SEQUEL: A Free Circuit Simulation Software as an Aid in Teaching the Principles of Power Electronics to Undergraduate Students

This paper describes how a free circuit simulation software can assist in teaching the principles of power electronics to undergraduate students. The authors have used Solver for EQuations with User defined ELements (SEQUEL) as an aid to teaching basic power electronics course to undergraduate students at the authors´ institute. Using SEQUEL as an aid in teaching-learning process has increased students´ ability to comprehend the analysis of several power converter circuits. This is attributable to the fact that is easy to learn, comes with numerous examples and abundant documentation. A graphical user interface component of this software greatly simplifies the user to enter the circuit schematic, specify analysis options and view simulation results. In addition to other conventional analysis tools, it has Steady-state waveform (SSW) and Fourier analysis capabilities. These can be used effectively to quickly show the steady state behaviour of the power converter and harmonics produced by it. Without this software aid, it is difficult to make students appreciate the above said concepts with pencil-and-paper analysis. Some power converter simulation examples are presented to highlight the use of this software as an aid in teaching. Finally, the authors feel that the use of this software will benefit institutes where they cannot afford to buy expensive commercial circuit simulation packages having identical capabilities.