IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO.
1, FEBRUARY 2005
Using MATHCAD in Teaching Power Engineering
Cristian Domnisoru, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—Students typically use small calculators or personal
computer applications such as MATLAB or MATHCAD to per-
form basic electrical engineering calculations. From the experience
of teaching several power engineering courses, the author noted
that when using computer software to solve problems, students
tend to lose the meaning of the equations, concentrating solely
on typing variables and numbers. Some programs are especially
inviting for making this error. MATLAB, for instance, does not
use any built-in units of measurement, leaving the management of
such units to the user. The user’s attention shifts from the problem
to the units. Although not as powerful and fast as MATLAB,
MATHCAD, on the other hand, has a great potential to help
students better understand introductory courses. There are two
most important features. First, the screen appearance of the
equations matches as closely as possible to the traditional form of
the equations and helps the students to become familiar with the
concepts. Although a bit difficult to type, the equations written
in their natural form help avoid errors. A second feature, the use
of built-in measurement units, is particularly helpful because the
students can concentrate on the meaning of what they learn and
know the transformation will be done properly. A technique for
representing magnetization curves in MATHCAD (and the corre-
sponding calculations) is also presented. The technique allows for
a computer simulation of “graphical calculations” traditionally
used in electrical machine design. The class-related experience
has shown that even the simple examples presented in this paper
could prove to be difficult for students, especially when choosing a
programming language to help with the calculations.
Index Terms—Circuit analysis, educational technology, elec-
trical engineering education, magnetic circuits, simulation
software, software tools.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE POWER engineering introductory courses in the elec-
trical engineering curriculum have remained traditional in
many ways during the years. Usually, the first course in power
engineering is dedicated to an introduction in electrical ma-
chines and transformers. Several textbooks are available, such as
[1] and [2]. A typical course would start with a review of circuit
theory and the basic laws of electromagnetism, continue with
principles of electromechanical energy conversion, then present
transformers, direct-current generators and motors, and finally
synchronous motors, generators, and induction motors.
This paper is concerned with a discussion of the software used
in such a course. The intent is to provide the students with a tool
to help them solve their homework and understand the subject
matter better. It is desirable that this software be reasonably fast
and user friendly.
Manuscript received May 12, 2003; revised June 2, 2004.
The author is with the Graduate Programs in Software Engineering, Uni-
versity of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN 55105-1079 USA (e-mail: cdomnisoru@
stthomas.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TE.2004.837043
0018-9359/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
157
The choice, in this case, was between MATLAB and
MATHCAD. A very good introduction to MATLAB from
the electrical engineering perspective is presented in [3].
MATLAB is known for being reliable and fast. In addition, a
large user community, especially in the electrical engineering
area, provides support and many example files. In many areas
of electrical engineering, several toolboxes are available at a
professional level. For instance, the control toolbox integrated
in Simulink and developed in the MATLAB environment re-
mains a preferred choice in any control course in the electrical
engineering curriculum. However, in this paper, the concern
is with choosing a tool for students following an applied
curriculum rather than a theoretical one. These students are
not likely to take an in-depth control course that would entail
sophisticated simulations requiring a professional tool, such
as MATLAB. Even for electrical engineering students who do
not continue their studies to graduate school, the high-perfor-
mance simulations available in MATLAB will remain out of
reach. However, these students would undoubtedly face needs
not met by MATLAB. One need is for an easy-to-use tool
for performing basic calculations in a natural way. From this
perspective, MATLAB is a programming language requiring
special training. Even if mastered, any simple problem to be
solved requires “translation” into MATLAB. Even simple
mathematical formulas (abundant in a power engineering class)
will therefore be “encrypted” in MATLAB and will require a
continuous effort of understanding and deciphering. In addi-
tion, the numerical results of the calculations will also need to
be interpreted and assessed with proper units of measurement.
For example, if the student is calculating the current in a simple
circuit, the numerical result could be in ampere (A), mil-
liampere (mA), or any other subdivision of the basic unit. This
result depends on how the formulas for calculating the result
were written and how the input was introduced. Although this
problem may seem trivial for an experienced engineer, from
the perspective of teaching, any instructor would recognize
its importance. Too often, students obtain “amazing” results,
failing to identify basic errors.
The alternative is to use MATHCAD (for an introduction, see
[5] and [6]). Although not as fast as MATLAB, and less pow-
erful at running large simulations, it comes with certain advan-
tages. The most important is the interface that tries to mimic the
natural way used to write mathematical formulas. Although the
student will have to learn to use the interface, it is much easier
than learning a programming language. The basic idea is to du-
plicate on the screen the mathematical formulas from the text-
book (paper). In general, (although not entirely true) if a formula
does not look like one in the textbook, then it was erroneously
typed and needs editing. In contrast, a programming language
lacks this visual feedback.
158 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2005

