V  i
V  Ri
• It defines the relationship between the three fundamental electrical
quantities: I, V and R. When a voltage is applied to a circuit containing
only resistive elements (i.e. no coils), current flows according to Ohm's
Law,
• Ohm's law states that the electrical (I) flowing in an circuit is proportional
to the (V) and inversely proportional to the resistance (R). Therefore, if
the voltage is increased, the current will increase provided the
resistance of the circuit does not change
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 Example Problem

A 9V battery supplies power to a cordless curling iron with a

resistance of 18 ohms. How much current is flowing through
the curling iron?

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 Network topology

Network topology refers placement of elements in the

network (circuit) and the geometric configuration of the network

Consider the equivalent circuits drawn below

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 Node, Branch and Mesh

Node: a joint point between 2 or more circuit element that been

represented by dot

Branch: a section that have one elements on it and ended with

two node

Mesh: a closed loop path in electrical circuit

Loop: a path whose last node is the same as the starting node

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 Series

• Network topology is useful in describing series and parallel

elements

• Two or more elements are in series if they exclusively share a

single node and consequently carry the same current

5Ω and 10V
are in series

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 Parallel

• Two or more elements are in parallel if they are connected to

the same two nodes and consequently have the same voltage
across them

2 Ω, 3 Ω, and 2A
are in parallel

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 Example Problem

How many node, branch and mesh in the circuit ?

Node, n= 5
Branch, b=8
Mesh, I=4

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 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Been introduced by: Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824)

Ohm’s law by itself is insufficient to analyze circuits
A solution for an electrical circuit network analysis.

There are two Kirchhoff law:

Kirchhoff’s Current Law (KCL)

Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law ( KVL)

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 Kirchhoff’s Laws

• Kirchhoff’s current law (KCL) states that the algebraic sum of all the
currents entering and leaving any node in a circuit is zero.
• Summation of the current entering the node = summation of the
current leaving of the node

N
 in  0
n 1

• N = number of current entering or leaving the node

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 Kirchhoff’s Laws

■ Current enter the node – positive

■ Current leaving the node – negative

i1 - i2 + i3 + i4 - i5 = 0 @ i1 + i3 + i4 = i2 + i5

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 Example Problem

• An R1 of 20 , an R2 of 40and R3 of 60are connected in

parallel across the 120V power line. Using Kirchhoff current law,
determine the total current.

IT
120V R1 R2 R3

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 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL) states that the algebraic sum of the
voltage rises and voltage drops around a loop must be zero.

N
 Vn  0
n 1

Where N = number of element in one closed loop

v 2  v 3  v 5  v1  v 4

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 Kirchhoff’s Laws

Kirchhoff Law also shows that the supply voltage of a

series circuit equals the sum of the voltage drops across
the series elements.

 In order to apply KVL without error, we have to define

the so called reference direction.

 When deriving the algebraic sum of the voltages, we

must assign a plus sign to those voltages where the
reference direction agrees with the direction of the loop,
and negative signs in the opposite case.

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 Kirchhoff’s Laws

+ E2 -

+ V1 -
+
■ -E1 + E2 + V1 + V2 + V3 + V4= 0
V2
+ -
+
E1
V3
■ E1 - E2 = V1+ V2 + V3 + V4
-
-

- V4 +

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 Example Problem

• Find the voltage across resistor R2, given that the source voltage,
VS = 100 V and that the voltage across resistor R1 is V1 = 40 V.
Ans:V2=60V

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 Example Problem

• For the circuit below, find voltages v1 and v2

Ans:
V1=8V
V2= -12V

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 Series Circuit

Have only one path of current flow

Each element in a series circuit will have same current through it.
Voltage of the elements is different from each other.

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 Series Circuit

R1 R2 R3 I
I
+ + +
+ V1 - + V 2- + V3- E RT V
E
- - -

■ V1 = IR1 ; V2 = IR2 ; V3 = IR3 ; V = IRT

■ E = V1 + V2 + V3 = V  KVL
■ RT = R1 + R2 + R3

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 Example Problem

Calculate:
Req  18 k 
i) Equivalent resistance (Req) of the circuit
ii) Current flow through the circuit
I  0 .5 mA
iii) Voltage across resistor V10 k  5V

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 Parallel Circuit

Voltage across each elements in the circuit are same.

- Req = Equivalent Resistance

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 Parallel Circuit

Current through each elements is different.

If there are k resistor connected in parallel

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 Parallel Circuit

I I
I1 I2 I3
+
+ + +
+ +

R1 V1 R2 V2 R3 V3 E RT V
E -
- - -
- -
• I = I1 + I2 + I3  KCL

• V/RT = V/R1 + V/R2 + V/R3

• V(1/RT) = V (1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3)

• 1/RT = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R3

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 Simplifying Circuit

Often, the first step in circuit analysis reducing a

circuit to a simpler equivalent through series and
parallel combinations

Ans:
Req=30Ω
Vo=1.5V

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 Example Problem

Ans:
Determine Req. Req =14.4Ω

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 Example Problem

Determine Rab. Ans:

Rab=11Ω

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 Example Problem

Ans:
Determine Rab. Rab=11.2Ω

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 Example Problem

Ans:
Determine the total power dissipated Ptotal=128 Watt

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 Example Problem

Find the voltages and currents indicated below

Ans:
i1=3A
i2 = 2A
I3 = 1A
V1=24V
V2=6V
V3=6V

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