Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology, 6th ed

Book Preface

Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology 6th Edition provides coverage for a wide range of courses that contain electrical principles, circuit theory and technology in their syllabuses, from introductory to degree level – and including Edexcel BTEC Levels 2 to 5 National Certificate/ Diploma, Higher National Certificate/Diploma and Foundation degree in Engineering

In this new sixth edition, new material added includes some mathematics revision needed for electrical and electronic principles, ways of generating electricity – the present and the future (including more on renewable energy), more on lithium-ion batteries, along with other minor modifications. The text is set out in five parts as follows:

PART 1, comprising chapters 1 to 12, involves Revision of some Basic Mathematics needed for Electrical and Electronic Principles.

PART 2, involving chapters 3 to 14, contains Basic Electrical Engineering Principles which any student wishing to progress in electrical engineering would need to know. An introduction to units, electrical circuits, resistance variation, batteries and alternative sources of energy, series and parallel circuits, capacitors and capacitance, magnetic circuits, electromagnetism, electromagnetic induction, electrical measuring instruments and measurements, semiconductor diodes and transistors are all included in this section.

PART 3, involving chapters 15 to 25, contains Electrical Principles and Technology suitable for National Certificate, National Diploma and City and Guilds courses in electrical and electronic engineering. D.c. circuit theory, alternating voltages and currents, singlephase series and parallel circuits, d.c. transients, operational amplifiers, ways of generating electricity, three-phase systems, transformers, d.c. machines and three-phase induction motors are all included in this section.

PART 4, involving chapters 26 to 48, contains Advanced Circuit Theory and Technology suitable for Degree, Foundation degree, Higher National Certificate/ Diploma and City and Guilds courses in electrical and electronic/telecommunications engineering. The
three earlier sections of the book will provide a valuable reference/revision for students at this level. Complex numbers and their application to series and parallel networks, power in a.c. circuits, a.c. bridges, series and parallel resonance and Q-factor, network
analysis involving Kirchhoff’s laws, mesh and nodal analysis, the superposition theorem, Thévenin’s and Norton’s theorems, delta-star and star-delta transforms, maximum power transfer theorems and impedance matching, complex waveforms, Fourier series, harmonic analysis, magnetic materials, dielectrics and dielectric loss, field theory, attenuators, filter networks, magnetically coupled circuits, transmission line theory and transients and Laplace transforms are all included in this section.

PART 5 provides a short General Reference for standard electrical quantities – their symbols and units, the Greek alphabet, common prefixes and resistor colour coding and ohmic values.

At the beginning of each of the 48 chapters a brief explanation as to why it is important to understand the material contained within that chapter is included, together with a list of learning objectives.

At the end of each of the first four parts of the text is a handy reference of the main formulae used. There are a number of Internet downloads freely available to both students and lecturers/instructors; these are listed on page xiii.

It is not possible to acquire a thorough understanding of electrical principles, circuit theory and technology without working through a large number of numerical problems. It is for this reason that Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology 6th Edition contains nearly 800 detailed worked problems, together with some 1350 further problems (with answers at the back of the book), arranged within 202 Practice Exercises that appear every few pages throughout the text. Some 1153 line diagrams further enhance the understanding of the theory.

Fourteen Revision Tests have been included, interspersed spersed within the text every few chapters. For example, Revision Test 1 tests understanding of chapters 3 to 6, Revision Test 2 tests understanding of chapters 7 to 9, Revision Test 3 tests understanding of chapters 10 to 14, and so on. These Revision Tests do not have answers given since it is envisaged that lecturers/instructors could set the Revision Tests for students to attempt as part of their course structure. Lecturers/instructors may obtain a complimentary set of solutions of the Revision Tests in an Instructor’s Manual available from the publishers via the internet – see below. Learning by example is at the heart of Electrical Circuit Theory and Technology 6th Edition.