Teaching Laplace Circuits And System Analysis With Various Engineering Applications In Mechanical Engineering Program

This paper presents new pedagogies developed from our experiences in teaching transform circuits and linear system analysis in the mechanical engineering curriculum. Linear Circuit Analysis II is a core course for sophomores with the mechanical engineering (ME) major. ME students are required to take this second electrical course with a focus on using Laplace Transform techniques to analyze linear circuits and various engineering systems. The course prerequisites to take this course include the knowledge of basic electrical DC and AC circuits, ordinary linear differential equations with constant coefficients, mass/spring systems, translational systems, rotational systems, and beam deflection equations. In this course, ME students will continue to explore advanced techniques to establish more complex math models for both electrical and mechanical systems. Then, students will solve them by using a direct method in the real domain and by applying the transform methods either in the frequency domain (Phasor Transform) or in the complex s-domain (Laplace Transform). Since the application of transform techniques is much quicker and more efficient, especially when a real system carries the initial condition(s) or boundary conditions, we will focus on the Phasor Transform to determine the steady-state response for an AC circuit and the Laplace Transform to derive the complete system solution, which includes transient and steady-state responses for both electrical and mechanical models. By offering a broad coverage of topics and case studies, this course could possibly be beneficial to the majority of engineering students. Unlike a dynamical model describing an electrical circuit often accompanied with initial condition(s), many mechanical math models are subject to boundary conditions; therefore, the Laplace solutions for both cases are presented in the class. Meanwhile, more Laplace properties associated with derivatives, translations that include time domain shifting and frequency domain shifting, and piecewise-defined functions are covered in order to explain how to handle more complicated systems. In this paper, we will explain course prerequisites and describe our teaching methods. We will address the outcome of students’ achievement, which will include applications of their acquired transform skills, and their motivation for continuing to pursue upper-level courses such as Dynamic System Modeling and Feedback Control Systems. Finally, we will examine the course assessment according to our collected data from grading students’ course work, course evaluation, and learning outcome survey, and further address the possible course improvements based on our assessment. P ge 15178.2