Simple and Elegant Formulation of Scattering

in TLM Nodes
V. Trenkic, C. Christopoulos and T. M. Benson

Abstract | Scattering in the Transmission-Line Modelling i

V + V
i ; V i ; V i = ;V r ; V r + V r + V r (4)
(TLM) method is determined for a variety of nodes using 3
i
V ;V
11 4 8
i ; V i + V i = V r ; V r ; V r + V r (5)
3 11 4 8

a simple, rigorous and physically satisfying process. The 3 11 12 1 3 11 12 1

method suggested is simpler to apply, and more advanta-

geous from the methodological and computational points of Eqns (2){(5) form a system with six unknown variables,
view compared to the conventional method. but it is possible to solve it for V r and V r , expressing
Keywords | Transmission line matrix method them solely in terms of incident voltages. Combining the
3 11

equations as (2);(3);(4)+(5) gives

I. Introduction
r = 1 (V i + V i + V i ; V i )
S CATTERING in TLM is normally determined by en-
forcing energy and charge conservation laws for the in-
V
2 3 4

cident and scattered voltage pulses at the node. This al- whereas combining the equations as (2)+(3);(4);(5) gives
8
(6)1 12

lows all scattering coecients to be determined. Energy

conservation is enforced by demanding that the scattering r = 1 (V i + V i ; V i + V i ) (7)
matrix S ] be unitary 1], which becomes dicult to handle V
2 11 4 8 1 12

for general nodes.

Recently a simpler and physically more satisfying ap- This ected
procedure can be repeated for all other pairs of re-
pulses within the node provided that conservation
proach was described which leads to 12 simple equations and continuity laws are expressed for appropriate direc-
which completely describe scattering in a 12-port node 2]. tions. The strength
Nodes with stubs can also be treated similarly. In Refer- does not need to solveof the the method lies in fact that one
ence 3] the scattered pulses were obtained from equations but six equivalent systems ofentire four
system of 12 equations,
equations only.
of the form
r
VL = Vn + In ZL ; VR
i (1) from V P C = P V C where the summation
An equivalent y -directed voltage Vy may be obtained

is carried
y i i i i i
In this paper we prove that eqn. (1) can be derived di- may be obtained from Iz Pi Li = Pi Ii Li where the sum-
although no proof of these equations was given. out for i = 3 4 8 11. Similarly, an equivalent z -current Iz

rectly from the general equations given in Reference 2]. mation is carried out for i = 1 3 11 12. It is easily shown
Furthermore, because eqn. (1) is not general enough for the that
new node presented in Reference 4], where the impedances Vy =
1 (V i + V i + V i + V i ) (8)
of the link lines vary, a modied equation is derived. Apart 2 3 4 8 11

from the methodological signicance of this approach it is 1 (V i ; V i + V i ; V i )

Iz = (9)
also useful as it leads to a simpler derivation of scatter- 2Z 1 3 11 12

ing and a computer implementation which is signicantly where Z is the impedance of each transmission line.
0

more ecient when compared with original scheme 4]. The 0

derivation of these equations from rst principles and the Adding and subtracting the term V i + V i on the right 1

resulting computational eciency gains are shown below. hand side of eqn. (6) and re-arranging gives
2 3 11

II. Scattering in a 12-port Symmetrical r = 1 (V i + V i + V i + V i )+ 1 (V i ; V i + V i ; V i ) ; V i

Condensed Node (SCN)
V 3
2 3 4
2 8 11 1 3 11 12 11

Scattering can be determined as described in Refer- Substituting eqns. (8) and (9) in the equation above gives
ence 2] by enforcing charge conservation for y-directed r = Vy + Iz Z ; V i
ports (eqn. 2), conservation of magnetic ux due to cur- V 3 0 (10) 11

rents responsible for Hz (eqn. 3), electric eld continuity

(eqn. 4) and magnetic eld continuity (eqn. 5), as shown which is identical in form to eqn. (1).
below. III. Scattering in an SCN node with stubs
i
V + V
i i i
+V +V = V +V +V +V r r r r (2) A more general SCN contains open-circuit stubs to model
3 11 4 8 3 11 4 8
i
V ;V
i + V ; V = ;V + V ; V + V (3) "r , short-circuit stubs to model r and matched stubs to
i i r r r r
model losses. The addition of stubs results to the follow-
3 11 12 1 3 11 12 1

Authors are with the Department of Electrical and Electronic En- ing modications to eqns. (2) and (3). Terms Voyi Y^s and
gineering, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD Nottingham, UK. r ^s + Vy G^ are added to the left- and right-hand side
E-mail: vmt@eee.nott.ac.uk. Voy Y
of eqn. (2), respectively. oy refers to voltages at the -V y The equation for magnetic ux conservation is the same
directed open-circuit stub and ^s ^ are the normalised Y G as eqn. (3).
(to 1 ) stub admittance and conductance, respectively.
=Z0 Node voltage y and loop current z are:
V I