Another important advantage of MATHCAD is the integra-

tion in its calculations of the units of measurement. In fact, the
user is completely free from keeping track of the units used. In-
dicating the units for each data input and simply asking for the
answer is sufficient in any particular unit format for the trans-
formations to be performed automatically.
For example, consider a very basic circuit containing only
a resistor connected to a voltage source. The current through
Fig. 1. Unbalanced three-phase, four wire, wye-connected load.
the resistor is simply the ratio between voltage and the corre-
sponding resistance. In MATHCAD, this relationship will look
as follows:
The phase voltages are obtained with the relations

110 V 10
11 A

Note that the user introduces the units of measurement using

the “multiplication” operator. This system is, again, very natural
and easily understood.
In the remainder of this paper, several examples are pre- The amplitude and phase angle of these voltages are
sented emphasizing the use of MATHCAD to simplify the
material presented in class and to help students avoid erroneous V 0 deg
interpretations.
V 120 deg
V 120 deg
II. UNBALANCED THREE-PHASE WYE-CONNECTED LOAD
A. The Problem The solution for the problem consists of simply typing the
basic formulas. For the line currents
A simple example from [1, p. 33, example 2.6] was chosen.
The intent is to show how very simple calculations can mis-
lead students and how the use of MATHCAD can clarify the 79.674 A 50 deg
problem. An unbalanced three-phase, four wire, wye-connected
load is considered, as shown in Fig. 1. The load is connected 53.116 A 20 deg
to a balanced three-phase, four-wire source. The load imped-
ances , , and are given as 100 50 , 150 140 , and 139.349 A 140 deg
50 100 per phase, respectively. The line voltage is also
given: 13.8 kV. The students are required to determine: 1) the
line and neutral currents and 2) the total power delivered to the and
loads.
This problem is very simple for an experienced reader.
However, teaching experience shows that even this ex- 146.796 A 98.2deg
ample can cause problems. One should point out here that
MATHCAD does not provide an operator for displaying com- The only remaining task is the calculation of the power delivered
plex values in their traditional notation in electrical engineering: by each phase. By definition, this power is given by the real part
amplitude angle. of the product between the voltage across the impedance and the
Therefore, an operator is used to obtain the amplitude and, complex conjugate of the corresponding current. In MATHCAD
separately, a function for obtaining the angle. this translates to

B. The Solution
408.042 kW
The input data is simply introduced as
324.19 kW
220.464 kW
100
150 Thus, the total power delivered is
50
13.8 kV 136.612 kW
DOMNISORU: USING MATHCAD IN TEACHING POWER ENGINEERING 159

C. The Solution in MATLAB

A simple implementation of the problem follows:

Fig. 2. Simple magnetic circuit with an air gap.

1) given the flux, calculate the current in the coil and 2) given
the current in the coil, find the flux.
The geometry of the magnetic core could be more com-
plicated, but for the goal here, it is better to use this simple
configuration.
Again, for numerical values, an example is used from [1].

