Various terminologies used in Electrical

Engineering

1. Electric circuit: An electric circuit is a closed

conducting path through which an electric current either
flows or is intended to flow.

2. Electric network: A combination of various electric

elements connected in any manner is called an electric
network. Network may be open or may be closed.
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Circuit and Network

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3. Short circuit – A short happens when a
path of zero resistance is connected
between two terminals. The resistor shown
here in the figure is the actual path for
current and the curved wire going around
it is the short circuit path.

Note: It is to noted that current always

flows through the least resistance path. 5
 Circuit Elements or Parameters
The various elements of an electric circuit are called its
parameters such as resistors, inductors, and capacitors.
The term circuit elements means “components and
sources.”
Symbols - Elements are represented in schematics
by symbols. Symbols for common 2-terminal elements are
shown here.

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Active elements:
Active elements are the elements of a circuit which
possess energy of their own and can impart it to
other element of the circuit.
Active elements are of two types
a) Voltage source b) Current source
A Voltage source has a specified voltage across its
terminals, independent of current flowing through
it.
A current source has a specified current through it
independent of the voltage appearing across it. 7
Passive Elements:
The passive elements of an electric
circuit do not possess energy of their
own. They receive energy from the
sources.
Resistance.
Inductance
Capacitance.

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Linear circuit: An electric circuit that contains
parameters of constant value, that is, their value do not
change with voltage or current is called linear circuit.
Resistors, inductors and capacitors are the examples
of the linear elements.

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Non linear elements:
V-I characteristics do not follow the linear pattern i.e.
the current passing through it does not change linearly
with the linear change in the voltage across it.
Examples are the semiconductor devices such as
diode, transistor.

Non-linear circuit: An electric circuit that contains

parameters whose value changes with voltage or
current is called. non-linear circuit.
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Bilateral circuit:
An electric circuit that possesses the
same properties or characteristics in
either direction is called bilateral
circuit. A transmission line is bilateral
because it can be made to perform its
function equally well in either
direction.

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Unilateral circuit:
An electric circuit whose
properties or characteristics
change with the direction of its
operation is called unilateral
circuit.
A diode rectifier circuit is a
unilateral circuit because it
cannot perform similarly in both
the directions.
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Node
A node is a point in the network or
circuit where two or more circuit
elements are joined. For example,
in the above circuit diagram, A
and B is the node points.
Junction
A junction is a point in the network
where three or more circuit elements Note:-A junction must be
are joined. It is a point where the a node but node may or may
not be a junction.
current is divided. In the above
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circuit, B and D are the junctions.
Branch
The part of a network, which lies between
the two junction points is called a Branch.
In the above circuit DAB, BCD and BD are
the branches of the circuit.

Loop
A closed path of a network is called a
loop. ABDA, BCDB are loops in the given
circuit. 14
Loop – A loop is any closed path going through
circuit elements. To draw a loop, select any node as a
starting point and draw a path through elements and
nodes until the path comes back to the node where
you started. There is only one rule: a loop can visit a
node only one time. It is ok if loops overlap or contain
other loops. Some of the loops in our circuit are
shown here.

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Mesh – A mesh is a loop that has
no other loops inside it. You can
think of this as one mesh for each
"open window" of a circuit.
or
The most elementary form of a
loop which cannot be further
divided is called a mesh.

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Reference Node:
During circuit analysis we usually pick one of the nodes
in the circuit to be the reference node. Voltages at other
nodes are measured relative to the reference node. Any
node can be the reference, but two common choices that
simplify circuit analysis are, the negative terminal of the
voltage or current source powering the circuit, or the
node connected to the greatest number of branches.

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Ground – The reference node is often referred to
as ground. The concept of ground has three important
meanings.
1. Ground is the reference point from which voltages
are measured.
2. The return path for electric current back to its
source.
3. A direct physical connection to the Earth, which is
important for safety. Ground node gets its name from
the third meaning.

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Voltage and Current Sources
The source may be either a DC (direct current) source
or an AC (alternating current) source.
DC source: Any device that produces direct voltage
output continuously is called a DC source.

Some of the commonly used DC sources are batteries,

generators, and DC power supplies (regulated power
supplies).
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AC Source:
Any device that produces alternating voltage output
continuously is called an AC source.
Some of the commonly used AC sources are alternators
and oscillators or signal generators.

