The Transmission Line as a Simple Example for Introducing Integral Equations to Undergraduates

Integral equations are becoming a common means for describing problems in electromagnetics, and so it is important to expose students to methods for their solution. Typically this is done using examples in antennas, scattering, or electrostatics. Unfortunately, many difficult issues arise in the formulation and solution of the associated equations. It is instead proposed to use examples from transmission lines, a topic with which undergraduate students are both familiar and comfortable. In this paper, the formulations of integral equations for both uniform and nonuniform lines are undertaken, simple moment-method solutions are implemented, and the accuracies of the solutions are explored.