Terms szi and ; szr ; mz r are added to the left- and right-
2( i + i + i + i )
V V V

hand side of eqn. (3), respectively. sz and mz refer to V V

y=
V3 Y3 V11 Y11 V4 Y4
(18) V8 Y8

voltages at the short-circuit and magnetic loss stubs, re-

V
+ + +Y3 Y11 Y4 Y8

spectively. Eqns. (4) and (5) remain unchanged. Manipu- 2( i ; i + i ; i )

lating the modied eqns. (2) and (3) and eqns. (4) and (5) z=
V1 V3 V11
(19)
V12

as for the previous case and taking into account that

I
+ + +
Z3 Z11 Z1 Z12

r i These equations are combined as before to obtain

oy = y ; oy V V V

sz = z ^s + sz
r V
i I Z0 Z V r= y+ z + i ; ;
Z3 i 2Z11
(20) Z3
V3 V I Z3
+V3
+ V11

mz = z ^
r V I Z0 R
Z3 Z11 Z3 Z11

where ^s ^ are the normalized short-circuit stub and mag-

Z R
r = y; z
V11 V I Z11 + i +; ; i 2+
V11
Z11 Z3
(21)
V3
Z11

netic loss stub impedances, respectively, gives Z3 Z11 Z3 Z11

The scattering procedure for a general node described

r = 1 ( i + i + i ; i ) + 1 ^s i ; in Reference 4] requires 60 additions/subtractions and 60
2
V3 V4
2 oy
V8 V1 V12 Y V
multiplications per node, provided 60 scattering coecients
1 ( ^ + ^ ) ; 1 i ; 1 ( ^ + ^) (11) and 6 dierent admittances/impedances are stored. Using
4 y s V
2 sz 4 z
Y G s V I Z0 Z R
equations equivalent to eqns. (20) and (21) it can be shown
The equivalent y and z are obtained as before but with
V I that 54 additions/subtractions and 33 multiplications per
the addition of capacitance due to open-circuit stubs and node are required for scattering, provided 24 scattering co-
inductance due to short-circuit stubs to give ecients are stored, thus resulting in substantial computa-
2 tional savings.
y= ( i + i + i + i + oyi ^s ) (12)
4+ s+ ^
^
V V3 V4 V8 V11 V Y
Y G V. Conclusion
2 A new simple methodology has been presented to derive
z= ( i ; i + i ; i ; szi ) (13) the scattering equations for a variety of TLM nodes with-
(4 + ^s + ^ )
I V1 V3 V11 V12 V

out the need to solve a scattering matrix. The scattering

Z0 Z R

Combining eqns. (11){(13) and re-arranging gives, as be- equations in terms of three nodal voltages and three loop
fore currents have been proved and enhanced to deal with a
r= y+ z ; i (14)
V3 V I Z0 V11
general node.
The hybrid SCN may be treated in a similar way, the
only substantial modication being to the charge conserva- Acknowledgment
tion calculation where the dierent impedance values must We thank J. L. Herring for useful discussions.
be taken into account.
IV. Scattering in a general SCN Received 1st July 1993

In Reference 4] a general node suitable for describing

continuously varying boundaries is described. Its special References
feature is that in a general case the impedance of each 1] P. B. Johns, \A symmetrical condensed node for the TLM
link line can have a dierent value. Following the same method", IEEE Trans., vol. MTT-35, no. 4, pp. 370{377, April
procedure as before, we obtain the following equations for 2] J.1987.
L. Herring and C. Christopoulos, \The application of dierent
charge conservation, electric and magnetic eld continuity, meshing techniques to EMC problems", in 9th Annual Rev. of
respectively: Prog. in Applied Comp. in EM, 1993, pp. 755{762.
3] P. Naylor and R. Ait-Saidi, \Simple method for determining 3-D
TLM nodal scattering in nonscalar problems", Electr. Lett., , no.
i 28, pp. 2353{2354, 1992.
V Y
3 3 +V i Y
11 11 +V i Y
4 4 +V i Y
8 8 = V rY
3 3 +V r Y
11 11 +V r Y
4 4 +V r Y
8 8 4] F. J. German, \Innitesimaly adjustable boundaries in symmet-
(15) rical condensed node TLM simulations", in 9th Annual Rev. of
Prog. in Applied Comp. in EM, 1993, pp. 483{490.
Z11 V3 ( i + r) + ( i + r ) =
V3 Z3 V11 V11 ( i + r) +
Z8 V4 V4 Z4 (V i + V r )
8 8

+ Z3 Z11 + Z4 Z8
(16)
( i ; r) ; ( i ; r ) = ( i ; r ) ; ( i ; r)
V3 V3 V11 V11 V12 V12 V1 V1

+ Z3 Z11+ Z1 Z12
(17)