Introduction
Introduction
Welcome to the AC Electrical Circuit Analysis, an open educational resource (OER). The goal of this text is to
introduce the theory and practical application of analysis of AC electrical circuits. It assumes familiarity with DC
circuit analysis. If you have not studied DC circuit analysis, it is strongly recommended that you read the
companion OER text, DC Electrical Circuit Analysis before continuing. Both texts are offered free of charge
under a Creative Commons non-commercial, share-alike with attribution license. For your convenience, along
with the free pdf and odt files, print copies are available at a very modest charge. Check my web sites for links.
This text is based on the earlier Workbook for AC Electrical Circuits, which it replaces. The original expository
text has been greatly expanded and includes many examples along with computer simulations. For the
convenience of those who used the Workbook, many of the problem sets are the same, with some re-ordering
depending on the chapter.
If you are already familiar with DC Electrical Circuit Analysis, the format of this title is similar. This text picks
up where the DC text leaves off; beginning with AC concepts such as sinusoidal waveforms, basic Fourier
decomposition of complex waveforms, complex numbers and the like. Also, reactance and impedance are
introduced along with phasor diagrams. Chapters on series, parallel and series-parallel RLC circuits commence.
Following these, network theorems along with nodal and mesh analysis are discussed for the AC case. The text
completes with chapters on AC power, resonance, and introductions to polyphase systems and magnetic circuits.
Each chapter begins with a set of learning objectives and concludes with practice exercises that are generally
divided into four major types: analysis, design, challenge and simulation. Many SPICE-based circuit simulators
are available, both free and commercial, that can be used with this text. The answers to most odd-numbered
exercises can be found in the Appendix. A table of standard resistor sizes is also in the Appendix, which is useful
for real-world design problems. If you have any questions regarding this workbook, or are interested in
contributing to the project, do not hesitate to contact me.
This text is part of a series of OER titles in the areas of electricity, electronics, audio and computer
programming. It includes three other textbooks covering semiconductor devices, operational amplifiers, and
embedded programming using the C language with the Arduino platform. There is a text covering DC electrical
circuits similar to this one, and also seven laboratory manuals; one for each of the five texts plus individual titles
covering computer programming using the Python language, and the science of sound. The most recent versions
of all of my OER texts and manuals may be found at my MVCC web site as well as my mirror site:
www.dissidents.com
This text was created using several free and open software applications including Open Office, Dia, SciDAVis,
and XnView.
Special thanks to the following individuals for their efforts in reviewing and proofreading the DC and AC
Electrical Circuit Analysis texts: Glenn Ballard, John Markham, João Nuno Carvalho, Mark Steffka and Jim
Noon.
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