Advanced Methods of Phasor Calculation and Visualization in AC Circuits Using OOP in MATLAB

This paper presents advanced methods of calculation and visualization in AC circuit analysis with the objective of replacing the computational drudgery by the focus on conceptual learning. These methods are designed using Object Oriented Programming (OOP) on the MATLAB platform. OOP methodology is used to specify phasors, perform mathematical and graphical algebraic operations, and visualize in phasor and time domain. Phasors are used as objects under a class definition. Using several methods and a set of user defined functions, the paper presents examples for solving a large gamut of problems like doing mesh and nodal analyses, Thevenin equivalents and power calculations and visualization of power in single and three phase circuits. The examples illustrate the simplicity and power of these methods. It is hoped that both the educators and learners will find them very useful in ac sinusoidal circuit analysis in the engineering education.