BEng Mechanical Engineering / Course details

Electrical energy powers today’s world, from communications via satellites and mobile phones, to domestic appliances, rail transport, machines in industry, major cities and much of the world’s infrastructure. It is also used to control these devices and major systems. It is thus important to all engineering. This unit introduces some aspects of electrical energy through circuit analysis and the generation, supply and use of electricity.    

•    Learn knowledge and methods for electric and electronic circuit analysis through taught lectures and tutorials
•    Learn fundamentals in sensors, signal conditioning and signal capturing through taught lectures and tutorials
•    Learn fundamentals of electric machines, and health & safety related to motors
•    Train students’ practical skills through laboratory exercises
 

ILO1 - Utilize a digital multimeter to measure fundamental parameters like voltage and current within a circuit, achieving maximum power output, outline safety guidelines, conduct a risk assessment.

ILO2 - Apply the basic principles of operation of AC motors/ generators and DC motors/ generators.

ILO3 - Choose appropriate analytical techniques for evaluating electric circuits, electronic circuits, and components, Develop equivalent circuit models and employ quantitative methods for circuit analysis to address circuit design challenges.

ILO4 - Carry out fundamental circuit analysis and apply them to simple DC circuits, and analyse ideal op-amp circuits. Understand fundamentals in sensors and signal conditioning.

(1)    Introduction to the course module and fundamental concepts for circuit analysis, including charge, voltage, current, power, ideal basic circuit elements, passive sign convention, and analogue and digital signals 
(2)    Passive and active circuit elements (including five basic elements, which are resistor, capacitor, inductor, voltage source, and current source); Ohm’s Law, Kirchhoff's Current Law and Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law 
(3)    Simple resistance circuits, including resistors in series, resistors in parallel, voltage divider, current divider, Star-Delta conversion 
(4)    Inductance and capacitance circuits, including inductors-in-series, inductors-in-parallel, capacitors-in-series, capacitors-in-parallel, transient behaviour of simple RL and RC circuits, time constant and settling time 
(5)    Circuit analysis methods, including node voltage method, mesh current method, superposition principle, source conversion (i.e. V to i, i to V), Thevenin and Norton equivalent circuits, max power transfer 
(6)    Ideal op-amp circuit analysis. Fundamental concepts include three parameters of op-amp, two features of ideal op-amp circuit, and how to calculate closed-loop gain, input and output impedance. Ideal op-amp circuits to be discussed include inverting amplifier, non-inverting amplifier, differential amplifier, instrumentation amplifier and Howland circuit 
(7)    Sensors, including fundamental concepts (such as sensitivity, accuracy, signal-to-noise ratio), categorisation of sensors, stain gauge, Wheatstone bridge, brief introduction to other types of sensors (such as resistive sensor, infra-red sensor, incremental optical encoder, ultrasonic sensor, gyroscope and accelerometer)
(8)    Signal conditioning and signal capturing, including multiplexer, rectifier, phase-sensitive demodulator, simple low-pass filter and digitisation 
(9)    Basic principles of operation of AC and DC electric machines; types of machines including brushed/brushless DC machines, synchronous AC machines (permanent magnet and externally excited) and asynchronous (induction) AC machines; brief introduction to linear AC machines, basic description of operation and examples of use (Mech / Aero relevant); sizing and selection of motors, including torque and loading calculations 
(10)    Health & safety related to motors 
 

Other - online quiz

A set of online short videos is available.  These explain in detail the key points from the course. These are also linked to tutorial questions and revision.

Electric Circuits, Global Edition. James W. Nilsson,Susan Riedel, Pearson, 2019
Design with operational amplifiers and analog integrated circuits. Franco, Sergio, McGraw-Hill Education 2015
Design with operational amplifiers and analog integrated circuits. Franco, Sergio. McGraw-Hill, 2002
Data Acquisition for Sensor Systems. Taylor, H.R. Springer US, 1997
Electric motors and drives : fundamentals, types, and applications. Hughes, Austin. Elsevier/Newnes, 2006
Teaching phase-sensitive demodulation for signal conditioning to undergraduate students. Yang, Wuqiang, American journal of physics, 2010