Dictionary of Electrical Engineering

Commonly used terms in the Electrical industry.

adaptive control
a control methodology in which control parameters are continuously and automatically adjusted in response to be measured/estimated process variables to achieve near-optimum system performance.
ampere interrupting rating
the interrupting rating of a device expressed in amps (often rms symmetrical amps).
See MVA interrupting rating
arc fault interrupter
the mechanism that breaks the fault current arc in a power circuit breaker.
electric susceptibility
tensor relationship between the electric field vector and the electric polarization vector in a medium with no hysteresis. It is the polarization divided by the permittivity of free space and the electric
field in scalar media.
electromagnetic susceptibility
a device's failure to perform appropriately if there is an electromagnetic disturbance.
elliptical polarization
the polarization state of a radiated electromagnetic field in which the tip of the electric field vector traces an ellipse as a function of time for a fixed position. The sense of rotation of the electric field vector is either right-hand or left-hand (clockwise or counter-clockwise). Circular polarization and linear polarization are special cases of elliptical polarization.
exception
(1) an unusual condition arising during program execution that causes the processor to signal an exception. This signal activates a special exception handler that is designed to handle only this special condition. Division by zero is one exception condition. Some vendors use the term "trap" to denote the same thing.

(2) an event that causes suspension of normal program execution. Types include addressing exception, data exception, operation exception, overflow exception, protection exception, underflow exception. exception handler a special block of system software code that reacts when a specific type of exception occurs. If the exception is for an error that the program can recover from, the program can recover from the error and resume executing after the exception handler has executed. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will
usually be called, which will result in terminating the process that caused the exception. Finally, the reaction to exception can be halting of the system. As an example, a bus error handler is the system software responsible for
handling bus error exceptions.
extrinsic fiber optic sensor
a fiber optic sensor where the fiber delivers light to and from a sensing element external to the fiber. Chemical sensors are an example where the sensing element exhibits a change in optical property such as absorption, fluorescence or phosphorescence upon detection of the species to be measured.
fiber-optic cable
a glass fiber cable that conducts light signals and can be used in token ring local area networks and metropolitan area networks. Fiber optics can provide higher data rates than coaxial cable. They are also immune to electrical interference.
fiber-optic interconnect
interconnect that uses an optical fiber to connect a source to a detector. An optical fiber is used for implementing a bus. The merits are large bandwidth and high speed of propagation.
forced interruption
an interruption in electric supply caused by human error, inappropriate equipment operation, or resulting from situations in which a device is quickly taken out of service by automatic or manual switching operations.
globally asymptotically stable equilibrium
an asymptotically stable equilibrium (see the definition) with a region of attraction (see the definition) equal to
globally asymptotically stable state

See asymptotically stable in the large
ground fault interrupter
a protective device used in commercial and residential wiring which monitors equipment connected to an electrical outlet and shuts off the power when a ground fault in the equipment is detected.
ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI)
a device designed to detect ground-fault current above a threshold value (several milliamperes) and then interrupt the source of electrical power by opening a circuit breaker or a set of contacts. GFCIs are designed for personnel protection and are generally available in the form of circuit breakers and receptacles.
high rupturing capacity (HRC)
a term used to denote fuses having a high interrupting rating. Most low-voltage HRC-type fuses have an interrupting rating of 200 kA RMS symmetrical.
interruptible load
a load, typically of a commercial customer, which by contract may be interrupted by the utility for purposes of system stability.
interrupting capacity

See interrupting rating
interrupting rating
for a circuit breaker, fuse, or switch, the maximum fault level that the device can safely interrupt. The interrupting rating can be expressed in terms of amps or volt-amps.
magnetic susceptibility
the ratio of the magnetization to the applied external field.

Tensor relationship between the magnetic field vector and the magnetization vector in a medium with no hysteresis; magnetization divided by the permeability of free space and the magnetic field in scalar media. It is an indicator of how easily a material is magnetized and has no units in the SI system of units (pure number).
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