Electrical and Electronics Systems

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Principle of operation of some sensors (strain gauges, thermal sensors, and other mechanical sensors).
• Op-amp circuit analysis, and their applications
• Kirchhoff's circuit laws and their application to circuit analysis.
• Diodes and transistors theory of operation and their applications.
• Alternative electricity supplies.
• Fundamentals of logic circuits analysis and design techniques.
• Basic circuit elements of resistance, inductance and capacitance, ideal sources and their voltage/current relationships.
• Principle of operation of synchronous generators and batteries.
• Principle of operation of common electrical machines including synchronous generator, the DC motor.
• Basic electrical quantities (charge, electric field, current, voltage and power) and laws (Coulomb electrostatic force law, Faraday's Law of induction, Ohm's law and Ampere's magnetic force law.)
• Principle of operation of transducers including strain gauges, accelerometers, displacement sensors, pressure sensors, microphones and temperature sensors

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Apply circuit analysis techniques in other field such as heat transfer, flow in pipe networks control, and mechanical system dynamics modelling.
• Construct simple electric circuit.
• Use electrical measurement equipment

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Solve simple problems on the application of Faraday's Law of induction (e.g. synchronous generator)
• Analyse dc circuits containing resistors, inductors and capacitors using a variety of techniques including solving loop equations and using circuit simplifications.
• Analyse simple circuits containing op-amps, diodes and transistors.
• Analyse and design simple logic circuits.
• Solve simple problems calculating magnetic forces (e.g. in a DC motor).
• Analyse AC circuits.
• Analyse Wheatstone bridge circuits of strain gauges and temperature sensing resistors.

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Use Oscilloscopes, multimeters, bench power supplies and waveform generators.
• Plot frequency response of a circuit
• Construct electric circuits on bread board.
• Make measurements of voltage, frequency and current in a circuit.

Partial CEng Programme Level Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• During lab sessions students build and investigate the performance of different Opamp amplifier circuits and explore how their performance departs from the ideal case.
• Students apply knowledge of circuit analysis techniques including mesh analysis, superposition and Thevenin’s to analyse lumped circuit models of DC motors. They use the models to calculate motor behaviour and recognise non-ideal elements such as eddy currents and magnetic saturation.
• Students apply knowledge of circuit analysis techniques including mesh analysis, superposition and Thevenin’s to analyse and predict the behaviour of motor driver circuits and transducer configurations.
• During lab sessions students select and use appropriate electrical test equipment (multi-meters, signal generators, oscilloscopes) to investigate the performance of simple diode circuits and Opamp amplifier configurations

TOPIC 1: Nature of Electricity: Triboelectrification, electrostatic forces and Coulomb's law, electric field, voltage, current, power Circuit Elements: Ohm's law, Faraday's law, R, L, C, ideal sources. DC Circuit Analysis: Kirchhoff's Laws, writing loop equations, circuit simplification (series, parallel), Thevenin theorem, superposition theorem. TOPIC 2: Diodes and Transistors. Diode V-I characteristics: Rectification. Ripple reduction. Regulation. Zener diode. Diode limiters. Transistors as switches (BJT, MOSFET). Operational Amplifiers. Characteristics: Golden rules for op-amp circuit analysis. Op-amp as a comparator, inverting amplifier, non-inverting amplifier, differential amplifier, summing amplifier, integrator, differentiator. Introduction to Digital Electronics: Boolean Algebra, Combinational Logic circuits (Karnaugh Maps), sequential logic circuits. TOPIC 3: AC circuit analysis: Phasors. AC circuit analysis examples. Application to filter circuits. Power, reactive power and power factor TOPIC 4: Measurement Systems: Transducer characteristics, strain gauges, accelerometers, displacement sensors. Pressure transducers including microphones, temperature sensors. Signal acquisition: A/D converters, Filters TOPIC 5: Introduction to Electrical Machines and Transformers: Faraday's law, magnetic force production, synchronous generator, DC machines.

• Lectures for the whole class • Feedback Workshops (Tutorials) for small groups. • laboratory sessions - Oscilloscopes, waveforms and filters experiment - Familiarisation oscilloscopes and signal generators. Measurement of frequency response of low pass and high pass RC filters. Use of diodes to produce full wave and half wave rectification. - Operational amplifiers and Logic circuit experiment - Familiarisation with op-amps, use of op-amps as amplifiers, comparators, zero crossing detectors and summers. Learning activities include • Self-study • Solving example sheet problems Relationship between the teaching, learning and assessment methods and the planned learning outcomes In the lecture sessions, basic theory is explained and illustrated by example, with references to relevant applications. The students learn the material by attempting to solve the tutorial sheets, which are also discussed during the Feedback Workshop (Tutorial) sessions. . During workshops staff spend time with each student to give formative feedback on their work. In the laboratory session the students learn how to use the different instruments and how to build simple electric circuits. Summative assessment is computer based: 30% after S1 and 70% at end of S2.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.