A Novel Approach to Transients in Transmission Lines

Transient traveling waves in transmission lines can be analyzed by means of bounce diagrams. However, the procedures in deriving the transient responses are often mechanical and provide little physical insight to the solutions of wave equations. In this paper, the incident and reflected waves are described in terms of voltages and currents observed by moving observers. Using the results derived, we present a more logical procedure for the graphical analysis of transient waves using bounce diagrams. The method is general and can be extended to nonuniform transmission lines driven by arbitrary time-varying sources. The relation between voltage and current responses can be represented by means of trajectories in the V-I plane. These trajectories can be logically derived from the transient responses given in the x-t domain.