Simulation of electromagnetic transients on single transmission lines via the finite element method

The paper describes the use of the finite element method when modelling electromagnetic transients on transmission lines in the time domain. The finite element matrix and vector for single line finite element has been obtained using a weighted residual method and time integration performed by an explicit/implicit mixed procedure on the telegrapher´s equations. Together with finite elements that represent electrical elements with lumped parameters, an effective method for transients simulation in electrical networks has been obtained. In cases of nonlinear electric parameters Newton-Raphson procedure has been used. To the best of the authors´ knowledge this is the first successful application of the finite elements method to first order telegrapher´s equations. The benefits of using finite elements in modelling electromagnetics transients come from the possibility of line parameters modelling, particularly from the possibility of a natural implementation of distributed nature of line parameters