B. The Solution
This problem is somehow more complicated because of the
nonlinear nature of the magnetization characteristic. However,
The numerical results are the same. However, the lack of sup- students will have to handle numerous nonlinear relationships in
port for units of measurement creates problems. The student has their studies. A method to handle these relationships is presented
to get involved in programming issues, such as preparing the an- next. The idea is to create a function that will return the non-
gles and the variables in appropriate units. linear value given by the characteristic. To obtain the function,
two vectors (containing the nonlinear relationship) are created
D. Observations
first, and then the function is defined using a spline interpolation.
The most common error made by students in problems of this For the soft steel casting magnetization curve in this problem,
kind is to assume the active power delivered to an impedance the magnetization curve is given by
is the product between the voltage and the current amplitudes
and the cosine of the angle between the two corresponding pha-
sors. Then, they need to distinguish whether the load is acting
as a sink, absorbing energy, or as a source, delivering energy. A
simple way of solving this problem is to carefully consider the
A
sign of the cosine in the power calculation formula. An equiv- T
alent way is to take into consideration whether the current is m
lagging or leading the corresponding voltage phasor. Unfortu-
nately, this last consideration is often forgotten. For a load, in
the sink convention, “reactive” energy is being generated when
the current is leading the load and absorbed when the current
is lagging. In calculations, a negative sign indicates the energy A graph of the magnetization curve is presented in Fig. 3.
is generated, while a positive sign (for power) indicates the en- For defining the interpolation function to find the magnetic-
ergy is being absorbed. (For a detailed discussion of sign con- field intensity in the core , as a function of the magnetic
ventions, see [4].) flux density , the MATHCAD relations are
The classroom experience has shown that when using
MATHCAD and the definition formulas for these types of and
problems, students are less likely to confuse generator branches
To test that this function performs properly, one can simply ask
with sinks, and vice versa, than when using other programs,
for the field intensity for a specific flux density
such as MATLAB.
A
T
III. SIMPLE MAGNETIC CIRCUITS m
A. The Problem The parameters for this problem are as follows:
Another type of problem, in an introductory course in power Number of turns 500
engineering, is the basic calculation of a simple magnetic cir-
Cross-sectional area m
cuit. A picture of a circuit with a uniform cross section is shown
in Fig. 2. The geometry of the circuit is known (geometrical di- Length of the average flux path 0.4 m
mensions including the air gap ). The two typical problems are Air gap length 2 mm
160
Fig. 3. Magnetization as a function of applied field.
Note the convenient notation for the input variable. In addi-
tion, the measurement units conversion is to be accomplished
by MATHCAD.
The solution for the two problems outlined previously
follows.
1) Given the Flux, Calculate the Current in the Coil: In this
case, the calculations are straightforward. Assume the given flux
as
Wb
Henry
m Traditionally, graphical techniques are suggested for solving
Find
1.667 T
Find the current in the coil to produce the given flux, as follows:
and 9.672 A
2) Given the Current in the Coil, Find the Flux: This task
gets more difficult because of the nonlinear component included
in the relationships of the Ampère law for the given magnetic
circuit.
(1)
The task actually involves solving the nonlinear (1).
At this point, the standard textbooks indicate a graphical solu-
tion or an iterative algorithm for solving the nonlinear equation.
Again, the classroom experience shows that such an approach is
a departure from the focus of the subject (power engineering),
and even more outdated techniques are used for solving non-
linear equations.
The proposed approach, involves solving (1) using the
MATHCAD “solve block” feature. This solution has three
steps.
1) Start with a rough guess for the solution.
2) Indicate the constraint equations to be solved.
3) Ask for the solution using the function find.
The actual MATHCAD solution follows. Assume the current in
the coil:
12 A
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON EDUCATION, VOL. 48, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2005
Make a guess for the magnetic flux density as a solution of (1)
1 T
The MATHCAD “solve block” is as follows: Given
(Note that in the above relation, the “equal” sign is a special
sign in MATHCAD, indicating a constraint to be satisfied rather
than simply equality or a result; also, the word “given” is a
MATHCAD keyword.)
Find 1.741 T
The required flux is
Wb
C. Observations
There are many situations in the electrical engineering
curriculum where nonlinear equations need to be solved;
therefore, the simple technique provided is useful in many
instances. A major advantage of solving nonlinear equations
using MATHCAD is the display of the variables and equations
in a natural visual form. Another advantage is the integration
of units of measurement into the overall solution.
nonlinear equations in a power engineering curriculum. Those
techniques require detailed classroom explanations and a sig-
nificant student effort. Given an elegant and well-tested gen-
eral solution, as provided by MATHCAD for nonlinear equa-
tions, the students can focus on understanding the subject matter
presented.
IV. CONCLUSION
MATHCAD represents a very powerful tool for performing
simple calculations in a power engineering class. The equations
to be solved are written in a form similar to their appearance
in textbooks providing an immediate visual feedback. In this
way, the students have a better understanding of the material
presented. When using a software tool in class or for preparing
homework, students find that MATHCAD helps in shifting the
focus from learning the tool to learning the concepts presented.
The classroom experience has shown a reduced number
of errors in calculations reported by students when using
MATHCAD. This reduction can be attributed to the
MATHCAD’s better visual interface.
REFERENCES
[1] T. Gonen, Electrical Machines. Carmichael, CA: Power International
Press, 1998, pp. 11–183.
[2] B. S. Guru and H. R. Hiziroglu, Electric Machinery and Trans-
formers. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2001.
[3] D. Hanselman and B. Littlefield, Mastering MATLAB 6, A Compre-
hensive Tutorial and Reference. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall,
2001.
[4] R. C. Dorf and J. A. Svoboda, Introduction to Electric Circuits. New
York: Wiley, 2000.
[5] R. W. Larsen, Introduction to MATHCAD. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1999.
[6] Mathcad User’s Guide, MathSoft, Cambridge, MA, 2001.
DOMNISORU: USING MATHCAD IN TEACHING POWER ENGINEERING 161

Cristian Domnisoru (M’00–SM’00) was born in Iasi, Romania, in 1964. He

received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Technical
University of Iasi, Iasi, Romania, in 1988 and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from the same university in 1997.
He was a Fulbright Visiting Researcher (1998) and a NATO Visiting Scientist
(1999–2001) with the University of Maine, Orono. Between 2001 and 2003, he
was a Research Associate Professor at the University of Maine. Since September
2003, he has been an Associate Professor in the Graduate Programs in Software
Engineering at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. His current research
interest is in bioinformatics.
Dr. Domnisoru is a Member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Bi-
ology Society (EMBS).