Internal Resistance of a Source:

The opposition to load current inside the DC source is called
its internal resistance.
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All DC sources (battery, DC generator, or rectifier-type
supply) have internal resistance and is represented by Ri.
The equivalent circuit of a DC source is the generated emf E
is in series with internal resistance Ri of the source as shown
in Figure:

DC source on load 21
Battery and Generator
Load Current I= E/Ri+RL
I
Terminal voltage:
V= E-I*Ri = I*RL= (E/Ri+RL)*RL

The voltage across the load terminals is reduced

because of the voltage drop in the internal resistance
of the source. A source having smaller internal
resistance will have smaller voltage drop.
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Ideal Voltage Source:
A voltage source that has zero internal
resistance is called an ideal voltage source.
In such cases, the terminal voltage remains
the same, irrespective of the value of load
resistance.

We know, Terminal voltage,

V= E/(1+Ri/RL)
Because Ri=0
Terminal voltage, V= E
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Practical Voltage Source:
An ideal voltage source is not
practically possible. If it would exist,
it would supply an infinite current at
short circuit, which is not possible.
Therefore, all the voltage sources
have some internal resistance that
limits the current at short circuit. A
practical voltage source is shown in
Figure.
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However, it is always preferred to have a source that
has very a small internal resistance, so that the
terminal voltage of the source remains almost
constant from no-load to full-load.

A voltage source that has very low internal resistance

(or impedance) as compared to load resistance (or
impedance) is known as a constant voltage source.

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Difference between Voltage Source and Current
Source
In fact, a source can either be considered as a voltage source
or as a current source.
When the value of load resistance is very large as
compared to the internal resistance of the source, the
source is treated as a voltage source.
However, when the value of load resistance is very small
as compared to the internal resistance of the source, the
source is treated as a current source. 26
Conversion of Voltage Source to Current Source
Steps:
Find the internal resistance of the voltage
source and keep this resistor in parallel
with a current source.
Determine the current flow provided by
current source by applying ohms law.
In the this figure, a voltage source with a
resistance Rs is transformed into an
equivalent current source with a parallel
resistor Rs. So,
Is= Vs/Rs 27
Conversion of Current Source to Voltage
Source
Steps:
Find the parallel resistance of the
constant current source and place
in series with a voltage source.
Determine the open circuit voltage
value of the voltage source by
applying ohms
law i.e. Vs= Is* Rs
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Ideal Current Source:
A current source that supplies a constant current no matter
whatever is the load resistance (or impedance) is known as
ideal current source.
A symbolic representation of such an ideal current source is
shown in the figure. The current supplied by the source
should remain constant at all values of load resistance.
Current source is a source that has high internal resistance.

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Practical Current Source:
An ideal current source is not practically
possible. If it would exist, it would supply a
constant current even at no-load, which is not
possible. A real current source is basically a
voltage source that delivers almost the same
current at all values of load resistance.
A source that has very high internal
resistance (or impedance) as compared to
the load resistance (or impedance) is
considered as a constant current source. 30
A real current source having an
internal resistance of 10 MΩ with a
load resistance RL is shown in Figure.
When load resistance varies from 1
KΩ to 100 KΩ, the current varies
from 1.19988 μA (I = E/(Ri + RL) =
12/10.001) to 1.1881 μA.
This shows that the load current
remains almost constant and the
source behaves as a constant current
source irrespective of the value of load 31
Kirchhoff’s Current Law
Kirchhoff’s Current Law states that”
the algebraic sum of all the currents at
any node point or a junction of a
circuit is zero”.
ΣI=0
Considering in the figure as per the
Kirchhoff’s Current Law:
i1 + i 2 – i3 – i4 – i5 + i 6 = 0
The equation can also be written as:
i1 + i 2 + i6 = i3 + i4 + i 5
Sum of incoming currents = Sum of outgoing currents 32
Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law
Kirchhoff’s voltage law states that the
algebraic sum of all the voltages
around any closed loop in a circuit is
equal to zero.
In other words the algebraic sum of all the
potential differences around the loop must
be equal to zero as: ΣV = 0.
Note here that the term “algebraic sum”
means to take into account the polarities
and signs of the sources and voltage drops
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around the loop.
So when applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law to a
specific circuit element, it is important that we pay
special attention to the algebraic signs, (+ and -) of the
voltage drops across elements and the EMF of sources
otherwise our calculations may be wrong.
But before we look more closely at Kirchhoff’s
voltage law (KVL) lets first understand the voltage
drop across a single element such as a resistor.

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𝐼𝑅1 + 𝐼𝑅2 -𝑉𝑠 =0
𝐼𝑅1 + 𝐼𝑅2 = 𝑉𝑠

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