Electrical4U 
A transmission line uses at least two conductor paths to carry power or a signal and its return. With an alternating current (AC), time-varying electromagnetic fields redistribute current inside each conductor. The resulting skin effect raises AC resistance and changes internal inductance. Its size depends on frequency, material, geometry and nearby conductors. What is Skin … Read more
A decimal number uses base 10 and has ten digits: 0 through 9. Each place value counts a power of ten, so 123 means one hundred, two tens and three units. An octal number uses base 8 and has eight digits: 0 through 7. Its place values count powers of eight instead, so identical digits … Read more
A thermoelectric generator (TEG) converts heat energy into electrical energy through the Seebeck effect: when a temperature difference exists between two different conductors or a circuit of them, an electric potential difference appears. TEGs are solid-state: no moving parts, silent operation and reliability over long periods. They harvest waste heat from industrial processes, vehicles, power … Read more
A wet cooling tower rejects heat mainly by evaporating a small part of a recirculating water stream into moving air. Cooling towers serve power generation, refrigeration, air conditioning and industrial processes. Natural, forced and induced draft describe airflow. Counterflow and crossflow describe relative air-water paths. Open, closed-circuit, dry and hybrid designs describe different fluid exposure … Read more
A dielectric material is defined as an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an applied electric field. This means that when a dielectric material is placed in an electric field, it does not allow electric charges to flow through it, but instead, it aligns its internal electric dipoles (pairs of opposite charges) in the … Read more
A fire tube boiler is a type of boiler that uses hot gases from a fire to heat water inside a series of tubes. The tubes are surrounded by water in a sealed container. The heat from the gases transfers through the walls of the tubes by thermal conduction, creating steam that can be used … Read more
A decimal-to-binary encoder is a digital circuit that converts a decimal number into its binary equivalent. Also known as a decimal to BCD (binary-coded decimal) encoder, it represents each decimal digit with a 4-bit code. Digital systems use it for keyboard input, display output and binary arithmetic operations. The sections below build the design step … Read more
What is Schottky Effect? The Schottky effect is the lowering of an electron-emission barrier at a surface in vacuum when an applied electric field combines with the electron’s image-force potential. A heated cathode then emits more electrons than it would at the same temperature with no applied field. The effect changes the effective barrier during … Read more
A variable frequency drive (VFD) is an adjustable-speed power converter for an AC motor. It controls output frequency, voltage and current to regulate speed, torque, acceleration and stopping. A common voltage-source VFD contains a rectifier, DC link, inverter and control system. Other drive topologies use different energy-storage and input-converter arrangements. A correctly applied VFD can … Read more
An electrical conductor is a material that lets electric charges move through it easily when a potential difference is applied. Wiring, transmission lines, electrical machines, heating elements and electrostatic shielding all depend on them, and their behaviour follows a handful of predictable properties described below. What is an Electrical Conductor? An electrical conductor is defined … Read more