The University of Texas – Pan American

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

ELEE 2320 – Electrical Circuits I

1- Course
Electrical Engineering
ELEE 2320
Electrical Circuits I

2- Course Designation:
Required

3- Course (catalog) description:

This course covers fundamentals of electrical circuits, including basic definitions,
Kirchoff’s laws, nodal and loop analysis, superposition, Thevenin and Norton
equivalents, time-varying circuits, simple transient response, sinusoidal steady-state
analysis using phasors and power in sinusoidal steady-state circuits.

4- Prerequisites.
MATH 1470

5- Textbook
Alexander & Sadiku, Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, 3rd Ed. McGraw-Hill.

6- Course learning outcomes / expected performance criteria.

At the end of the semester, it is expected that students should be able to:

(1) understand the concepts of voltage and current, the passive sign convention,
and demonstrate the ability to properly add and subtract voltages and currents as
appropriate in a circuit,
(2) state and apply Kirchoff's voltage and current laws, including cases where
portions of the circuit are implicit rather than explicit.
(3) understand Ohm's law, recognize and simplify any combination of resistances
to find an equivalent resistance,
(4) analyze circuits of substantial complexity using nodal analysis,
(5) analyze circuits of substantial complexity using mesh analysis,
(6) apply source transformations to simplify circuits
(7) understand the principle of superposition, find the voltage and current due to
individual sources in a multiple source circuit
(8) analyze circuits containing ideal operational amplifiers and design simple
amplifier circuits using operational amplifiers
(9) understand basic circuit relationships for inductors and capacitors, find voltage
given current and vice versa
 (10) recognize first order transient circuits including distinguishing them from
other types of transient circuits, find initial and final values, analyze first order
circuits and find time domain response.
(11) represent sinusoids by phasors, combine and manipulate phasor quantities
(12) understand impedance and admittance, find equivalent impedance and
admittance for circuits of substantial complexity
(13) transform a circuit into the phasor domain, and apply circuit analysis
techniques including nodal, mesh, superposition; find phasor Thevenin and
Norton equivalents
(14) compute power in AC circuits, including instantaneous, peak, average,
reactive, and apparent power, compute power factor.
(15) use circuit simulation software to analyze DC, transient, and AC circuits.

7- Topics covered.
Subject to change as the semester progresses.

1. Basic Definitions. Charge, voltage, and current. Power and energy. The
passive sign convention. Conventions for schematic diagrams. (3 days)

2. Circuit Elements. Ideal voltage and current sources. Resistance and Ohm's
Law. (1 day)

3. Kirchoff's Laws. Kirchoff's current law. Kirchoff's voltage law. (1 day)

4. Basic Circuits Parallel and series circuits. Voltage divider, current divider.
Equivalent resistance. Delta-wye and wye-delta transformations. (5 days)

5. Systematic Analysis of More Complex Circuits Linearity and superposition.

Nodal analysis. Mesh analysis. Source transformation. (7 days)

6. Thevenin and Nortion Equivalents Thevenin voltage. Norton current.

Equivalent resistance. Techniques for deriving equivalent circuits. Maximum
power transfer theorem. (4 days)

7. Ideal Op-Amps Terminal behavior. Analysis in circuits. Basic amplifier

configurations. (3 days)

8. Inductance and Capacitance. Basic behavior. Combinations. Power and

energy relationships. (2 days)

9. Basic Transient Circuits. RC circuits. RL circuits. Time constant. Initial and

final condition method. (6 days)

10. Sinusoidal Waveforms. Sine wave definitions and formulas. Phasor

representation. RMS. (2 days)
 11. Circuits Elements in Sinusoidal Steady State. Impedance, admittance.
Extend equivalent circuit techniques to phasor case. (2 days)

12. Systematic Circuit Analysis Techniques in Sinusoidal Steady State.

Superposition, nodal, mesh analysis; phasor Thevenin and Norton equivalents. (4
days)

13. Power in Sinusoidal Circuits. Instantaneous power. Average Power.

Complex power, reactive power. (3 days)

8- Class / Laboratory schedule:

Three 50-minute lectures per week, or
Two 75-minute lectures per week

9- Contribution of course to meeting the requirements of Curriculum (Criterion 5)

Engineering Topics – 3 Credit Hours.

10- Relationship of Course to Program Outcomes

1, 2, 8, B1

11- Person(s) who prepared this description and date of preparation

Heinrich Foltz, 6/30/2008